I cannot argue with you, nevertheless…
1 Then Job answered:
2 Very well I know that it is so.
But how can a mortal be just before God?
3 If one were to contend with him,
not once in a thousand times would he answer.
4 His power is vast, his wisdom profound.
Who has resisted him and come out unharmed?
5 He moves mountains before they are aware;
he overturns them in his rage.
6 He makes the earth tremble
and its pillars quake.
7 He commands the sun, and it does not shine;
he seals off the light of the stars.
8 He alone stretches out the skies
and treads on the waves of the seas.
9 He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and every constellation.
10 His wonders are past all reckoning,
his miracles beyond all counting.
11 He passes by, but I do not see him;
he moves on, but I do not notice him.
12 If he snatches away, who can stop him?
Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
13 God does not turn back when angered;
before him Rahab’s cohorts cowered.
14 How then can I answer him
and find words to argue with him?
15 If he does not answer when I am right,
shall I plead with my judge for mercy?
16 Even if I appealed and he answered,
I do not believe that he would have heard.
17 He who crushes me for a trifle
and multiplies my hurt for no reason.
18 He does not give me time to breathe,
but fills me with grief without pause.
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is mighty.
If a matter of justice, who will summon him?
20 If I were innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
if blameless, it would pronounce me guilty.
21 But am I innocent, after all? I do not know,
and so I find my life despicable.
22 It is all the same! And this I dare say:
both blameless and wicked – he destroys.
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24 When a nation falls into a tyrant’s hand,
it is he who makes the judges blind.
But if it is not he – who else then?
25 Swifter than a runner are my days;
without a shred of joy they fly away.
26 They skim along like reed canoes
or like eagles swooping on their prey.
27 If I resolve to forget my affliction,
to smile and change my expression,
28 my trials make me fear
for I know I shall be held accountable.
29 In any case if I am to be condemn ed,
why should I bother in vain?
30 If I washed my body with snow
and cleansed my hands with soap,
31 you would plunge me into the dung pit,
and my very clothes would abhor me.
32 He is not a man like me that I might say,
“let us go to court together.”
33 Would that there were an arbiter between us,
who could lay his hand upon both of us.
34 He would remove from me the rod of God
and his terrors which frighten me.
35 But it is not so. Then I will speak
to myself alone without fear.
- Isaiah 13,13
- Psalms 114,7
- Isaiah 40,22
- Isaiah 44,24
- Letter to the Romans 9,20
- Eclesiastes (Qohelet) 9,2
- Eclesiastes (Qohelet) 4,1
- Isaiah 1,18
Job is upset before an inaccessible God. The Creator's greatness does not console the one who suffers without being heard. The misfortune of a single just one distorts creation.
Again, Job not only questions evil, but the very situation created by human existence with its freedom. The God who made us free persons must also be a Person, and as long as he does not speak to us, his silence may be interpreted as a refusal to dialogue and a proof of indifference toward us.
If I were innocent, my own mouth would condemn me (v. 20). Job reminds us of those notorious trials where militants, unjustly accused by their own party, come to admit their guilt "spontaneously." Similarly, many times a single mishap would be enough to make us feel sinful.
Can a mortal be just before God (v. 2)? The same question is found in 4:17 and 22:2. This guilt feeling and the opposite feeling of hostility towards God are two sides of the same truth: the human condition is unacceptable as long as God makes people who cannot find him.
You granted me life in your grace. Job cannot deny that God is concerned about his creatures, and he remembers the wonders God achieves in the pregnant mother. These attentions only open the way for his demands: gifts coming to us from people above arouse our suspicions more than our gratitude: I know what was in your mind (10:13).
After years without thinking, people begin to reflect and it is then that the absence of the Creator may prepare them for rebellion.
