Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Ratapan 3:66

• As regards the second proposition, he dismisses Eliphaz's ideas about the prosperity of the wicked. He points to the existence of those evil-doers who destroy civilized society, disrupting the tranquillity of mankind, but whom God does not have it in mind (Job 4:18) to destroy in order to be rid of their evil, thus preventing them from devastating the world. For if there was Divine Governance, it would be proper for it to protect the general public from such scourges and destroyers of civilization. Furthermore, these wild-men live in remote deserts or on islands in the sea and it is from there they make sorties from time to time to plunder, to murder and to destroy many souls. And if God were to exterminate them in their hide-outs, no-one would know about it and so no damage would be done to the concept of worship or free-will. Therefore, they should be wiped out from under God’s heaven (Lamentations 3:66), by reason of the Divine Governance of man.

In the third response Elihu discusses the great question Job had asked (in chapter 24), namely, that there are evil-doers who cause havoc to the world—murderers, pirates and bandits—and why does God not annihilate them from under His heaven (Lamentations 3:66), thus removing their evil and saving the human race from their ravages? Moreover, since they live like beasts of the forest (Psalms 50:10) away from civilized people, God could wipe them out in the darkness of their dwelling-places without prejudicing free-will. He goes on to consider the general question Job had raised concerning reward and punishment, on the basis of which he had concluded that everything is determined by the Cosmos, even the volitional acts of human beings; and that man’s deeds are predestined. And so, just as mill-stones, rotated by the rush of water, are neither paid wages for grinding the flour nor punished if they crush the skull of someone who gets too close to them, humans too deserve neither reward nor punishment.

Many other strange and amazing things can be seen throughout the book. Consequently, in their attempts to elucidate the text, commentators have been forced to assume difficult and strange interpretations: Darkness confounds them (Psalms 18:12) and fog envelopes them (Job 38:9). Neither lamp nor sun (Psalms 74:16) to light up the night (Psalms 105:39); and to show how brightly it shines in the sky above (Job 37:21) under God's heaven (Lamentations 3:66).