CHAPTER 11
1. Then Tsofar the Naamathite responded and said,
2. “Mustn’t [such] an abundance of words be answered? And just because a man has lips, will be be vindicated?
3. “Will a few [people] be deaf to your empty words? Will you scoff, and no one feel ashamed?
4. “When you said, ‘The teaching I [have received] is pure, and I have become clean in Your eyes’--
5. “But indeed, who will allow Elohim to speak and open His lips toward you?
6. “If only He would explain to you the secrets of wisdom, because they would double your sound knowledge! Realize that Elohim overlooks some of your guilt!
He is being sarcastic in the first phrase. Overlooks some: I.e., He is not punishing you as severely as you actually deserve.
7. “Can you discover the depths of Elohim by searching? If you got all the way to the utmost limit, would you find Shaddai?
I.e., Do you think you will be able to explain everything there is to know about YHWH?
8. “[They are] higher than the skies; what can you accomplish? Deeper than She-ol; how much can you know?
9. “Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea!
10. “If He should sweep through and close [us] off and summon [us into the] assembly, who could turn Him back?
11. “Because He recognizes those who pretend to be men; when He sees crookedness, won’t He discern it?
I.e., He can see better than you; are you so sure you are innocent?
12. “A hollow-headed man can become intelligent [only] when a man gives birth to a donkey’s colt!
I.e., he asserts that people cannot change their ways.
13. “If you would prepare your heart and stretch out your hands toward Him,
14. “if there was crookedness in your hand and you put it far away from you, and not let injustice remain in your tents,
15. “Certainly then you yourself could lift up your face without blemish, and you could become firmly established, and have nothing to fear!
16. “Because you could forget your misery, and remember it like waters that have gone by.
17. “The rest of your life would rise up higher than [the] noonday [sun], and though it had been covered in darkness, it would become like morning!
18. “And you would be secure, because there is hope! You could safely dig yourself in and take your rest!
19. “Then you could stretch out [and relax] with none to make you tremble; many would be weak in your presence!
Weak in your presence: an idiom for lowering themselves to entreat his favor.
20. “But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and their way of escape will be lost from them, and their hope will expire [like] a last breath.”
I.e., just admit you did something wrong and things will get better for you!
CHAPTER 12
1. Then Iyov answered and said,
2. “[These things] are true, because you are a people, and wisdom will die with you!
He starts with sarcasm about their supposed knowledge.
3. “Even I have a heart, just like you. I don’t fall short of you, and who doesn’t have [knowledge of] such things as these?
4. “I am becoming one mocked by his fellows, who called out to Elohim, and He answered him; a completely just [person] is a laughingstock!
5. “A torch is contemptible to one who is resting at ease; [it is the] right thing for one who foot is slipping!
6. “The tents of those who take spoils are prosperous, and those who provoke El to anger are secure because of what Eloah ‘has brought by His hand’!
I.e., I could take matters into my own hands and claim “God” had blessed me, but where is the integrity in that?
7. “However, please ask the animals, and they will teach you; and the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
8. “Or commune with the earth, and it will teach you, and the fish of the sea will spell it out for you:
9. “Who among these is not aware that YHWH has done this--
10. “in Whose hand is the breath of every living thing, and the spirit of all men’s flesh?
11. “Doesn’t the ear examine words just as the palate tastes its food?
12. “There is wisdom in the aged; and discernment [comes] with length of days.
13. “With Him is wisdom and strength; to Him belong counsel and discernment.
14. “Look, He overthrows and it cannot be rebuilt; if He shuts [the door] on a man, it cannot be opened.
Rebuilt: Is he alluding to the Tower of Bavel? It was not a distant memory for Iyov.
15. “Watch! He withholds the waters, and they dry up; He sends them out, and they transform a land.
16. “With Him are power and success; to Him belong the making of mistakes and what causes them.
Success: or sound knowledge, effective wisdom. Mistakes: unintentional errors, “accidents” that seem to have no purpose or logic, but He is the force that turns everything in the direction He wants it to go.
17. “He causes advisors to go barefoot, and causes judges to rave [like fools].
18. “He loosens the correction of kings, and ties a waistband around their hips.
19. “He causes priests to go barefoot, and overturns things that [seemed] permanent.
20. “He deprives the established ones of their ability to speak, and takes away the elders’ ability to judge.
Iyov had apparently experienced the “downside” of the established order on the earth, and was grateful to YHWH for setting limits on it.
21. “He pours out contempt on the noble ones, and the releasing of [seasonal] torrents he quiets.
Noble: or willing, generous. Iyov’s assessment is becoming somewhat bitter and sarcastic. But He does the opposite too—turning back or calming what could be destructive in its suddenness.
22. “He discloses the deep things from out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death out into [the] light.
23. “He makes nations grow great and makes them disappear; He expands nations and guides them.
24. “He turns aside the heart of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
People of the earth: or land—an idiom for common people.
25. “They grope about in the darkness when there is no light; He makes them stagger like a drunkard.
CHAPTER 13
1. “Look! My eye has seen everything, and my ear has heard and understood.
2. “What [all of] you know, I know as well; I don’t fall short of you.
3. “However, I would [like to] speak with the Nourisher, and I desire to reason with El.
Reason with: or argue/dispute with, complain to, put to proof, refute, be cleared by—i.e., have a court session with Him in which I can argue my case for not deserving this treatment.
4. “You, though, are spreaders of false [testimony]; as therapists you are all good for nothing!
Spreaders: or smearers, plasterers-over. They are making him out to be at fault, the cause of his awful experiences, as if it were “karma” for something he had done wrong, whereas he knew of no such precipitating factor. None of them had the advantage we have of the narration at the beginning of the story, but the other men were assuming there was only one way to explain this.
5. “Who will get you to remain completely quiet? Then it would serve as wisdom for you!
“Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise!” (Prov. 17:28)
6. “Please listen to my reasoning; pay attention to the legal argument of my lips!
7. “Will you speak unjustly for El? Or will you speak negligently for Him?
Negligently: with slackness, deceit, or even treachery; in a remiss manner.
8. “If you contend for El, will you lift [yourself] up right in His presence?
Lift yourself up: or, show partiality.
9. “Will it go well when He examines you? Or can you deceive him as one deceives a mortal man?
10. “He will certainly convict you if you secretly show partiality!
Show partiality: an idiom; literally, lift up faces (one above the others).
11. “Won’t His lofty dignity overwhelm you, and the dread of Him fall on you?
12. “Your platitudes are comparable to ashes; your defenses are like bulwarks [made] of clay!
Platitudes: literally, remembrances or memorials. Comparable to: or, proverbs of.
13. “Hold off from [saying anymore to] me and let me speak, and let whatever may come upon me [come].
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More coming soon.
THE STORY OF
Iyov
(also known as Job)
INTRODUCTION: Iyov is thought to be the oldest book that came to be included in the Biblical collection. It addresses the same basic question that many of us struggle with today: “Why would YHWH allow me to go through this problem?” It gives us a look “behind the scenes” at what may precipitate such experiences, and tells us some of the wrong ways to approach the question as well as the right. Iyov may have been one of the men called Yov-av in Genesis 10:29 (a grandson of Ever, and therefore a Semite and a Hebrew) or Gen. 36:33-34 (an Edomite king (especially considering that the man whose reign followed his was a Theymanite--precursor to the Yemenites--an ethnicity that shows up among Iyov’s closest friends—Elifaz. (2:11) An Elifaz the father of Theyman actually appears in the same chapter (36:11), also among Esau’s descendants. This is not proven, but the possibility is intriguing.
