http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+20&version=NIV
27 The heavens will expose his guilt;
the earth will rise up against him.
28 A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters[b] on the day of God’s wrath.
29 Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God.”
Zophar is still pretty convinced that Job did something evil and that is why he is in his current state.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+19&version=NIV
2 “How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
3 Ten times now you have reproached me;
shamelessly you attack me.
4 If it is true that I have gone astray,
my error remains my concern alone.
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and use my humiliation against me,
6 then know that God has wronged me
and drawn his net around me.
Job still protests against this characterization. He’s not an evil person. God has wronged him. It is interesting to me that even though Job rants against God’s treatment of him, he still looks forward to the day when he can see God.
25 I know that my redeemer[c] lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.[d]
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet[e] in[f] my flesh I will see God;
27 I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
But what’s really going on here? Check out these footnotes:
Is Job’s redeemer / vindicator God? Or someone/something else? Doesn’t it seem odd for Job to spend chapters ranting about God’s treatment of him, and then call God his vindicator? It’s almost like he’s looking for someone else to come in and prove him right.
And the footnote interpretation – “in the end he will stand on my grave. After I awake, though this body has been destroyed, apart from my flesh I will see God – I myself will see him with my own eyes.” I wonder if he’s looking forward to seeing God so he can ask Him why God heaped all of this torment upon him?
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+18&version=NIV
17 The memory of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name in the land.
18 He is driven from light into the realm of darkness
and is banished from the world.
19 He has no offspring or descendants among his people,
no survivor where once he lived.
20 People of the west are appalled at his fate;
those of the east are seized with horror.
21 Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man;
such is the place of one who does not know God.”
Bildad is still convinced that Job is a bad man because bad things have happened to him. That would be a post hoc, ergo proctor hoc, right?
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+17&version=NIV
13 If the only home I hope for is the grave,
if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
14 if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope—
who can see any hope for me?
16 Will it go down to the gates of death?
Will we descend together into the dust?”
This is the result of the fatalistic worldview that Job has. That’s the only outcome that is possible. There is no hope for one cursed by God.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+16&version=NIV
7 Surely, God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.
8 You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
9 God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
10 People open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.
11 God has turned me over to the ungodly
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
12 All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;
13 his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.
14 Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.
Job is angry with God because he assumes that everything that happens has been done by God. Notice how he is personalizing this – “God assails me”. What we see in the introduction is that God allows Satan to do the evil deeds, but does not do them Himself. What Job is missing here is the other side of the story.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+15&version=NIV
4 But you even undermine piety
and hinder devotion to God.
5 Your sin prompts your mouth;
you adopt the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
your own lips testify against you.
Eliphaz throws Job under the bus and says he must be a sinful man to have suffered so greatly.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+14&version=NIV
18 “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles
and as a rock is moved from its place,
19 as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil,
so you destroy a person’s hope.
20 You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;
you change their countenance and send them away.
21 If their children are honored, they do not know it;
if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.
22 They feel but the pain of their own bodies
and mourn only for themselves.”
There’s a real sense of despair and fatalism here.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+13&version=NIV
20 “Only grant me these two things, God,
and then I will not hide from you:
21 Withdraw your hand far from me,
and stop frightening me with your terrors.
22 Then summon me and I will answer,
or let me speak, and you reply to me.
23 How many wrongs and sins have I committed?
Show me my offense and my sin.
Job is still trying to have a reasoned man’s discussion with God – he is negotiating with God here.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+12&version=NIV
1 Then Job replied:2 “Doubtless you are the only people who matter,
and wisdom will die with you!
3 But I have a mind as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know all these things?
OH SNAP.
Also, God is all-powerful and in control of everything.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+11&version=NIV
7 “Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
8 They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?
They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?
9 Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.
Zophar also says that we can’t know anything about God.
