Job 9:22-23

Accusation of God’s Justice

9:22 “It is all one! ¹  That is why I say, ² 

‘He destroys the blameless and the guilty.’

9:23 If a scourge brings sudden death, ³ 

he mocks ⁴  at the despair ⁵  of the innocent. ⁶ 

Job 9:30-31

9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, ⁷ 

and make my hands clean with lye, ⁸ 

9:31 then you plunge me into a slimy pit ⁹ 

and my own clothes abhor me.

Job 21:14-16

21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!

We do not want to ¹⁰  know your ways. ¹¹ 

21:15 Who is the Almighty, that ¹²  we should serve him?

What would we gain

if we were to pray ¹³  to him?’ ¹⁴ 

21:16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. ¹⁵ 

The counsel of the wicked is far from me! ¹⁶ 

Job 21:30

21:30 that the evil man is spared

from the day of his misfortune,

that he is delivered ¹⁷ 

from the day of God’s wrath?

Job 22:17

22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ ¹⁸ 

Job 35:3

35:3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’ ¹⁹ 

and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’ ²⁰ 

Malachi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ²¹  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ²² 

[9:22]  ¹ tc The LXX omits the phrase “It is all one.” Modern scholars either omit it or transpose it for clarity.

[9:22]  ² tn The relationships of these clauses is in some question. Some think that the poet has inverted the first two, and so they should read, “That is why I have said: ‘It is all one.’” Others would take the third clause to be what was said.

[9:23]  ³ tc The LXX contains a paraphrase: “for the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.”

[9:23]  ⁴ sn This bold anthropomorphism means that by his treatment of the despair of the innocent, God is in essence mocking them.

[9:23]  ⁵ tn The term מַסַּת (massat), a hapax legomenon, was translated “trial” in the older versions; but it is not from נָסָה (nasah, “to tempt; to test; to try”), but from מָסַס (masas, “to flow”). It is used in the Niphal to speak of the heart “melting” in suffering. So the idea behind this image is that of despair. This is the view that most interpreters adopt; it requires no change of the text whatsoever.

[9:23]  ⁶ sn Job uses this word to refute Eliphaz; cf. 4:7.

[9:30]  ⁷ tn The Syriac and Targum Job read with the Qere “with water of [בְמֵי, bÿme] snow.” The Kethib simply has “in [בְמוֹ, bÿmo] snow.” In Ps 51:9 and Isa 1:18 snow forms a simile for purification. Some protest that snow water is not necessarily clean; but if fresh melting snow is meant, then the runoff would be very clear. The image would work well here. Nevertheless, others have followed the later Hebrew meaning for שֶׁלֶג (sheleg) – “soap” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT). Even though that makes a nice parallelism, it is uncertain whether that meaning was in use at the time this text was written.

[9:30]  ⁸ tn The word בֹּר (bor, “lye, potash”) does not refer to purity (Syriac, KJV, ASV), but refers to the ingredient used to make the hands pure or clean. It has the same meaning as בֹּרִית (borit), the alkali or soda made from the ashes of certain plants.

[9:31]  ⁹ tn The pointing in the MT gives the meaning “pit” or “ditch.” A number of expositors change the pointing to שֻׁחוֹת (shukhot) to obtain the equivalent of שֻׂחוֹת (sukhot) / סֻחוֹת (sukhot): “filth” (Isa 5:25). This would make the contrast vivid – Job has just washed with pure water and soap, and now God plunges him into filth. M. H. Pope argues convincingly that the word “pit” in the MT includes the idea of “filth,” making the emendation unnecessary (“The Word sahat in Job 9:31,” JBL 83 [1964]: 269-78).

[21:14]  ¹⁰ tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”

[21:14]  ¹¹ sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.

[21:15]  ¹² tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”

[21:15]  ¹³ tn The verb פָּגַע (paga’) means “to encounter; to meet,” but also “to meet with request; to intercede; to interpose.” The latter meaning is a derived meaning by usage.

[21:15]  ¹⁴ tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.

[21:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “is not in their hand.”

[21:16]  ¹⁶ sn Even though their life seems so good in contrast to his own plight, Job cannot and will not embrace their principles – “far be from me their counsel.”

[21:30]  ¹⁷ tn The verb means “to be led forth.” To be “led forth in the day of trouble” means to be delivered.

[22:17]  ¹⁸ tn The form in the text is “to them.” The LXX and the Syriac versions have “to us.”

[35:3]  ¹⁹ tn The referent of “you” is usually understood to be God.

[35:3]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text merely says, “What do I gain from my sin?” But Job has claimed that he has not sinned, and so this has to be elliptical: “more than if I had sinned” (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 224). It could also be, “What do I gain without sin?”

[3:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ²² sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.