It was another moment of transition for Job in his constantly dynamic thinking, only to be interrupted by
Bildad who failed even more miserably than before to make a meaningful contribution. Job pounced on
Bildad’s brief allusion to God’s peace-making presence in the heavens (25:2). After a sarcastic jab about how helpful Bildad’s counsel was, Job unleashed a vibrant description of what God actually does in those heavenly realms. Some of his discourse described the visible heavenly realms – the sky – but he ventured much farther. “The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them” (26:5). Sheol and Abbadon, the abode of the dead, were exposed and vulnerable in the blinding light of God’s presence (26:6). The sea, …show more content…
Nevertheless, scholars differ in their assessments. For an overview of possible reconstructions of the third cycle of speeches, see S.R. Driver and George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary of the Book of Job (vol. 1; ICC; New
York: Scribner’s Sons, 1921), xxxvii-xl; John E. Hartley, The Book of Job, 24-26, and H.H. Rowley, Job,
170-179. Because chapter 27 sounds like a recapitulation of orthodoxy, some suggest that it was originally spoken by Zophar but the designation was lost. It could also be that Job was so vexed by the friends that he pretty much co-opted both Bildad’s and Zophar’s speeches. Knowing what they would say, he sarcastically took their words and lobbed them in their face(s). From a literary perspective, perhaps the author deliberately dissolved the last cycle into a “confused tangle of incoherent voices – a formal way of paralleling the argument of Job that the hedge against chaos had given way and that disorder and evil in the world make clear understanding impossible” (J. Gerald Janzen, Job [IBC; Atlanta:
John Knox, 1985],
Bildad who failed even more miserably than before to make a meaningful contribution. Job pounced on
Bildad’s brief allusion to God’s peace-making presence in the heavens (25:2). After a sarcastic jab about how helpful Bildad’s counsel was, Job unleashed a vibrant description of what God actually does in those heavenly realms. Some of his discourse described the visible heavenly realms – the sky – but he ventured much farther. “The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them” (26:5). Sheol and Abbadon, the abode of the dead, were exposed and vulnerable in the blinding light of God’s presence (26:6). The sea, …show more content…
Nevertheless, scholars differ in their assessments. For an overview of possible reconstructions of the third cycle of speeches, see S.R. Driver and George Buchanan Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary of the Book of Job (vol. 1; ICC; New
York: Scribner’s Sons, 1921), xxxvii-xl; John E. Hartley, The Book of Job, 24-26, and H.H. Rowley, Job,
170-179. Because chapter 27 sounds like a recapitulation of orthodoxy, some suggest that it was originally spoken by Zophar but the designation was lost. It could also be that Job was so vexed by the friends that he pretty much co-opted both Bildad’s and Zophar’s speeches. Knowing what they would say, he sarcastically took their words and lobbed them in their face(s). From a literary perspective, perhaps the author deliberately dissolved the last cycle into a “confused tangle of incoherent voices – a formal way of paralleling the argument of Job that the hedge against chaos had given way and that disorder and evil in the world make clear understanding impossible” (J. Gerald Janzen, Job [IBC; Atlanta:
John Knox, 1985],