Job's error, and the world's. Job makes an eloquent defence of his virtues in chapters 30 and 31, and that defence is itself the proof that he has not abandoned the dogma of retribution - for how can a man ask for acquittal while believing that what befalls him is payment? No amount of moral cleansing prevents the pit: though I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, thou wilt plunge me into the pit. So when calamity comes, do not dig for the cause in your own past, do not justify it, and above all do not ask 'why should this happen to me, I am doing his work' - who is not doing his work? The practical rule that follows is refusal: do not accept the sentence as final or even as temporary; repent and use your talent to extricate yourself. And the pastoral rule: when you meet someone who is limited, tell them of repentance rather than telling them they are reaping the fruit of a past mistake. Man is still in the state of consciousness of getting even, and would rather lose a merciful God than see Hitler and Stalin forgiven - but God is a God of infinite mercy and of grace.