Job 27 and Jabs and Book of job

If we adopt the thesis that the Job mocks the friends in 26-27 when he speaks the words that don't seem to belong in his mouth (26:4-14; 27:13-23), many verses of those two shorter passages become tinged with a biting irony that befits Job's beleaguered and battered psyche. At least five passages call for brief comment.

1. In his speech mocking Bildad Job says, "By his power he stilled the Sea; by his understanding he struck down Rahab (26:12)." But Job's real position in this matter is reflected in 9:13, "God will not turn back his anger; the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him." What Job attributes to God's anger, the friends attribute to God's understanding. We can hear Job's voice drippping with cynicism as he intones "understanding." It is as if he is saying, 'Sure, God works with understanding. That is the way God always acts. Sure has been true for me.'

2. Job characterizes God's "understanding" and victorious power over the heavenly challengers to his reign as "the outskirts of his ways (26:14)." In other words, these 'truths' are the basic truths, the simple truths, that do not even get to the deep things of who God is. Isn't this a cynical echo of Zophar's challenge, "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty (11:7)?" It is as if Job is saying, 'I only can understand the piddly little easy things about God. Oh, enlighten me please on the deep things of the divine nature.'

3. In the second speech (27:13-23), Job says that one aspect of the "portion of the wicked" is that "their offspring have not enough to eat (27:14)." Here is an echo of Zophar's second speech, where "their (the wicked) children will seek the favor of the poor (20:10)."

4. When Eliphaz urged Job to "agree with God" and humble himself under divine instruction, he said Job would be blessed if he treated "gold like dust" and confessed that "the Almighty is your gold and your precious silver (22:24-25)." Now Job speaks of the wicked who "heap up silver like dust"--a sure sign that terrors will overtake them (27:16-20). Can we hear Job's snide and wicked irony, 'Yes, I will treat my gold and silver like dust and consider the Almighty my gold, certainly, so that the wicked can then heap up the silver that I leave behind to be as plentiful as their own dust. And, of course, the wicked will be judged for it. We all know that to be true.'

5. Finally, with words dripping with bitterness (cf. 27:2), Job says in regard to the wicked, "The east wind lifts them up and they are gone (27:21)." Wasn't it the east wind that destroyed his family, collapsing the pillars of the eldest brother's house (1:19)? Isn't Job thus trying to skewer Eliphaz for his unguarded statement in 15:2 concerning the wise "fill[ing] themselves with the east wind." Job reaches a feverish emotional pitch as if to say, 'Surely the wicked die by the whirlwind created by the east wind. Of course my family perished that way. You people know absolutely nothing. You are worse than worthless.' No wonder not another word is attributed to the friends in the rest of the Book of Job.

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