God and Suffering (3a): Grammatical and Literary Introduction to Job

Grammatical and Literary Introduction to Job

In this section, I will make mention of the grammatical peculiarities of Job, and I will give a brief overview of the literary genres employed in the book of Job. In "God and Suffering (3b)", special attention will be given to Job’s symmetrical structure. This will lay the foundation of my later asserted scope and plan of Job.

The Language and Grammar of Job

Job is known as a difficult book to translate, study, and understand. The original language of Job is usually taken to have been classical Hebrew, but some scholars suggest that it could have been written in Arabic, Aramaic, or “some other related Semitic dialect or language” because of some peculiar grammar, syntax, and orthography within Job that are Arabic and Aramaic in flavor (NET 794; Harris 160-162; Gaebelein 845). Harris adds that Job “also evidences touches of Mesopotamian language and clearly shows similarities to the old Canaanite dialect of Ugarit” (162; Gaebelein 845). The book of Job contains the most hapax legomena—words that only occur once—of all the books of the Old Testament, and it abounds in “unusual grammatical constructions” and “cryptic” phrases (NET 794; Harris 158). For this reason, much attention was given in this analysis to comparatively reading the ESV, NASB, and NET translations of Job, reading the NET translation notes on Job, and conducting numerous word studies.

Literary Genres in Job

The book of Job is widely accepted as one of the major books of wisdom literature in the Bible. Job’s genre has been classified as a “poetic drama” (NET 794), “both an epic and a wisdom disputation” (Hartley 66), and even a dramatized “lament” (Westermann 53). The book of Job, however, cannot be classified in only one literary category because it uses various genres: laments (see Job 3; 19.13-20), hymns (see Job 26.5-14), proverbs, or wisdom instruction, (see Job 12.7-12), and oracles (see Job 36.1- 15). Gaebelein notes, “the Prologue [Job 1-2] has the stereotyped forms and expressions of an old epic tradition” (844). The dialogue in between the prose prologue and epilogue is in Hebrew poetry format (Job 3-42.6). A dramatic framework and legal metaphor are also apparent throughout the book of Job, and both of these literary features play roles in the reader’s sympathy for Job in his suffering and concern for Job in his changing disposition before God.

Dramatic Framework in Job

A dramatic framework is evident in Job. Dramatic tension is used in the prose narration when Job fears God and is blessed, and then fears God and is afflicted (Job 1- 2). Job laments in silence (Job 2.11-13), and then in an outburst (Job 3). Dramatic tension also rises between the retribution wisdom of Job’s three friends and Job’s anti-wisdom rejection of their doctrine (Job 4-27), which culminates into Job’s hymn that expresses the need for wisdom that both sides of the debate claim they have, but are clearly lacking (Job 28). Throughout the dialogue, there is dramatic tension between Job’s cry for a chance to plead his case and to hear God’s case concerning Job’s suffering (see Job 10.2; 13.20-22; 31.35-37), and God’s silence. Job also accuses God of injustice (see Job 24.1,12; 30.19-21), and is later rebuked by Elihu and God who prove that God is sovereign and just (Job 34-35; 40.8). When Elihu speaks in four speeches (Job 32-37), he confronts some of these dramatic tensions, exposing Job to the redemptive and instructive purposes of a non-silent God in suffering (Job 33,36).

The dramatic tension continues into the epilogue (Job 42.7-17), when God condemns Job’s three friends who had claimed to be correctly speaking on God’s behalf (see Job 4.12-21, cf. 13.7-12), and then uses Job as His restored servant to intercede on behalf of his friends-turned-enemies (Job 42.7-9). The dramatic tension between God and Satan, concerning the integrity of Job, is set in the prologue (Job 1-2), and resolved in the epilogue (Job 42.7-17) when God restores Job to a double-portion of his previous riches for speaking of God “what is right” in his repentance and for interceding for his estranged friends (Job 42.7,8, cf. 42.1-6). The dramatic framework of the book of Job reveals the difficulty of Job’s struggle through his trial, allowing the reader of Job to sympathize with him in order to be likewise corrected and instructed concerning the character and nature of God as revealed to Job in his suffering.

Legal Metaphor in Job

A legal metaphor is clearly used throughout the book of Job as well. Satan falsely accuses Job of insincere worship that is motivated by self-preservation (Job 1.9-10; 2.4- 5. Note that Satan is elsewhere in the Bible referred to as an “accuser” of genuine worshippers of God (Rev. 12.10). God seems to commit an injustice toward Job in the prologue by permitting Satan to inflict Job with terrible suffering (Job 1-2). Job responds by worshipping God and refusing to “charge God with wrong” (Job 1.22). Job’s friends who originally come to comfort Job (Job 2.11-13), are so disturbed by the nature of Job’s suffering (Job 2.12-13, cf. Job 6.21), and by his opening lament-curse (Job 3) that they falsely accuse Job of some previously committed crime that he must repent of and for which he must plead with his Judge for mercy (Job 4-5, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25). Job denies the validity of this indictment from his friends (Job 6.29; 13:4-5, 12; 27:5), proclaiming his innocence and longing for vindication before them (Job 16.20-21; 19:21-27; 27.6). Job also pleads with God to appear in court to listen to Job’s case (Job 13.18; 23.3-7), the proclamation of his innocence as the defendant; he also pleads with God to present His case (Job 10.2; 31.35-37), God’s indictment against Job that would justify God’s actions as the plaintiff. Job goes so far as to charge his Judge (Job 9.15; 23.7) and Adversary (Job 16.9; 19.11; 31.35) of injustice (Job 10.2-3; 27.2), for which reason Elihu defends God as God’s attorney (Job 32.18; 33.3-4; 36.2), while also giving Job hope of restoration as Job’s advocate (Job 33.29-33).

God finally appears as in court, but does not defend or explain His ways to Job as Job had pleaded for Him to do. Instead, God, as the perfect, sovereign Judge of the universe uses His creation to reveal His perfect wisdom, understanding, power, and just rule over everything (see bottom note "Not a Theodicy"). God’s indictment of Job is that he spoke ignorantly during the dialogic dispute and condemned God in pursuit of his own justification (Job 38.2; 40.8). God asks Job, “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it” (New American Standard Bible (NASB), Job 40.2). Job cannot vindicate himself in court against God because he lacks God’s perfect knowledge, power, wisdom, and righteous judgment (Job 40.14). Job pleads no contest in that he vows to no longer state his case before God (Job 40.4-5), and after God’s second speech, Job completely retracts his lawsuit (Job 42.1-6). Job then submits to mediating God’s redemption of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who were found guilty by God for their incorrect speech concerning God, but shown mercy by their Judge through Job, their mediator (Job 42.7- 9).

Reitman states that the legal metaphor of Job serves to illustrate “Job’s changing disposition before God,” which grows bitterer as his suffering continues (52). Job begins by not charging God with wrong, but he then becomes obsessed with being vindicated before his friends who falsely accuse him. Job’s fallacious indictments against God, particularly his charging God with injustice, reveal Job’s need for mercy before his Judge. The legal metaphor in Job, then, ultimately highlights God’s merciful and redeeming purposes in forgiving Job of his false accusation of God, and reconciling Job’s three guilty friends to Himself.


Footnote:
Not a Theodicy

Because God does not explain nor justify His actions in His two speeches to Job in Job 38-41, I do not take the book of Job to be a theodicy as many consider it to be. A theodicy seeks to reconcile the idea of a good and just God with the reality of the unjust sufferings of the righteous and the prosperity of the unrighteous (Hartley 76-77). Job is greatly disturbed by the reality of his own innocent suffering and the prosperity of the wicked, even to the point of accusing God of injustice. Job seeks a theodicy (Job 10.2; 21.7; 24.1; 31.35-37), but God does not give it. Job’s answer from God, and His spokesman Elihu, is one that re-directs Job’s focus to trusting in a perfectly wise and sovereign Creator who executes justice, but who needs not reveal nor defend all of His inscrutable ways to man. Job is left to repent of his foolish assumptions concerning the nature and purposes of God in his suffering (Job 42.1-6), and to submit to serving his God who proves to be redemptive, merciful, and incomprehensible (Job 42.7-9)