job 24 and 25

Read Job 24 and 25 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 five {n} divisions in the speeches from Job 22:1-23:17.

Job 24:5a, Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, They go out to their work, searching diligently for food. {n}
Job 24:12a, From out of the city men groan, And the soul of the wounded cries out; {n}
Job 24:15a, The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, ‘No eye will see me’; {n}
Job 24:18a, He is swift on the face of the waters, Their portion is cursed in the earth, {n}
Job 24:20a, The womb forgets him, The worm feeds sweetly on him; he shall be remembered no more, {n}

Job 24 finishes Job’s reply to Eliphaz (reverse parallelism of Job’s speech). Job 25 is Bildad’s third speech to Job; and I cannot find the chiastic structure if there is one. It repeats an argument nearly word for word made by Eliphaz earlier:

Job 15:14-16 (Eliphaz)

“What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?
If God puts no trust in His saints, And the heavens are not pure in His sight,
How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!”

Job 25:4-6 (Bildad)

“How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?
If even the moon does not shine, And the stars are not pure in His sight,
How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?”

Perhaps we have crossed the central axis of the book, and are seeing a matching pair on either side … we will see.