Job 24:12

Hebrew Bible

10 They go about naked, without clothing, and go hungry while they carry the sheaves. 11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. 12 From the city the dying groan, and the wounded cry out for help, but God charges no one with wrongdoing. 13 There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways, and they do not stay on its paths. 14 Before daybreak the murderer rises up; he kills the poor and the needy; in the night he is like a thief.

1 Enoch 9:11

Pseudepigrapha

9 And the women have borne giants, and the whole earth has been filled with blood and unrighteousness as a result. 10 And now, behold, the souls of those who are dead are crying and pleading to the gates of heaven, and their lamentations have risen: and cannot stop because of the lawless acts that are committed on the earth. 11 And You know all things before they happen, and You see these things and You allow them, and You do not tell us what we should do regarding them.'

 Notes and References
"... Although the angels function as God's eyes upon the earth and as the mediators of human prayers, the assumption here is that God is already aware of what has happened on earth and has heard the cry for vengeance. Thus the angels are less mediators than they are intercessors, calling God's attention to what he already knows and has heard—including the prayer of humanity. Finally, and of greatest significance, the prayer ends without a petition. The angels repeat twice the motif of God's universal knowledge and make the bold assertion that he has failed to act on it. Thus the prayer is not really a petition that God act as one's predications of him would lead one to expect; it is, in effect, an indictment that God has failed to act and has not answered the cry that a beleaguered humanity has raised to him. It is perhaps not by accident that a similar claim is made in Job 24 or in psalms of individual lament (compare Psalm 22:2) ..."

Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (p. 206) Fortress Press, 2001

Your Feedback:  
 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.