Job 27 · a question people ask
Much of 27:13-23 sounds like what the friends have said. Whose words are these?
By the book's headings, Job's. The heading is "Job again took up his parable, and said" (27:1); chapter 28 has no heading of its own, and the next heading is the same words again (29:1). Some of these verses are close to the friends' words. "This is the portion of a wicked man with God" (27:13) sits beside Zophar's "This is the portion of a wicked man from God" (20:29); in Hebrew the first four words of the two verses are the same. "Terrors overtake him like waters" (27:20) sits beside Bildad's "Terrors will make him afraid on every side" (18:11), where Terrors is the same Hebrew word. "It sweeps him out of his place" (27:21) sits beside Bildad's "If he is destroyed from his place" (8:18), where from his place is the same Hebrew word. Some are close to Job's own words. In chapter 21 he asked, "How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?" (21:18); here he says, "A storm steals him away in the night" (27:20), and in Hebrew the storm carries away and A storm steals him away are the same two words (tap storm). In chapter 21 he said of the wicked, "Their child is established with them in their sight" (21:8); here he says, "If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword" (27:14). Just before these verses Job says to the friends, "I will teach you about the hand of God" (27:11), and "Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?" (27:12). The book doesn't say how 27:13-23 fits beside chapter 21. Readers take these verses in more than one way. These notes keep to the book's headings, and don't decide.
The verses
“Job again took up his parable, and said,”
“Job again took up his parable, and said,”
““This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.”
“This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.””