job 29 and 30

Read Job 29 and 30 at Bible Gateway.

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.

Job 29:1-30:31 {s} Division at the end of each numbered line; with these {n} divisions within lines:
Job 29:25a I chose the way for them, and sat as chief; {n}
Job 30:1a But now they mock at me, men younger than I, {n}
Job 30:15a Terrors are turned upon me; {n}

I have been working on the outline for the whole book of Job, for I believe we are now in the 2nd half of the whole book chiastic structure. These are my notes so far (a little sneak peek into my process of finding the large chiastic structures of Scripture):

Job 1:1-5 {p} Job, the greatest man of the East
Job 1:6-22 {p} Job loses his possessions and children, but does not curse God
Job 2:1-10 {p} Job loses his health, but does not curse God
Job 2:11-3:1 {p} The coming of Job’s three friends

Job 3:2-26, Job’s lament

Job 4:1-26:14, Job’s three friends present their argument

 Job 4:1-5:27 Eliphaz’s first speech

Job 6:1-7:21, Job replies to Eliphaz

Job 8:1-22, Bildad’s first speech

Job 9:1-10:22, Job replies to Bildad (chiasm)

Job 11:1-20, Zophar’s first speech

Job 12:1-14:22, Job replies to Zophar (several chiasms)

Job 15:1-35, Eliphaz’s second speech

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 16:1-17:16, Job replies to Eliphaz

Job 18:1-21, Bildad’s second speech

Job 19:1-29, Job replies to Bildad (chiasm)

Job 20:1-29, Zophar’s second speech

Job 21:1-34, Job replies to Zophar

Job 22:1-30, Eliphaz’s third speech

Job 23:1-24:25, Job replies to Eliphaz (chiasm)

Job 25:1-6, Bildad’s third speech

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?”

 Job 26:1-14, Job replies to Bildad (chiasm)

 Job 27:1-23, Job continues his discourse

 Job 28:1-11 {p} Man has found gold and precious stones

This {p} division is at the turning point of the book

Job 28:12-28, Where can wisdom be found? With God, he has revealed it (chiasm)

 Job 29:1-31:40, Job continues his discourse: he replies to his friends’ argument

My assumption, as I go forward, since the three friends basically make the same argument over and over again, is that we might find the argument of the three friends counting as a single element, and also that the whole of it might form a single chiastic structure within the larger one of the whole book (with Job’s replies forming even smaller ones within that). And since we see a pattern developing that Job’s replies to his friends’ argument form chiastic structures, I would go back and search more closely for the ones I have not uncovered yet. Or save it for the next time I visit Job. *smile* I believe Job’s discourse following the turning point of the book will also form a chiastic structure, but we will see when we have tomorrow’s chapters to add to it.