thedirtysailor.com

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+18&version=NIV

¹⁷ The memory of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name in the land.
¹⁸ He is driven from light into the realm of darkness
and is banished from the world.
¹⁹ He has no offspring or descendants among his people,
no survivor where once he lived.
²⁰ People of the west are appalled at his fate;
those of the east are seized with horror.
²¹ Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man;
such is the place of one who does not know God.”

Bildad is still convinced that Job is a bad man because bad things have happened to him. That would be a post hoc, ergo proctor hoc, right?

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+17&version=NIV

¹³ If the only home I hope for is the grave,
if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope—
who can see any hope for me?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the gates of death?
Will we descend together into the dust?”

This is the result of the fatalistic worldview that Job has. That’s the only outcome that is possible. There is no hope for one cursed by God.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+16&version=NIV

⁷ Surely, God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.
⁸ You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
⁹ God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
¹⁰ People open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.
¹¹ God has turned me over to the ungodly
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
¹² All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;
¹³ his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.

Job is angry with God because he assumes that everything that happens has been done by God. Notice how he is personalizing this – “God assails me”. What we see in the introduction is that God allows Satan to do the evil deeds, but does not do them Himself. What Job is missing here is the other side of the story.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+15&version=NIV

⁴ But you even undermine piety
and hinder devotion to God.
⁵ Your sin prompts your mouth;
you adopt the tongue of the crafty.
⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
your own lips testify against you.

Eliphaz throws Job under the bus and says he must be a sinful man to have suffered so greatly.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+14&version=NIV

¹⁸ “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles
and as a rock is moved from its place,
¹⁹ as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil,
so you destroy a person’s hope.
²⁰ You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;
you change their countenance and send them away.
²¹ If their children are honored, they do not know it;
if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.
²² They feel but the pain of their own bodies
and mourn only for themselves.”

There’s a real sense of despair and fatalism here.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+13&version=NIV

²⁰ “Only grant me these two things, God,
and then I will not hide from you:
²¹ Withdraw your hand far from me,
and stop frightening me with your terrors.
²² Then summon me and I will answer,
or let me speak, and you reply to me.
²³ How many wrongs and sins have I committed?
Show me my offense and my sin.

Job is still trying to have a reasoned man’s discussion with God – he is negotiating with God here.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+12&version=NIV

¹ Then Job replied:² “Doubtless you are the only people who matter,
and wisdom will die with you!
³ But I have a mind as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know all these things?

OH SNAP.

Also, God is all-powerful and in control of everything.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+11&version=NIV

⁷ “Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
⁸ They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?
They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?
⁹ Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.

Zophar also says that we can’t know anything about God.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+10&version=NIV

⁸ “Your hands shaped me and made me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?
⁹ Remember that you molded me like clay.
Will you now turn me to dust again?

Job discourses on the futility of reasoning with God.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+9&version=NIV

³² “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him,
that we might confront each other in court.
³³ If only there were someone to mediate between us,
someone to bring us together,
³⁴ someone to remove God’s rod from me,
so that his terror would frighten me no more.
³⁵ Then I would speak up without fear of him,
but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

Job says, “Who can argue with God?”