Untitled Document

The last thing an attorney does in America, before filing a complaint with a court of law, is to sign the complaint and the certificate of service (attesting to the fact that you sent it to the person being sued). You don't sign the complaint until you are sure it says everything the way you want it said. Job "signs" his complaint against God in 31:35, "Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! let the Almighty answer me!)..." Job only affixes his signature, however, after more misgivings (Job 23) and, finally, a series of oaths of righteousness (Job 31).

Further Misgivings (Job 23)

After Job's supremely confident legal statements in chapter 13, it might seem strange to find him expressing new apprehensions. But the nature of Job's distress is that expressions of soaring hope alternate with the most abject expressions of grief. His emotions jiggle him around like a marionette on a string. So, he states once again his desire to talk with God, "Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him [same words as in 13:18], and fill my mouth with arguments (23:3-4)." Job's confidence soars and he provisionally concludes, "There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge (23:7)."

But doubts immediately assail him. He cannot find God (23:8-9) and, when all is said and done, "What he desires, that he does (23:13)." Then, consistently with the feelings of internal collapse in chapters 9 and 13, he says, "Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him (23:15)." He concludes by mumbling an obscure verse about wanting to disappear again into the darkness (23:17).

A Final Oath (Job 31)

Legal and ethical categories and words are still on Job's lips when he utters his last words. The biblical oath is a fearful thing, with the swearer calling down punishments on himself if he is untrue to his oath. Job's oaths here attest to four kinds of personal purity: purity in religious observance (31:1,26-28), purity in sexual ethics (31:9-13), purity in economic relations (31:24-28) and purity in moral dealings with social inferiors or defeated foes (31:5-8,13-23,29-34). The cumulative character of his oaths, and the brilliant interweaving of oath with minute desciption of moral behavior (especially in his dealings with the poor in 31:16-21), show that Job is putting all his "eggs" in the "basket" of justice. That is, Job, as Elihu will gently but correctly point out later, is obsessed with justice (36:17).

The ultimate mistake Job makes is to conclude that because he is interested in justice and the religious tradition inculcates that virtue, God too must desire justice. It must be the central category of the divine existence, too. That is the subject of the next mini-essay.

But, for now, because Job knows that God is a God of justice, Job asks for a copy of God's indictment of him (31:35). Indeed, Job would then "carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me like a crown (31:36)." Job is probably envisioning himself as a strong person wearing the crown, and not the abject ash-heap sitting, boil-bearing sufferer. He would replace the crown which has been taken from his head (19:9) with this new diadem. Maybe Job would make the paper indictment into a kind of three-cornered hat, so that he could parade around with confidence, and not a little bit of scorn.

In any case, when Job's voice is finally stilled (31:40) and Job listens to Elihu and then God (32-41), he is no doubt expecting his concerns about justice to be addressed. They are, indeed, addressed, expressly by Elihu and indirectly by God. But they will be addressed in ways that Job scarcely could have imagined.