This new study of Job is engagingly written with a lightness of touch and many shrewd comments. The aim of the series is ‘to help the laity of the church read the Bible more clearly and intelligently’. Thus the introduction is brief (11 pages), as are the bibliographies (11 items). Wharton gives a running commentary on the text of Job, following the canonical order except for the Eliphaz speeches, which he oddly but helpfully takes together.
Wharton’s introduction raises helpful issues such as the name of God and the term ‘servant of God, but also makes some dubious assertions, e.g. that Job is marginal to the Biblical revelation. He fails to do justice to the massive treatment of creation and providence at the heart of the book’s theology, and shows little sign of interaction with commentators like Andersen and Hartley with their much richer portrayal of links with the rest of the OT.
His comments on chapters 1 and 2 show a certain flatness and lack of imaginative engagement. He fails to do justice to the role of Satan, assuming that he is no more than a minor prosecutor, and ignoring both the dramatic tension of the heavenly court scenes and the later striking imagery of powers of evil (e.g. chs. 3:8; 18:14; 41).
Wharton rightly points out that much of what Eliphaz and the others say stands comfortably within the tradition of mainstream wisdom. But he fails to see that what he regards as a positive and hopeful ending (22:23–30) is in fact completely obscured by coming at the end of increasingly negative and vicious condemnation. Similarly, like many other commentators, he fails to discern the function of chapters 24–28 as a summarising chorus, culminating in the Wisdom poem and concluding this major section. This leads him to exaggerate the isolation of chapter 28, thus ignoring the linking ki (28:1) and the many deliberate echoes of earlier speeches.
His desire to avoid Christian interpretations leads to a failure to engage in depth with the resonances of 19:25–27. He argues that if Job requires a go’el then he is indeed a sinner in need of redemption. But Job has never claimed sinlessness; rather he has protested innocence of specific guilt which would result in such dreadful sufferings. This is not to deny the cluster of grammatical and syntactical obscurities in the text, but it is not on this basis that Wharton makes his assertions. Much better is his analysis of chapters 29–31, which is one of the best parts of his book and shows an acute sensitivity both to detail and the flow of thought. Similarly, his discussion of the Elihu speeches shows a fine awareness of their importance in giving human wisdom a last run for its money.
Much less satisfactory is Wharton’s treatment of the divine speeches. The magnificent cataract of images in the first speech is hardly nodded at, and the massive theological implications if Behemoth and Leviathan are indeed supernatural figures is left unexplored. The epilogue is treated with little realisation of its profundities (e.g. ‘the restoring of fortunes of v. 10 perhaps echoing language of return from Exile’).
To conclude, this volume offers some insight and food for thought. But it is not a best buy, lacking depth and range of engagement, and should be used to supplement rather than replace the standard commentaries.
