Divine Justice: Do the Gods Care?

An ancient Mesopotamian poem, The Babylonian Theodicy, is a short text about two friends who are debating their opposing opinions about divine justice. The main disagreement is that one friend believes that no matter how much he serves the gods, it will not help his situation and the other believes that service to the gods is directly related to how successful one will eventually become. The former is referred to as the “sufferer” because he is poor and has had an unfortunate life, and the latter is just referred to as the “friend”; he is fairly wealthy and has lived comfortable. The misfortune of the sufferer has led him to loose faith in the justice of the gods. He has come to believe the good is never rewarded and evil is not punished. He even states, “God does not block the progress of a demon.” The friend tries to convince him otherwise saying, “He who bares a god’s yoke shall never want for food.” This argument is demonstrative of a commonly debated flaw in religion: the lack of explanation for why good people can suffer and bad people seem to always prevail. Another poem, Elegy for a Woman Dead in Childbirth, narrates the story of an innocent, faithful woman who begs for her life but it killed while going through labor. Both of these stories share a common theme of divine justice. They both show that good people may end up with horrible lives.

The final poem, Poem of the Righteous Sufferer, describes the downfall and later redemption of a man named Shubshi-meshre-Shakkan. After having social and financial problems, and falling sick for no obvious reason, Shubshi-meshre-Shakkan begs forgiveness. Unlike the fate of the sufferer and the women in the other two poems, the man in this poem is actually saved by the god Marduk, because he apologized for what he did wrong. This is a sharp contrast to what is shown in the other two stories, where righteous people ultimately continue to suffer. The author of this poem believed that the gods were indeed there to help those who deserved help.

All three of these poems respond to the issue of divine justice within religion. Sometimes good people are rewarded and sometimes they seem to be doomed. We often observe that national leaders, business executives, and those who hold power can be greedy. We also see that many hard working people, who are barely making a living, can be the most pure hearted, generous people in society. So many people ask the question, how could a god let something like this happen?