Глава 36

Elihu's fourth speech. 1–33. God strikes a person with suffering in order to protect him from sin and encourage him to repentance. Job 36:1. And Elihu continued and said: Job 36:2. wait for me a little, and I will show you that I have more to say for God. Job’s silence gives Eli a reason to turn to him with a request to extend it, since he has something else to say in defense of God, better than what he had previously said. Job 36:3. I will begin my reasoning from afar and render justice to my Creator, Job 36:4. because my words are definitely not a lie: before you is perfect in knowledge. Elihu's new reasonings are borrowed from a distant region - from the actions of the Creator in the history of mankind and nature ("from afar" in Hebrew "lemerachok", cf. Job 39.29; Isaiah 37.26) and, distinguished by unconditional justice, are entirely consistent with their purpose to justify God. Job 36:5. Behold, God is powerful and does not despise the strong in heart; Literally translated from the Hebrew, this verse should read: “God is powerful and despises no one. He is powerful through the power of his heart.” Taking into account Job’s statement that divine omnipotence turns into arbitrariness, violating the demands of truth (Job 9.4–12), Elihu claims that with all his omnipotence, God does not trample on anyone’s rights - “he despises no one.” The reason and explanation for this is that His power is purely spiritual: “He is powerful by the power of the heart,” that is, the mind. Because of this, he has the ability to distinguish truth from injustice and establish wise order everywhere (cf. Job 12.13). Job 36:6–15. Examples of impartial justice from the history of mankind. Job 36:6. He does not support the wicked and gives honor to the oppressed; Job 36:7. He does not turn His eyes away from the righteous, but He places them on the throne forever with kings, and they are exalted. Possessing the fullness of spiritual powers, God maintains spiritual perfection among people: he does not allow the triumph of evil (v. 6; cf. Job 34.19) and protects good - “he does not turn away the eyes” (“he places the righteous on the throne” cf. 1 Samuel 2.8; Ps 112.7–8, 131.12). Job 36:8. But if they are bound in chains and kept in bonds of distress, Job 36:9. then He points out to them their deeds and their iniquities, because they have multiplied, Job 36:10. and opens their ear for admonition and tells them to leave behind wickedness. Divine Justice is not violated by the suffering of the righteous, whether these are chains in the literal sense - the transformation of former kings into prisoners, or all kinds of disasters (“chains of disasters” - cf. Job 13.27; Is 28.22, Ps 106.10, etc.). They are caused by the fall of the righteous into sin, despite divine warnings (“because they increased”, literally: “because they acted proudly” cf. Ezekiel 33.13, 18), and are directed towards correction - enlightenment of reason and conscience (“opens ... the ear”, cf. Job 33.16) and strengthening of the will (“left behind wickedness”, Heb. "ram" insignificance, sin of weakness; cf. Job 13.10; Job 36:11. If they listen and serve Him, they will spend their days in prosperity and their years in joy; Job 36:12. if they do not listen, they will perish from an arrow and die in foolishness. The result of suffering is twofold: repentance returns the person who has fallen into sin to his former well-being (cf. Is 1.19; Eze 33.14-16), and with unrepentance, disasters lead a person to death (Eze 33.13; Is 1.20), he dies “in folly” - sinfulness (according to the book of Proverbs, stupidity is a synonym for wickedness, sinfulness). Job 36:13. But hypocrites harbor anger in their hearts and do not cry out to Him when He puts them in bonds; Job 36:14. therefore their soul dies in youth and their life is with fornicators. While misfortunes can arouse repentance in a righteous person who has sinned, they lead the wicked (synodal “hypocrites”) into a state of bitterness and irritation (cf. Job 5.2), in which there can be no prayerful appeal to God. As punishment for this, they die in their youth (cf. Job 5.26) and spend the same shameful life as the “kedeshim” (“effeminati” Vulg.) - official fornicators who devoted themselves to vile service in honor of the pagan gods (Deut. 23.18; 1 Kings 14.24, 15.12, 22.46). Job 36:15. He saves the poor from his misfortune and opens his ear in oppression. Job 36:16. And He would lead you out of straits into open space, where there is no straits, and what is set on your table would be filled with fat; Application of what has been said to Job. Saving the suffering righteous man, the Lord would have acted in the same way with the repentant Job: he would have delivered him from troubles (“he would have brought him out of straits into open space,” cf. Ps 4.2, 17.20, 117.5, 118.45) and would have returned his former happiness and wealth: “what was put on your table would be filled with fat” (cf. Ps 21.27, 22.5 ; Proverbs 9.2). Job 36:17. but you are filled with the judgments of the wicked: judgment and condemnation are close. Job 36:18. May the wrath of God not strike you with punishment! A large ransom will not save you. Doubt about the feasibility of what was just said. In view of Job’s sinful mood (“filled with the judgments of the wicked,” cf. Job 34.7), manifested in wicked speeches that attract divine wrath (“judgment and condemnation are near”), Elihu doubts the fulfillment of his promises and therefore warns Job against excessive irritability, which could lead to offending God, “Let not anger lead you to offend” (literal translation of the first half of v. 18; cf. v. 13; Job 34.37), and advises to patiently endure the sufferings with which he can redeem himself (“let not the greatness of the ransom turn you away from repentance” - second half of v. 18). Job 36:19. Will He give what value to your wealth? No, not gold and no treasure. The unsatisfactoriness of the synodal reading is proved by the mention of the riches that Job is ready to offer as a ransom. All his property was lost, therefore, there can be no question of him existing. The correct reading of this verse is the following: “Will your cries bring you out of misfortune, as well as all the efforts of your power?” The motivation to follow Elihu’s advice (v. 18) is the futility of Job’s cries (cf. Job 19.7) as well as resort to force (cf. Job 9:19) in getting rid of misfortune. Job can only be saved by the path of repentance and humility before God that is indicated by his friend. Job 36:20. Do not desire the night when nations are destroyed in their place. Among such cries is the repeated passionate (“do not covet”, literally “do not sigh”; cf. Job 7.2) demand for “night”, i.e., divine judgment (Job 34.20, 25, 35.10; cf. Job 13.18 etc.; Job 16.21, 23.3 etc.). In the case of Job’s justification, it is useless, since this “night”, the judgment, ends with the death of entire nations (“destroyed”, literally - “carried away like dust”, cf. Ps 1.4; Is 5.26); Will individuals survive at this time? Job 36:21. Beware, do not give in to wickedness, which you preferred to suffering. Contrasting “wickedness” with “suffering,” Elihu obviously means by the first grumbling against God, impatient enduring of disasters. In view of the uselessness, even obvious harm, of such a mood, he once again advises Job to stop it, to humble himself before the just God. Job 36:22–33. Phenomena of visible nature are the revelation of divine omnipotence and wisdom as proof of Divine Justice. The introduction to this new series of thoughts is Art. 22–25, of which the first begins as the beginning of a new section with the expression “behold” (cf. v. 5). Job 36:22. God is exalted in His power, and who is a mentor like Him? God is omnipotent, the supreme ruler, and therefore He cannot be blamed for any of his actions (cf. Job 34.17–18). The Hebrew “sea”, conveyed in the synodal text, is equally in the Targum, Peshito and among the newest Hebraists - Delich and others, with the expression “mentor”, it seems, according to the meaning of the verse itself, should be translated by the word “ruler”, “δυνάοτης” - LXX. Job 36:23. Who will show Him His way; who can say: You are doing injustice? As the supreme ruler, God does not need outside guidance (“who will indicate”, more precisely, “who has prescribed His ways”? cf. Job 34.13, 33), and His actions, determined exclusively by personal all-perfect consciousness and will, are not subject to accusations of injustice. Job 36:24. Remember to extol His works that people see. Job 36:25. All people can see them; a person can see them from afar. All-perfect in character, they should evoke from Job not censure or condemnation (cf. Job 12.15), but praise. He is obliged to join his song of praise to the same songs (Ps 103.33) of other people (“deeds that are sung by other people”, instead of the incorrect synodal: “deeds that people see”), seeing the works of God “from afar”, looking at them with reverence. Job 36:26. Behold, God is great, and we cannot know Him; the number of His years is unsearchable. A feeling of this kind is caused primarily by the unsearchability of God’s being, and hence of divine deeds, which in turn is explained by His eternity. Eternal, it cannot be comprehended by the limited mind of man. Job 36:27. He collects drops of water; they rain in abundance: Indicators of the greatness of God - wisdom and omnipotence - are the atmospheric phenomenon of rain. God “gathers”, literally “draws” (Heb. “yegara”; cf. Job 15.8) “drops of water.” By the power of His omnipotence and wisdom, the vapors rushing over the earth’s surface rise upward, turn here into drops and fall to the ground in the form of rain “with His vapor” (Hebrew “leedo”, cf. Gen. 2.6; synodal “in abundance”), i.e. at a time when the air space is filled with the vapor created by God. Not all evaporation turns into rain, but only part of it; it is given by clouds that pour out water for the benefit of people. Job 36:29. Who can also comprehend the stretch of the clouds, the crackling of His tent? The greatness of God is further reflected in the way in which clouds spread (cf. Ps 103.2, 104.29; Eze 27.7) in the atmospheric regions, and in the thunder that occurs among the same clouds (“tent”, cf. Ps 17.12). Job 36:30. Behold, He spreads His light over it and covers the bottom of the sea. By making Himself known through this latter, God also controls lightning, which during a thunderstorm cuts through the clouds and illuminates the ocean to its very “roots,” to its very depths. Job 36:31. From there He judges the nations and gives food in abundance. From his dwelling, God appears both in the role of judge and in the position of benefactor, gives rain, maintains vegetation and thereby supplies food. Job 36:32. He hides the lightning in His hands and commands whom it will strike. Job 36:33. Its crackling makes one know about it; the cattle also sense what is happening. He carries out His judgment through the lightning that obeys Him, directing it against His enemies (cf. Ps 10.6, 17.14, etc.; Wis. 19.12), and even foolish animals are aware of the terrible power of the judgment - a hint of their anxiety before the onset of a thunderstorm. You might be interested in: