Job has heard each of his three companions rehearse the traditional wisdom—that one who trusts in and turns to the deity will ultimately thrive. Job begins this lengthy reply by demonstrating that he, too, is well versed in conventional lore. Satirizing the tradition (see especially the parody of Deuteronomy 32:7b in verses 7–8), Job regales his friends with a series of mock proverbs and wise sayings, several of them closely parodying known biblical passages, to the effect that the pious can rest secure and that the deity governs both nature and human affairs.
[12:1] Up spoke Job and he said:
[2–3] Truly you are people-of-intelligence,1
And with you wisdom will die.
I have a heart2 just like you.
I fall no lower than you.3
And who doesn’t have such (sayings) as these?:
[4–6] “One who laughs at calamity and disaster,4
Calls out to Eloah and is answered—
The laugh of the wholly righteous—
He shows contempt for catastrophe,5
At a time of devastation6 is at ease.
He is firm when the foot might stumble.7
Tents8 are tranquil at a time of marauders,9
Secure at a time of those who rile El—
At whatever the hand of Eloah has wrought.”
[7–8] Rather, ask the behemoth10—and it will instruct you.11
Or the fowl of the sky—and it will tell you.
Or converse with the earth12—and it will instruct you;
And the fish of the sea will recount to you.
[9] Who does not know all these things—
“That the hand of YHWH has done this?”13
[10] “In whose hand is the breath of all life,
The spirit of all human flesh.
[11] You see, an ear examines words,
As a palate tastes food:14
[12] In the elderly is wisdom,
And length of days is intelligence.15
[13] With him16 are wisdom and might;
His are good counsel and intelligence.
[14] He can destroy so it cannot be rebuilt;
He can close a man in so it can’t be reopened.17
[15] He can hold back the water so that (things) dry up;
Then he can release them so they convulse the earth.18
[16] With him are power and sage knowledge;
His are the mistaken and the misleader.19
[17–19] He causes counselors to go barefoot,20
And judges he turns mad.
The girdles21 of kings he loosens,
And removes22 the strap on their loins.23
He causes priests to go barefoot,
And the stalwarts he leads to ruin.24
[20–21] He removes language from orators,25
And takes sense away from elders.
He heaps contempt on leaders,26
As the belt of (their) armor27 he slackens.
[22] He uncovers the depths of darkness,
And brings deep-shade into light.28
[23] He elevates nations, then disperses them;29
He expands nations, then deports them.30
[24–25] He removes the heart31 from the landed folk’s chiefs,32
Making them stray in a trackless waste.33
They grope in darkness without light,34
As he makes them stray like a drunkard.”35
Having demonstrated his familiarity with traditional wisdom, Job sums up, berates his companions for their insensitivity, and lays out his legal challenge to the deity—a challenge he had considered no more than a whimsy in chapter 9. Job now realizes he has nothing to lose by calling God to account, and he implores his companions to show no partiality as they listen to his case.
[13:1–2] You see, my eye has seen it all;
My ear has heard and taken notice.
What you know, I know as well;
I fall no lower than you.36
[3] Rather I would speak to Shaddai;
It is an argument with El I desire.37
[4] But you, rather, are smearers of lies,38
False physicians, all of you!
[5–6] If only you would keep silent, yes, silent—
For that would be wisdom for you!
Pray hear my argued case;
And pay heed to my lips’ accusations.
[7–8] Will you speak corruptly to El?
To him will you speak with guile?
Will you show favor to his face?39
Or will you argue40 on his behalf?
[9–11] Would it be well were he to interrogate you?
Will you (try to) delude him as you would a mortal?
He would reprove,41 yes, reprove you,
Were you to secretly favor his face.
Wouldn’t his majesty terrify you?
And wouldn’t his fear fall upon you?
[12] Your pronouncements42 are like maxims43 of dust;44
Your responses45—like lumps of clay.
[13] Keep silent before me, so that I may speak—
Whatever may come upon me!
[14–15] I will take my flesh46 in my teeth,
And I will place my life-breath in my hand.
Though he slay me, I will no longer wait47—
I will accuse him of his ways to his face!48
[16] Only he can be my salvation;49
For he would allow no blasphemer to approach.
[17] Hear, yes, hear my words—
My declaration—with your ears.
[18–19] Here: I am laying out my lawsuit.
I know I am in the right.
Who would argue the case with me?
I would then keep silent—and expire.
[20–21] Only two things you must not do to me—
Then will I not hide from your face:
Put your hand far from upon me,
And terrify me not with your awesome mien!
[22] Either you summon, and I will respond;
Or I will speak, and you will answer me.
[23] How many are my crimes and my sins?
My transgression and my sin—tell me what they are!
[24] Why do you hide your face,
And reckon me your enemy?50
[25–26] Would you scare off a driven leaf?51
Or52 put to flight dry tumbleweed?
Then why do you issue me a poisonous writ?53
And take me to task54 for the crimes of my youth?55
[27] And mark my feet with lime,56
And watch my every step,
And follow57 the tracks of my feet?58
The divine hostility that Job perceives is being directed at him does not make sense in the light of humanity’s insignificance. Job goes on to describe a person’s insubstantiality, contrasting a tree, which can regenerate, with a human, who cannot. Ironically, a human perishes like an inanimate rock, which crumbles (verses 18–19). Job asks for a period of respite—to be placed temporarily among the dead—reprising the middle part of his first discourse. The completion of Job’s last speech in this cycle recalls phrases, images, and arguments from his preceding discourses.
[14:1–2] A human, born of woman,
Is short of days and sated with restlessness.
He sprouts like a flower and withers.
He flees59 like a shadow and does not stay.
[13:28] He wears away like a waterskin,60
Like a garment eaten by a moth.61
[14:3] Even on such a one would you train your eyes,62
Bringing me63 into lawcourt with you?
[4] Who can produce pure out of tainted?
No one can!64
[5] When his days are curtailed,65
The number of his months in your hands.66
You have set him limits he cannot overrun.67
[6] Look away from him and let him stop (being tormented)!68
Until like a hired-hand he fulfills69 his day.
[7–9] For there is hope70 for a tree:
If it is cut, it can go on to replace itself,
And its shoot71 will not stop (growing).
Even if its root grows old in the ground,
And its stump goes dead in the earth,
At the mere scent of water it will flower,
And like a sapling produce a plant!72
[10] But a man—he dies and grows feeble;73
A human expires—and where is he?74
[11] Water can run out of the sea;75
And a river can drain and dry out.76
[12] So does a man lie down never to arise;
Until the sky is no more, they will not awaken,
They will not be aroused from their sleep.77
[13] Would that you conceal me in Sheol!
Hide me away till your anger subsides!
Set me a period—and then call me to mind!78
[14] If a man dies, can he revive?
All the days of my fixed sentence79 I will wait80—
Until my replacement arrives.81
[15] Summon and I will answer you—
When you long for the work of your hands!82
[16–17] Perhaps now when you count my steps83
You will not keep my sins in mind.
Seal84 my transgression in a pouch,85
And plaster over my crime!
[18–19] And yet,86 a cliff will fall and crumble;
A mountain will be moved from its place;87
Rocks are worn down by water;
A torrent sweeps away the earth’s dust;
So do you obliterate a mortal’s hope.
[20] You assault him continually—and he passes on;
You disfigure him—and then you dispatch him.
[21] If his sons receive honor—he does not know;
And if they are diminished—he does not see them.
[22] But his family88 is pained over him;
And his household89 mourns him.90
1. There is likely a play on the Egyptian word for intelligence ‘am, which is a regular Hebrew term for “people” (suggested to me by Stephen Geller).
2. A mind; an apparent response to Zophar in 11:12.
3. I am not inferior to you.
4. This verse begins a series of platitudes, reminiscent of those of his companions. It is clear from the next line that a third-person subject is called for. For seḥoq read soḥeq in conformity with the participle that follows in the next line. For le-re‘ehu I read le-ra‘ah and for ’ehyeh I read howah “disaster” (see Isaiah 47:11). (I am indebted to Ginsberg for most of the reconstruction of this passage.)
5. Read le-pid; for pid “catastrophe,” see Job 30:24 and 31:29 as well as Proverbs 24:22.
6. For the notoriously difficult le‘ashtut I read le‘et sheyt, “at the time of devastation”; for shet (written with aleph), see Lamentations 3:47 and compare the cognate sho’ah in Proverbs 3:25. For the spelling without aleph, compare the spelling of se’et “grandeur” without aleph in Job 41:17 and of re’em “wild ox” without aleph in Job 39:10. The resulting sense recalls the advice of Proverbs 1:33b.
7. Compare Proverbs 25:19; for the phrase and the construction of the preceding line, compare Deuteronomy 32:35.
8. Of the righteous.
9. “At a time of” is mentally supplied from the preceding lines.
10. A quasi-mythological beast, similar to the hippopotamus; see Job 40:14–24.
11. A parody of Deuteronomy 32:7, and more immediately Bildad (8:8–10), in which the teaching of the elders is recommended.
12. The animals of the earth are likely meant.
13. Job is making a direct quotation of Isaiah 41:20: “so that they will see and know and observe and learn that the hand of YHWH has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it”—otherwise Job would not be using the personal name of the Israelite God (see the introduction to this volume). The present passage seems to draw many images and expressions from Isaiah 41–45.
14. “Taste” also connotes reasoning; see 6:6. From here through verse 24 is another string of mock wisdom sayings.
15. Compare Eliphaz in 15:9–10.
16. God. There is no immediate antecedent because the sayings are excerpted from their sources.
17. Job turns Eliphaz’s traditional saying of 5:18 into a negative.
18. Job parodies Eliphaz’s beneficent image of divine rain-giving in 5:10; see also Isaiah 41:18; 42:15; 44:3, 27.
19. Literally, “the one who causes others to be mistaken.” A very negative type, who trips up the blind (Deuteronomy 27:18) and corrupts the upright (Proverbs 28:10). Job may be parodying what Eliphaz says of God’s outsmarting the wise in 5:14–15.
20. A sign of desolation; see Micah 1:8 and compare Isaiah 20:2.
21. Reading mosar (see Job 39:5; Jeremiah 2:2; Psalm 107:14) for musar “discipline, instruction.”
22. Reading wayyasar for wayye’sor “and he girds,” which conveys the contrary sense. Compare Isaiah 45:1. Ironically “remove” puns on “gird.”
23. Those doing combat would gird their loins; see Job 38:3; 40:7.
24. For a similar usage of the verb, see Proverbs 21:12.
25. Reading na’manim for ne’emanim “the faithful”; compare Jeremiah 23:31.
26. Compare Psalm 107:40a.
27. See Job 41:7.
28. Compare Job 28:3, 11. Job would seem to be parodying Zophar in chapter 11.
29. More precisely, leading them into exile or oblivion.
30. The verb hinḥah nearly always connotes a supportive guidance. Here Job appears to be using it ironically—leading away into exile. Others, basing themselves on some of the ancient translations, read wayyaniḥem “he leaves them aside, abandons them.”
31. Mind, courage.
32. Literally, “heads.”
33. Identical to Psalm 107:40; compare Isaiah 42:16.
34. Compare Deuteronomy 28:29.
35. Compare Isaiah 19:14, where it is said of Egypt.
36. A reprise of 12:3.
37. Job ironically responds to Eliphaz’s challenge in 5:8.
38. The Hebrew topel is polysemous: a smearer of slander, a smearer of ointment.
39. Literally, “lift up his face.” Favoritism in a judicial proceeding is forbidden; see Exodus 23:3, 6. So is lying; see Exodus 23:7.
40. Here “argue” is the same term as “accus(ation)” in verse 6.
41. The same term as “argue” in verses 3 and 6; for the sense of “reprove,” see 5:17.
42. Compare Akkadian zakāru and Arabic dhakara “to say”; and Hebrew zeker in the sense of “name” (for example Exodus 3:15; compare Job 18:17).
43. The form “maxims” is polysemous, also indicating “resemblance”; the latter meaning is suggested by the preposition le-(“to”) in the following line.
44. More precisely “ash,” but in biblical parlance “ash” is often combined with “dust”; see for example Job 30:19.
45. Compare Arabic jawab “reply.” There is a pun on gab “lump.”
46. That is, my self. The first two words of the verse are a mistaken repetition (dittography) from the end of the preceding verse (according to many scholars).
47. The ancient rabbis (for example Mishna Sota 5:5) and Masoretic scribes want to read “I will wait for him,” reading lo for lo’; but the whole point of this passage is that Job is pressing his case. I therefore read with the traditional spelling (Ketib), supported by Elihu’s rebuttal in 35:14.
48. Reading “his ways” for the Masoretic Text’s “my ways,” which makes no sense and results from an ancient pious correction, intended to protect God’s honor. See Job 21:31.
49. There is a touch of irony in this admission; the phrase is modeled on such pious expressions as Exodus 15:2 and Isaiah 12:2.
50. “Enemy” (’oyeb) puns on Job’s name (’iyyob); compare 7:12; 19:11.
51. An ironic reversal of the curse in Leviticus 26:36, where the “driven leaf” puts the offenders to flight.
52. Reading we’im for we’et “and”; we have here a triple question formula, the same as in 7:12.
53. For merorot as “poison,” and not simply “bitterness,” see 20:14; compare Deuteronomy 32:32. The writing Job refers to is the bill of indictment he imagines stands behind the deity’s harsh affliction of him; see 31:35.
54. The traditional text’s wa-torisheni, usually understood as “handing down an inheritance, imparting,” has the opposite meaning in Biblical Hebrew. I read (with Ginsberg) wa-tirsheni, from Aramaic resha “to hold accountable, take action against someone.”
55. Compare Psalm 25:7.
56. Reading be-sid for ba-sad “in stocks,” which makes no sense: fettered feet cannot go anywhere, so they cannot be followed; compare M. Kimhi. Job develops the same point in 14:16.
57. More literally: “You make imprints in the roots of (that is, the tracks left by) my feet.”
58. Verse 28 does not make sense here; it apparently follows 14:1–2, from which it was accidentally misplaced.
59. “Flees” (yibraḥ) punningly suggests in this context the verb “blossoms” (yipraḥ).
60. Reading ke-roqeb, from Aramaic, for ke-raqab “like rot.” The reading is supported by some ancient versions, and compare the use of the verb “wear away” with the Hebrew term for “waterskins” (no’dot) in Joshua 9:13. The verse clearly belongs here, as an illustration of 14:1.
61. Compare Isaiah 50:9.
62. Compare Jeremiah 32:19. “Such a one” connotes “me”; see Psalm 34:7.
63. Many prefer to read “him” (’oto) for “me” (’oti) with some of the ancient translations; but it is typical of Job to meld his particular case with his general observations.
64. Compare the message of the spirit in 4:17–21. “Pure” and “tainted” are ritual categories, like edible and inedible animals (see Leviticus 11), implying that even the deity cannot transform one into the other.
65. Compare Isaiah 10:23; for the general sense see Psalm 90:9–10.
66. Literally, “with you.”
67. An echo of Jeremiah 5:22, alluding to God’s mythological restraint of the sea; compare Job 7:12.
68. An echo of Job 7:16 and 19.
69. Compare the usage in Leviticus 26:34. An echo of Job 7:2.
70. Contrast Job 7:6 and compare 11:18.
71. “Sapling” in Job 8:16. Job counters Bildad’s image of the flourishing righteous.
72. The Hebrew is replete with ironies: “sapling” here is literally “(newly) planted,” and the term rendered here “plant” is “harvested (produce)”—literally, “the cut.”
73. The verbs seem to be in reverse order; but the verb “grow feeble” (wa-yeḥelash) plays ironically on “replace itself” (yaḥalip) in verse 8.
74. Echoes Job 7:8, 21 (said of Job); 8:18, 22 (said of the wicked).
75. The sea can run out of water.
76. “Drain and dry out” (yeḥerab we-yabesh) echoes “grow feeble” in verse 10.
77. Contrast Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2, according to which the dead can be resurrected from the sleep of death.
78. Job seeks a reprieve from his life of affliction—a “(fixed) period” of time to lie among the dead; compare Job’s idealization of death in 3:13–24.
79. Of life on earth; see 7:1.
80. An echo of 13:15.
81. See verse 7 above. Job will be happy to “live” in the realm of the dead for a period, until he is regrettably relieved by someone else.
82. Sarcastic: when you miss me and need to restore me to my miserable life. Compare 10:8–13.
83. See 13:27.
84. In parallel with the verb in the following clause, this verb should be read not as vocalized—as a passive participle (ḥatum)—but as an imperative: ḥatom.
85. If the evidence against Job is kept in a pouch—as was the ancient practice preceding a trial—Job cannot be convicted. For the image, compare Hosea 13:12 (Holtz).
86. Job ceases to fantasize and offers his own image of human disintegration.
87. An echo of Job 9:5.
88. Literally, “flesh”; see Genesis 37:27.
89. Literally, “his self”; see Genesis 12:5.
90. A more literal interpretation is: “Only his flesh pains him; and his life-force dries up on him.” The image of a family’s mourning is familiar from the Babylonian poem of the pious sufferer “Let Me Praise the Lord of Wisdom” and other ancient texts.