For once, Job comes close to a direct answer to their accusations. Yet, because he uses reverse wording, most Western commentators miss the point. Again, Job does not accuse God of injustice. Rather, he warns his visitors that if they are correct, that would make God unjust.
Job begins by asking rhetorically how long the trio would torment him. In the common Hebrew turn of phrase, he says “ten time” to indicate they have reproached him repeatedly. They are shameless in their ignorance. However, let’s pretend for a moment they are correct. If Job had sinned, they could not possibly know about it. Indeed, nothing in his alleged secret sin would affect them at all. It’s none of their business! These men are acting as busybodies who have nothing better to do than self-righteously mock someone whose situation they refuse to understand.
He mocks Bildad’s question in 8:3 — “Does God pervert justice?” The correct answer is that God defines justice; whatever He does is justice because He did it. Only lesser creatures can pervert justice. To assume God would never bring suffering on the righteous is a perverted concept of justice, a perverted notion of God. Were God as the trio describe Him, then it would indeed be evil if God have brought this sorrow on Job, because he remains morally upright. It’s not that Job has slipped here, but that he is skillfully mocking their shallow reasoning.
What follows is his counter argument. Job cries out that he has been wronged. There is no rescue. The justice they have promised does not come. Job has been robbed of everything that men value. God is against him and all his worldly friends and family have deserted him. He goes on at length in that vein, then asks the trio why they insist on making things worse than they have to be?
Job wishes that someone would transcribe his words so that everyone could see what he actually said instead of reading their impatient thoughts into his words. Still, Job is philosophical. That is, he knows that even if he dies, the One with the power to redeem him will some day return to this earth and pass judgment. Job knows that long after he has died, his flesh will reconstitute and he will stand before that Judge. Job won’t have to find a proxy; he’ll be there to see with his own eyes. The unspoken implication is that Job has no consciousness at all of anything for which he should be ashamed. His convictions tell him he will stand before God without fear.
For now, his heart grows faint as his flesh slowly and painfully expires. He doesn’t have that much time left, but he knows how these three think. They are plotting how they can hound him all the way into the grave. But they should fear the Hound of Heaven, for in that Judgment Day they will be deeply ashamed.
