job 22 and 23

Read Job 22 and 23 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions

For the series of speeches from Job 3:2-28:10, the Hebrew paragraph divisions for each man’s speech are like the divisions in the Psalms that we studied in 2014. There is an understood {s} division at the end of each numbered line, with an {n} marking where a new line begins within a numbered line. There are no {n} division in the speeches from Job 22:1-23:17.

Eliphaz’s speech in Job 22 does not form a chiastic structure that I can see. However, we do begin to see references to the true early history of the earth:

Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod, who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood? Job 22:15-16

Ah, this is why the insistence that the wicked will come to ruin is so persistent with the friends. They are recalling the time not so far distant from themselves, when it did happen just that way. Jesus said they were eating, drinking, and giving in marriage until the day the Flood came and took them all away, having no clue that anything was coming upon them (Mat 24:37-39). What they may not realize, that Job realized, was that the day of the Flood was the day of the Lord’s wrath. This day does not come in every generation, but once by flood, for the world that perished, and once by fire, for our world on a day yet to come. Two days, and two judgments, because by the history of the Flood, God is prophesying to the world of what will come, so that no one is without excuse. This is why educated fools in white coats make a mock of the day of the Flood: it is a mighty worldwide witness of the truth that speaks to every culture and society in every time.

And don’t believe them when they tell you that from the deep recesses of the past, until about 250 years ago when the light of reason dawned upon mankind, the childish adherents to religion and myth believed the earth was flat. From ancient days man has always known the earth was a sphere, but during the late Middle Ages only, when Bibles were scarce and not available to men, did such a belief exist among the ignorant:

And you say, ‘What does God know? Can He judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, and He walks above the circle of heaven.’ Job 22:13-14

Job 23:1-17 reverse parallelism, Job’s reply to Eliphaz:

1a) Job 23:1-9, Job’s challenge to God, to hear his case;

1b) Job 23:10-12, Job’s confidence in his innocence;

1c) Job 23:13-24:1, Job’s question: Why does God not maintain the security of the upright;

1d) Job 24:2-8, Those who prosper wrongly from the needy, forcing them to be destitute;

2d) Job 24:9-12a, Those who oppress widows and orphans, forcing them to hard labor while in want;

2c) Job 24:12b, Job’s question: Why does God not charge the wicked with wrong;

2b) Job 24:13-24, Job’s confidence in the outcome of the wicked;

2a) Job 24:25, Job’s challenge to his friends, to prove him wrong.