SUMMARY
This passage at the beginning of God’s second speech is the only place in the whirlwind speeches where questions of justice are raised.
ANALYSIS
Throughout the dialogue between Job and his three companions, questions of justice and integrity were raised. Job defended his integrity and accused God of injustice. The friends accused Job of sin and defended God’s justice.
Here, for the first and only time in the whirlwind speeches, God raises questions about justice, but in doing so, God turns the tables on Job. “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?” (40:8). God goes on to challenge Job to bring down the proud and the wicked. “Then I will also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can give you victory” (40:14).
Commentators are divided on what this passage means. Some argue that God is admitting divine weakness, that God cannot abase the proud and the wicked. This seems unlikely, given that the rest of the whirlwind speeches assert God’s power over all of creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and... More, including the primeval sea dragon, LeviathanLeviathan is a biblical sea monster. Often mistakenly identified as a whale, this creature is perceived as larger and meaner than a whale. Leviathan is mentioned in Job, Psalms, and Isaiah as an example of enormity, who is eclipsed only by the enormity and power... More. Why should the wicked be outside of God’s power?
The primary thrust of the passage seems to be to challenge Job to do what he previously accused God of neglecting. In his previous speeches, Job has again and again maligned God’s justice and God’s ordering of the world.
“It is all one; therefore I say,
he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the eyes of its judges—
if it is not he, who then is it?” (9:22-24)
God responds to Job’s accusations by showing Job that the world is actually an ordered place, and that Job should not malign that order so that he might justify himself. That order, and perhaps the nature of divine justice, are beyond Job’s understanding. He should not condemn that which he does not understand. Job himself acknowledges as much in his second and final response (42:1-6).
