Sample Annotation Assignment: Job 29:11-17
The Old Testament contains a wide variety of books from prose to poetry written across several hundred years. Therefore, it is no surprise that it holds a number of different perspectives on suffering and disability. Some of these coalesce easily. Some are complementary. Some stand in tension with one another. In the short paper, I will comment on the topics of suffering and disability in Job 29:11-17, relate it to contrasting material in Leviticus 21:16-24, and integrate these two with material about exclusion and inclusion from the chapter “My Wife Calls for Welcome” in Holding Hands with Pascal (Bruehler, 2014).
The Book of Job is written in poetry and is one of the wisdom writings of the Old Testament. It wrestles with the perennial issue of why the good suffer. The following portion of Job come from the end of Job’s conversation with his friends just before God begins to speak.
11 Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me, 12 because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them. 13 The one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing. 14 I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban. 15 I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. 16 I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger. 17 I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth (Job 29:11-17, NIV).
This passage is part of Job’s final protest about his inexplicable suffering. He states that he was a model of righteous behavior, and he specifies righteous behavior as caring for those who were weak, sick, isolated, suffering, and disabled. Even those people in these situations may have had some social stigma attached to them and were in danger from others at times, the Book of Job shows us that care for the vulnerable and disabled was right and commanded by God.
This passage stands in contrast to the regulations in Leviticus 21:16-24. First of all, the situation that Job describes seems to apply to the average person in Israelite society as opposed to the specific focus on priests in Leviticus 21. Also, the passage in Leviticus deals primarily with physical defects: deformed feet or hands, damaged testicles, dwarfism, and the like (vv. 18-20). However, both Leviticus 21:18 and Job 29:16 mention the blind and the lame as a pair in that order. Perhaps this combination was a kind of standard phrase to refer to people with disabilities. Even though priests with these defects could not even approach the temple, Leviticus states that they are still allowed to eat the holy and most holy food (v. 22). So much as Job did, God still makes sure that these people are provided for, even if they still face some degree of exclusion.
Inclusion and exclusion are powerful dynamics that affect people who are facing suffering and disability. The passage in Leviticus explicitly excludes men (yes, only men) of priestly families with some kind of defect from participating in the family vocation, though they are still allowed to share in meals. The passage in Job seems to paint those who are suffering and disabled as being on the margins of society. They are there, but they are vulnerable and in danger. They are dependent on others like Job and are not full participants in society. This raises the main issue of chapter seven in Holding Hands with Pascal, entitled “My Wife Calls for Welcome.” The reading in this chapter helped me to understand how the concepts of righteousness and justice, mentioned together in Job, are really two sides of the same coin. It also helped me to see that while people facing suffering and disabilities need their basic needs met (for food in Lev 21:22 and for protection in Job 29:17), they also need to be welcomed into places that accept them for who they are and make them feel at home. Offering friendship is perhaps the greatest and most needed act of righteousness
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