Texts in Conversation
Both Lamentations and Job describe a sufferer whose prayers go unheard and whose path is blocked, using the image of being trapped with no way out. In both texts, God is depicted not as a rescuer but as the one who has confined the speaker, shutting out cries for help.
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Lamentations 3:8
Hebrew Bible
6 He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago. 7 ג (Gimel) He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. 8 Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer. 9 He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable. 10 ד (Dalet) To me he is like a bear lying in ambush, like a hidden lion stalking its prey.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Job 19:7
Hebrew Bible
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and plead my disgrace against me, 6 know then that God has wronged me and encircled me with his net. 7 “If I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I receive no answer; I cry for help, but there is no justice. 8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass and has set darkness over my paths. 9 He has stripped me of my honor and has taken the crown off my head.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... (compare Job 3:23; 19:7–8). The speaker is suffering like a prisoner whose (copper) chains prevent him from standing up, let alone escaping to freedom. It is God who ‘walls the poet in’; this is repeated in verse 9 (the same Hebrew verb translated as barred). The one who could rescue him from his prison of misery (compare Psalm 107:10–16) does not want to listen to the sufferer crying out in prayer (see also verse 44; compare Job 30:20). It seems that God is ‘absent’, and his presence is only felt in a negative way: he captures the poet and blocks his way. The poet’s path is no longer straight, but crooked (for a contrast, see Psalm 23:3; ‘the way’ can also indicate someone’s whole lifestyle, see Psalm 1) ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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