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If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him’;

be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.” (Job 19:23-29)

Part of Job’s predicament is, as he has said before, that he cannot find God nor see Him. Thus he asks for help from an appointed mediator. But it would be best if Job could present his case himself. He first considers sending a written deposition to the court. Then he says he would appear in person if he could. He would do so, even if his skin is seared off by his disease, by the presence of God, or by rotting in the grave.

The third party in this scenario, Job’s attorney if you will, has now been variously referred to as an “umpire” (Job 9:33), “witness” (Job 16:19), “interpreter” (Job 16:19; 33:23), and “redeemer” (Job 19:25). The very variety of words used to describe the figure suggests that Job’s savior is not a specific person but rather a “court-appointed attorney.” However, from the prose narrative, we know that God does employ counselors. “The satan,” the adversary, is an example of a member of the heavenly court whose function is to plead the negative side of causes.

Job fears that a hearing can never happen, even though simple justice demands that he have his day in court. And, of course, we understand from the beginning of the story what Job does not know: God already knows that Job’s case is just and that the whole predicament is arranged as a test of Job’s righteousness. It is, in a way, an exhibition of the contention that people can be good by nature and not merely good for the hope of reward.

However, an analysis of “self-justification” is an impossibility in the world Job inhabits. In Job’s world Martin Luther’s (1483-1546 CE) enormously influential Reformation arguments against self-justification make no sense at all. For in the end, God takes all our lives, sinner and saint and saves no one in the afterlife. Yet, the book of Job says that even in this world, there are people who are good purely for the sake of being good; Job is good and continues to be good, even though God is punishing him.

JOB’S CASE AGAINST GOD

Job’s last speech is a veritable indictment against God. The language he uses clarifies that it is a formal, legal complaint or indictment, even if we do not know in detail precisely what legal or courtly rituals are being described. Job takes pen and ink and signs the indictment (Job 31:35), just as he had wanted to do (Job 19:23). Job 31 is very much the same kind of negative confession as an Egyptian’s Ba could be expected to recite in the Court of the Two Justices. Note, though, that Job is asking for much more: He is asking for God’s vindication in this life.

Job again seeks an indictment against God and we as readers serve as the grand jury. As readers, we are privileged because we know that Job is innocent. What we do not know is exactly what kind of rituals Job was performing to validate his ancient indictment: He would wear the charge on his shoulders or bind it into a crown so he could show that he has been punished with cause. Is this the description of a public indictment or a punishment? Is it a suit to get back the property and loved-ones which God has snatched? We do not know. His subsequent oaths may bear some unspecifiable relationship to exorcism texts; but then again, exorcisms may themselves be a kind of divine court trial. In any event, since Job cannot obtain an indictment in God’s court, he will sign his own oath against God’s justice and hope to bring God into court.

It is this background that makes sensible the seemingly very authoritarian answer which God gives. Modern Americans react very badly to the overpowering way that God appears and silences Job by citing Job’s insignificance. We want a just, equitable, democratic answer with everyone having the same rights, powers, and possibility of redress. We demand an answer to God’s callous treatment of Job’s innocence.