Job 22:12-20

3. Warning that all evil men have been punished (Job 22:12-20)

TEXT 22:12-20

12 Is not God in the height of heaven?

And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

13 And thou sayest, What doth God know?

Can he judge through the thick darkness?

14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he seeth not;

And he walketh on the vault of heaven.

15 Wilt thou keep the old way

Which wicked men have trodden?

16 Who were snatched away before their time.

Whose foundation was poured out as a stream.

17 Who said unto God, Depart from us;

And, What can the Almighty do for us?

18 Yet he filled their houses with good things:

But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

19 The righteous see it, and are glad;

And the innocent laugh them to scorn,

20 Saying, Surely they that did rise up against us are cut off,

And the remnant of them the fire hath consumed.

COMMENT 22:12-20

Job 22:12God's transcendence is understood here in the sense that He is so far off that He is unconcerned with man's conditionPsalms 10:4; Psalms 73:11; and Isaiah 29:15or as the Psalmist concludesPsalms 14:2; Psalms 33:13 ff, He is so high that He observes every event that transpires in nature-history. Yet, Eliphaz argues in Job 22:13 that transcendence is understood by Job to mean indifference.[244] Job has actually used this theme to describe the practical atheism of the prosperous who go unpunished in spite of their impietyJob 21:14-15. Eliphaz deliberately distorts Job's discourse in order to identify him with the ancient wickedJob 22:15 ff.

[244] On this matter, see M. Dahood, Orientalia, 1965, p. 171 and his Psalms, Vol. I, Psalms 10:4second note.

Job 22:13Eliphaz intentionally distorts Job's theology as he asks, Does the vast distance create darkness so God cannot discern human deeds? The dark cloud partially hid God from human visibilityExodus 20:18; 1 Kings 8:12; and Psalms 18:10. This verse contains the first overt distortion of Job's position concerning God's transcendenceJob 7:19; Job 10:6; Job 10:14; Job 14:3; Job 14:6.

Job 22:14God is only concerned with the circleProverbs 8:27; Isaiah 40:22of the heavens, not with the events on the earth, so declares Eliphaz, perhaps in response to Job's question in Job 21:22. God is elsewhere depicted as riding upon the cloudsIsaiah 19:1and making the clouds his chariotsPsalms 104:3. Vault or dome carries a connotation not presented in the creation narratives or here. God is not described as being outside an enclosed world.

Job 22:15Eliphaz next asserts that the attitudes espoused by Job have brought destruction on the ancient wicked. The old way[245]Jeremiah 6:16is best translated the dark path, or the way of darkness or ignorance (see Job 42:3ma-'lin -esahdarkening counsel; the noun occurs in Ecclesiastes 3:11, darkness or ignorance, Ecclesiastes 2:14 and Proverbs 2:3). The wicked walk the path of ignorance of God's presence.

[245] Compare M. Dohood's essay in Bible in Current Catholic Thought, 1962, p. 65.

Job 22:16The foundations of their existence collapsed from beneath them, swept away as by a floodMatthew 7:26. They were snatched away without warning.

Job 22:17Compare with Job 21:14-16. Eliphaz is commenting on remarks of some of the ancient wicked. He remembers what Job has claimed, in order to assert that his prosperity was only a prelude to his devastation.[246]

[246] M. Dahood, Biblica, 1965, p. 324; also Biblica, 1966, p. 409.

Job 22:18Eliphaz again distorts Job's wordsJob 21:16in order to assert that the God he scorns was the source of his prosperity. Any forthcoming disaster was merited. The blessings which the wicked receive will become to them a curse. God's ultimate overthrow of the wicked is proof of His just rule over the affairs of men.

Job 22:19Compare with Psalms 107:41 a and Psalms 69:33, almost verbatim. For imageries depicting the righteous rejoicing over the destruction of the wicked, see Psalms 52:6 ff; Psalms 69:32; and see Psalms 107:12 for rejoicing over the victories of the righteous.[247]

[247] See M. Bic, Le juste et l-'impie dans le livre de Job, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, 15, 1966, 33-43; R. B. Y. Scott, Wise and Foolish, Righteous and Wicked, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, 1972, 146-165; D. S. Shapiro, Wisdom and Knowledge of God in Biblical and Tamudic Thought, Tradition, 1971, 70-89.

Job 22:20Eliphaz argues from remoteness to impartialitysee Zophar's use in Job 11:7-20. Our adversaries, i.e., the wicked and their possessions (not as A. Vremnant) are destroyed.