(4) The Booh of Job. — The finest exhibition of the problem of the doctrine of retribution on all its sides and in all its depth is afl'orded by the poem of Job. We have here three [or four] speakers, who state their case from the standpoint of the traditional doctrine ; and also in the speeches of their opjionent. Job, a large space is devoted to a description of the doctrine he combats. The fiimla- mental dogma of the old doctrine of retribution
926
WISDOM
WISDOM
is that all sufloring is punishment inflicted by an angry God. God turns away otl'ended from man (Job IS^-" 19' iS"; SO-"'-); or turns the glance of His anger upon him (?"* 14** 16'), meets him as an enemy (19" 13-^), smites him with the stroke of His hand (13-' 30-'). The storms of trial appear like the attack of an adversary (10" 16"'- 19'-) or the threatened onslaught of wild beasts (10", cf. Ps 22'3'- ", Is 3S'3). Side by side with this we find the figures of the net (Job IG'^), the prison (7'^ 13-"), darkness (IG*"), the closed-up way (3^ 19*" e< al.). The sutt'erings are described at one time as out- ward (9^), and again as inward (30" pains of the entrails). Finally, they carry the man off (9"'- 2418-211) This hostile attitude on the part of God awakens in the mind of the sutterer the fear of further misfortunes (Job 9^ 10'^'- 30^'), and there- with a feeling of desjiair and hopelessness (3^'- 9"*- 23'^* ), so that he prays merely for a brief respite (719 10^0 i46,_ OT even for death (6"r- 7"). —The further result of this view of the causes of Butter- ing is that the sutterer torments himself continu- ally with the question why he has incurred this mysterious and, to him, inexplicable anger of God (lO-*- 13-="- 23-'"'), for it appears to him as if he were continually watched by God, who seeks for occasions to punish him for possible transgressions (7*"- 13-'''-). — To the sutterer it is peculiarly painful that his a.ssociates, friend and foe alike, take the same view of the cause of his woes. They regard him as one thus marked out by God. His enemies with malicious joy seize the opportunity to inveigh against him (lO""'- 30"f-) ; his slaves and domestics refuse him obedience (19"'-); wife and children and friends shrink from him (19'='»"- 12^); all regard him as a reprobate (17''). Whoever should doubt this would call the Divine justice in question, charge God with unrighteousness and untruth, and tiius commit the most heinous blas- phemy (8' 34''''-), and he would load himself with new and heavier guilt (IP 15'' 33'''- 345^-). The whole duty of the sutterer is, accordingly, by honest self-examination to discover his oH'ence. Such must be a priori assumed, for otherwise there would be no suttering, i.e. no punishment, to explain (8") ; and, as no one is perfect (4"'"' 15'^''* 25^"-°), some kind of guilt will not be difticult to discover. [It might be that the ott'ence was trilling : in that case it was God's aim to deter the man liom something worse, 33-'''™]. Hence the man who denies his guilt reveals a hardened dis- position, which will not confess what is certainly there all the same, and which justifies, according to the notions of the time, the heaping of all con- ceivable evil charges upon his head (ch. 22). — To this doctrine Job objects : in the first place, that at all events the sutterer has a right to complain ; in G^"' that it is harsh when, instead of ottering to the sutterer comfort in his attiiction, people up- braid him with the sins they impose upon him (v.""), repeat with all kinds of variations the familiar theory of the Divine punitive justice and ap]>ly this to the unfortunate being before them (12--' 13- le-""- 19-'). Again, it is an easy matter on the ground of pure tlieory to heap all kinds of charges uiiou a sullerer's head, charges to which the latter can oppose the partlj notorious facts of his blameless life (ch. 31). No doubt, the omni- potence of God makes rebellion on man's part against the strokes of His hand useless, but this does not prove that these sutt'erings are just (9^- ®''- Hjis-17 i.2i\a. 131H-J1 lyeff.). Although it is not to be denied that there are terrible instances of Divine judgment upon WTong-doers (19^ 13"'- "), on the other hand experience shows that good and bad alike are the victims of God's stroke (9=^'- \2'^<'-), and that it goes well with the one and ill with the other, without any merit on the ji.irt of the one
or blame on the part of the other (21^- "). It often happens even that wicked men enjoy un- disturbed prosperitj' down to their death (12'''2l'""- so-33 24"''). — On the other hand, no power in tho world, and no alleijed doctrine of Divine Pro- vidence, however hallowed by time, can tear from the soul of an innocent sutterer the consciousness of his innocence, and compel him, in opposition to the acquitting voice of conscience, to confess him- self guilty (10' 13'" 16" 23'^'- 27"- 31). Such a man is entitled to appeal to the better judgment of God Himself, which does not agree with tlie verdict which men tliink to discover in the strokes of mis- fortune that have fallen upon the sutterer (10' 12* 137-11. aa. mi3.2i 173 lu-Dif.). The very assertion that there is not a single righteous man shows how utterlj' untenable is the old doctrine of retribu- tion, for in that case it is quite incomprehensible whj- it often happens that it is just those who are relatively least stained with guilt that are most severely punished, whereas gross offenders go tree (812. 201. 13^^. 144. 17) xhe negative result of these observations is briefly this : What hitherto it has been the custom to call the exercise of Divine justice in the fortunes of men is nothing more than the exercise of Divine omnipotence, whose resolutions are without any moral quality. These take their place, undistinguished, amongst natural occurrences, be these beneficial or destructive, and affect all men alike. In like manner, individuals are prosperous or the reverse in the att'aiis of their natural life, without regard to whether they are good or bad. The gifts of prosperity and the blows of adversity, in so far as by these are under- stood material well - being or suttering, do not depend at all on the moral character of the man, and have no relation at all to the moral nature (the righteousness) of God. Such is the result of an unprejudiced examination of things. The old doctrine of Divine retribution is completely shat- tered against it. Cf. Goethe's Faust, i. —