Michael V. Fox, «God's Answer and Job's Response», Vol. 94 (2013) 1-23
The current understanding of the Book of Job, put forth by M. Tsevat in 1966 and widely accepted, is that YHWH implicitly denies the existence of divine justice. Retribution is not part of reality, but only a delusion. The present article argues that the book teaches the need for fidelity in the face of divine injustice. The Theophany shows a God whose care for the world of nature hints at his care for humans. The reader, unlike Job, knows that Job's suffering is important to God, as establishing the possibility of true human loyalty.
7
GOD’S ANSWER AND JOB’S RESPONSE
rebirth of the nation and the healing of the people, literally and
metaphorically. The topos of water in the desert is always an expres-
sion of blessing and joy, not waste. It is wrong to isolate some items
in Job’s Theophany — in this case rain in the desert — and adduce
them as evidence of a universe indifferent to man.
V. Creatures Great and Small
The tour of the animal world displays God’s care for his creatures.
Job’s ignorance of the gazelle’s gestation period (39,1-3) has no sig-
nificance other than to remind him that God cares for the birthing of
creatures far beyond human reach. It hardly demonstrates an absence
of justice in the world that God cares for creatures that Job cannot
even approach. God hunts on behalf of the lion (38,39-40) and pre-
pares food for raven chicks (38,41) when they “cry out to God†—
an image of God as father of all. Of course, the lions, ravens, and ea-
gles (or vultures) (39,27-30) eat meat, for which other creatures must
die. “The strong prey on the weak and conduct themselves with cru-
elty†19. But this is not a vegetarian universe. God has arranged for
the care of all creatures but not the elimination of pain, danger, and
death. Providence protects the species, not the individual 20.
God has set the wild ass free (39,5). Tsevat takes this to mean that
this creature owes Job nothing and is beyond his ken and reach 21.
This is true, but did Job think otherwise — or care? What is signifi-
cant is that the wild ass does “owe†God, for he is its provider. That
God also provides for wild animals does not show indifference to
human needs. For Newsom, God’s care for the wild ass, as well as
the gazelle and mountain goats (39,1-4) is presented in terms of “an
inversion of the values of human culture†because the city is the
“locus of noise and oppression†22. But it is not the biblical notion
E.L. GREENSTEIN, “The Problem of Evil in the Book of Jobâ€, Mishneh
19
Todah. Studies in Deuteronomy and Its Cultural Environment in Honor of
Jeffrey H. Tigay (eds. N.S. FOX et al.) (Winona Lake, IN 2009) 355.
The belief in the providence of species in the animal kingdom is the
20
Aristotelian view embraced by Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, III, 17,
who rightly cites Pss 104,21; 145,16; and 147,9 in favor of it.
TSEVAT, “Meaningâ€, 88.
21
C.A. NEWSOM, The Book of Job. A Contest of Moral Imaginations (New
22
York 2003) 246.
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