Читать книгу The Book of Job - Leonard S. Kravitz - Страница 13

7:1 Do not humans have forced labor upon the earth? Are not the days of humans like those hired out?

Job contends that human existence is not free at all. Individuals are compelled—in one way or another—to act by things out of their control, like a person drafted by a king to do royal work who is not free to avoid the king’s command. Such a situation is minimally worse than the “prisoners of starvation” who labor for wages so that they can eat.

In order to maintain gender neutrality, we have translated the second half of this verse in the plural rather than the singular. The word tzvah can have a military meaning as “troops” or a civilian meaning as “forced labor.” In this context, it means the latter.

Rashi connects this verse to those that precede it. For him, Job is saying, “This is what I have been telling you. Listen to me. How can I keep quiet in the face of all that has happened to me? You know that there are set circumstances and times in which each person must live. Like a hired laborer who has a set period of work at a particular wage, so I have a set burden given to me.”

7:2 As slaves yearn for shade and as hired servants hope for their wage,

7:3 I have indeed inherited months of disaster and they have appointed for me nights of need.

We have again translated this in the plural. These verses are connected. As a result, they must be understood and interpreted together. Rashi offers an expanded meaning: “Like a slave who labors and gasps all day, yearning for the shadow of evening, and like a hired servant who yearns for the setting of the sun, for the servant expects to be paid a wage at evening having worked all day.”

The shade of evening provides both the slave and the worker with respite from the sun, but it also indicates that it is the end of the workday, as Ibn Ezra reminds us.

7:4 When I lie down, I ask, “When am I going to get up?” But the night stretches on and I am fed up tossing and turning until dawn.

This is an easy image to which most people can relate. Perhaps our burden has never been as great as Job’s. Nevertheless, things that trouble us have prevented us from sleeping and we simply wait for the sun to rise so that we can get out of bed. At night, alone, we are particularly vulnerable to our pain when there is little to mitigate it.

7:5 My body is clothed with worms and clods of dirt; my skin is puckered and disgusting.

Job looks as bad as he feels. What has happened to him has affected his body and his mind. In order to emphasize both his state of mind and his physical condition, the Targum translates the second clause as “my skin trembles and wastes away.”

Rashi wants his readers to fully understand Job’s condition so he describes it as a specific skin disease that affects those who live in caves and is caused by the soil found in them. (However, there is no indication by the author of Job or by Job’s own words that he ever lived in a cave.)

7:6 My days pass faster than a weaver’s shuttle and they end without hope.

This reminds the reader somewhat of the contemporary expression of folk wisdom, “The years are short and the days are long.” Job knows that his life is short. But he is also despondent, because he sees no potential for joy, happiness or optimism in them.

Rashi attempts to take the verse a little more positively. He understands the first phrase to mean “my fortunate days pass faster.” He points out that the speed of the weaving process has made the weaver and his tools metaphors for speed as in the phrase kepaditi c’oreg chayai, “I have rolled up my life like a weaver” (Isaiah 38:12). Rashi then takes the last clause to mean that Job no longer has any hope for good fortune.

7:7 Remember that my life is but a breath. My eye will never again see good.

At first read, the two parts of this verse appear to be two unrelated statements. The only thing that ties them together is that they are both related to Job’s short and painful life on earth. But perhaps since Job recognizes that his sojourn on earth is short and limited and hasn’t experienced good, at least after his tragedies, there is nothing more to which he can look forward.

While there doesn’t seem to be any reason to indicate this as a reference to life after death, especially since that is a rabbinic concept that was introduced after the Bible was written, Rashi nevertheless takes the last clause as proof that Job has denied the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead.

7:8 That eye that now sees me will never again see me. Your eyes are upon me and I am gone.

Although the first clause in this verse seems clear, the second phrase is not quite as clear. To whom do “your eyes” refer? If it is Job’s friends to which it refers, then the last clause is parallel to the first clause: when Job dies, he will disappear from the sight and the concerns of other people. If it is God, then one might assume that even after death, Job will be seen by God.

7:9 A cloud vanishes and is gone just as one who goes into the grave will never come up.

This verse seems to deny the possibility of life after death. However, had such a possibility existed in the mind of the author of the book of Job, the entire problem of suffering without guilt, the burden of the book, would have been mitigated. Precisely the problem of evil, perpetrated or allowed by a loving God, assumes a this-world orientation. Conversely, one may argue that the world-to-come as the solution for the problem of evil is required to maintain the notion of a loving and caring Deity.

7:10 One will never return to one’s house. One’s place will not know oneself again.

Just like the previous verse, this one proclaims that death is the end of life. There is no life beyond this life. We die and all of our familiar places are gone to us and we are gone to them. For religions that depend on a system that affirms the principles that if one is good, one will receive good and if that good is not manifest in this life it will come in the next life, the view of Job presented here is both a challenge and a threat. It challenges the view of a beneficent Deity and it threatens the entire structure of religious belief and action.

7:11 Therefore, I will not be silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Having nothing to lose, Job chooses to speak out at this time. Life has brought him pain. Only death can bring an end to his pain. To emphasize the place from which he is speaking, he emphasizes the depth of his pain by offering the last two clauses of this verse, which are parallel statements.

7:12 Am I the sea or a sea monster that you set a watch over me?

Job presents himself as a solitary and mortal individual rather than some kind of natural or supernatural threat. Hence, he asks why is he being treated as if he were either of the two.

7:13 Were I to say that my bed should comfort me and my couch should ease my lament?

It is clear that the understanding of this verse is dependent on the verse that follows. Both clauses in this verse parallel one another. Rashi helps us to understand the verse by suggesting that it means, “My bed at night helps me to endure my pain so that I am able to control my complaint.” In other words, if he is asleep, he is not aware of his pain and therefore does not express it.

7:14 But you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions.

This verse seems to undermine Rashi’s understanding of the previous verse. Job is telling his readers that even in the midst of sleep—which should separate him from the awareness of his pain—he suffers because of what he dreams. Job’s interpretation of those dreams makes him feel even worse. Job gets no relief, neither during the day nor at night.

7:15 I would rather be strangled and dead than have this body of mine.

This is an intentionally gruesome image. It is in his body that Job feels pain and suffers. He imagines that were he dead, he would not be experiencing pain any longer.

7:16 I loathe living. I would not live forever. Let me alone. My days are useless.

This verse certainly does not come as a surprise to the reader. Job hates the life he must now endure. If offered to him, he would reject the opportunity to live forever, something for which many people might yearn. He has one simple wish—to be left alone. The word hevel, literally “a breath, a vapor,” is the only word in the verse that presents the translator with a challenge. This is the word used throughout Ecclesiastes and may be considered the notion with which Ecclesiastes is most associated. Although often translated as “vanity,” as in Ecclesiastes (1:2), hevel havalim, ha-kol hevel, it really means “Useless, it is all useless. Everything is useless.” We borrow from that translation and translate the last clause of this verse as “My days are useless.”

7:17 What is a human that you think so much of a person? And that you pay attention to that person?

In order to achieve gender neutrality, we have translated “him” as “a person.” Through the author, Job makes a basic assumption that provides a foundation for this verse. Job suffers, because God wants him to suffer. It is because God knows Job. It is because God pays attention to him. Were God unaware of Job or were God not attentive to Job, then Job would not have suffered nor have arrived to his current state. Thus, Job’s suffering (and the problem of theodicy that accompanies it) is a function of God’s knowledge of the individual and God’s specific act of will related to that person. Were Job an inanimate object or an animal, perhaps he might have escaped God’s gaze. On the other hand, were the God of the book of Job not understood from a traditional perspective, then God might not have been involved with Job at all.

Rashi sees this verse as an affirmation of the human, as well as an affirmation of the relationship between humanity and God. Thus, he translates the verse as “You have magnified humanity by paying attention to the individual and by reviewing one’s deeds every morning and examining the individual every moment.”

7:18 You review the individual every morning and test people every moment.

In order to avoid gender specificity, we have translated the second clause in the plural. Clearly, Rashi’s comment on the previous verse was informed by this verse. God is aware of human actions at all times. Moreover, God puts humans into situations to see how they will respond, whether they will respond with appropriate moral intention. Humans are the only ones of divine creation who warrant God’s continual care and attention. But divine attention presents problems for such creatures. Humans are only human; thus, they sin. As a result, they incur guilt and deserve to be punished. Job now complains that God knows whatever it is that he, as a fallible mortal being, has done.

7:19 When will You stop looking at me? Can’t You leave me alone until I swallow my spit?

Job believes that God follows his every move and is attentive to him. Job expresses a desire that God pay attention to someone else and leave him alone. This second phrase is a bit peculiar. It is Job’s way of saying, “Leave me alone until I die on my own.”

7:20 O You who watch humanity, what have I done to You? Why did You set me up as an obstacle to you? Why have I become a burden to myself?

Job complains that any sin he has committed does not affect God. Nonetheless, religions that demand obedience from people to what are considered God’s commands take any sin as an affront to God.

7:21 Why don’t You pardon my transgression and forgive my iniquity? I shall soon lie down in the dust. So when You search for me, I won’t be there.

This verse seems to reflect somewhat of a change in Job’s argument. He finally admits that perhaps he has transgressed and therefore asks for God’s mercy. Moreover, since he assumes that he will die soon and that God will not attend to him when he is dead, God might as well start being inattentive now.

Perhaps the author intentionally chose to use the uncommon verb shachartani (search for me) from the root shin-chet-raysh because of its aural resonance with the noun shachar (morning), so that following the phrase “I shall soon lie down . . .” implies a sense of “searching for someone in the morning.”

The Doctrine of Resurrection of the Dead

The notion of resurrection is not found in the Bible, particularly not as a reward for righteous deeds. It is introduced by the early Rabbis who lived in the first to third centuries of the Common Era and undermines biblical theology and the authority of the priests as a result. Thus, it is not found directly in the book of Job. Such theology was insinuated into Job by commentators who reflect rabbinic theology. Because this theology is part of mainstream Judaism (although it was rejected by classical Reform thinkers), it is difficult to read texts such as Job without such inferences.

The doctrine (like most Jewish beliefs) is not systematically delineated in rabbinic literature but is referred to extensively. Basically, rabbinic theology suggests that body and soul will be reunited—with the body resurrected from the grave—at the onset of the messianic era, for judgment. Those who are judged as righteous will be rewarded with a place in the world-to-come, a primary feature of this theology.

This doctrine is also reflected in Jewish liturgy, particularly in the second blessing of the core prayer called the amidah (literally, standing prayer) which concludes with the blessing “mechayeh hameitim” (Who resurrects the dead). This doctrine also led to the notion of the resurrection of Jesus in Christian theology.

World-to-Come

The eschatological concept of a world-to-come (olam haba) developed during the period of the Second Temple. This concept was expanded upon in subsequent rabbinic literature. While the term olam originally was related to space, it later took on the dimension of time. Jewish tradition suggests that a major event such as the Day of Judgment would bring this world to an end and usher in the next world, that is, the world-to-come. Heaven or paradise are terms used interchangeably to define olam haba. However, some make a distinction between the temporary place where souls reside prior to final judgment and the “other world” where the departed souls of “good” people permanently reside.6

6. Kravitz and Olitzky, Kohelet, 20.