When begins the history of monotheism? One could indicate facts testifying of the ancient monotheism, but this monotheism went out again in the prehistory time; and what then after? The spiritual desert of the paganism with the tiny island of the monotheism in Palestine, in Israel, in Judea? Of course not. The Unique was known in Egypt and in Babylon, in Greece and in India...
When begins the history of monotheism? One could indicate facts testifying of the ancient monotheism, but this monotheism went out again in the prehistory time; and what then after? The spiritual desert of the paganism with the tiny island of the monotheism in Palestine, in Israel, in Judea? Of course not. The Unique was known in Egypt and in Babylon, in Greece and in India. Only here is, the Unique, that knew the philosophers and the scientific priests, was silent. And His silence lasted millenniums, until He begun speaking with Abraham.
So began the history of the people of God. People, with whom God spoke, spoke through the chiefs, the prophets, the charismatic leaders. And here is - fifteen hundred years have passed again since Abraham (the Book of Job, according to the opinion common today among the biblical scholars, was written in V or IV s B.C.). And Job stands again before a silent God. The hero of the book lived in the heyday of Judaism, he is surrounded with people profoundly religious, as were, for example, the friends of Job: they have answers to all questions, answers sometimes not at all random, answers, for which can be seen deep theological tradition, and sometimes even personal spiritual experience. But religion is religion: no matter how much remarkable it may be, the religion remains all the same an affair of human’s hands and spirits.
That is why it cannot give an answer to this main question, which torments Job: what is the sense of the evil committed in the world? Indeed, religion does not go out of the frame of the not transformed world, and in the not transformed world there is no answer to the question about the sense of evil, at least because there is no sense in evil at all. The question should have been asked differently: what to do with the evil, in which, according to the word of the Gospel, lays the world? But this question is not for people, but for God, Who is silent.
Killing spiritually Job with His silence. God's silence destroys all the religion, all the theology, all the conception of the world of the hero. But that could not probably be otherwise: because sometimes one can hear God only in an absolute silence, in such a silence which is possible only in the desert. But the religious man is not alone even in the desert: he has with him his religion, of which it is necessary to get rid so that he could finally hear God, and not the tumult of his own religious soul. But man himself must want it. Meanwhile God is silent. And waits, when man will be ready to hear him. Waits, when he will stop screaming, will keep silent and will start listening.
30 Job's honour is turned into contempt, Job 30:1-14.
His prosperity, into fears, pains, and a sense of the wrath of God, Job 30:15-22.
He looks for nothing but death, Job 30:23.
And rest therein, Job 30:24.
Reflects on his former sympathy with the afflicted, Job 30:25.
And describes his own present calamities, Job 30:26-31.
30:1 Younger - Whom both universal custom, and the light of nature, taught to reverence their elders and betters. Whose fathers - Whose condition was so mean, that in the opinion, of the world, they were unworthy to be my shepherds the companions of my dogs which watch my flocks.
30:3 Solitary - Although want commonly drives persons to places of resort for relief, yet they were so conscious of their own guilt, that they shunned company, and for fear or shame fled into, and lived in desolate places.
30:4 Who cut - Bitter herbs, which shews their extreme necessity.Juniper - Possibly the word may signify some other plant, for the Hebrews themselves are at a loss for the signification of the names of plants.
30:7 Brayed - Like the wild asses, for hunger or thirst.Thorns - Under which they hide themselves, that they might not be discovered when they are sought out for justice.
30:10 Spit - Not literally, for they kept far from him, but figuratively, they use all manner of reproachful expressions, even to my face. Herein, also we see a type of Christ, who was thus made a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
30:11 He - God. Cord - Hath slackened the string of my bow, and so rendered my bow and arrows useless; he hath deprived me of my strength or defence. Let loose - They cast off all former restraints of humanity, or modesty, and do those things before mine eyes, which formerly they trembled lest they should come to my ears.
30:12 Right hand - This was the place of adversaries or accusers in courts of justice. The youth - Heb. young striplings, who formerly hid themselves from my presence, chap.Job 29:8.Push - Metaphorically, they endeavour to overwhelm me.Ways - Cause - ways, or banks: so it is a metaphor from soldiers, who cast up banks, against the city which they besiege.Destruction - To destroy me.
30:13 Mar - As I am in great misery, so they endeavour to stop all my ways out of it. Set forward - Increasing it by their invectives, and censures. Even they - Who are themselves in a forlorn and miserable condition.
30:14 Waste place - In the waste place; in that part of the bank which was broken down. They rolled - As the waters, come rolling in at the breach.
30:15 Terrors - If he endeavoured to shake them off, they turned furiously upon him: if he endeavoured to out run them, they pursued his soul, as swiftly and violently as the wind.
30:20 I stand - I pray importunately and continually.
30:21 Turned - As if thou hadst changed thy very nature, which is kind, and merciful, and gracious.
30:22 Thou - Thou exposest me, to all sorts of storms and calamities; so that I am like chaff or stubble lifted up to the wind, and violently tossed hither and thither in the air. Substance - By which, my body is almost consumed, and my heart is melted within me.
30:23 House appointed - The grave is a narrow, dark, cold house, but there we shall rest and be safe. It is our home, for it is our mother's lap, and in it we are gathered to our fathers. It is an house appointed for us, by him that has appointed the bounds of all our habitations. And it is appointed for all living. It is the common receptacle for rich and poor: we must all be brought thither, and that shortly.
30:24 To the grave - The hand of God's wrath will not follow me beyond death; I shall then be safe and easy: Tho' men cry in his destruction: tho' most men cry and are affrighted, while they are dying, while the body is sinking into destruction; yet I desire it, I have nothing to fear therein, since I know that my redeemer liveth.
30:25 Did not I - Have I now judgment without mercy, because I afforded no mercy to others in misery? No; my conscience acquits me from this inhumanity: I did mourn over others in their miseries.
30:26 Upon me - Yet trouble came upon myself, when I expected it not.
30:27 Affliction - Came upon me suddenly, and unexpectedly, when I promised myself peace and prosperity.
30:28 Without the sun - Heb. black, not by the sun. My very countenance became black, tho' not by the sun, but by the force of my disease.
30:29 A brother - By imitation of their cries: persons of like qualities are often called brethren. Dragon - Which howl and wail mournfully in the deserts.