Job rightly wants to know why he, “the just upright man is laughed to scorn” while robbers prosper (6thC BC)
About this Quotation:
The OLL also has online a copy of William Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job (1823) an illustration from which adorns this quotation. The story of Job raises a number of interesting moral problems concerning the just punishment or reward for an individual’s actions. Job laments the fact that he is not being rewarded for his upright moral behaviour whilst robbers go unpunished and are thus rewarded for their criminal activities. Gloucester in Shakespeare’s King Lear has a different explanation [http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1621/45820/1108686]:
Gloucester.
He has some reason, else he could not beg.
I’ the last night’s
storm I such a fellow saw,
Which made me think a man a worm: my son
Came then into my mind; and yet my mind
Was then scarce friends with him: I have
heard more since.
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport.
Other quotes from this week:
- 2009: Samuel Smiles on how an idle, thriftless, or drunken man can, and should, improve himself through self-help and not by means of the state (1859).
- 2007: Harriet Martineau condemns tariffs as a “vicious aristocratic principle” designed to harm the ordinary working man and woman (1861)
- 2006: In Ecclesiastes there is the call to plant, to love, to live, and to work and then to enjoy the fruits of all one’s labors (3rdC BC)
- 2005: Hugo Grotius discusses the just causes of going to war, especially the idea that the capacity to wage war must be matched by the intent to do so (1625)
- 2004: Voltaire on the Benefits which Trade and Economic Abundance bring to People living in the Present Age (1736)
Other quotes about Religion & Toleration:
- 2009: Noah Webster on the resilience of common religious practices in the face of attempts by the state to radically change them (1794)
- 2009: David Hume argues that “love of liberty” in some individuals often attracts the religious inquisitor to persecute them and thereby drive society into a state of “ignorance, corruption, and bondage” (1757)
- 2009: St. John, private property, and the Parable of the Wolf and the Good Shepherd (2ndC AD)
- 2008: John Locke believed that the magistrate should not punish sin but only violations of natural rights and public peace (1689)
- 2008: William Findlay wants to maintain the separation of church and state and therefore sees no role for the “ecclesiastical branch” in government (1812)
- 2006: In Ecclesiastes there is the call to plant, to love, to live, and to work and then to enjoy the fruits of all one’s labors (3rdC BC)
- 2006: Pierre Bayle begins his defence of religious toleration with this appeal that the light of nature, or Reason, should be used to settle religious differences and not coercion (1708)
- 2006: Voltaire argued that religious intolerance was against the law of nature and was worse than the “right of the tiger” (1763)
- 2004: Voltaire notes that where Commerce and Toleration predominate, a Multiplicity of Faiths can live together in Peace and Happiness (1764)
- 2004: Samuel warns his people that if they desire a King they will inevitably have conscription, requisitioning of their property, and taxation (7th century BC)
- 2004: The Prophet Isaiah urges the people to “beat their swords into plowshares” and learn war no more (700s BC)
- 2004: The Psalmist laments that he lives in a Society which “hateth peace” and cries out “I am for peace: but when I speak they are for war” (1000 BC)
15 September, 2008
 | Job rightly wants to know why he, “the just upright man is laughed to scorn” while robbers prosper (6thC BC) |
In Chapter 12 of the Book of Job, Job laments the fact that, even though he has understanding and is morally upright, he is laughed at and scorned whilst robbers prosper:
But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these? I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn. He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease. The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
The full passage from which this quotation was taken can be be viewed below (front page quote in bold):
- And Job answered and said,
2. No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
3. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
4. I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.
5. He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
7. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
8. Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
9. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?