1: There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil.
Here we get the phrase "sons of God" (it appears elsewhere and also is implied in Genesis when God says, "Let US make man in OUR own image"). It's clear the early Hebrew religion was not a strict monotheism (=belief in one god). But what "sons of God" means is not certain.
7: The LORD said to Satan, "Whence have you come?" Satan answered the LORD, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it."
As we say in an American proverb: "When it rains, it pours." But Job's response is to "worship": Verse 21 is famous:
20: Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped.
21: And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
22: In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
3: And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? He still keeps his integrity, although you moved me to destroy him without cause."
4: Then Satan answered the LORD, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.
5: But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you."
6: And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your power; but spare his life."
7: So Satan afflicted Job with sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
8: And Job took a potsherd [a piece of broken pottery] with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.
9: Then his wife said to him, "Do you still keep your integrity? Curse God, and die."
10: But he said to her, "You speak like a foolish woman. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
11: Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eli'phaz the Te'manite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Na'amathite. They made an appointment together to comfort him.
Only the names are important, not the places: Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar (later, Elihu). These are "Job's comforters."
1: After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2: And Job said:
3: "Let the day perish when I was born.
11: "Why did I not die at birth?
13: For then I should have been at rest. . . .
20: "Why is light given to him that in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
21: who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22: who are glad when they find the grave?
25: For the thing I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
26: I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes."
The reader can see that "the patience of Job" (as in the Letter of James) is no patience at all. Job is impatient. He voices Greek ideas: Better to die young, but best is never to never be born.
1: Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:
2: "If I speak a word with you, will you be offended?
3: Look, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
5: But now it has come to you, and you are impatient.
6: Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
Eliphaz's argument is common in the book of Proverbs: God rewards the just and punishes the wicked. But we know, from God's own mouth, that Job is just.
7: "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
8: Those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
17: `Can mortal man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?'
17: "Happy is the man whom God reproves; therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty.
26: You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.
27: Hear, and know it for your good."
Then Job said:
16: I loathe my life; I would not live for ever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
This is a parody of Psalm 8, but turning it around: for Job, to be God's "chosen" is not good but bad:
17: What is man, that thou dost make so much of him, and that thou dost set thy mind upon him,
18: dost visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
19: How long wilt thou not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle?
20: If I sin, what do I do to thee, thou watcher of men? Why hast thou made me thy mark? Why have I become a burden to thee?
21: Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; thou wilt seek me, but I shall not be."
1: Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2: "How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3: Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
6: If you are pure and upright, surely he will rouse himself for you and reward you with a rightful habitation.
7: And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be great.
8: "For consider what the fathers have found;
9: for we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.
13: Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless man shall perish.
Hebrew poetry does not use rhyme, the main element of poetry in Western literature. Instead the main element of Hebrew poetry is parallelism. In parallelism, the poetic line is divided into two parts; the second part either repeats the first idea, contrasts the first idea, or adds to it. These 3 kinds of parallelism are called,
(a) synonymic, (b) antithetic, (c) progressive. I'll give 3 examples from everyday life:
Synonymic: "Buy me a Coca-Cola; bring me home a soft drink."
(The second half of the line says the same thing as the first half, using different words.)
Antithetic: "Buy me a Coca-Cola and not a Pepsi Cola."
(The second half opposes the first half.)
Progressive: "Buy me a Coca-Cola; and then I will quench my thirst."
(The second half advances the idea of the first half.)
These examples are not elegant but show how simple it is to use Hebrew parallelism in everyday speech. Note in v. 14 synonymic parallelism: the second half of the line repeats the first half in different words. Same with v. 15. Verse 20 is an example of antithetic parallelism, since the second half contrasts against the first. Verse 21 is an example of progressive parallelism. The main point is to recognize that most verses in Hebrew poetry are BALANCED. All the following verses are balanced: "Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more." It's an example of progressive parallelism: the evildoer feels shame, then is destroyed.
14: His confidence breaks in pieces, and his trust is a spider's web.
15: He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
20: "Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
21: He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.
22: Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more."
1: Then Job answered:
King Lear cries out, "I am a man more sinned against than sinning!" The point of the book of Job is even greater, for God says that Job is blameless. What follows is an attack on the goodness of God:
21: I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.
22: It is all one; therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23: When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24: The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges -- if it is not he, who then is it?
32: But he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
34: Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.
Job has gone all the way here: who else causes evil but the all-powerful God. Therefore God is not good ("If God is God he is not good / If God is good, He is not God"). Yet because of God's power, Job is helpless ("he is not a man, as I am"). So God appears here like a tyrant.
1: "I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2: I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you fight against me.
3: Does it seem good to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?
4: Hast thou eyes of flesh? Dost thou see as man sees?
7: Yet thou knowest I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of thy hand?
8: Thy hands fashioned and made me; and now thou dost turn about and destroy me.
Mary Shelley will later base her Frankenstein novel on these ideas of the creator destroying his creation. Here Job claims to be superior to God in moral values.
1: Then Zophar the Na'amathite answered:
13: "If you set your heart aright, you will stretch out your hands toward him.
14: If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tents.
16: You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.
17: And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.
18: And you will have confidence, because there is hope; you will be protected and take your rest in safety.
19: You will lie down, and none will make you afraid; many will entreat your favor.
20: But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last."
More proverbial wisdom, which (we know) does not fit Job's case. Job rejects the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. But this is also the wisdom of the Deuteronomist (defending God's role in history). So this is an advance in Hebrew thought, based on Deuteronomist ideas that God is always right.
1: Then Job answered:
2: "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
3: But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?
Job is ironic: he called upon God and God answered him! That's like going to the police for justice and being arrested!
4: I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
10: In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
Compare the Afro-American spiritual, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."
2: "What you know, I know; I am not inferior to you.
3: But I would speak to the Almighty; I desire to argue my case with God.
4: As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.
7: Will you speak falsely for God, and speak deceitfully for him?
8: Will you show partiality toward him, will you plead the case for God?
9: Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?
Job is prophetic here; at the end God takes Job's side and accuses his "comforters." Now Job mocks the proverbs:
12: Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.
16: This will be my salvation, that a godless man shall not come before him.
18: Behold, I have prepared my case; I know I shall be vindicated.
28: Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
1: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
2: He comes forth like a flower, and withers; he flees like a shadow, and continues not.
5: Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with thee, and thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass,
6: look away from him, that he may enjoy, like a hireling, his day.
7: "For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
8: Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the ground,
9: yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.
10: But man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
1: Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:
7: "Are you the first man born?
8: And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
This suggests another reference to Psalm 8, though not spoken by Job:
14: What is man, that he can be clean? Or he that is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?"
1: Then Job answered:
2: "Miserable comforters are you all.
3: Shall windy words have an end?
4: I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you.
16: My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness;
17: although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18: "O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place.
19: Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high.
Job appeals to the "earth" not to hide God's murder of him! He also appeals to some "witness," but it's not clear to whom. Perhaps one of the "sons of God"? Is this witness equal to God?
1: My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
13: If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,
14: if I say to the pit, `You are my father,' and to the worm, `My mother,' or `My sister,'
15: where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?
16: Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"
"Sheol" is what we call Hell; the Hebrew Sheol was more like a shadowy place for the dead, with no punishment or reward. In Hebrew thought there is no afterlife, though this idea emerges in the "intertestamental period": that is, the period between the writing of the Old and New Testament. Job knows if he doesn't succeed on earth, there is no hope.
1: Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
3: "Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?
4: You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock removed out of its place?
5: "Yea, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.
7: His strong steps are shortened and his own schemes throw him down.
8: For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on a pitfall.
11: Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels."
More proverbial wisdom from Bildad: the evil are punished, etc. But Bildad asks if Job wants to change the world; why not just accept things as they are; and thus accept his own guilt.
1: Then Job answered:
9: "He has stripped from me my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
13: He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14: My kinsfolk and my close friends have failed me;
15: the guests in my house have forgotten me; my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes.
16: I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must beseech him with my mouth.
17: I am repulsive to my wife, loathsome to the sons of my own mother.
18: Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.
19: All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20: My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
"The skin of my teeth" is an English idiom; meaning, a close call.
21: Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
23: "Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
25: For I know my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth;
26: and after my skin has been destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God,
27: whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall see, and not another. My heart faints within me!"
Scholars insist the Hebrew is unclear in the verses above. One reading is "avenger" instead of "Redeemer." No matter. These verses have become a key text for Christians, who insist it refers to Christ as Redeemer. Handel wrote a beautiful aria on these verses for his oratorio, Messiah.
1: Then Zophar the Na'amathite answered:
4: "Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed upon earth,
5: that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
The following verses suggest the Tower of Babel:
6: Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
7: he will perish for ever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, `Where is he?'
28: The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God's wrath.
29: This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God."
1: Then Job answered:
7: "Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
Job's reasoning is he doesn't want the wicked to suffer later, but NOW.
19: You say, `God stores up their sins for their sons.' Let him recompense it to themselves, that they may know it.
29: Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony
30: that the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
31: Who declares his way to his face, and who requites him for what he has done?
34: How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."
1: Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:
Note 3 parallel forms. The first is progressive parallelism; the second is antithetic; the third is synonymic:
21: "Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.
29: For God abases the proud, but he saves the lowly.
30: He delivers the innocent man; you will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."
1: And Job continued:
2: "Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;
7: When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
8: the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood.
15: I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
16: I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
17: I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
21: "Men listened to me, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel.
22: After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them.
23: They waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
1: "But now they make fun of me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
13: "If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me;
14: what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
15: Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
16: "If I have withheld anything the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
17: or have eaten my food alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it
18: (for from his youth I reared him as a father, and from his mother's womb I guided him);
19: if I have seen any one perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without covering;
20: if his loins have not blessed me, and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21: if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, because I saw help in the gate;
22: then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket.
23: For I was in terror of calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty.
24: "If I have made gold my trust, or called fine gold my confidence;
25: if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, or because my hand had gotten much;
26: if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor,
27: and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand;
28: this also would be a sin to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false to God above.
29: "If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him that hated me, or rejoiced when evil overtook him
30: (I have not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse);
31: if the men of my tent have not said, `Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?'
32: (the sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the wayfarer);
35: Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! let the Almighty answer me!) Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
36: Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me as a crown;
37: I would give him an account of all my steps; like a prince I would approach him." The words of Job are ended.
4: Now Eli'hu had waited to speak to Job.
Scholars agree that Elihu's words are a later addition. Elihu is never mentioned by the others or by God. But why the addition? It's possible the writer or redactor (editor) felt the others did not answer Job strongly enough. Otherwise Elihu does not add anything new:
1: "But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to my words.
9: You say, `I am clean, without sin.'
12: "In this you are not right. I will answer you. God is greater than man.
13: Why do you fight against him, saying, `He will answer none of my words'?
14: For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.
15: In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while they slumber on their beds,
16: then he opens the ears of men, and terrifies them with warnings,
17: that he may turn man aside from his deed, and cut off pride from man.
19: "Man is also chastened with pain upon his bed, and with pain in his bones;
20: so he loathes bread, and his appetite dainty food.
22: His soul draws near the Pit, and his life to those who bring death.
23: If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him;
24: and he is gracious to him, and says, `Deliver him from going down into the Pit, I have found a ransom;
25: let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor';
26: then man prays to God, and he accepts him, he comes into his presence with joy. He recounts to men his salvation,
27: and he sings before men, and says: `I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not requited to me.
28: He has redeemed my soul from going down into the Pit, and my life shall see the light.'
29: "Behold, God does all these things
30: to bring back his soul from the Pit, so he may see the light of life."
Elihu's argument is that, by suffering, the sinner finds God and so is saved; thus suffering has a purpose.
1: Then Eli'hu said:
4: "Let us choose what is right; let us determine what is good.
5: For Job has said, `I am innocent, and God has taken away my right;
6: in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.'
7: What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water,
8: who goes in company with evildoers and walks with wicked men?
9: For he has said, `It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.'
12: Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.
17: Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,
18: who says to a king, `Worthless one,' and to nobles, `Wicked man';
19: who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?
20: In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.
1: Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:
2: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3: Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
"Gird up your loins" is a common phrase in the Bible. It means prepare yourself for work the modern version would be "roll up your sleeves." The following speeches by God are sublime, evoking images of immense degree, power, height, and depth and making Job (and us) feel terribly small. "When the morning stars sang together" (v. 7) is a great phrase. In traditional criticism, the "sublime" is contrasted against the "beautiful." Beauty can be measured (like a Japanese garden; a serenade; an early classical symphony by Haydn or early Mozart; a Shakespeare comedy). The sublime goes beyond human standards and understanding; the person feels small before the sublime: Shakespeare's or Greek tragedies; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; a landscape from the Romantic period in Germany or America. This distinction is not limited to art. A person has a sense of beauty in a Japanese garden, but has a sense of the sublime while standing on a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean. The book of Job is certainly sublime, while the book of Proverbs or the Song of Songs is beautiful. The book of Proverbs has beauty because we see ourselves in its wisdom; we can measure its wisdom against ordinary life and say, "How true! Perfectly expressed." But the sublime is extra-ordinary; a sudden terror takes over us: "I never realized how small and weak we are; how immense the universe against my little life. Where's the meaning then?" Of course, the meaning is just that: the feeling of being stripped, or "naked" (as Job says early in the book); and so in a paradoxical way, we find ourselves only by losing ourselves, as Jesus says. That's why we feel good after seeing King Lear or any tragedy; or rugged mountain climbing. Note how sublime the following verses are:
4: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5: Who determined its measurements -- surely you know!
6: Or who laid its cornerstone,
7: when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8: "Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb,
11: and said, `Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?
Verse 11 (above) is referred to on the keystone that Silas finds in The DaVinci Code.
12: "Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,
13: that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?
21: You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
28: "Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29: From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?
30: The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
34: "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you?
19: "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with strength?
20: Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible.
21: He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.
22: He laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword.
25: When the trumpet sounds, he says `Aha!' He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
26: "Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads his wings toward the south?
27: Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?"
15: "Behold, Be'hemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox.
16: Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly.
18: His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.
1: "Can you draw out Levi'athan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
15: His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal.
16: One is so near to another that no air can come between them.
17: They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
20: Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21: His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
27: He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
28: The arrow cannot make him flee; for him slingstones are turned to stubble.
32: Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be hoary.
33: Upon earth there is not his like, a creature without fear.
34: He beholds everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride."
1: Then Job answered the LORD:
5: "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee;
6: therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
7: After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eli'phaz the Te'manite: "My wrath is against you and your two friends; for you have not spoken what is right, as my servant Job has.
8: Now take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."
12: And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.
16: After this Job lived a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.
17: And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
In the end, God sides with Job, NOT Job's Comforters! Job lives 140 years, twice the "normal" lifespan of Psalm 90 ("threescore years and ten"=70) and twenty more years than Moses, who died at 120.
1: Adam, Seth, Enosh;
4: Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Chronicles begins on the first genealogies, to remind the Jews after the exile and to insure a continuous history with meaning. These books are full of such genealogies, omitted here. But the focus is mainly on the house of David, with its eternal promise of a Messiah (anointed king).
13: Saul died for his unfaithfulness; he was unfaithful to the LORD,
Saul is almost dismissed in Chronicles, concerned mainly with the House of David. Note there is no battle for the kingdom here. David gets the crown easily, from God.
14: Therefore the LORD slew him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.
1: Then all Israel gathered together to David at Hebron, and said, "Behold, we are your bone and flesh.
Note the idealized unity here, which Kings contradicts. In Kings we get constant tribal feuds, omitted here. The phrase, "all Israel" suggests a unity of the northern and southern kingdoms that is proved false by Kings (a more truthful record).
38: . . . . [A]ll the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David king.
Again, note the clause, "all the rest of Israel were of a single mind," as if to create an ideal unity of mind in choosing David as king (not so, says Kings).
1: In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, Jo'ab led out the army. But David remained at Jerusalem.
In Kings this is the point where David lusts after Bathsheba; here this is omitted. The writer of Chronicles wants to idealize David.
5: And there was again war with the Philistines; and Elha'nan the son of Ja'ir slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
Note how the writer corrects the "mistake" of 2 Samuel 21:19, where it is said that Elhanan slew Goliath, contradicting 1 Samuel 17:49 where it is said that David slew Goliath. Consistency is reached here by saying that Elhanan slew the "brother" of Goliath.
1: Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel.
In 2 Samuel 24:1 it is God who tempts David. This was unacceptable to the Chronicler, who makes Satan tempt David. But this introduces a "dualism" into Hebrew thought; namely, that there are two equal powers in the world: God and Satan. Soon "Satan" becomes a main adversary of God, especially in the New Testament, where Satan offers Jesus the world (presumably the world belongs to Satan).
23: Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king; and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.
Note again the reference to "all Israel" and "all the leaders and sons of David" (v. 24). This omits the family battles for the crown and Solomon's bloodbath, killing his own family and David's enemies.
24: All the leaders and the mighty men, and also all the sons of King David, pledged their allegiance to King Solomon.
28: Then David died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor; and Solomon his son reigned in his stead.
Compare the simple report of David's death in 1 Kings 2:10: "Then David rested with his fathers."
3: And Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for the tent of meeting of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness, was there.
Compare with 1 Kings 3:4: "The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place. . . ." Here there's no doubt that Solomon prays before the "tent of meeting" (the tabernacle established by Moses). The writer has changed details to make Solomon look as good as possible. Compare again with 1 Kings 3:3: "Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places." "High places" are forbidden places of worship.
20: Then the Spirit of God took possession of Zechari'ah [prophet]; and he said, "Thus says God, `Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.'"
21: But they conspired against him, and by command of the king [of Judah, Jo'ash] they stoned him in the court of the house of the LORD.
22: And when he was dying, he said, "May the LORD see and avenge!"
23: At the end of the year the army of the Syrians came up against Jo'ash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent their spoil to the king of Damascus.
24: Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men, the LORD delivered into their hand a very great army, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Zechariah's curse was fulfilled. Jesus refers to the murder of Zechariah in Matthew 23:35 but confuses this Zechariah with the minor prophet ("son of Bechariah").
2 Chronicles, chapter 28
1: Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did evil in the sight of the LORD:
2: For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made molten images for Baalim [gods of Ba'al].
3: Moreover, he sacrificed his sons in the fire, after the practice of the heathen.
5: Sothe LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
8: And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
9: But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was angered by Judah, he delivered them into your hand, and you have killed them in a rage that reaches up unto heaven.
10: And now you plan to keep them as slaves: but are there not with you also sins against God?
11: Now free these captives: for the anger of the LORD is upon you.
14: So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and the people.
15: And the men which were called by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and gave them to eat and drink, and anointed them, and carried the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.
9: Manas'seh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so they did more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
11: Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manas'seh with hooks and bound him with fetters of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
12: And he humbled himself before the God of his fathers.
13: He prayed to him, and God heard his prayer and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manas'seh knew that the LORD was God.
In 2 Kings 21,Manasseh is completely evil. But the Chronicler was puzzled by the king's worldly success and long reign (55 years!). So he assumes the king's repentance. Verse 13 inspired the apocryphal Prayer of Manasseh, supposedly Manasseh's words of repentance, quoted in my commentary on 2 Kings.
Though Josiah is praised in both Kings and Chronicles, the Chronicler must "explain" why Josiah died young, so gives a reason:
20: Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Car'chemish and Josi'ah went against him.
21: But [Neco] sent envoys to him, saying, "What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to make haste. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you."
22: Nevertheless Josi'ah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of Megid'do.
23: And the archers shot King Josi'ah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am badly wounded."
The Chronicler "explains" Josiah's death by saying his battle against Neco was against "the mouth of God." There is no mention of this in 2 Kings 29ff.
20: [King of Babylon] took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword,
21: to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfil seventy years.
Note the ironic reference: since the people observed no Sabbaths, God forces them to observe the 70 Sabbaths they missed! This refers to Jeremiah's prophecy (the book of Jeremiah) of "seventy years" (that is, from the Babylonian Captivity in 586 to the dedication of the Second Temple (516-515 BCE).
22: Now the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so he proclaimed in all his kingdom:
23: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, `The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.'"
Cyrus is under God's control (he's called Messiah in Isaiah). Chronicles ends the Hebrew Bible (Malachi ends the Old Testament in the Christian arrangement). Thus the Hebrew Bible ends on hope, based on rebuilding the Temple. Since Christians found their hope in Jesus, not the temple, they arranged the Old Testament differently; Malachi speaks of a "curse," which suited the Christian need for a redeemer. Now begins the post-exile, seen as ordained by God, through Cyrus:
1: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
2: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
3: Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel -- he is the God who is in Jerusalem."
5: Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, every one whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.
7: Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD which Nebuchadnez'zar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.
2: Then arose Jeshua [high priest]with his fellow priests, and Zerub'babel [governor] with his kinsmen; they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses man of God.
1: Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel,
2: they approached Zerub'babel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, "Let us build with you; for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of the king of Assyria who brought us here."
But the Samaritan religion would be syncretistic, a blend of many religions:
3: But Zerub'babel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us."
4: Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build,
6: And in the reign of Ahasu-e'rus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
It is assumed that Ahasuerus is another name for Xerxes (fifth century BCE Persian leader).
7: The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.
11: "To Ar-ta-xerx'es the king: Your servants, the men of the province Beyond the River [the Euphrates], send greeting. And
12: know that the Jews who came up from you to us have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city.
15: You will find in the book of the records and learn that this city is a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and that sedition was stirred up in it from of old. That was why this city was laid waste."
24: Then the work on the house of God which is in Jerusalem stopped; and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
5: But the eye of God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them till a report should reach Darius and then answer be returned by letter concerning it.
6: The copy of the letter sent to Darius the king;
7: "To Darius the king, all peace.
17: "If it seem good to the king, let search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem."
2: And a scroll was found on which this was written: "A record.
3: In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt,
7: let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site."
15: This house was finished in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
1: Now after this, in the reign of Ar-ta-xerx'es king of Persia, Ezra
6: went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses which the LORD the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all he asked, for the hand of the LORD was upon him.
11: This is a copy of the letter which King Ar-ta-xerx'es gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, learned in matters of the commandments of the LORD and his statutes for Israel:
12: "Ar-ta-xerx'es, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven.
21: "I, Ar-ta-xerx'es the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, be it done with all diligence,
23: Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons."
The Persian policy was to befriend as many gods as possible, hoping for blessings from all of them.
1: The officials approached me and said, "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations.
2: For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons; so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands."
3: When I heard this, I tore my clothes, and pulled hair from my head and beard.
5: At the evening sacrifice I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God,
6: saying: "O my God, our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.
7: And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as at this day."
This concerns intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews.
2: And Shecani'ah addressed Ezra: "We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
3: Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children and let it be done according to the law."
44: All who had married foreign women put them away with their children.
Some scholars claim the book of Ruth was written in answer to this policy, seen as "inhumane."
1: When wine was before King Ar-ta-xerx'es, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.
2: And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart."
3: I said to the king, "Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres [tombs], lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?"
5: And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may rebuild it."
6: So it pleased the king to send me.
15: Then I went up in the night and inspected the wall and returned.
17: Then I said, "You see how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer disgrace."
19: But when Sanbal'lat the Hor'onite and Tobi'ah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked us and despised us and said, "What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?"
7: But when they heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward,
8: they plotted against Jerusalem to cause confusion.
16: From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail.
Nehemiah is a useful text to inspire completion of difficult tasks. Here nothing could stop Nehemiah rebuilding the wall. In this he resembles Joshua who, as the spiritual says, "never stopped his work until his work was done."
7: I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. "You are exacting interest, each from his brother." And I held a great assembly against them,
8: and said, "We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brethren who have been sold to the nations; but you even sell your brethren that they may be sold to us!" They were silent, and could not find a word to say.
9: So I said, "The thing you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?
This is a theme of social oppression that will occupy the later prophets (Amos was outspoken about this). Hebrew law was based on a kind of socialism, preventing class differences, including laws for a Jubilee year returning land to its original owners, etc.
11: Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the hundredth of money, grain, wine, and oil which you have been exacting of them."
12: Then they said, "We will do as you say."
13: I shook out my lap and said, "So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not perform this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied." And all the assembly said "Amen" and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.
"Amen" means "certainly," as in the Gospel refrain, "Certainly, Lord."
15: So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.
16: And the nations round about us were afraid and fell in their own esteem; for they saw this work was accomplished with the help of our God.
5: And Ezra opened the book [of Moses] in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people [standing on a pulpit]; and when he opened it the people stood.
6: And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God; and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands; and they worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
8: And they read from the book and gave the sense, so the people understood the reading.
By this time, many Jews did not understand Hebrew, so the text had to be translated and "explained."
2: And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
6: And Ezra said: "Thou art the LORD, thou alone.
26: "Nevertheless [your people] were disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their back and killed thy prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to thee.
30: Therefore thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
33: Yet thou hast been just in all that has come upon us, for thou hast dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly;
36: Behold, we are slaves in the land thou gavest to our fathers.
37: And its rich yield goes to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies, and we are in great distress."
38: Because of all this we make a covenant and write it, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests set their seal to it.
The people rededicate themselves to God's covenant.
30: We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons;
31: and if the peoples of the land bring in wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or on a holy day; and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and every debt.
1: Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem; and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one of ten to live in Jerusalem the holy city, while nine tenths remained in the other towns.
2: And the people blessed all who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.
This action will be repeated during the Zionist repopulation of Israel in the early part of the 20th century.
19: When it began to be dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I ordered the doors should be shut and not opened until after the sabbath.
23: In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab;
24: and half their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but the language of each people.
25: And I cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take oath in the name of God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
30: Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work;
31: Remember me, O my God, for good.
1: After these things King Ahasu-e'rus promoted Haman the Ag'agite, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
2: And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down to Haman. But Mor'decai did not bow.
5: Haman was filled with fury.
This is where the Feast of Purim ("lots") gets its name; it was adopted from a Persian feast and given special meaning for Jews. Purim is celebrated today as a joyful feast, when the Jews saved themselves. On the evening and morning of this feast, the "megillah" (scroll) of Esther is read.
8: Then Haman said to King Ahasu-e'rus, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so it is not for the king's profit to tolerate them.
9: If it please the king, let it be decreed they be destroyed."
13: Letters were sent to all the king's provinces, to destroy all Jews in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to seize their goods.
Note the satiric voice against Persian laws. Although laws are passed and there is a great system of advertising those laws, the laws are ridiculous and unjust (as we saw in other parts of the story); so the book of Esther may be a satire on unjust laws compared to God's law.
There is no mention of God, but there is fasting before Esther does her deed.
15: Then Esther told them to reply to Mor'decai,
16: "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."
1: On that night the king could not sleep; and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king.
2: And it was found written how Mor'decai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands upon King Ahasu-e'rus.
6: Haman came in, and the king said to him, "What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?" And Haman said to himself, "Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?"
7: and Haman said to the king,
8: "Let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set;
9: and let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble princes; let him array the man whom the king delights to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: `Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.'"
The king is thinking of Mordecai, but Haman thinks he means himself! So Haman's advice glorifies Haman's enemy, Mordecai. More irony! This is a lot like Hannah's prayer, later adopted as the Virgin Mary's Magnificat (in LUKE); that is, a prayer of reversals: the hungry are fed while those who have now have not.
10: Then the king said to Haman, "Make haste, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mor'decai the Jew who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing you have mentioned."
Note the king's ironic words: "Leave out nothing you have mentioned."
1: On that day King Ahasu-e'rus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mor'decai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her;
2: and the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mor'decai. And Esther set Mor'decai over the house of Haman.
3: Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet and begged with tears to stop the Haman's plot against the Jews.
5: And she said, "If it please the king, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the lands of the king.
6: For how can I endure to see the ruin of my people?"
7: Then King Ahasu-e'rus said to Queen Esther and to Mor'decai the Jew,
8: "You may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring; for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked."
Since a Persian law can not be undone, the only solution was to give the Jews the right to fight back, which is done:
17: And there was joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many declared themselves Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.
People are so afraid of the revenge of the Jews on the 13th day of Adar, that they pretend they themselves are Jews.
13: And Esther said, "If it please the king, let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows."
14: So the king commanded this to be done; and Haman's ten sons were hanged.
26: Therefore they called the feast Purim, after the term Pur.
8: Mordecai prayed to the Lord. He said:
9: "O Lord,
12: You know all things; you know, O Lord, that it was not in insolence or pride or for any love of glory that I did this, and refused to bow down to this proud Haman.
14: But I did this to set the glory of man above the glory of God, and I will not bow down to any one but to thee, who art my Lord; and I will not do this in pride.
Note a more theological point of view (pride, devotion to God, etc.)
15: And now, O Lord God and King, God of Abraham, spare thy people.
16: Do not neglect thy portion, which thou didst redeem for thyself out of the land of Egypt."
1: And Esther the queen, seized with deathly anxiety, fled to the Lord;
2: she took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body, and every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair.
The additions reverse the Hebrew text: instead of dressing herself in beauty, Esther dresses herself humbly and prays to God:
15: "Thou hast knowledge of all things; and thou knowest I hate the splendor of the wicked and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised and of any alien.
The Apocrypha reverses the point of the canonical tale; namely, that Jews can adapt to a foreign culture. Here the message is that foreign culture is evil and accepted only from necessity.
18: Thy servant has had no joy since the day that I was brought here until now, except in thee, O Lord God of Abraham.
8: Then God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness.
Note (above, v. 8) that these additions more than make up for the lack of God's name in the original Hebrew text; here God is the source of the Jews' changed forture.
1: The following is a copy of this letter: "The Great King, Artaxerxes, to the rulers of the provinces from India to Ethiopia.
17: "You will do well not to put in execution the letters sent by Haman,
18: because the man himself who did these things has been hanged at the gate of Susa, with all his household. For God, who rules over all things, has speedily inflicted on him the punishment he deserved.
19: "Therefore permit the Jews to live under their own laws.
20: And give them reinforcements, so on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, they may defend themselves.
21: God, who rules over all things, has made this day to be a joy to his chosen people instead of a day of destruction for them."
God is a God of justice. It is God who turns a day of mourning into a day of feasting, though God is not mentioned in the canonic text of the book of Esther.
Finally the reason for calling the Feast of Purim "Purim" has a different (more theological) meaning: "lot" here means Israel as God's chosen lot.
7: For this purpose God made two lots, one for the people of God and one for the nations.
9: And God remembered his people.
10: So they will observe these days in the month of Adar, on the fourteenth and fifteenth of that month, with joy before God, forever among his people Israel."
