Job 9


Job 9 is the ninth chapter of the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is anonymous; most scholars believe it was written around 6th century BCE. This chapter records the speech of Job, which belongs to the Dialogue section of the book, comprising Job 3:1–31:40.

Text

The original text is written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 35 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q100 with extant verse 27.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC; some extant ancient manuscripts of this version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus.

Analysis

The structure of the book is as follows:
  • The Prologue
  • The Dialogue
  • The Verdicts
  • The Epilogue
Within the structure, chapter 9 is grouped into the Dialogue section with the following outline:
  • Job's Self-Curse and Self-Lament
  • Round One
  • *Eliphaz
  • *Job
  • *Bildad
  • *Job
  • **Being Righteous before God
  • **God's Power and Force
  • **The Difficulties of Litigation against God
  • **How Does God Rule the World?
  • **Exploring Other Options
  • **Transition to a Lament
  • **Three Sharp Questions
  • **Remember How You Made Me
  • **Now You Have Destroyed Me
  • **Closing Words of Despair
  • *Zophar
  • *Job
  • Round Two
  • Round Three
  • Interlude – A Poem on Wisdom
  • Job's Summing Up
The Dialogue section is composed in the format of poetry with distinctive syntax and grammar.
At this point of the book, the issues of righteousness and justice have been raised by Eliphaz and Bildad, and Job responded in his first speech and now in second speeche. Eliphaz asked whether humans are righteous before God, but Job points out that it is his righteousness that is at stake. Bildad asked whether God perverts justice or righteousness, so in this chapter Job asks how a person can be righteous before God, which refers back to Eliphaz's question in Job 4:17, but here in the sense of how one can "be in the right" before God, rather than "be declared to be right" by God.

Job contemplates a litigation against God (9:1–24)

As he questions his own righteousness, Job contemplates a litigation with God, which does not mean to usurp God's authority but rather to establish the truth of Job's righteousness before God, but Job acknowledges the daunting prospect of this litigation in light of God's great power. Subsequently, Job lays out his case, in a section containing some legal terms, along with a complaint that being legally right may not be enough to achieve a legal victory against God. In all of his accusations he shares with his peers, Job places high regard to God as the "mighty" Creator, as he tries to clarify to himself how God rules the universe.
The attachment to doctrine of retribution makes is difficult for Job to comprehend God's action, especially 'why the blameless and the wicked are not treated differently', while he continues to hold that God is 'in sovereign control of the world'.

Verse 9

The translation of Bear, Orion, Pleiades from follows the familiar names of constellations derived from Greek tradition to substitute the Hebrew terms.
In this section, Job explores options regarding his contemplated litigation against God:
  1. The first option is to forget about his complaint, which may lead to condemnation, not vindication.
  2. The second option is to clean himself up, but Job worries that 'God will throw him back into the muck'
  3. The third option is to call for a mediator, arbiter or umpire, which is the option Job really focuses on. It is unclear what kind of third party Job expects, whether it is an actual or a hypothetical figure. Job pursues the possibility of an arbiter again in Job 16:18–22 and 19:23–27.

    Verses 30–31

  • "With snow": translated from the written Hebrew בְמוֹ,vmo, " snow", whereas it is read as במי־שלג,vme sheleg, "with water of snow", as supported by the Syriac versions and Targum; here apparently symbolizes "purification", also rendered as “soap”.
  • "Lye": from Hebrew בֹּר, bor, which has the same meaning as בֹּרִית, borit, the alkali or soda made from the ashes of certain plants used as an ingredient to wash or to make pure or clean.
  • "Pit": rendered based on the pointing in the Masoretic Text. A change in the pointing of the Hebrew word to שֻׁחוֹת, shukhot, obtains the equivalent of שֻׂחוֹת, sukhot or סֻחוֹת, sukhot, which means "filth". M. H. Pope argues that the word "pit" in the Masoretic Text includes the idea of "filth", so an emendation is unnecessary.