“Tu has ofuscado su pensamiento, por eso no dejaras que triunfen/You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore you will not let them triumph.” Job 17:4
The discourse in Job has devolved into talking past each other, which frankly sounds not so unlike political “conversation” in our world today. Job reiterates that God did this to him, and that no matter what they think it is not his fault. Job’s friends have resorted to, “Look, we don’t know what you did, but God punishes the wicked,” with the unspoken, “you’re being punished so you must be wicked.”
It is interesting to me that much of Job’s lamentation in this section is reserved for being abandoned by his friends. I can see that as a source of pain, but in comparison to your kids dying? Also, I feel like at Job 19:23-24 things get a little meta. Job cries out:
¡Ah, si fueran grabadas mis palabras,
si quedaran escritas en un libro!
24 ¡Si para siempre quedaran sobre la roca,
grabadas con cincel en una placa de plomo!
23 “Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,
24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
or engraved in rock forever!”
Feels like the bits in Don Quixote when Cervantes has his characters talking about their position in the story.
Interesting Note: The view of the afterlife revealed by Job seems at odds with modern Christian views. Job longs to die and just go to the realm of darkness. See, e.g., Job 19:13-16.