2 MICHAEL V. FOX ity, there can be no injustice” 4. I will proceed largely by criticizing the case for this thesis as argued by Tsevat. Later refinements do not provide a fundamentally different or stronger argumentation. A variant of this thesis envisions a god who is not only indifferent to justice but is actively malicious. In response to Job’s complaints, this view claims, God merely intimidates Job and sneers at his igno- rance and weakness. God thereby exposes himself as, in D. Robertson’s words, a “charlatan god” 5 or, in the view of J.B. Curtis, “remote”, “un- feeling”, “unjust” 6. R. Polzin also sees YHWH as “insensitive” and “cruel” 7. “Instead of appearing before Job to comfort him, God brings Job to his knees, demands recognition of his power and removes Job’s sufferings only after he forces a cry of repentance from Job’s lips” 8. But this is not what happens. II. God’s Attitude Job had feared that God would “trample me in a storm and mul- tiply my wounds without warrant. He would not let me catch my breath, but would sate me with bitterness” (9,17-18). But God does not do this. He gives Job the hearing that Job longed for and de- manded, and twice pauses to let Job have his say (40,2; 42,4). He does not threaten to kill Job, though death is something that Job had (sometimes) longed for (see chapter 3). If a challenge to debate is “trampling” or if a series of rhetorical questions and a description of a well-maintained universe truly “multiplies” wounds, then Job is frailer than he appears in the Dialogue, in which he called on God to show himself to state his case (13,18-27; 14,15) and imag- TSEVAT, “Meaning”, 98. This seems something of a sophistry. In places where 4 anarchy reigns and no justice can be expected — Somalia today, for example — vast injustices are committed routinely. There are moral standards that apply to unjust rulers and no less to God. Is Job’s misery to be softened and his indignation mollified by learning that “Divine justice is not an element of reality” (100)? In- difference to justice is not a justification for allowing injustice. D.A. ROBERTSON, “The Book of Job: A Literary Study”, Soundings 56 5 (1973) 464. J.B. CURTIS, “On Job’s Response to Yahweh”, JBL 98 (1979) 510. 6 R. POLZIN, Biblical Structuralism: Method and Subjectivity in the Study 7 of Ancient Texts (Philadelphia, PA 1977) 106. Biblical Structuralism, 106. 8 © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati