Job 34:10-15

TEXT 34:10-15

10 Therefore hearken onto me, ye men of understanding:

Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness,
And from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

11 For the work of a man will he render unto him,

And cause every man to find according to his ways,

12 Yea, of a surety, God will not do wickedly,

Neither will the Almighty pervert justice.

13 Who gave him a charge over the earth?

Or who hath disposed the whole world?

14 If he set his heart upon himself,

If he gather onto himself his spirit and his breath;

15 All flesh shall perish together,

And man shall torn again unto dust.

COMMENT 34:10-15

Job 34:10Bildad raised this question in Job 8:3; Elihu echoes it here in Job 34:10-12. True wise men, i.e., lit. men of heart, you know that God can do no evil. Job is not merely in error; he has committed blasphemyGenesis 18:25.

Job 34:11Whether the man be good or evil, his reward will follow from his character. Elihu, like Job's three friends, is persuaded that God is not unjust. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is fully conscious that a person's desert and his fortune are not often in harmony. The systems of society, history, and nature are so interconnected[339] that negative repercussions do, in fact, come to those who are not personally guilty of any particular heinous crime, egs. famine, earthquake, tornadoes, war, pestilence, etc. Freedom and responsibility are always within structures. There is no such thing as Sartre's ontological Freedom, which is in reality insanity. But if there is no freedom, neither is there responsibility, i.e., basis for praise or blame for human behaviorJob 4:8; Ps. 62:13; Proverbs 24:12; Eccl. 16:14; Matthew 16:27; Romans 2:6; Galatians 6:7-10. Rowley certainly raises the appropriate question, which is not Why does God not prevent injustice? but why do men perpetrate injustice? (Job, p. 279). In the case of Job, God permitted Satanic injustice as an expression of His confidence in his servant Job. God was prepared to stake His cosmic honor on Job's integrity. The last line as rendered in the A. V. could better read, lit., will cause it to find him.[340]

[339] Systems Analysis is the most effective method known to man which can correlate interrelatedness of the systems of the universe, whether natural or societal systems.

[340] See my theological essay on EvilSilence, Suffering, and Sin: Present Evil and the Presence of God in this commentary.

Job 34:12Elihu repeats what he has already declared in Job 34:10. The editors of The Qumran Targum render this verse as a rhetorical questionEh bien, Dieu fera-T-il vraiment ce qiu est faux? Well? God will certainly not do that which is false or evil? The Hebrew -omnom is rendered by sd-' which appears in Daniel 3:14 with -hsd-', the interrogative particle.[341]

[341] For analysis of this grammatical possibility, see H. H. Rowley, The Aramaic of the Old Testament, 1929, p. 132.

Job 34:13Elihu deduces from the fact that God is all-powerful creator that He can do no wrong. This logically entails that power is moral; whatever God does is by definition moral or just. But Job has already acknowledged that God is answerable to no oneJob 9:12; but he erroneously derived from this premise that God was responsible for all the injustice in the worldJob 9:24. Camus expresses this same viewpoint in his existential literature, specifically The Plague and The Fall. Sartre is also a brilliant protagonist of God's justice, eg. The Devil and The Good Lord, No Exit, and The Flies, etc.

Job 34:14If God only thought of Himself and not of all His creatures, i.e., all of creation, with benevolent mercy, then no one would survive. All flesh would perish from the earth. God gave life to all creaturesGenesis 2:7 and Job 33:4; and when and if He withdraws His spirit, we diePsalms 104:29 and Ecclesiastes 12:7. We are all alike, dependent on an impartial God.

Job 34:15All flesh here indicates that when His spirit is withdrawn, only lifeless sarx remains to be ravaged by decayJob 12:10; Job 28:21; Isaiah 42:5; Psalms 104:29. God is a loving merciful Lord, not a capricious tyrant. We can never gain an adequate perspective on evil until we know God and His cosmic purpose, which is to fulfill His promises in Christ2 Corinthians 1:20. It should be all but self-evident that biblical eschatology is the basis for a Christian view of history-nature, the removal of evil is part of the biblical understanding of redemptionIsaiah 6166; Romans 8; Revelation 21.