TEXT [Commentary]

  III.   Monologue (Job): The Failure of Retribution (26:1–31:40)

A.   The Unsearchable God (26:1-14)

1.   Wisdom has no answers (26:1-4)

1 Then Job spoke again:

2 “How you have helped the powerless!

How you have saved the weak!

3 How you have enlightened my stupidity!

What wise advice you have offered!

4 Where have you gotten all these wise sayings?

Whose spirit speaks through you?

NOTES

26:3 my stupidity. According to the Heb., Job did not speak in personal terms. The nouns in these lines are collective; Job belonged to a class of people needing wisdom.

What wise advice. The Heb. has been interpreted as “plentiful” advice (cf. RSV) or “much good advice” (NRSV); both translations assume the presence of the noun “abundance” (rob [TH7230, ZH8044]). Gordis (1978:286) proposes the pronunciation rab, meaning “youth” or “apprentice” (Jastrow 1442). This provides a balance with the other questions: “What insight have you given the inexperienced?”

COMMENTARY [Text]

The harsh questions of Job for Bildad have their roots in what he had said in his previous speech (Wolfers 1994b:390). Job had declared that there are two classes of people in this world: the oppressed, terrified, and slaughtered poor (24:5-8, 10-12) and the tyrants who oppress them (24:13-17). In all of this, God does not seem to find anything amiss (24:12). Job had thrown down the gauntlet in asking who would prove him a liar (24:25). Bildad had responded by talking about the dreadful dominion of God’s rule, about the legions of God’s armies, about the way God makes peace in the highest places. Job had described the activities of the night in which violence happens to the poor. Bildad asserted that there was no one on whom God’s light, that is his salvation, did not shine. Job responded with very direct words. How do such platitudes about the divine rule help the weak? How does such counsel give any encouragement to those who struggle with the violence of losing their property and livelihood? These despised of society need answers that will give them wisdom, a view of the world that will help them carry on.

Bildad had come back to the question of the standing of mortals before God. His view of it seemed to be that evil must come upon all; certainly death comes upon all and therefore even the innocent will suffer. The problem for Job was that he had not been able to dissuade his friends from the false opinion that the poor will benefit from their righteousness in this life. The righteous do not bring goodness to their lives through their fear of God. The benefit that had been urged by Eliphaz (22:2-3, 21) does not materialize. The poor do not experience the divine light, and they cannot bring prosperity to their lives by following the covenant. Where then is the benefit of wisdom, and how do these words help anyone?

The source of wisdom is a critical issue (26:4). Eliphaz had challenged the source of Job’s wisdom (5:1) and had told Job he was completely misguided (15:12-13). Job returned the question to his friends. They had claimed to have tradition on their side (15:9-10), but was this the wisdom of God? Job, in turn, was assured that he had received a divine truth, one that he will not deny (6:10).