Note the dramatic shift from the prologue’s description of Job as ‘hedged about’ (e.g., 1:10) to the ‘scrapheap’ Job’s feeling “hedged in” (3.21) – i.e., a shift from the image of being protected to the image of being trapped/cornered. How does the ‘scrapheap’ Job see ‘God’ blocking all the roads to meaning? Is the idea that ‘God’ blocks a person’s life from having meaning an idea endorsed within the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm?
Peterson’s “ . . . vomit my anguish” is more vivid than the RSV’s “my groanings are poured out like water” (3:24). The word is ‘roarings’ rather than ‘groanings’ (which implies greater pain). Peterson captures well the meaning/image. The ‘scrapheap’ Job’s roarings are like flowing water, perhaps like water flowing wildly down a wadi.
The ‘scrapheap’ Job ends his first comments to/before his three close friends with references to “the worst of my fears” and “what I’ve dreaded most” (3:25-26). These comments stand in sharp contrast to the prologue’s presentation of Job. The ‘scrapheap’ Job’s critique of conventional ‘wisdom’ has created his dread/fear (i.e., due to observing ‘life under the sun’ more radically/indiscriminately than has his three close friends). The ‘religious’ T/O paradigm did not create his dread/fear since such dread/fear would be considered evidence of faithlessness.
Word studies re ‘fear’ and ‘dread’ in the story/play are needed. Most of the references quickly or eventually lead to comments about fear/dread of ‘God’.
What might be the ‘scrapheap’ Job’s worst fear/s? Perhaps the loss of ease, quiet, and rest (3:26). If so, what would this say about Job? about the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm? about ‘God’? Another possibility might be his realizing, “I do not have life (and, therefore, ‘God’) figured out”, accentuated by his now being among those cast aside on the ‘scrapheap’ as cursed. The accumulating data anomalous to his ‘religious’ T/O paradigm are large in number/force and growing. His becoming a victim has enlarged the anomalous data pile to the point of overwhelming his ‘religious’ T/O paradigm.
For another angle, imagine Job and his three close friends having often discussed the subject of human suffering before his tragic circumstances occurred. Human suffering for the ‘scrapheap’ Job is now no longer abstract, no longer an idea, no longer a question. The ‘scrapheap’ Job can no longer distract himself or walk away from a discussion of the subject. He now embodies the subject. His admitting fear and dread (3:25-26) indicates he knows of others whose plights the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm cannot explain or protect. Is his fear and dread, then, that his life is a frightening anomaly to the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm? that -- being his own experience -- his plight has sufficient weight to discredit the understanding of ‘God’ in relation to human experience upon which he has based his life?
I suspect many individuals within the ‘religious’ sphere live with the ‘scrapheap’ Job’s fear and dread. They cling to explanations of life experiences offered within the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm, all the while being haunted by the sense that the paradigm has serious flaws. They are left with a fragile and self-deceiving approach to spirituality, ethics, theology. At one end of the spectrum are those deluded by accepted ‘religious’ T/O paradigm authorities. At the other end of the spectrum are those no longer deluded. Between these ends of the spectrum are those sufficiently aware of and uncomfortable with observable realities to (attempt to) delude or distract themselves.
Eliphaz (the first of the three close friends to respond) might hear the ‘scrapheap’ Job’s reference to his fear and dread as an admission of guilt. Do the three close friends think something not yet known to them must be going on? Do they see Job’s life before the calamities to have been too good to be true? Do they wonder if ‘God’ has been setting the arrogant Job up for an eventual and complete fall?
What is the place of fear and dread – very strong moods/assessments -- in the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm? By the point of admitting such, that which is feared and dreaded is already having deep effect. Think in terms of a continuum that moves from naiveté to wonder to awareness to nervousness to concern to fear and dread. The fear and dread the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm tolerates stem from guilt – i.e., waiting for the other ‘shoe to drop’. Is such fear and dread the ‘scrapheap’ Job’s fear and dread?
What is Eliphaz dreading (4:14)? the nearness of ‘God’? bad news for the ‘scrapheap’ Job?
One distinguishing trait of a ‘non-religious’ and ‘with the world face to face’ approach to spirituality is the absence of such fear and dread. There is no ‘God’ language in this approach to spirituality that leads to the fear and dread the ‘scrapheap’ Job is experiencing. Instead, an awareness or consciousness that does not press one to sift through human experience in order to stay safely at a distance from the depth/breadth of human suffering prompts awe and sober mindedness.
Is Peterson’s “death has invaded life” (3:26, RSV “but trouble comes”) an appropriate interpretation? Yes. The idea in antiquity was that death actively invaded life and dragged victims into the underworld. Illness and trouble were understood in antiquity to be results of death invading life.
