Глава 27

Job's speech to all his friends. 1–10. Job's determination to protect his innocence. 11–23. Description of the death of a sinner. Job 27:1. And Job continued his lofty speech and said: Taking advantage of the silence of his friends, Job continues his “sublime” speech – influx, figurative (Hebrew “mashal”). Job 27:2. God lives, who deprived me of judgment, and the Almighty, who grieved my soul, He begins it with an oath in the name of God (“as the Lord lives”; cf. 1 Samuel 20.3), - with the calling of God as a witness to the truth of his words. Although God violated the requirement of truth in relation to him, deprived him of the opportunity to prove his innocence and thereby upset him and plunged him into despondency (Job 23.2 etc.), but still He is the highest authority of truth. Job 27:3. that while my breath is still in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, Job 27:4. My mouth will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter a lie! Contents, essence of the oath. God is a witness that Job will not stop defending his righteousness until “the breath... and the Spirit of God is in his nostrils” (cf. Gen. 2.7) - as long as he is a rational being, whose very consciousness speaks of innocence. Job 27:5. I am far from recognizing you as fair; Until I die, I will not yield to my integrity. The testimony of this latter will not allow him to agree with the advice of his friends to admit that he was justly punished. As long as Job lives, he will insist on the fact of his integrity. Job 27:6. I held my truth tightly and will not let it go; my heart shall not rebuke me all my days. He cannot do otherwise, since otherwise he will have to go against his conscience ("heart" cf. 1 Samuel 24.6; 2 Samuel 24.10). She does not reproach him for anything (cf. Job 23.10), but he will begin to confess his sins! Job 27:7. My enemy will be like a wicked man, and he who rises up against me will be like a transgressor. Depending on Job's innocence, all his enemies, those who consider him a sinner, rebel against the righteous man, and therefore turn out to be wicked. Job 27:8. For what hope does a hypocrite have when he takes, when God plucks out his soul? Job 27:9. Will God hear his cry when trouble comes to him? Job 27:10. Will he be comforted by the Almighty and call on God at all times? An oath in the name of God (vv. 3–4) and a reference to the testimony of conscience (v. 6) are sufficient evidence of Job’s rightness. But since they could be mistaken by friends for hypocrisy, Job now points out the impossibility of the latter on his part. If he were a hypocrite, then when he died (“he would cast out... the soul” - from the body, its home - cf. Job 4.19), he could not harbor any hope of justification (cf. Job 13.16), but he is confident in it ( Job 19.25–27). Likewise, the wicked cannot expect, like Job, to be heard by God (cf. Job 13.15, 23.7; Ps 17.42) and, like him, to find his good in God and turn to him (Job 16.19–20, 17.3). In his mood, Job does not resemble the wicked. Job 27:11. I will tell you what is in the hand of God; I will not hide what the Almighty has. Job 27:12. Now, you have seen it all yourself; and why are you talking so much? To further prove his case, to clarify the difference between himself and the wicked, Job proceeds to describe the fate that befalls them. He offers his friends the teaching about the “hand of God” - about God’s relationship with sinners. As can be seen from the words: “You yourselves have seen everything” (v. 12), as well as from Art. 13–23, these are the same views that were repeatedly expressed by friends. And yet, according to him, they all the time “talked empty words” (“tagbalu” - from “gabal” - “to think and act without reason” - 2 Kings 17.15), - they groundlessly identified his fate with the fate of the wicked, while they are not similar to each other. Job 27:13. This is the portion of the wicked man from God, and the inheritance which the oppressors receive from the Almighty. Reproducing the words of Zophar in the present case (Job 20.29), Job, in his further description of the death of the wicked, repeats the views of his friends and thus falls into self-contradiction, since he previously insisted on the impunity of sinners (Job 21.7 etc.). But to recognize the arguments of his friends and to use their arguments was prompted by Job’s desire to come to opposite conclusions on the basis of homogeneous provisions. He turns his friends' weapons against themselves. “They placed before his eyes, like a mirror, the fate of the wicked, so that he would see himself in it and be afraid. He, in turn, puts this mirror before their eyes, so that they notice how different the character is not only of his behavior in suffering, but also of these latter.” Job 27:14. If his sons multiply, it is by the sword; and his descendants will not be satisfied with bread. Job 27:15. Death will bring down those who remain after him to the grave, and their widows will not cry. The sword, famine and the accompanying pestilence (“mmavet”, synodal “death”) are three disasters (2 Samuel 24.13; Jer 14.12, 15.2, 18.21), from which the numerous offspring of the wicked perish (cf. Job 5.20–21, 15.22–23). A continuous series of disasters deprives widows of the opportunity to perform the funeral rite of mourning the dead (Gen. 23.2; Ps. 77.64). Job 27:16. If he gathers up heaps of silver like dust, and prepares raiment like clay, Job 27:17. then he will prepare, and the righteous will be clothed, and the blameless one will receive the silver for his share. The wealth of the wicked, in the form of an enormous amount of silver (“heaps of silver like dust”; cf. Zech 9.3) and many shiny, magnificent clothes (cf. Joshua 7.21; 2 Kings 7.8), will pass to the righteous (cf. Job 15.29; Ps 48.11). Job 27:18. He builds his house like a moth and, like a watchman, makes himself a hut; In the same way, the dwelling of the wicked is as fragile as the building of a moth (cf. Job 4.19, 8.14), like a watchman’s hut made for a while (cf. Is 1.8, 24.20). Job 27:19. goes to bed rich and never gets up rich; opens his eyes, and he is no longer the same. The Synodal reading with its thought about the rapid disappearance of the wealth of the wicked can hardly be considered correct: this was discussed already in the 16th–17th centuries. Translation LXX: "πλούσιος κοιμηθήσεται καὶ οὐκ προσθὴσει", which is followed by Pescito, the ancient Italian text, Delitzsch, Ewald, etc., contains an indication of sudden, quick death of the sinner. The naturalness of such an understanding is proven, by the way, by the fact that the friends, whose view Job repeats, ended the description of the fate of the wicked with an image of his death (Job 15.32, 18.13–14, 20.23–25). Job 27:20. Terrors will befall him like waters; a storm will snatch him away in the night. Job 27:21. The east wind will pick him up and carry him, and he will quickly run away from it. Job 27:22. He will rush at him and will not spare him, no matter how hard he tries to escape from his hand. A figurative expression of the thought of the death of a sinner. He perishes just as they perish from all-destroying waters (Job 14.19), from the all-carrying flood (Isaiah 28.2), from the wind (Hebrew “kadim” - samum), not only scorching (“καύσων” LXX), burning (Gen. 41.23), but also destroying (Hebrew “veyelak” cf. Job 14.20, 19.10), uprooting (Hebrew “zear”, cf. Ps 57.10). All efforts to save ourselves from destruction are in vain (v. 22; cf. Job 20.24). Job 27:23. They will clasp their hands about him and whistle over him from his place! People who witness the death of the sinner will “clasp their hands”, be amazed (Lamentations 2.15; Nahum 3.19) and whistle as a sign of contempt and ridicule (1 Kings 9:8; Jer 49.17; Zeph 2.15). You might be interested in: