Exegesis on Job 42:1-17 In the passage of Job 42:1-6 there appears to be an interpretation of a divine speech to be supported by Jobs response.

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Exegesis on Job 42:1-17

In the passage of Job 42:1-6 there appears to be an interpretation of a divine speech to be supported by Job’s response. There also occurs to be a conclusion about Job’s debate with God as Job acts humbly in acknowledging his presumption about God. God, however, acts displeased by Job and his friends because of Job’s friends presumptions about God as they didn’t speak about God in the “right” way. When Job gets confronted by God, he surrenders, yet acts without sorrow. One may question the response that Job had towards God in verses 1-6 as he acted in a peculiar unexpected manner. In most reactions towards God there comes a reaction of fear; however Job seemed calm with his reactions towards God. Job doesn’t have a proper response to God in verse 4 he says that “I will question you, and you will declare me.” In the form criticism of the text the verses 1-6 are being presented as a form of prayer to the Lord. Job never says that he was wrong to question God’s justice. Job feigns submission and accepts that he will never get a straight answer from God. Source criticism is being used as the verses in three and four, Job quotes the Lord’s words which were also used previously in Job 38:2-3 and uses them to make his surrender appear to be in defence to God’s power. Job’s true attitude however is revealed in verse six “therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” In the NRSV translation of this verse reflects the traditional view that Job is confessing to his sin in challenging God’s justice. In most Bible translations and commentators there is a twist in verse 6 to make Job’s speech an acknowledgement of sin in challenging God. There is textual criticism being presented in comparison to the original Hebrew text, though, the Hebrew text allows for a variety of translations; most of which render Job’s words as anything but a confession. The verb “I despise myself” (Hebrew: ‘emas) is not a reflexive form. Its other occurrences are all rendered as a simple verb “I hate/ regret”. The second Hebrew verb, nikhamti, has been translated as “repent” but other uses of the verb argue for a meaning of “rue/regret”, usually the word is not associated with sin, but with a change of mind or with finding comfort. Thus, a more accurate rendering of the verse might read: “I reject and regret dust and ashes.” Or in alternative, clearer translations which have been suggested, such as: “Therefore I retract and change my mind, being but dust and ashes”, or “I yield, and am comforted, being but dust and ashes”. Job is therefore not sorry for confronting God. Instead he seems to be accepting that God will never give him what he wants: an apology. However, how could anyone expect an apology from a supreme power as divine as God?

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Job has had a life-transforming visitation with God (Job 42:5): the god whom Job worshipped, based on what he had heard of him, has now made himself known through a face-to-face encounter. Job had earlier expressed his belief that he would see God at the future resurrection (19:25-27); that expectation was brought forward in an unexpected way. One can thus imagine the scene as Job having presented his case for why he should not be suffering, God then responds to Job by asking, “What exactly is it that you think you know?” (38:1-41:34), and Job then expresses his satisfaction “with ...

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