Eliphaz would have Job believe that the deity has no interest in responding to Job’s lawsuit but would welcome any gesture of reconciliation. Job explains that because his suffering is profound, he feels compelled to confront the deity with his complaints. However, as before (see chapters 9 and 13), he is intimidated. Eliphaz’s mockery of Job’s lawsuit he answers by insisting it is no joke: the wicked perpetrate the very crimes delineated in the parody of divine charges Eliphaz enumerates—and the deity indulges them. The seeming success of the wicked, as Job had indicated in his last discourse, calls divine justice into question no less than his own innocent suffering. Following Job’s argument is sometimes tricky because he shifts back and forth between the wicked and their victims without explicit indication.
[23:1] Up spoke Job and he said:
[2] My complaint is no less bitter today;1
His hand2 weighs down on my moaning.
[3–5] If he would let me know how to find him,
I would come before his seat.
I would lay before him my lawsuit,3
And fill my mouth with accusations.
I would know the words he would answer me,
And discern what he would say to me.
[6–7] Would he argue with me by force of might?4
No, he would make his own case against me!5
There6 the upright would have a hearing7 with him,
And I would truly8 get9 my day-in-court.10
[8–9] But east I go, and he is not (there);
And west, but I do not discern him.
North, in his concealment11 I do not grasp (him);12
He cloaks (himself) south, so I do not see (him).
[10] Yet he knows what path is mine;
Were he to test me, I’d emerge like (pure) gold.
[11–12] My foot has held fast13 to his course,
His path I have kept and not strayed.
The command of his lips I have never neglected,14
In my bosom15 I’ve stored the words of his mouth.
[13–14] Once he’s chosen (a fate),16 who can reverse it?
Once his heart desires, he enacts it.
When he’s made complete my current lot,
He still has in hand much more of the same.
[15–16] That is why17 I’d be shaken in his presence:
I would apprehend—and be afraid of him.
For El has weakened my resolve;18
And Shaddai has made me shaken.
[17] Yet I am not devastated by gloom,19
Nor has darkness covered my face.20
[24:1] Why have times (of wrath) not been stored by Shaddai?21
(Why) have those who know him not foreseen his days (of wrath)?22
[2–4] They23 pull back boundary-lines,24
Steal flocks and graze them (as their own).
They drive off the orphan’s donkey,
Take in pledge the widow’s ox.25
They turn the needy off the road;
The poor of the land are forced to hide.
[5–6] Wild asses go to the wilderness for their wage,
They look for prey in the desert, food for their young.26
They27 harvest in a field not their own,28
They collect the remains29 of the rich man’s30 orchard.
[7–8] They lie down naked at night for lack of clothing—
They have no cover against the cold.
They are soaked by mountain rain,
And for lack of shelter hug the rocks.31
[9] They32 rob the orphan from the breast,33
And seize in pledge the child34 of the poor.
[10–11] They35 walk about naked for lack of clothing,
And though they starve, they must carry sheaves of grain.
When the olives drop,36 they press (them);
They must trample the winepress though they thirst!
[12] From within the town the mortals howl,
And the throats of the wounded cry for help;
But Eloah does not hear (their) prayer.37
[13] These are among the rebellious of the land,38
Who do not acknowledge his39 ways,
And do not dwell in his paths.
[14a-b] At the light (of day) rises the murderer—
He will slay the poor and the needy,
[15] The eye of the adulterer keeps watch for dusk,
Saying, “No eye will observe me”;
So he places his face under cover.
[14c, 16–17] And at night the thief walks about;40
He breaks into houses in the dark.
During the day they41 seal themselves up.
They do not care42 for the light.
For all of them daybreak is deep-shade,43
For they44 know well the terrors of deep-shade.
[25]45 If it is not so, then who can prove me false?
Who can dismiss my words as nothing?
1. See 7:11.
2. “Hand of God” denotes a plague or calamity in ancient Semitic, and compare for example Exodus 9:3; 1 Samuel 5:9. The expression “the hand of the Lord weighed down upon” conveys an affliction of the enemy in 1 Samuel 5:6. Reading yado “his hand” for yadi “my hand” with the Greek and Syriac versions.
3. Compare 13:18.
4. What Job feared in 13:20–21.
5. The verb sim “set” is an ellipsis of the Joban phrase “set (make) a legal case” in 5:8; this is confirmed by Elihu’s elaboration of the same ellipsis in 34:23.
6. At the deity’s seat of justice (verse 3).
7. A technical term for legal disputation in Job, related to “accusations” in verse 4 above.
8. Comparing a similar Arabic expression (Kopf) and see 1 Samuel 15:29.
9. Used of an animal snatching its prey in Isaiah 5:29.
10. Reading mishpati “judgment, litigation” for mi-shopti “from my judge.”
11. The verb ‘asah in the sense of “cover” is an Arabism.
12. The verb has a double sense: “see” (short form of ḥazah) and “grasp” (’aḥaz).
13. The same verb as “grasp” (see verse 9).
14. Compare mush “relegate to oblivion” in Zechariah 3:9 and Akkadian meshu “to forget” (Held, “Studies”).
15. Reading beḥeqi “in my bosom” for meḥuqqi “more than my allotment” with the Greek and Latin versions and in conformity with the similar expression in Psalm 119:11.
16. Reading baḥar “he has chosen” for be’eḥad “in one” (d and r are often confused). Compare the pairing of verbs in Psalm 132:13.
17. Job’s rejoinder to Eliphaz in 22:10.
18. Literally, “softened my heart”—demoralized me.
19. Literally, “by the face of gloom, darkness.”
20. The language is somewhat unclear. For mippanai “from before me” in the second line read perhaps panai “my face” (with some versions).
21. Job accuses the deity of failing to stock an arsenal of punishments for the wicked—whose activities he will describe in what follows. Compare Deuteronomy 32:34–35. For “times (of disaster),” compare Psalm 10:1.
22. See 20:28. The “Day of the Lord” is a well-known prophetic notion, a time at which the deity unleashes punishment. The wicked seem to show no fear of retribution.
23. The wicked.
24. For this crime, see Deuteronomy 19:14.
25. For this crime, see Deuteronomy 24:6.
26. The general syntax and sense of this difficult verse are illuminated by comparison with Psalm 104:23. The phrase lo “for him” is apparently dittography.
27. The poor of the land (verse 4). Just as undomesticated animals must fend for themselves in the wild, the poor must find sustenance in available fields.
28. Reading belilo “his fodder” as two words—beli lo, with several ancient translations, and see 18:15.
29. The unique verb liqqesh is related to late crops (in the tenth-century BCE Hebrew inscription known as the Gezer Calendar) and late rain (malqosh)—they come only after the harvest and collect what remains.
30. Reading (with several commentators) ‘ashir “wealthy” for rasha‘ “wicked.” There is no reason to single out the wicked as the owner of the orchard.
31. Compare the language of Isaiah 25:4.
32. The wicked.
33. Hebrew “orphan” has the narrower meaning of “fatherless”—he may well have a mother.
34. Reading ‘ul “infant, child” for the preposition ‘al (so Malbim and others).
35. The poor.
36. Reading binshor zetim “in the dropping of olives” (compare Anat) for bein shurotam “between their rows,” which provides no context or antecedent. The verb nashar is the Aramaic and Late Hebrew equivalent of nashal, said of olives in Deuteronomy 28:40.
37. Reading with some versions and traditions: yishma‘ tepillah for yasim tiplah “(does not) treat as slander.” The reading is supported by Elihu’s echo in 34:28; and compare Job in 27:9.
38. Reading ’arets “land” with the ancient Greek for ’or “light.” These rebels against the ways of God are enumerated in the following verses. They specifically violate the sixth, seventh, and eighth of the Ten Commandments, in that order.
39. God’s.
40. This line from the end of verse 14 apparently belongs here. Reading yehallek ganab “walks about a thief”—or in Aramaic: yehak ganab—for yehi ke-ganab “he will be like a thief” (Dhorme and others).
41. The thieves.
42. For this sense of yada‘ “to know,” see the comment on 9:21.
43. Night is day for the wicked; see Job 38:15.
44. Reading plural yakkiru for the singular.
45. For verses 18–24, see what immediately follows.