Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

Hi Stephen,

I think I'm finally on top of my emails after returning from holidays.
Probably this will be my last email on this as I think we both
understand the issues.

A few comments below to explain what I meant:

> Hi David,
>
> Thanks for the stimulating thoughts - and I agree with you entirely on Job's
> (sometimes abrupt) despair/hope transitions, his amazingly tenacious faith,
> and (as I presume you mean) "God as his go'el". But it is surely a tenacious
> faith mixed with misunderstandings and even defiance. One of the things I
> love about Job (the person) is that he is such a fabulously "round
> character".
>
> I find it hard, then, to accept your first two sentences in point 3: Yes,
> strictly speaking 40:8 is a question, but in the wake of all that has
> preceded, it seems exceedingly odd to read it with an implied negative
> answer. Why raise the question in the middle of this barrage (especially
> after 40:2 and 7) if the answer is "Actually, no you wouldn't, so it's OK"?

Actually, this is pretty much what Jackson does in the recent book I
mentioned. He quite convincingly demonstrates that while the questions
are addressed to Job, they actually present apt summaries not of what
Job has spoken but what the friends have spoken. Note, too, that God's
"barrage", to use your words, is not one of judgement but that of a
profound wisdom teacher, as von Rad has argued.


> And I agree with the first half of your point 4. But I'm not sure what you
> mean by "Whether one was right or wrong is simply a non-issue when God
> appears". (It was an issue for the friends!) Certainly I'd say that Job's
> previous preoccupations and contentions simply seem to evaporate and be
> overwhelmed by the "Godness" of God.

I need to clarify what I meant here. What I said is not meant to be
taken absolutely: of course whether one was right or wrong matters in
the end. What I meant was even if one was right in making claims about
God that when God appears that event overshadows everything else such
that the only adequate response is one of recognising his sovereignty.

> Have a great holiday! I'm happy to leave the discussion there (though feel
> free to reply). I'll keep wrestling with 42:6, anyway. Thanks for the
> pointer to David Jackson's book - I hope to get a look at it sometime.
>
> Regards,
> Stephen Shead
> Santiago, Chile


Regards,
David Kummerow.