They thrust the poor off the road; together the humble of the earth must hide themselves, establishing that the poor and humble are systematically excluded from public space and forced into concealment by the dominating powerful. The forced retreat from the road—the space of commerce, justice, and public life—symbolizes the exclusion of the poor from full participation in community. The necessity to hide themselves suggests a kind of social death where the vulnerable become invisible, present but unacknowledged in the landscape of the world. Job's depiction of this systematic marginalization raises the theological problem acutely: how can an omniscient and righteous God permit such organized injustice against the defenseless?

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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