The Wisdom of Divine Disputation? On Job 40.2-5

Abstract

The standard translations of Job's two responses in the Theophany section suggest that Job has been overwhelmed by the divine discourses and that, as a result, his silence and later repentance express a resigned capitulation to the omnipotence of Yahweh. However, in light of a new translation of the divine-human dialogue that takes place briefly in 40.2-5, it can be argued that this first response of Job is actually a sophisticated epistemological ploy. Read in light of Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutical phenomenology, this text discloses a receptive listening on the part of Job by which the protagonist initiates his own acquisition of wisdom.