Job the Long-Suffering: the life of a righteous man and how the icon helps, the text of the prayer

The story of Job the Long-Suffering is the most terrible and, probably, the most amazing story told in the Old Testament. The image of Job fascinated not only believers, but also people far from religion. Christians see in the life of this man an example of the greatest faith and humility, philosophers of the non-Christian tradition see a rebel and a fighter against God. Patristic interpretations help us understand the true religious meaning of Job’s suffering. The Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the righteous Job the Long-Suffering on May 19.

The Righteous One from the Land of Uz

The Book of Job is one of the most mysterious books of the Old Testament, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of the history of creation.
When was this text written? Who is its author? When and where did righteous Job live? What people did he belong to? All this is not known for certain. Ancient church writers believe that the creator of the book of Job could have been the prophet Moses or King Solomon. But there is an opinion that the Book of Job is older than the Pentateuch of Moses and its author is unknown. As for the time and place of Job’s life, most interpreters believe that he lived in the era of the Old Testament patriarchs. Saint John Chrysostom, Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus and Blessed Augustine of Hippo believed that Job lived in the country of Austidia, located within Idumea and Arabia, and was a direct descendant of Esau, which means he belonged to the pagan people, although he had Abraham himself in his family. Another point of view, held, for example, by Blessed Jerome of Strydom, says that Job was the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. Job came from a pagan people, but at the same time he believed in the one true God and was righteous and blameless, alien to all evil.
He raised his many children in the same purity and righteousness. Add to this the wealth that he possessed, and we will see every person’s dream come true - a real paradise on earth.

Holy book of Muslims

The Koran describes Job as the prophet Ayyub - persecuted and dejected. There is an opinion that the righteous Job the Long-Suffering was the ancestor of the ancient Romans. On the territory of states whose main religion is Islam, there were many cities in which Job’s tomb was supposedly located. This is Salalah in Oman, Syrian Dayr Ayyub, a village near the city of Ramly, the mausoleum in Bukhara Chashma-Ayub, in Turkey - the former Edessa.

Tragedy Begins in Heaven

Job's path of suffering begins with a very strange dialogue between God and Satan.

And the Lord said to Satan: Where did you come from? And Satan answered the Lord and said: I walked on the earth and walked around it (Job 1, 7).

We must understand that the fallen spirit did not just “walk” the earth, but walked with a specific purpose - to destroy people, to lead them into temptation and enticement.

And the Lord said to Satan: Have you paid attention to my servant Job? for there is no one like him on earth: a blameless, just, fearing God and shunning evil (Job 1, 8).

Satan, naturally, cannot understand all this. He sees in Job an ordinary pagan - a man who honors the gods as the givers of earthly well-being, because this is beneficial from an everyday point of view. It is easy to love a God who showers you with blessings. But if Job's treasures are taken away, will he bless God?

Holy Scripture testifies that the “power” and “power” of Satan are insignificant compared to the omnipotence of the Creator. Before God pointed Job to the fallen spirit, Satan could not approach him. And now the devil gets the opportunity to bring down all sorts of misfortunes on the righteous, because the Lord allows it.

Why did God do this? Later He Himself would answer this question for Job.

The meaning of the word job

(euro

, the meaning is subject to different interpretations from
Hebrew.
and other Semitic roots, for example, “pressed,” or from ajja abu, “where is the father?”
and etc.; Greek
'Icop), in Jewish and Christian traditions, a suffering righteous person, tested by Satan, with the permission of the Lord; the main character of the Old Testament book I. The suffering righteous man is the central image of the ancient literatures of the Middle East (cf. the Babylonian poem “On the Innocent Sufferer”, the Egyptian “The Tale of Two Brothers”, etc.). Judging by the mention in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel (beginning of the 6th century BC), the name I. was, along with the names of Noah and Daniel, a designation (at the level of a walking proverb) of an exemplary righteous man (Ezek. 14:14 and 20). The dating of I.’s book is unclear (V-IV centuries BC?), and the structure and formation of the text in the volume known to us presents many unresolved problems; it is possible that the book contains earlier material and later insertions (probably Elihu’s speeches, descriptions of hippopotamus and leviathan, etc.). It is said about I. that he was “simple, and righteous, and God-fearing, and far from evil” (Job 1:1; here and below the author’s translation, quoted from the book “Poetry and Prose of the Ancient East”, M., 1973) ; At first, an image of the sincere earnestness of the rich patriarchal head of the clan appears, steadily guarding himself from sin and doing everything as he should. The number of his sons, daughters, and livestock is mentioned, and the sacred numbers seven, three, and five are repeated all the time, expressing the idea of perfection, conformity to law, and harmonious stability (1:2-3). When meeting with Satan, the Lord asks: “Has your heart taken notice of My servant Job? For there is no man on earth like him” (1:8). Satan objects that I.'s piety is selfish, since

The Lord protects his well-being; As soon as this is put to an end, I.’s devotion to God will also end. The Lord accepts the challenge and allows Satan to begin the test, forbidding him only to encroach on the very person of I. (1:12). Four messengers of trouble alternately inform I. about the death of his donkeys, sheep and camels, along with shepherds and drivers, and finally, his sons and daughters (1:14-19). I. tears his clothes, shaved his head as a sign of mourning, throws himself to the ground and utters words worthy of his former earnestness: “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away - blessed is the name of the Lord!” (1:21). Satan again appears before the Lord and proposes to extend the test to I.’s body, to his “bone” and “flesh” (2:4-5). The Lord again gives consent, demanding only that I.’s life be spared, and Satan inflicts a terrible disease on I. (traditionally understood as leprosy): “and Job took a shard to scrape off the pus from himself, and sat down among the ashes” (2: 8). I.'s faith in a just divine world order comes into painful conflict with his knowledge of his innocence (and the innocence of many unfortunates to whose suffering his eyes are opened; see 3:17-22; 24:3-12), up to doubt in the Divine justice. I.’s wife points out one way out of this conflict: “blaspheme God and die” (2:9). The opposite solution is offered by three of I.’s friends (their heated, sarcastic argument takes up most of I.’s book - chapters 3-31); if all suffering is a punishment imposed by God, then I. must conclude from his suffering to his guilt. But I. resolutely objects to his friends: “Or will you lie for God and proclaim untruths for His sake, to please Him, bend your soul, and shield Him in a dispute?” (13:7-8). After the “boring comforters” (16:2), the young sage Elihu (Eligu) enters into an argument with I., taking the problem to another level: suffering is sent by God not as punishment, but as a means of spiritual awakening. The last word in the dispute belongs to the Lord, who, instead of any rationalistic answer, bombards I. with questions about the incomprehensible structure of the cosmic whole, not measurable by any human measure (chapters 38-41; the description of the monsters hippopotamus and leviathan stands out, 40:10-27; 41:1— 26). I. announces his humble repentance. The Lord’s verdict recognizes I.’s correctness before his friends, who spoke about God “not as truthfully” (43:7) as he did; The Lord agrees to have mercy on his friends only through I.’s prayer (42:8). After I.’s prayer, I.’s relatives come to console I. and shower him with gifts (42:11). The Lord returns I. all the wealth in great measure, I. gives birth to seven new sons and three daughters (42:13). In this new bliss, I. lives for another 140 years and dies, “having his fill of days” (42:16-17).

The land of Uz, called the homeland of I., is identical either to the Aramaic regions in the north of Transjordan, or to Hauran, or to Edom; in any case, I., in terms of blood and geographical localization, is so close to the Judeo-Israeli sphere that he is included (together with other characters in the book of I.) in the circle of admirers of the one God, as far as he is from this sphere in order to represent the type of “man in general” ”, a model of “natural” righteousness.

In the Septuagint, the book of I. has a postscript in which, with reference to the “Syrian book,” it is reported that the original name of I. is Jobab (Edomite name?; cf. Gen. 36:33), his homeland is Ausitida “on the borders of Idumea and Arabia "; I.'s genealogy is given, going back in the fifth generation through Esau to Abraham.

In Talmudic literature, I. is the subject of contradictory judgments. The time of the book of I. was determined in different ways - from the time of Abraham, Jacob or Moses to the time of Esther. It was also suggested that the story about him is a parable (“mashal”). According to one version, I. came to know the Lord with his own strength, served Him out of love, and surpassed even Abraham in righteousness; the Talmudic treatise Sotah (35a) reports that his death was mourned by the entire people of Israel. According to another opinion (sharply contradicting the text of the book), he was an enemy of Israel - a pagan prophet who advised Pharaoh to order the midwives to kill all newborn Jewish boys; This is how he supposedly deserved his suffering (treatises Sanhedrin 106a and Sota 11a; such a role brings I. closer to Balaam). The duration of I.’s test is determined by the Mishnah at 1 year, and by the late Jewish Greek-language apocrypha “Testament of I.” - at 7 years old; I.'s entire life expectancy is 210 years.

In the European Middle Ages, this image was one-sidedly perceived as the ideal of exemplary obedience. In the fine arts of the 17th century. One can note the painting by J. de Latour “I. and his wife". “Prologue in Heaven” to Goethe’s “Faust” is a clear imitation of the beginning of I.’s story. A more hidden use of the topic of I.’s book runs through F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” (disputes between Ivan and Alyosha about the suffering of the innocent and “rejection of the world”; the question of whether the coming “Hosanna” can blot out the former untruth, directly associated by Elder Zosima with the biblical story about I.). In the poetic drama of the American writer A. McLeish “G.B.” (1958), the hero is a wealthy American who loses his children, property and health in a series of misfortunes; his comforters use the rational arguments of psychoanalysis, sociology and fashionable theology.

Sergey Averintsev.

Sophia-Logos. Dictionary

Time of suffering

For Job, a period of suffering begins - Satan leads him from small losses to increasingly large ones. The righteous man is first deprived of his property, and then receives news of the death of all his children. Moreover, the insidious spirit is trying to convince Job that the source of his misfortunes is God himself: the flocks of the pious family are being destroyed by fire that came down from Heaven. The Monk Hesychius of Jerusalem believes that the burning flame was Satan himself, who took on the appearance of a natural element.

Conversation with God

The righteous man turned to the Lord in his sincere prayer and asked him to be a witness of his sinlessness. God appeared to the sufferer in a stormy whirlwind and reproached him for talking about a higher providence. The story of Poor Job tells that the Lord explained to the righteous man that only he knows why certain events happen, and people will never be able to understand God’s providence. Therefore, a person cannot judge the Almighty and demand any kind of account from him.

After this, God, through the righteous man, turned to Job’s friends and commanded them to make a sacrifice at the hands of the sufferer, for only in this way was he ready to forgive them for condemning the righteous man and incorrectly thinking about the will of the Lord. The friends brought seven rams and the same number of bulls to the righteous man. Job prayed for them and made a sacrifice. Seeing that the righteous man, despite his grave suffering, sincerely asked for his friends, God forgave them.

"Shameful" disease

And Satan went away from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with fierce leprosy from the sole of his foot to the very top of his head (Job 2, 7).

Leprosy is a terrible disease, very common in the Old Testament era in the Middle East. They didn’t know how to treat it then, and even now it can be cured with great difficulty. In ancient times, this illness was considered a sign of a person’s spiritual impurity - a punishment that the Lord sends on sinners. A person with leprosy had to leave the city so as not to infect others, and live in places specially designated for this.

So Job left his home and found himself “in the dirt.” A new round of his trials began. Not only pain and shame because of the “shameful” illness tormented the righteous man, but also the words of the people closest to him. And his wife said to him: You are still firm in your integrity! Blaspheme God and die (Job 2 :9). The Holy Fathers note that this woman - involuntarily, of course, being struck by the terrible grief of her mother - acts like Eve, who once seduced Adam, becomes an instrument of satanic provocation. However, Job, unlike Adam, remained faithful to God. He answered the unfortunate woman: will we really accept good from God, but not evil? (Job 2 , 10).

“The righteous man who feels bad” and “the villain who feels good” [↑]

The book of Job deals with a very deep question: why do we see situations in life when, in the words of the Talmud, the tzaddik ve-ra lo

- a righteous man, and he feels bad,
rusha ve-tovlo
- a villain, and he feels good?

The question of why sometimes the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper has occupied our sages since ancient times. In fact, he was already occupied by Job himself, who well understood that it was impossible for a mere mortal to comprehend all the plans of the Almighty.

Some aspects of this topic are described in part as follows. The righteous in Heaven are asked more strictly than ordinary people. The higher the level of a person's capabilities, the more is expected of him. Tradition tells us that the righteous receive punishment not only for committing wrong actions or for evading necessary actions, but also for the “inadequacy” of those qualities that they should have developed in themselves. Therefore, what for an ordinary person is not a sin, not even a weakness, can turn out to be a serious offense for a righteous person.

With friends like these you don't need enemies

Job's friends - Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar - were first comforters, then co-questioners, and then accusers of the righteous man. It was their words that overflowed the sufferer’s patience.

At first, these people try to show both love and mercy. They were not afraid to come to the place where their sick brother was; they shared his sorrow and consoled him with their arrival. For seven days and seven nights they simply sat next to the sufferer, without saying a word.

However, unlike Job, who was blameless and righteous, his friends were ordinary people, and their idea of God was very speculative. Lacking a spiritual core, they still could not help but wonder: why did God punish the righteous man? Answering this question according to their limited understanding, they fall into a double grave sin: they slander both God and Job.

The dispute between Job and his friends is the most important theological part of the book; its monologues reflect key dogmatic themes concerning the doctrine of God. The Holy Fathers - interpreters of the book of Job - say that not everything in the words of would-be theologians is a lie. In particular, it is obvious to them that God cannot make mistakes, and therefore what happens cannot be an accident.

Their attitude towards God is false, which is based on a purely pagan fear of a powerful being who can punish the unwanted. Of course, they do not see in their friend’s life not only any crime, but even a more or less reproachful offense. But if we admit that Job is right, then what happens? We must admit that we were wrong... no, it’s scary to even think about it... And Job’s friends persuade him to admit his guilt, repent of it before God, and then He may forgive him.

Trying to “defend” God, who, of course, does not need any protection, Job’s friends end up leveling a real slander against him: What pleasure does it give to the Almighty that you are righteous? And will He benefit from your keeping your ways pure? Will He, fearing you, enter into competition with you, go to court with you? <…> Isn’t God higher than heaven? look up at the stars, how high they are! (Job 22, 3–4, 12).

And you say: what does God know? can He judge through darkness? The clouds are His curtain, so He does not see, but walks [only] around the heavenly circle (Job 22 :13-14). We see here that all the ostentatious piety of the friends of the righteous is based on the fear of a cruel deity, who does not care about human righteousness, he is only interested in “profit.” And the worst thing is: it is blind and infinitely far from earthly affairs.

Prayer

Oh, great righteous man, Long-suffering Job, radiant with his pure life and holy closeness to God. You lived on earth before Moses and Christ, yet you fulfilled all the commandments of God, carrying them in your heart. The mysteries revealed to the world through Christ and His Holy Apostles, having understood through your deep revelations, you were deemed worthy to be a partaker of the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. All the wiles of the devil, in the special temptations sent to you from the Lord, having overcome with your true humility, the image of suffering and long-suffering of the entire universe appeared to you. Having preserved your great love for God and for all people in your immeasurable sorrows, with a pure heart beyond the grave you joyfully awaited unity with the Lord. Now you remain in the villages of the righteous and stand before the Throne of God. Hear us sinners and unnecessary ones, standing before your holy icon and diligently resorting to your intercession. Pray to God, the Lover of mankind, that he may strengthen us in faith, stronger, more immaculate and unbreakable, and protect us from all evil, visible and invisible, and give us fortress in sorrows and temptations, in will forever preserve the memory of death in our hearts, strengthen us in long-suffering and brotherly love, and make us worthy of give a good answer to the terrible judgment of Christ and in our resurrected flesh contemplate the Triune God and sing His glory with all the saints forever and ever. Amen.

Daring love

Job’s response words are “bold and terrible,” but they are dictated not by fear, but by love. He cannot lie in front of the Lord, pretend to admit that he is a sinner, even for the sake of his own salvation. He wants to understand God's plan: his longing is the longing of a person who feels that the Lord has abandoned him. Here, I shout: insult! and no one listens; I cry, and there is no judgment. He has blocked my way, and I cannot pass, and has put darkness in my paths. He took away my glory from me and took the crown from my head. All around I have been ruined, and I am leaving; and like a tree, He plucked out my hope. He was kindled with His anger against me and counts me among His enemies (Job 19, 7–11).

But Job’s hope is permeated with a truly Christian spirit; long before the incarnation of the Messiah, this man feels that his pain and sorrow are an image of the sorrowful state of man on earth after the Fall, and moreover, he believes that God can heal these wounds. But I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day He will raise this decaying skin of mine from the dust, and I will see God in my flesh. I will see Him myself; my eyes, not the eyes of another, will see Him. My heart melts in my chest! (Job 19, 25–27).

The ultimate desire of Job is not the return of health, not justification in the eyes of society, not “victory” over God, as his narrow-minded friends think, but a personal meeting with Him. Oh that I knew where to find Him, and could approach His throne! I would lay my case before Him and fill my mouth with excuses; I would know the words with which He would answer me, and I would understand what He would say to me. Would He really compete with me in full power? Oh no! Let Him just pay attention to me (Job 23, 3–6).

And God answered the questioner.

Answer from the storm

The Lord begins to talk to Job about something completely different from what one would expect. He does not judge or justify him, does not weigh his actions on the scales of Divine justice. He asks the sufferer, as it may seem, about things that are not related to the essence of the conversation: I will ask you, and you explain to Me. Do you want to overthrow My judgment, accuse Me in order to justify yourself? <…> where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know. Who put the measure on it, if you know? or who stretched the rope along it? On what were its foundations established, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars rejoiced in common, when all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 40, 2–3, 38, 4–7).

In the form of questioning, God shows Job the incredible beauty of creation and the power of the Creator, incomprehensible to man. Do you have a muscle like God? And can you thunder with your voice like Him? Adorn yourself with greatness and glory, clothe yourself with splendor and splendor (Job 40 :4-5). No, Job cannot do any of this, and that is why he falls silent in dust and ashes and repents for having raised his voice.

What does the greatness and beauty of the world have to do with the suffering of the righteous? Job sees this connection in his heart, but what should the ordinary reader of the Holy Scriptures do? Patristic interpretations again come to our aid.

Construction of the church

In Sarov, not far from the city cemetery, in October 2008 they began to build a wooden parish church of Job the Long-Suffering. A ceremonial stone laying ceremony was held at the base of the altar. Archbishop Georgy of Arzamas and Nizhny Novgorod came to this event.

Further, the construction of the Temple of Job the Long-Suffering was much slower, with difficulties associated with the rapid development of the economic crisis in 2009. 2010 was a period when many economic issues were resolved, such as interior decoration and insulation, fire alarms and electrical networks. The most important thing was the production of domes. The first cross was consecrated in 2011, on April 22. Three days later the first Divine Liturgy was held. The next one took place on May 19 - in honor of the First Patronal Feast. On June 28, the Church of Job the Long-Suffering (Sarov) was consecrated by Metropolitan George of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas.

Divine masterpiece

The difficulty in interpreting the Book of Job is that God’s answer is not contained in all of its translations. In the Septuagint (translation of the Old Testament into Greek), as well as in the Church Slavonic text, the Lord gives a simple and clear answer to the main question of the book: why and for what purpose did Job suffer? “Do you really think that I dealt with you for [any] other purpose than that you might be shown righteous?”

God did not at all seek to punish Job for any sins. The Lord wanted Job to achieve spiritual perfection through suffering, so that he would have the opportunity not only to know about God, but also to meet Him face to face, so that the whole universe would learn about the spiritual beauty of God’s most perfect creation - man. The world created by the Creator is beautiful, and the pinnacle of this creation, its center, is in the person of Job man, created in the image and likeness of God.

Job is a divine masterpiece, who became capable of knowledge of God, capable of prophesying about Christ, who innocently endured the torment of the cross. He himself appeared as a living prophecy of the Lord’s Saving Sacrifice. According to St. Gregory the Great, Job prophesied about Christ “not only with his lips, but also with [his own] suffering.”

Iconography

On frescoes dating back to the 3rd-4th centuries, the image of the saint bears similarities to ancient philosophers. He is dressed in a short chiton, standing on a rock or sitting on a chair. During the same period, the saint appears on the reliefs of sarcophagi, as an illustration of the biblical text. Job sits on a chair, next to him his wife (alone or with friends) hands him food on a stick, covering his nose with the edge of his clothing.

On the icons, Saint Job is in rich clothes, with gray hair, a gray curly beard, with a scroll in his hands or with outstretched palms. There are no characters from the Book of Job next to him.

Fair ending

God restored Job to his former dignity: health, wealth, and gave him and his wife more sons and daughters and long years of life. But God not only rewarded the righteous man, but also forgave sinners - his close friends, for whom the righteous Job made a cleansing sacrifice.

Job's property as God's reward doubles, but the number of children born to him again turns out to be exactly the same as the number of his sons and daughters who died. Why is that? St. John Chrysostom answers this question: “Since the cattle and property lost by him are completely lost to him, and a person, dying, is preserved for life and rises in resurrection, then [God] does not give him twice as many children, so as not to deprive him of his hopes for those who have departed, but to show him that they, although kidnapped by death, are alive.”

Start of testing

The story of poor Job was difficult and painful. The Bible says that one day angels gathered near God’s throne to convey people’s prayers to the Almighty and ask to send good things to the human race. Among them was Satan, who came to denigrate sinners and harbored hopes that God would allow him to punish them.

The Lord asked him where he had been and what he had seen. To this Satan replied that he had walked all over the earth and seen many sinners. Then the Lord asked whether the enemy of the human race had seen God’s servant Job, who alone on earth was famous for his justice, was blameless and fearing God. Satan answered in the affirmative, but questioned the sincerity of the righteous man.

The Lord allowed Job to be tested. Satan reacted to this with special zeal and destroyed all the flocks of the righteous man, burned his fields, deprived him of his wealth and servants. But the trials did not end there; his children also died. The story of Job tells that the righteous man humbly accepted his suffering, reconciled himself to it, but continued to praise the Lord.