Job 3:13-15

For then, I would be lying down in peace

I would be sleeping and be at rest

With worldly kings and counselors

Who rebuilt rubble heaps for themselves?

Or with princess, rich with gold,

Who filled their tombs with silver?

 

In my one attempt to try and do this faster, I decided to try three verses that were grouped altogether and see if I would learn more from the grouping as opposed to one at a time. In big bold letters I concluded “Three is Too Many”. I resigned to one verse at a time and the duration was fixed somewhere in the three-to-four-year range.

 

These verses did tie together pretty well, but it took a really long time and I still ended up going a verse at a time with little interaction between the three.

 

The most interesting tidbit was that normal translations have the rich filling their houses with silver, the real notion was that they were filling their tombs and in essence wasting their efforts. I did not see this notion with houses used even though the most basic word did mean that. This of course was the goal of Egyptian leaders and seems so silly in retrospect of tomb raiding.

 

The supporting notion that the worldly kings rebuilt ruins into something for themselves (and that they would eventually be in ruins as well) was entertaining to dig through. The second part that the things they built would eventually come to ruins was of course implied more so than stated openly. The whole idea of building a grand palace for oneself using the ruins of what was on the same spot before was kind of funny. Historically people do this when the most efficient action is just to never tear it down in the first place. The history that ISIS has destroyed forever in their religious cleansing is just a recent example of this having happened throughout man’s existence. As an aside, one version did actually say to build stuff that is now in ruins, but the point is not lost.

 

One of the versions described the “ruins” places as desolate. I align this with a graveyard or a former holy site being used to build something new and sacrilegious. Weird “stick it in the face” of those that came before type activity is prevalent in our history and gives me the mental image of “Nanny, nanny, boo, boo.”

 

One idea that came across was a version that had Job saying “rest would be mine” as opposed to “be at rest” and does carry a more personal plea of get me out of this. It seemed a little redundant but might be a worthy modification to look at in the next pass.

 

Many verses used quiet or repose in place of “in peace”. Quiet, peace, rest, and be still, were the terms used and sometimes in a mix of stich a or stich b. (I never get used to “stich”, but it is the right word.) I used “at rest” in the second because almost everyone did. I used in peace in the first stich against everyone as I just liked it better in the combo of “in peace” and “rest”.

 

The last term of note was “worldly” as opposed to “of the earth”. I used “worldly” due to its sin nature connotation over the of nature connotation of using “earth”. For me the idea was people not following God as opposed to being consistent with the preservation of the earth’s resources.

 

Job notes in these verses that if he were allowed to die before, during or directly after birth, he would not be suffering and that even the evil and greedy got to die and end their self-caused grief. Job did nothing, was suffering, and wanted nothing but peace. Peace is a great thing, but sometimes God knows better.