"We All Born from One Womb?"
Job 31:16
Job, representing himself in the trial against God that he himself imagines, invites and activates, takes an oath to swear his innocence and honesty, and then delivers his final plea.
And this time, he will succeed in compelling the creator to respond. How did he do it?
Perhaps by comparing himself to God in a way that was too compelling to ignore.
Earlier, in chapter 29, Job reflected nostalgically on the best seasons of his life, all gone.
In chapter 30, he lamented his sudden fall from grace and the season of suffering. In chapter 31 we hear his final claims - the last dialogue between him and his friends, and a twist in his approach towards God. His call for the scales of justice to be used fairly against him is preceded by a list of fourteen moral and ethical virtues by which he had lived his entire life - and they are detailed and very specific:
Suppressing his lust; avoiding adultery; strict business ethics; scrupulous business ethics and avoiding theft; just treatment of servants; kindness towards the poor; care for the homeless; fight for the rights of the underprivileged; moderation and modesty; avoidance of bribes; refusal to celebrate his enemies’ fall; hospitality to strangers, admitting his shortcomings; keeping to the law.
One of these fourteen stands out especially as perhaps the argument that will most compel God to finally respond to Job. When he discusses how fair he had been with his workers and slaves he seems to indicate that he too, as God’s created servant, deserves the same basic dignity and fairness. And as he lays those claims, he also reminds the readers that human dignity and equality is our basic birthright and human right:
אִם־אֶמְאַס מִשְׁפַּט עַבְדִּי וַאֲמָתִי בְּרִבָם עִמָּדִי׃ וּמָה אֶעֱשֶׂה כִּי־יָקוּם אֵל וְכִי־יִפְקֹד מָה אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ׃ הֲלֹא־בַבֶּטֶן עֹשֵׂנִי עָשָׂהוּ וַיְכֻנֶנּוּ בָּרֶחֶם אֶחָד׃ אִם־אֶמְנַע מֵחֵפֶץ דַּלִּים וְעֵינֵי אַלְמָנָה אֲכַלֶּה׃
Did I despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;
what then shall I do when God rises up? and when God remembers, what shall I answer God?
Did not the God who created me in the belly also created my servant? And did not the same one fashion us in the womb?
Have I withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail?
Job 31:13-16
Job’s bold claim is that “all people are created equal” - from birth, regardless of differences.
Job’s case for equality is based on the fact that we all come from the great womb and all created in the same divine image is not new - or modern - but always and ever much more so now - powerful. These days - it’s so vital to remember that this is not just liberal, democratic or progressive speak but the core of the religious lore and ethical human culture, a pillar of Western civilization, deeply rooted in this biblical claim.
Job points out that his own experience as an employer was based in basic dignity and respect. And he therefore expects the same. He also manages to somehow convey a sense of sensible lifestyle that combines care for the needy with sufficient caretaking of his own needs and those of his household.
J.J. Kimche points out that
“In this chapter, as in many others, Job passionately and assiduously defends his own innocence, detailing all the ways in which he has adhered to accepted conventions of righteousness and justice. In this particular self-portrait, it is Job’s conception of virtue that arrests our attention. Many thinkers across the history of religion, especially those who tended towards the more ascetic lifestyle, proclaimed that true virtue demands a thorough disengagement from the everyday problems and pitfalls that afflict human society. Only through cloistering oneself in a monastery or ashram may one be able to scale the heights of ethical and spiritual accomplishment. Not so Job. Following the model of the biblical Joseph, he proclaims himself to be righteous precisely because he has faced – and resisted the seductions of – the ethical perils and entanglements that accompany wealth, power, and carnal activity. Indeed, Job dressed in fine clothes, yet ensured that the impoverished were ‘warmed by the shearings of his sheep’. Indeed, Job ate hearty meals, yet always shared his burgeoning table with the hungry. Indeed, Job led a virile sexual existence, but scrupulously avoided abusing his power to foist himself upon his fellow’s wives. Job is righteous precisely because he succeeded in negotiating the moral exigencies of a full earthly existence.“
And when Job is done with his list of virtues, he delivers a final closing - claiming that if he had done any of the wrongs that he just listed, instead of the righteousness he believes guides his way —
תַּחַת חִטָּה יֵצֵא חוֹחַ וְתַחַת־שְׂעֹרָה בׇאְשָׁה תַּמּוּ דִּבְרֵי אִיּוֹב׃
May nettles grow there instead of wheat;
Instead of barley, thorns!
The words of Job have ended.
Job 31:40
He ends with the poetic.
Job's journey reflects the universal struggle to find meaning mid inexplicable suffering. Perhaps the dramatic and visual conclusion of his speeches signifies the pivotal moment where words no longer matter and there’s in fact nothing else to say. Job lays the claim clearly and is silent, perhaps he has found the magic words to compel God to respond, using the Torah’s logic and law as a summons.
God will respond. But before that happens, a surprising fourth visitor, unannounced, takes the stand, and uses the silence of Job and his three friends to take over the following chapters.
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