Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Lael Caesar <caesarl AT andrews.edu>]

Re:  Job 19:25
George does in fact have it correct.  The outrage of friends at what they and 
many more consider
Job's blasphemy remains in tension with the divine affirmation on Job at the 
close of the drama.
George's interpretation recognizes this tension and provides an effective 
explanation.  The deity
whom Job apparently insults is also the one before whom he is confident that 
he would be vindicated
if only he could have his day in court.  Their notion of deity permits the 
friends to find Job's
present situation perfectly logical.  On the other hand, Job's sense of God 
as go'el both preserves
and reconciles the tensions between his offense at his current experience and 
his cry to God for an
explanation.  However vicious the supreme God may have been to him [for he 
knows nothing of an
adversary], Job insists that 1) God knows that his treatment is unfair; 2) 
God would acknowledge as
much if so required.

Lael Caesar
caesarl AT andrews.edu
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