Глава 22

Eliphaz's speech in the third conversation. 1–5. God's justice as the basis for the conclusion about Job's sinfulness. 6–20. Job's sins are twofold. 21–30. Advice to get closer to God and the consequences of this. Job 22:1. And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: Job 22:2. How can a person benefit God? A reasonable person benefits himself. Job 22:3. What pleasure is it to the Almighty that you are righteous? And will He benefit from your keeping your ways pure? Job 22:4. Will He, fearing you, enter into competition with you, go to court with you? Without paying attention to Job’s last speech, without refuting the facts he noted, Eliphaz insists on the deservedness of the disasters that befell him, deducing this idea from the position of Divine Justice. In his dealings with the righteous and sinners, God is guided exclusively by the principles of strict justice. Absolutely all-perfect, He does not benefit from the actions of the “reasonable” one, “the one who seeks God” (Hebrew “maskil”; cf. Ps. 13.2), just as the actions of the sinner do not bring Him harm. Therefore, His attitude towards both is not determined, as in a person, by the desire to benefit Himself and avoid harm. God punishes the sinner not because, fearing him, he seeks to remove from Himself the danger threatening from the latter (v. 4; cf. Wis. 6.7) and does not reward the righteous under the influence of considerations to motivate him to greater virtue and thus benefit for Himself. Job 22:5. It is true that your wickedness is great, and your iniquities have no end. Given the unconditional justice of God, no other reason can be found for Job’s terrible suffering other than great sinfulness. Job 22:6. It is true that you took pledges from your brothers for nothing and took off the clothes of half-naked people. Job’s supposed (“true”) sins lie in his lack of humanity, instilled by nature itself. He did not hesitate to take a deposit (cf. Ex. 22.26–27; Deut. 24.10–13) from “his brothers,” i.e., persons of the same tribe as him, and, moreover, “for nothing,” i.e., not needing them, since he himself was rich. In those cases, he was driven by greed alone (cf. Job 20.19–21), reaching the point that the last clothes of the half-naked, who had nothing, were taken as collateral. Job 22:7. He did not give water to drink to the thirsty and refused bread to the hungry; A desert dweller who valued water, he was so greedy that he refused a sip of water to a thirsty person and a piece of bread to a hungry person (cf. Isaiah 58:10). Job 22:8. but you gave land to a strong man, and the high-ranking man settled on it. The Synodal reading does not represent an entirely accurate rendering of the Hebrew text. Its literal translation, held by Aquila and Symmachus, will be as follows: “a man with a hand is the earth, and he who is high in position settles on it.” “A man of the hand,” that is, of strength (Job 40.9; Ps 76.16, 82.9) and violence (Job 35.9), Job seized the land, expanded his possessions through violent seizure (cf. Is 5.8), not allowing the weak to settle on it. Job 22:9. You sent away widows with nothing and left orphans empty-handed. Persons of the latter kind included widows and orphans: their requests and entreaties were left unsatisfied by Job. Job 22:10. That's why there are loops around you, and unexpected horror outraged you, Job 22:11. or darkness in which you see nothing, and many waters cover you. The greatness and power of sin corresponds to the power of the disasters that befell Job. He is “surrounded by loops” - struck by illness, sorrows, disgrace (Job 18.8-10), does not see the possibility of getting rid of them (“darkness in which you see nothing”, cf. Job 17.12), is close to death: - “many waters have covered you” (cf. Ps 41.8, 68.3). Job 22:12–14. Job's sins against his neighbors are combined with sins against God - denial of His omniscience and intervention in people's lives - providence. Job 22:12. Isn't God higher than heaven? look up at the stars, how high they are! The dwelling of God is higher than the starry sky, and from such a height the whole earth is visible to God, its vast expanse for the human eye is spread out before Him, God is omniscient (cf. Ps 13.2). Job 22:13. And you say: what does God know? can He judge through darkness? Job 22:14. The clouds are His curtain, so He does not see, but only walks in the heavenly circle. Meanwhile, according to Job, God, hidden from the earth by clouds (“clouds are His curtain”; cf. Lamentations 3.44: “You covered yourself with a cloud so that prayer would not reach”), has knowledge only of what is happening in the sphere of heaven, and, not seeing what is happening on earth, does not manifest His judgment on people (v. 13; cf. Ps. 72.11, Ps.93.7; Isa. 29.15; Ezek. 8.12). Job 22:15. Do you really follow the path of the ancients, along which wicked people walked? Job 22:16. which were destroyed prematurely when the waters poured out under their foundations? Job 22:17. They told God: get away from us! and what will the Almighty do to them? By such reasoning, Job is likened to ancient, sinful (ἀρχαῖος κόσμος - 2 Pet 2.5) antediluvian humanity (“water has poured out under their foundation”), whose representatives, like him, rejected God (“depart from us”), denied the intervention of their benefactor in their lives (v. 17) and For this reason they died, according to human reasoning (v. 18), prematurely. Job 22:18. And He filled their houses with goodness. But the advice of the wicked be far from me! Job 22:19. The righteous saw it and rejoiced, and the blameless one laughed at them: Job 22:20. our enemy was destroyed, and what was left behind them was consumed by fire. The black ingratitude of these blasphemers evokes a feeling of deep disgust in Eliphaz, and the death of sinners, both enemies of God and pious people (“our enemy”, cf. Ps 139.20-22; Rom 11.28), filled the hearts of these latter with joy (v. 19). They saw in her a manifestation of Divine Justice (cf. Ps 57.11–12; Ps 63.10–11). Job 22:21. Get close to Him and you will be calm; through this good will come to you. The death of antediluvian humanity should serve as a warning to Job. If he wants to avoid it, he is obliged to “get closer” to God - to leave the feeling of enmity against Him (Hebrew “sakan” - to be in friendship, in an intimate relationship with someone - Ps 138.3). As a result of this, Job’s mental torment will end: “you will be at peace,” and he will receive a reward. Job 22:22. Receive the law from His mouth and put His words in your heart. Presenting his advice as if it were the advice of God himself, Eliphaz invites Job to accept it as an immutable truth (“accept the law from His mouth”, cf. Proverbs 2.6) and to be completely imbued with it, to the depths of your soul: “put His words in your heart.” Job 22:23. If you turn to the Almighty, you will be built again, you will remove iniquity from your tent Job 22:24. and you will change the shining metal into dust, and the gold of Ophir into the stones of streams. The destiny of such a person is bliss (Ps 93.12–13). Likewise, Job, under the condition of fulfilling the given advice - “removing iniquity from the tent”, will not only have his lost happiness returned (“you will be settled”; Hebrew “ban” in the sense of giving the former happiness - Jer 24.6, 33.7, messages of greater - Mal 3.15), but also given more than he had. Job will become so rich that the “shining metal” (gold and silver in its unrefined form) will be as priceless to him as dust, and the best Ophir gold as a simple stone. Job 22:25. And the Almighty will be your gold and your shining silver, Without attaching importance to earthly riches, Job will consider his greatest, most valuable treasure to be the One who gave them to him, that is, God. It will be “shining silver” - silver purified from impurities. Job 22:26. for then you will rejoice in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. As the greatest good, God will become a source of spiritual joy and consolation for Job (cf. Ps 36.4; Is 58.14). The latter will manifest itself in the fact that, forgiven and rewarded by God, the painful feeling of Godlessness will disappear. Forgiven by God, he will boldly and trustingly raise his face to Him (cf. Gen. 4.6). Job 22:27. You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. Job’s prayer, arising from trusting love, will be heard by the Lord, and his vows, the fruit of diligence and not compulsion, will be fulfilled. Job 22:29. When someone is humiliated, you will say: exaltation! and He will save the one who has fallen face, Job 22:30. You will also deliver the innocent, and he will be saved by the purity of your hands. Job will be so strong in piety that the misfortunes of the innocent will not shake his righteousness (Ps 72.2-3, 12-14). When he sees them, he will say, on the basis of personal experience, that they are not a manifestation of Divine injustice, they lead the sufferer to exaltation and confirmation in goodness: “you will say: exaltation.” With similar reasoning, he will encourage the suffering themselves, and will not give them the opportunity to fall into the sin of despair and unbelief; they will be saved thanks to him: “he is saved by the purity of your hands” (v. 30). You might be interested in: