Читать книгу The Book of Job - Leonard S. Kravitz - Страница 7

1:1 There was once a man from the land of Uz whose name was Job; that man was honest and upright, fearing God and keeping far from evil.

The author of this text is quite clear: Job was upright and honest. Not only was he a good man, but he also kept himself far from evil. Undaunted, Rashi claimed that Job’s virtue was forced. He comes to this conclusion by understanding the verb v’haya “(and) was” to mean “became.” So the remainder of the verse, suggests Rashi, implies that because Job was afraid of God (and not because Job loved God) Job kept himself far from evil. Ibn Ezra rejects Rashi’s explanation and supports the author’s claim of Job’s righteousness.

According to Gersonides, Job had been successful in acquiring possessions that were illusory, like those of money and children. They ultimately had no real value. While we might accept his position about the former, few parents would accept his opinion about the latter. Gersonides argued that Job’s children were well-behaved in terms of political behavior, blending desire and love as evinced by their continual eating together so as to intensify their feelings of community. Job would seek to consecrate them from one period to the next. Every seven days he would offer sacrifices with the assumption that somehow one of them might have sinned and condemned God because of the temptations offered by their wealth and their easy life.

1:2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him.

This is a straightforward verse. Job had seven sons and three daughters.

1:3 He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred female donkeys, and a great household as well. He was the most important person of all of the people of the east.

While this verse may be read as a way for the author to further introduce the reader to Job, its real purpose is to describe the extent of Job’s wealth and influence.

1:4 His sons took turns holding feasts in their homes and they invited their sisters to eat and drink with them.

In order to get a better sense of the duration of the feasts, or perhaps to define them in terms of time, the Targum suggests that each feast lasted seven days. Rashi too wants the reader to understand the nature of these feasts. He reports that each brother held a feast in his own home.

1:5 When the cycle of feasting was finished, Job would send for his sons and daughters and sanctify them. Arising early in the morning, he would offer burnt offerings for each one, thinking [to himself], “What if my children have sinned by cursing God in their thoughts?” [so] Job kept doing this.

It is clear that Job, like most parents, worried about his children and tried to protect them. He offered sacrifices as a prophylactic measure. The sacrifices served to sanctify Job’s children. Although the text says, “Job would send,” it does not indicate for whom he sent. Following Rashi’s suggestion, we have added “his sons and daughters” to our translation. Thus, we translated banai (literally, “my sons”) as “my children.”

1:6 One certain day the angels of God came to present themselves before Adonai and Satan came along with them.

This verse echoes an earlier time in which an anthropomorphic notion of God was more prevalent. Satan’s presence among them comes as no surprise to the reader to whom a power of evil was manifest in the world as a reasonable conclusion to the events he or she endured.

1:7 Adonai said to Satan, “Where are you coming from?” Satan thus answered Adonai, “From roaming around the earth and from walking up and down in it.”

In this verse, Satan is not very responsive to God. The Targum suggests that when he is “roaming around the earth” Satan is examining the deeds of humans. Similarly, Rashi argues that Satan is looking for those who are good and those who are evil. Satan is disappointed that he has not found anyone to match Abraham.

1:8 Adonai said to Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? No one is like him in all the earth. Perfect and upright, he fears God and keeps far from evil.”

God is familiar with Job. He is a good person and God knows it. Rashi thinks that the question is posed as God’s way of asking Satan whether Satan wants to accuse such a person of transgression and misdeeds.

1:9 Satan answered God, “Does Job revere God for nothing?”

While the sense of the verse is clear, it is difficult to translate into a contemporary American English idiom. The interrogative hay introduces “for free, for naught, for no reason, for nothing.”

1:10 “Haven’t you set up a [protective] hedge around him, around his family, and around everything that he has? You have blessed him so that his flocks have spread out throughout the land.”

This verse continues Satan’s statement from the previous verse. He is asking whether there is piety for its own sake, without reward—does Job not get something for his faith? We are caught up again with the Torah and rabbinic statements that promise reward and threaten punishment. On the other hand, the author of the book of Job places such statements in the mouth of Satan which suggest that there can be disinterested piety.

The Targum wants the reader to understand the power of Jewish observance, specifically following the words of Torah. It translates the verse as “Has not Your word screened him, protecting him, his family, and all that he has? You have blessed the work of his hands. His flocks increased throughout the land.” The verse seems to imply an actual hedge whereas the Targum translates it more as a metaphor or even a spiritual screen of some sort.

1:11 Just stretch out your hand and touch whatever he has and he will curse you right to your face.

This continues Satan’s dialogue with God. Satan is convinced that all God has to do is undermine Job and Job will immediately be transformed from a person of faith into one who curses the Almighty. Satan is attempting to demonstrate the superficiality of Job’s faith—that it is solely dependent on his well-being. As soon as his fortunes change, so will his faith, claims Satan. In an attempt to mitigate the message of Satan slightly and avoid any possible anthropomorphism, the Targum changes “You” (as in “. . . he will curse You”) to “Your word.” This means that Job would curse the word of God rather than the Divine self.

1:12 Adonai said to Satan, “All right, you have power over all he has, but don’t touch the man himself.” Satan then left the presence of Adonai.

Although the sense of the verse is clear, it is difficult to translate the words themselves into idiomatic English. God has given control over Job’s possessions to Satan as a way of proving that Job does not serve God only while he appears to derive benefits from his faith. While the text never tells us that he gained his wealth because of his faith, it can be presumed in a system of reward and punishment.

1:13 It happened on a day when the sons and daughters of Job were dining and drinking wine in the home of the oldest brother.

This verse introduces the action that will take place in the next verses. The Targum reminds us that this “day” is the beginning of the seven-day cycle of feasting that each of the sons of Job carried out. (See the Targum on Job 1:4 above.)

1:14 A messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the asses were grazing near them.”

The meaning of this verse is straightforward.

1:15 “The Sabeans made a raid, taking them [the animals] and killing the servants by the sword. I am the only one who got away to tell you!”

Given the context provided by the previous verse, we have translated the word “them” as “the animals.” Having taken the animals, the raiders had no need to kill the servants; yet they did. The report given by the sole survivor adds horror to what took place.

1:16 While this messenger was still speaking, another came and said, “A fire of God came down from heaven and totally burnt up the sheep and the shepherds and I am the only one that got away to tell you this!”

Another tragedy for Job to absorb. Unlike the previous assault, this one was due to some kind of natural (or divine) occurrence. It was not the result of human action. Gersonides explains, however, that this is an example of the negative effect of chance events.

1:17 Yet another messenger came while he was still speaking and said, “Arrayed in three groups, the Chaldeans spread out around the camels and snatched them away. With swords, they killed the guards. I am the only one that got away to tell you this!”

Still more tragedy. Two tragedies are a result of surrounding peoples—the Sabeans and the Chaldeans—and one is due to an unexplained natural event. No matter the details, the results are quite clear. A group of marauders came, killed the shepherds and stole the animals.

1:18 The last was still speaking when another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were dining and drinking wine in the oldest brother’s home.”

Although this verse follows the pattern of the messengers’ previous announcements, the author creates suspense by dividing the action into two verses. The use of the participle medaber (speaking) and ochlim v’shotim (were dining and drinking) present the reader with the immediacy of the situation.

Rashi contends that the messengers who brought Job the bad news were agents of Satan determined to provoke Job into sinning by presenting a graduated set of losses beginning with that which was comparatively negligible, the loss of cattle and their keepers, and ending with what is horrific, the apparent loss of Job’s children.

1:19 “All of a sudden, from deep in the wilderness, an enormous wind blew in, smashing the four corners of the house, collapsing it on the young people, killing all of them. I am the only one who got away to tell you this.”

While this seems like a simple reporting of events, there is no way to describe the deep pain implicit in this verse. All of Job’s children have been killed by an unexplained and unanticipated natural force. Most of the commentators wisely do not try to interpret this verse and simply allow it to stand in all of its ugliness. They do, however, try to understand the location of eyver ha-midbar, which we have translated as “from deep in the wilderness.”

1:20 Job got up, tore his garment, shaved his head, fell on the ground and prostrated himself.

Job’s pain could not be articulated in words. He knew not what to do. So he responded silently. But the reader can hear the pain screaming out from his silence.

Understandably, Job collapses on the ground. Yet, the Targum feels compelled to translate v’y’ishtachu (prostrated himself) as segeed (worshipped). It therefore suggests that Job’s reaction was to worship God—a highly improbable reaction. On the other hand, Rashi’s interpretation of vayagoz (shaved his head) is probably more accurate: “he tore out his hair.”

1:21 Job said, “Naked came I from my mother’s womb and naked will I return there. Adonai has given and Adonai has taken away. Praised be the name of Adonai!”

This is a well-known verse. The last phrase has entered into the liturgy for Jewish funerals. This stoic and faithful response seems not to be in accord with the reaction described in the previous verse. Perhaps some time transpired between Job’s actions in 1:20 and what he says in 1:21.

In his commentary, Gersonides reminds us that even with this terrible trial, Job maintained his integrity and his faith, directing us to the verse that follows. Job did not sin. Rather, he continued to praise God.

Anyone would have expected Job’s reaction to be one of outrage and anger. For the believer, however, one might have expected a response such as “There must be some divine purpose in all of this” or “We cannot know why God so acts.” For most of us, his reaction is not a Jewish reaction; we would not expect a Jewish person to resign oneself to whatever one receives in life. Rather, one expects him to cry out, to lash out. The reaction of Job is not one with which we are familiar nor to which we can relate, even among the faithful.

1:22 With all of this, Job did not sin nor did he say anything bad about God.

This is what we have learned about Job. He experiences the worst things imaginable and accepts it all. We assume that his faith was unshaken. For the book of Job’s logic to work, Job had to maintain his belief in God. Job does not express his discontent by rejecting God nor by behaving the way someone who does not acknowledge God might behave. Rather, he continues to lead a good life and presumably continues to praise God, maintaining the same life of faith as he had before his family was taken from him.

Satan

Unlike in popular culture (which is informed by Christian religion), in the Hebrew Bible, Satan is not used as a proper name nor is it a reference to a demonic antagonist to God (except for its usage in 1 Chronicles 21:1). Instead, Satan is an adversary—sometimes even human—who opposes and obstructs. We have chosen to use Satan as a proper noun nonetheless in this translation. The term is used in another form in the rabbinic imagination of the heavenly court of judgment referring to the prosecutor and the role of the antagonist in general. In Job, Satan is clearly subordinate to God and a member of the celestial court.

Satan is given a much more prominent role in the Talmud and midrash. He is even identified as the yetzer harah (evil inclination) and the Angel of Death (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 16a). He appears as the tempter, but his role is more clearly defined by the Rabbis as the accuser. References to Satan in the liturgy are sparse, although Satan is mentioned in the Hashkiveinu prayer of the evening service and the morning blessings that precede P’sukei D’zimra (verses of song).