Chapter 107 of 379

Annotations for Job

Scholars have traditionally placed the events of this book in the patriarchal period, citing the absence of any reference to covenant or law. Two facts join to support the conclusion that the book is set before the time of Moses: Job’s service as the family priest and the lack of reference to sanctuary. Against such an inference, we need only note that Job is not an Israelite (he is from the land of Uz). We would therefore not expect any reference to covenant or law, priest or temple.

We could explore some of the potential historical references in the book, such as to the Sabeans () and Chaldeans (), but such studies do not yield consistent results. Many have also focused on the specialized language of the book, such as the arcane term qesitah (“piece of silver,” ), a unit of money found elsewhere only in early literature (e.g., ; ). But these give little to go on. Scholars do not contest that the book contains arcane features, but there is not sufficient information to date either the setting of the story or the composition of the book with any confidence. Even if we could provide such dates, it would make no difference in the interpretation of the book. ◆

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1. The nature of the suffering is different. In the ancient Near Eastern exemplars, the major difficulty is health related. Because of retribution-principle thinking, sudden serious illness was generally assumed to result from the gods’ disfavor. Such illness inevitably led to social rejection, for if a god were angry with the sick individual, one would not want to be associated with that person. If a demon were causing the problem, it would likewise be best to keep one’s distance. As the literature indicates, then, serious illness made one a social outcast. In contrast, Job loses his wealth and his family before he loses his health. The Mesopotamian pieces touch on poverty and lost family, but these are not presented as major issues.

2. The nature of the offenses considered in Job are never ritual. In the ancient Near East, ritual offense was the most common sort of misdeed that could be committed; though there were ritual expectations for the people, these were devised by society, not revealed by deity. Deity valued order in society, but moral responsibility was not understood as part of the people’s responsibility toward the gods. Instead, humans were to care for the gods (through ritual) and would incur the anger of the gods by failing to provide for them. One cannot then easily speak of “righteousness” in the ancient world, only of piety (which here refers to conscientiousness in ritual activity). There was no orthodoxy (right belief)—only orthopraxy (proper performance). In the Mesopotamian pieces, deity is eventually appeased, whether by prayers, laments or rituals. This appeasement of the deity is necessary in these scenarios because the deity is presumed to be angry or inexplicably moody. In Job, there is no appeasement of Yahweh, given that Yahweh is not angry; furthermore, Job specifically rejects the path of appeasement urged by his friends (). This refusal is important to the book of Job, for Job’s pursuit of appeasement would demonstrate that the adversary was right. Appeasement focuses on regaining benefits and tacitly denies the place of righteousness. The adversary had made that precise claim—that supposedly righteous people weren’t really righteous, but only behaved righteously to gain benefits (). The Mesopotamians pursued appeasement because they considered themselves to be in a symbiotic relationship with the gods. The gods had created people to serve their needs; in response to such service, the gods protected the faithful people and provided for them (e.g., fertile fields). This perspective, called the Great Symbiosis, was the foundation of religious thinking in the ancient world (see the article “

”). This symbiosis was benefit based: the gods reaped benefits from the labor of humans, and humans reaped benefits from the favor of the gods. This expectation was not based on the belief that the god was just, only that he or she was sensible. The gods needed what humans provided, and they in return were capable in most circumstances of providing protection. The system did not work this way because the gods were just, but because they were needy. The gods in the ancient world did not care about defending their character; they were only concerned to preserve their prerogatives and their executive perquisites. When a god did not receive the cultic rites to which he was entitled, his status was threatened, and his wrath and/or abandonment was predictable. Appeasement was a vital part of this system, and if Job had pursued appeasement, he would have shown himself to be a part of this system of thought.

3. In the ancient Near Eastern exemplars, the sufferers stand ready to acknowledge their offenses if they could only be shown what they were. They claim ignorance, while Job claims innocence. This stance would have been difficult to maintain in the ancient Near East, for the gods were the ones who decided where sacred spaces were and what rituals needed to be performed. People who lived in Mesopotamia never believed that their information on these issues was comprehensive. Job, in contrast, is confident in his innocence. He is clearly using different standards to make his claims. Job never acknowledges any offense (unlike his Mesopotamian counterparts), and God does not offer forgiveness in the process of restoration.

4. We can identify a number of Mesopotamian pieces that belong to the declarative praise genre, a genre that likewise appears frequently in the Biblical psalms. This genre is characterized by a lament, a petition, a favorable response by God and an ending of praise. This is far different from the book of Job, which includes no concluding praise of Yahweh. The Mesopotamian pieces seem designed to feature praise, while Job omits it entirely.

5. While the themes of justice (God’s) and righteousness (Job’s) are central to the book of Job, neither is present in the ancient Near Eastern exemplars. Granted, in the ancient world, the gods were interested in justice being maintained in the human realm; Shamash, e.g., was the god of justice, and kings were accountable to him to maintain justice in society. However, the gods desired an equitable society only because a stable and prosperous community most effectively provided for their needs. The gods themselves were neither just nor unjust: they simply did what they wished. They were neither consistent nor predictable, neither moral nor immoral. Notice that the Mesopotamian pieces do not try to defend the justice of God (in the end, neither does the book of Job), nor do they question whether deity is just. The primary concern is the preservation of the parameters and rules of the Great Symbiosis, not of justice. These pieces are all about the relationship between piety and prosperity. The contrasts in Job show it to be a work thoroughly immersed in the Israelite theological system.

6. Just as the gods were not necessarily just in the ancient world, they were likewise not necessarily responsible for evil or suffering. These elements were understood as built into the fabric of the cosmos, but not by the gods or any other beings. Furthermore, demons or humans could be responsible for suffering or evil without necessarily involving the gods. In Israelite thinking, God could not so easily be removed from the equation, though certainly humans could do evil.

7. The piety/prosperity matrix of the Great Symbiosis serves as the foundation of the adversary’s accusation against Job. If Job’s response indicates that he is bound to this matrix, the adversary has won his case. In other words, if Job is not different from all of the sufferers in the Mesopotamian literature, the adversary has made his point. In this sense, while all of the Mesopotamian pieces end by affirming the traditional dogmas, in Job those very same traditional dogmas are voiced by the friends and persistently rejected by Job.

8. Job focuses on his own righteousness, not on the piety/prosperity matrix. While his Mesopotamian counterparts are not declared innocent at any point throughout the literature, Job is declared so from beginning to end. Unlike his Mesopotamian counterparts, Job never considers the option that he deserves what he is experiencing.

9. In the ancient Near East, when one offended deity by some sort of ritual neglect or misstep, the deity might react by simply turning his back, leaving one vulnerable to demon attack. In this way the deity was not the one actively bringing harm. These demons were not seen as doing the will of the deity—they were simply acting in character by attacking a vulnerable subject. The adversary in Job, however, is not an independent agent opportunistically fulfilling its nature. Whatever he does, he does through the power of God; all the events of the book are understood as God’s actions. Demons in their ancient Near Eastern role are absent from OT theology, including Job.

10. Finally, it is evident that the philosophical and theological answers provided by the book of Job are quite different from those offered in the ancient Near Eastern exemplars. Job rejects the easy answers of Mesopotamia (divine inscrutability, inherent sinfulness of humanity, gods who make humanity crooked). For Job, these premises are acceptable to a degree, but they are not the answers that the book offers. The Mesopotamian literature concludes that pious people do sometimes suffer, but this suffering has nothing to do with divine injustice—it only means that one can never be fully comprehensive in one’s ritual performance, and therefore inadvertent offense is always possible. One can only increase one’s piety and call out to the gods for mercy with the hope that perhaps they will answer. Is there pious suffering? Yes. But the suffering is no one’s fault, just a possibility inherent in the very nature of the gods and the humans who blindly attempt to serve them in the Great Symbiosis. The texts from Mesopotamia consistently fail to affirm or defend the justice of deity. Instead they affirm pervasive and often ignorant offense by humans and the general inscrutability or, more likely, the capriciousness of the gods. In Ludlul bel Nemeqi (“I will praise the lord of wisdom”) the sufferer expresses the wish that he could know what pleased the gods because it is not intuitive. He concludes that mortals have no understanding of the ways of the gods. The answer offered by the book of Job is quite different. Here the answer is that yes, sometimes righteous people suffer, but this fact should not be the basis for deducing that God is unjust. Rather, it is a flawed philosophy that concludes that one’s suffering or prosperity are directly related to one’s behavior. The Great Symbiosis is not at the heart of human experience, but neither is the Retribution Principle. Instead, God’s wisdom is at the heart of how the world operates and the resulting human experience. In one sense this does suggest that God is inscrutable, but it is not on account of capriciousness. Yahweh’s inscrutability is a result of his infinite wisdom in contrast to our human limitations. ◆

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1. No symbiosis (God does not have needs, )

2. An interest in the justice of God

3. An interest in righteousness as an abstract concept

4. A sense of personal righteousness that goes beyond what the ancient world would have provided

5. No ritual offenses considered or ritual remedies suggested or pursued

6. No appeasement pursued

7. Worship of celestial deities considered an offense (), as it would not have been in the ancient Near East

8. Shape of the Retribution Principle different since God could not be absolved of his role in bringing suffering ◆

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the land of Uz. Job’s homeland has yet to be positively identified. Uz is a region, not a city, and “the East” (v. ) is associated with the Syrian Desert stretching from Mesopotamia to Arabia. In Biblical genealogies, Uz is sometimes connected with Aram (e.g., ; ; ) and at other times with Edom (e.g., , ; ; and probably ). Edom has been preferred over Aram, based on Edom’s reputation for wisdom and Eliphaz the Temanite’s origin from the area of Edom (see and note). In an appendix to the book of Job, the Septuagint, the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT, locates Uz between Idumea and Arabia, causing the earliest analysis to situate it in the south. Regardless of its location, this detail is significant, because it indicates that Job is not an Israelite. His non-Israelite status explains the absence of many key theological elements in the book, including law, covenant, temple and reference to Yahweh. Intriguingly, however, the book frequently evidences an Israelite theological perspective (see the article “How the Book of Job Differs From Ancient Near Eastern Thinking,” point 5), thus suggesting that the story of the non-Israelite Job has actually been given its literary shape by an Israelite author for an Israelite audience (see the article “Ways in Which Job Thinks Like an Israelite”).

seven sons and three daughters. Part of the wealth, prosperity and happiness of the blameless and upright Job. The number seven often occurs in Ancient Near Eastern literature; it indicates the ideal family (cf. ; ) and is therefore retained in . The gods Baal and Mot have seven assistants (“lads”) and Baal has three daughters (Pidray, Tallay and Arsay). The epic of king Keret from Ugarit, which has been compared to the book of Job, deals with his calamities and states that he lost everything when a “seventh” son fell by the sword.

burnt offering. Job’s repeated rituals do not suggest that he considers his children to be closet apostates, hurling drunken insults heavenward. Instead, he considers that anytime such revelry occurs, the possibility exists that unguarded statements could be made at which God would take offense despite the innocent intentions of the speaker. In the ancient world outside of Israel, the gods were considered to be unrealistic and almost childish in taking offense. A Neo-Assyrian prayer, e.g., expresses an individual’s confusion over all that is going wrong in his life. He begins listing all the unintentional ways that he might have offended some deity or other: Did he accidentally step on sacred space of some known or unknown god? Did he eat some food forbidden by a known or unknown god?

It is worth exploring whether Job was thinking of God in these terms. In the ancient world, religious duty was more concerned with ritual than with ethics. In this view, one could not really know what would please the gods, so they were given gifts to keep them happy. This appeasement mentality carried with it the idea that deity was inclined toward irrational behavior. The gods had needs, and one tried to keep the gods content by meeting those needs (ritually). Ethical behavior was not neglected, but it was not among the primary religious responsibilities. This question is important here, because the chosen example clouds the issue of whether or not Job’s behavior demonstrates an appeasement mentality toward an overly sensitive deity. In this way of thinking, God might suddenly become upset if someone were to commit a ritual offense in ignorance. Gods were often suspected of taking offense where none was intended. When Job begins to suffer, we see that he does consider that his troubles might be due to an overly attentive deity ().

We can see, then, that the description of Job leaves no doubt that he is righteous. However, the chosen example does not clarify his motives for being righteous, and it leaves unresolved the question of Job’s picture of God. Once we see the issue in this light, we can see how this verse leads directly to the challenge posed by the adversary, which was precisely on that point. If Job is engaged in the appeasement mentality of the Great Symbiosis (see the articles “

” and “How the Book of Job Differs From Ancient Near Eastern Thinking”), then it would be legitimate to ask, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (v. ). If sacrilege can be inadvertent and if ritual is a shot in the dark to try to appease any such inadvertent word at which that deity make have taken offense, the deity has no integrity, and no motivation remains for righteousness, except to reap benefits from a patronized god. It is Job’s fastidious ritual conduct that gives the opportunity for the question to be raised by the adversary.

The Hebrew word satan has traditionally been rendered as the proper name “Satan.” This decision leads casual readers to associate this being (“accuser,” “adversary”—the meaning of the Hebrew word) with the devil, named as Satan in the NT (e.g., ). However, every time this word occurs in Job, it is preceded by the definite article (hassatan). This is strong evidence that satan is not a personal name, because Hebrew does not put a definite article in front of personal names. There is therefore also little reason to equate this character with the devil, since it can be used to describe other individuals by function; it is applied to human beings in (“he [David] will turn against”); (“adversary” [generic human]); (“adversary” [Hadad]); , (“adversary” [Rezon]); (“accuser” [generic human]), and even to the angel of the Lord in (“oppose”). We should therefore understand the word to indicate the office or function of the individual so designated. The character need not be intrinsically evil. Though interpreters commonly portray this so-called adversary as one who seeks out human failings, God’s policies are the true focus of the challenge. Job’s character is only the test case. The challenge therefore does not necessarily imply some flaw in God or in Job.

Some infer that this so-called adversary relishes the opportunity to strike at Job, but the text does not attribute to him (or to God) any personal emotional response to Job’s tragedy. God carries more responsibility for striking Job than the adversary does (; ), and both lack any sympathetic response. It is arbitrary, therefore, to assume that the adversary enjoys Job’s suffering, while God sadly endures it. Nothing intrinsically evil emerges from the profile of the adversary in the book of Job. What he does has negative consequences for Job, a righteous man, but the text is clear that God is at least equally responsible; thus, the actions cannot be implicitly evil. There is no tempting, corrupting, depraving or possessing involved; in fact, there is little if any overlap with the character Satan from the NT. The adversary in Job should therefore not be equated with the devil of later literature. ◆

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angels. Lit. “sons of God” (also in ; ; see ), as in , ; ; , . came to present themselves before the LORD. Sets a scene in heaven in the “divine council,” a concept well known in ancient Near Eastern literature (see the article “

”).

Texts dealing with a seemingly innocent person who suffers were widespread in the ancient world, especially in the ancient Near East. The Egyptian text “The Dialogue of a Man with His Soul” describes someone who asks in his misery whether it would not be better to commit suicide. In other texts (the Ipuwer Papyrus and the Teaching for King Merikare) the “discourse of theodicy” receives attention and the question is asked: “Is he [God] incapable of getting influenced against evil and injustice?”

The Sumerian “A Man and His God,” which goes back to the beginning of the second millennium BC, is a long, personal, lamenting monologue, in which a pious sufferer has a feeling of guilt and asks for forgiveness, and the god turns his suffering into joy.

The category closest to the book of Job is that of Akkadian dialogues, such as the Babylonian Ludlul bel nemeqi (“I will praise the lord of wisdom”) or “The Babylonian Theodicy.” The Ludlul, from the sixteenth through twelfth centuries BC, describes a pious but not necessarily innocent person who suffers from an illness, which is described in great detail. He is rejected by his peers, and even his brother has become his enemy. Ignored by the gods, he summarizes his dilemma: “What seems good to one’s self could be an offence to a god, / What in one’s own heart seems abominable could be good to one’s god.”

“The Babylonian Theodicy” (c. 1000 BC) comes closest to the book of Job. It is in the form of a dialogue, and the sufferer, like Job, is in a dispute with his friends, although he has only one unnamed friend. There is not such harshness in the dispute as found in the book of Job. At the end, the sufferer expresses this wish: “May the god who has cast me off grant help, / May the goddess who has [forsaken me] take pity.”

The Mesopotamian examples agree that no one is righteous, that suffering is part and parcel of the human condition and that it is not certain what is right or wrong in the eyes of the gods. Humans cannot fathom the divine mind (). This idea was already seen in the quotation from the Ludlul above. In “The Babylonian Theodicy”: “Divine purpose is as remote as innermost heaven, / It is too difficult to understand.” And in “The Dialogue of Pessimism”: “Who is tall enough to ascend to the heavens? Who is broad enough to encompass the earth?”

In the polytheistic religions of the ancient Near East, innocent suffering could be attributed to another deity or to demons. There were protective deities to whom one could turn when the main deities could no longer be relied upon. For Job, the situation is more complicated: If there is only one God, what do you do if he has become your enemy? ◆

Mesopotamian Literature Compared with Job

Literature: A Man and His God (Sumerian)

Status: Ignorant of offense

Condition: Illness; social outcast

Resolution: Sins confessed

Outcome: Restored to health

Philosophy: No sinless child born

Theology: Results in hymn of praise

Literature: Dialogue between a Man and His God (Akkadian)

Status: Ignorant of offense

Condition: Illness

Resolution: Text broken

Outcome: Restored to health

Philosophy: None offered

Theology: Divine favor assured

Literature: Sufferer’s Salvation³³ (Akkadian, from Ugarit)

Status: No comment

Condition: Illness; death imminent; omens obscure

Resolution: No indication

Outcome: Restored to health

Philosophy: God brought his suffering then brought his healing

Theology: Results in hymn of praise to Marduk

Literature: Ludlul bel nemeqi (Akkadian)

Status: Conscientious piety; ignorant of offense

Condition: Social outcast; omens obscure; illness; protective spirits chased away; demon oppression

Resolution: Dream appearance

Outcome: Purification bringing appeasement; offenses borne away; demons expelled; restored to health

Philosophy: Gods are inscrutable

Theology: Results in hymn of praise to Marduk

Literature: Babylonian Theodicy (Akkadian)

Status: Claims piety

Condition: Family gone; poverty

Resolution: none

Outcome: none

Philosophy: Purposes of gods remote; Retribution Principle (RP) unreliable

Theology: Gods make people with evil inclinations and prone to suffering

Literature: Job (Hebrew)

Status: Claims righteousness and conscientious piety

Condition: Family taken; social outcast; illness; wealth taken

Resolution: Yahweh offers new perspective based on wisdom

Outcome: Restoration at all levels

Philosophy: Retribution Principle (RP) unreliable; divine wisdom is foundation

Theology: God’s justice is granted given his wisdom

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blameless. As is the case of the high priest Joshua in , Job the blameless stands accused. The issue of the suffering of the innocent is also dealt with in other ancient Near Eastern texts. This blamelessness is not absolute, but relative to human standards. Neither the OT nor the literature of the ancient Near East have concepts of original sin that are equivalent to the Christian doctrine. In the ancient Near East, the gods had built evil into human civilization from the beginning. In Israel, it was understood that humans possessed an innate inclination to sin.

The Retribution Principle (RP) is the conviction that the righteous will prosper and the wicked will suffer, in proportion to both their respective righteousness and wickedness. In Israelite theology, the principle is integral to the belief in God’s justice. Since God is just, Israelites believed it was incumbent on him to uphold the RP. Having a worldview in which God is absolutely just and compelled to maintain the RP, the Israelites developed the inevitable converse corollary, which affirmed that those who prospered must be righteous (i.e., favored by God) and those who suffered must be wicked (i.e., experiencing the judgment of God).

The literature of the ancient Near East continually demonstrates that people believed that the administration of justice in the human world was a concern and responsibility of the gods. The questions that swirl around the RP, however, lose their philosophical urgency in the ancient world, because injustice is often blamed on demons and humans, rather than on the gods. In Mesopotamian thinking, evil was built into the fabric of the cosmos by means of the so-called cosmic laws, but even those were not established by the gods. Since evil existed outside of the jurisdiction of the gods, divine administration of justice did not necessarily eliminate suffering. Some misfortune came about simply because of how the world was. In both Egyptian and Mesopotamian thinking, the gods were not considered responsible for evil in the world, and therefore the presence or experience of evil did not have to be resolved in reference to the justice of the gods (this in contrast to Israelite thinking, in which nothing existed totally outside the jurisdiction of God’s sovereignty—i.e., the rest of the gods were contingent; Yahweh was not). In the Sumerian “Lament Over the Destruction of Ur,” the city is destroyed not as an act of justice or injustice, but because it was time for kingship to be passed on. Likewise with regard to individuals, suffering could sometimes be seen as just one’s fate for the present. It is also clear that personal misfortune could result from offending the gods, even if the offense were committed innocently. In such cases, the gods were not unjust—they simply were not very forthcoming about communicating their expectations.

A sense and expectation of RP at a basic level remains evident in the ancient Near East, though the gods are relieved of responsibility because of the way their function in the cosmos is perceived. Even in the areas in which the gods could be held responsible, they, like human judges, may be doing their best to administer justice, but doing so imperfectly.

In this sense, though people of Mesopotamia might have believed that the gods did indeed punish those who earned their wrath, this conviction could not offer an explanation for all suffering. The notion that those who suffer must be wicked could not work, because in the ancient Near Eastern worldview, much of the suffering that people experienced was not orchestrated by the gods. Suffering could be the result of the god’s inattention, of simple circumstance or of the nature of the world. Even if the gods abandoned a person because of some offense, they were not responsible for the ensuing evil—they simply did nothing to prevent it, having withdrawn their favor and protection. ◆

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Does Job fear God for nothing? The question has roots in the ancient Near East. In what we have called the “

” (see the articles “

” and “How the Book of Job Differs From Ancient Near Eastern Thinking”), people find protection and prosperity when they are loyal to the god and meet his needs. The question here is whether or not Job is acting just like everyone else in the ancient Near East—being fastidiously righteous because he is convinced that this is what will bring the favor of a deity. This is based in another common idea in the ancient world called the Retribution Principle: the premise that the righteous will prosper and the wicked will suffer (see the article “Retribution Principle”).

Sabeans. Not the tribes from southern Arabia (Sheba), but rather those from Tema in northern Arabia (cf. ), although the southern Sabeans might have had commercial colonies in the north. Sabeans are mentioned by the Assyrian kings as having given them gifts. put . . . to the sword. Killed. The animals were taken away as plunder.

fire of God. Might refer to lightning or thunder. burned up. The Hebrew means “ate,” as in , where the fire “devoured” (the same Hebrew verb as is used in Job) 250 rebellious men. Fire could be used by the deity as a form of judgment, as in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., ; , , ; ; , , , , ; , ; especially [also with the verb “eat”]) and other ancient Near Eastern texts. The god Ashur “ignited against the foes the deterring fire . . . Enlil set the flame in the midst of the foe” and the goddess Ishtar, who is called “Flaming-Fire-of-Battle,” describes herself by saying, “I am the burning fire showered upon the land of the foe.”

Chaldeans. Not the same peoples as those in the later seventh-century BC imperialistic Neo-Babylonian dynasty who subsequently destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. Here it refers to the earlier unsettled tribes who (together with, but still a separate group from Aramean groups) infiltrated Mesopotamia at the beginning of the first millennium BC and are mentioned in Assyrian sources in the tenth century BC as living in southern Mesopotamia. In contrast to the urbanized societies, they lived in tribal groups and were raiders of cities and caravans.

wind . . . from the desert. This is not only the scorching eastern desert wind (sirocco or khamsin, cf. ), but a sudden mighty wind that brought total destruction. As described in Job, it struck the four sides of the house at once.

tore his robe . . . shaved his head . . . fell to the ground. Gestures of extreme grief and mourning, comparable to the gesture undertaken by the friends in (see the article “Mourning”). Tearing the clothes and shaving the head to indicate grief are known from the Bible (e.g., ; ) and were prevalent in the ancient Near East. The Mesopotamian king Marduk-Baladan I, e.g., “threw himself to the ground, he rent his [garment], he shaved, and he uttered a lament.”

Satan also came . . . to present himself. See note on .

sores. Job suffered from a skin disease, but it is not certain what kind. Leprosy has been proposed because of the resemblance with the description of skin diseases in , but the Hebrew word describing the condition in Leviticus is different than the one used in Job. The word used in Job is related to one used in the Ugaritic texts of the god Baal, who grew hot or feverish, and it is also used in the Aramaic prayer of Nabonidus from Qumran, where it is said that the king was stricken with an inflammation. As is typical of descriptions of medical conditions and symptoms in the ancient world, these do not offer enough information for confident diagnosis.

broken pottery . . . ashes. In Akkadian, the term “place/mound of potsherds” could designate the world of the dead. It might be that Job counted himself already as one dead, as do his friends when they sprinkle dust on their heads (v. ), thereby identifying themselves with the dead (cf. ). Alternatively, the “ashes” could refer to the town dump outside the city limits where dung was periodically burned. scraped himself. This action might have been intended to scratch his itching wounds, but perhaps it is rather a gesture of mourning or, at the least, a form of self-mutilation to express his grief.

Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. Job’s friends come from places or regions that are impossible to identify with certainty, but they are presumably situated in the region of Edom.

In the OT, mourning is described in various texts. In Jacob tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth and weeps; in Joseph’s friends mourn with him for seven days; in David tears his clothes and puts dust on his head; in Tamar puts ashes on her head, tears her mantle, and then puts her hand on her head and weeps aloud; in sackcloth and fasting characterize the mourner; in mourners sit in the dust (cf. ); in ; mourners sit on the ground, sprinkle dust on their heads and wear sackcloth; in sackcloth and shaved heads describe mourning; and in the Ninevites don sackcloth and sit in the dust. Mourning is known from Egyptian sources, where there are many depictions of wailing women throwing dust on their heads. Philistine clay figurines depict women with their hands on their heads as a gesture of wailing. When the Ugaritic god El hears of the death of Baal, he leaves his throne and sits on the footstool, and from the footstool he sits on the ground. He pours dust of mourning on his head, puts on a loincloth and scratches his skin with a stone. In Ugaritic legend, wailers mourn seven years over the dead hero Aqhat. Gilgamesh mourned seven days over his dead friend Enkidu, as did Nabonidus after the death of his mother. In the Sumerian myth Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld, deities sit in the dust dressed in sackcloth and scratch their eyes and mouths. These practices show that the Israelites had practices at most levels of culture that were virtually identical to the people around them rather than being a culturally isolated and unique people. Yahweh’s revelation to them in general did not change their culture; it changed their theology—particularly regarding how they thought about God. ◆

Grieving widow puts dust on her head as a sign of mourning, 1350–1300 BC.

Wikimedia Commons

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cursed the day of his birth. In , Job’s wife advises him, “Curse God and die!” Instead, Job curses the day of his birth. In , the ambiguous Hebrew word brk (also “bless”) is used, but here the Hebrew word qll instead of the stronger ʾrr is used for “curse.” Job’s wish that he had never been born is repeated in and the prophet Jeremiah does the same: “Cursed [ʾrr] be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed [brk]!” (). In the eighth-century BC Assyrian Myth of Erra and Ishum a city governor says to his mother that it would have been better if he had never been born or if he had died with her. A lament in the first person occurs in a letter prayer addressed to the Mesopotamian god Enki. Job’s lament, therefore, follows a typical path found in the ancient Near East.

darkness. In contrast to “let there be light” as the first act of God’s creation (), Job wishes for darkness (cf. ), implying that creation should be returned to nonorder, because his life has reverted to nonorder. This is emphasized by the use of words like “night” (v. ); “no light” (v. ); “gloom,” “darkness” and “blackness” (v. ); and “thick darkness” (v. ).

curse days . . . rouse Leviathan. In the ancient Near East, Leviathan was seen as the primeval sea monster of chaos (see the article “Leviathan”) defeated at creation. It represented the raging, destructive flood waters (), and when it was aroused as part of a curse, it implied that chaos would prevail. Calling forth the forces of chaos might be reflected in later Jewish-Aramaic incantations. In the ancient Near East, those who curse days and rouse chaos creatures are typically demons, but Job’s reference here is oblique rather than specific.

came from the womb. In Job referred to his “mother’s womb,” which, in that case, probably referred to the earth as a mother, as in , , where “mother’s womb” is parallel to “depths of the earth.” Here, Job wishes that he had died at birth or after he was born, and that he had been hidden in the ground like a stillborn child (v. ). The same idea occurs in ; .

knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed. The knees might refer to Job’s father, on whose knees he sat when he was born, as is known from the ancient Near East. In the Hittite myth of Ullikummi, the god Kumarbi dandles the monster on his knee and gives it a name. In , the grandchildren were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees, and in , Jerusalem is said to be like a woman with a child on her knees, nursing it. The most famous ancient Near Eastern comparison is that of the Egyptian goddess Isis nursing the young god Horus on her lap, which was applied in representations of the young pharaoh, but also with mortals. An Egyptian stele depicts a father with his child on his knees.

lying down in peace; I would be asleep. Job would have had peace if he had died, but now he has no rest (cf. v. ). An inscription in the tomb of the Assyrian king Sennacherib reads, “Palace of sleep, tomb of repose.”

the weary are at rest. In the Egyptian “Book of the Dead,” the deceased are called “the weary,” and the heart is weary when death is near, as stated in the Egyptian Story of Sinuhe.

In the underworld, social relations are seen as inverted, because in death all are equal. This idea is also reflected in ancient Near Eastern texts such as the Egyptian Ipuwer Papyrus: “Indeed the land turns around like a potter’s wheel. Princes are hungry and perish, Servants are served . . . The serf becomes lord of serfs.”

breath of God. Usually this phrase refers to God’s activity (cf. ), but here it refers to a destructive wind from the desert (cf. ; ). The parallel word used in the second line of the verse (NIV “blast”), is the same as that which blew down the house over Job’s children in . One of the most common portrayals of gods in the ancient world is as storm-gods, a portrayal also ascribed to God in Israel (see note on ; see also the article “

” and note on ).

The lion perishes. Eliphaz describes the fate of the wicked: “those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it” (v. ). One of his examples is the lion who perishes. “The Babylonian Theodicy” has: “For the atrocity that lion committed, the pit yawns for him.” In the ancient Near East, lions were a symbol of self-assertion, as is known from Akkadian texts, but in the imagery here they are destroyed.

dreams in the night. Terrifying dreams also occur in ; . In the Babylonian text Ludlul bel nemeqi (“I will praise the lord of wisdom”), the righteous sufferer also has terrifying dreams. Epiphanies or divine revelations in dreams are well known from the OT and the ancient Near East; they formed part of divination (see note on ). There are dream visions in the Mari letters, and a dream omen might come from Ugarit. An inscription from Deir ‘Alla reads, “The gods came to him at night, and he beheld a vision.” Akkadian texts refer to a similar “hair-raising” experience when someone in a night vision sees various deities in the underworld in hybrid form. Gilgamesh is wakened in the night with a feeling of terror after having a terrible dream. His friend Enkidu dreamed of his death.

angels. Hebrew “messengers” of God, as in ; . error. Need not refer to some great cosmic event; God commonly holds his messengers accountable and corrects them. refers to just such an occasion. In , the messengers act as mediators. The sufferer of the Babylonian text Ludlul bel nemeqi (“I will praise the lord of wisdom”) complains that his benevolent angel has been cut off, his protecting spirit frightened off.

holy ones. The Hebrew word qedoshim or “saints” occurs 13 times in the OT referring to God, heavenly beings and people, but in this case it refers to heavenly beings (cf. ; , ; ; ), who are part of the heavenly council (). Like the messenger “angels” of and , they function as mediators between God and humans. Some commentators have taken this as the rejection of the Mesopotamian concept of the “personal god,” but Eliphaz is merely emphasizing the difference between God and the other heavenly beings, as in , where God is said to place no trust in them.

court. Lit. “city gate,” where legal cases were tried, contracts were concluded, public meetings were held, business deals were made, social interaction occurred and even religion was practiced, as in ; (cf. also ; ; ; ; ). See note on .

undependable as intermittent streams. As treacherous as the wadis of Canaan: they are dry in summer when water is needed (v. ), but they can become torrents when it rains. Sudden flooding of watercourses is known, especially in the dry Negev, where the sand and rocks are not so porous, and there is no vegetation to stem the waters from the sudden downpours.

Tema. An important oasis in northern Arabia () along the spice route from the south (“Sheba”).

hard service. Lit. “army” or “warfare” (also in ; ) can refer to military service, but here it refers to any kind of labor. According to Mesopotamian thought, as reflected by the Atrahasis epic, humans were made to serve the gods and do their work. Israelite kings conscripted people for forced labor (e.g., ; ; ; ; see notes on ; ; ). hired laborers. A person or object hired for a wage (an animal, ; mercenaries, ).

weaver’s shuttle. The device that carries the thread from one side of the loom to the other. This technique goes quite rapidly, but a weaver’s shuttle can run out of thread, and here Job considers himself to be without thread or hope. hope. The Hebrew word (tiqwah) can be translated as “hope” (here) or “thread” (or cord, ), which continues the metaphor from the world of weaving. The same metaphor occurs in : “Like a weaver I have rolled up my life, and he has cut me off from the loom.”

the sea . . . the monster of the deep. The sea (Hebrew yam) is portrayed as a cosmic power (cf. ) that has to be kept at bay, as in . In a Ugaritic text, the god Yamm (the sea-god) is conquered by Baal, and the monster in the sea is defeated by Anat: “I have bound the dragon’s jaws, have destroyed it, have smitten the twisting serpent, the closed-coiled one with seven heads.” Elsewhere in Ugaritic texts the sea monster has a double tail. It was a symbol of chaos subdued by God (like Leviathan and Rahab; see note on ; see also the article “Identification of Behemoth and Leviathan”). Here, however, the motif is used to describe the sufferer’s protest against God’s relentless surveillance.

dreams. See note on .

you who see everything we do. Usually the divine watcher serves a protective function, but here the emphasis is reversed to portray God as a scrutinizer rather than an observer. The closest ancient Near Eastern parallel is the occasional reference to the seven antediluvian sages (Akkadian apkallu) as watchers. Later literature assigned the role of watchers to angels (e.g., , , ), and eventually to fallen angels (the Apocryphal book of Enoch), though that idea was unknown at this time.

The concept of death is central to the book of Job (; ; ; ; ; ). In some cases, clay and dust are used to indicate the mortality of humans (e.g., ; ; ; ; cf. , ; ; ). The term Sheol is used in parallel with death (see note on ) in the OT to indicate the grave or the underworld. In , Sheol (“Death”) has a mouth and swallows humanity.

The word Sheol is unique to the Hebrew Bible, but the concept of the grave or underworld is well known in the ancient Near East. In Mesopotamian mythology, the underworld is a very inhospitable place from which no one returns; there is no light there, and the inhabitants eat clay or mud and drink unclean water. In the Mesopotamian myths Descent of Ishtar and Nergal and Ereshkigal, the underworld is described as a place from which those who enter cannot leave, where they see no light, but dwell in darkness. In Enkidu’s vision of the netherworld in the Gilgamesh Epic, it is a “House of Dust.” The concept of death in Egypt is not so gloomy, and the positive attitude of the ancient Egyptians toward it is common knowledge. They developed a whole program to deal with death and even a complex geography of the underworld. Nevertheless, the underworld is a world reversed, and it holds dangers and darkness.

Death is personified in : “Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave [Hebrew sheol], is your destruction.” describes Sheol as “greedy” and death as “never satisfied.” According to , humans are like sheep shepherded by death, but according to , the Lord will swallow up death forever. ◆

A detail of the painting of the Book of Caverns in the tomb of Ramses VI. The artist depicts the journey of the sun disk through the underworld above the decapitated enemies.

Werner Forman Archive/Glow Images

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if you are pure . . . so prosperous will your future be. See the article “Retribution Principle.”

In the ancient world, a person’s identity was found in the community more than it was in their individual existence. This community was comprised not only of those who lived in the present, but also of those who had lived in the past. Conformity to community values that had existed throughout time was a high priority, while individualism and novelty were discouraged.

Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? The papyrus plant (Cyperus papyrus) was common to the Nile delta and could grow as high as 19.5 feet (6 meters); it is a typical aquatic marsh plant, which, like reeds, needs water to grow and can wither like grass (v. ). It also grew in Canaan, especially in the (now drained) marshes of Huleh. Papyrus was used to make baskets and skiffs, and was used as material on which to write.

prove their innocence. Legal motifs and terms abound in the book of Job, and the book has even been described as a theological lawsuit. Job considers himself a defendant in a criminal case, but he is trying to take the role of plaintiff in a civil case who has charges to make against God. In Mesopotamia, the gods controlled justice, and gods could be adversaries in court. There is one comparable example in which a king calls upon Shamash, the sun-god and god of justice, to judge him.

one time out of a thousand. Impossible odds (cf. ; ).

The ancient Israelites shared many common cosmological (dealing with the structure of the cosmos) and cosmogonic (dealing with the origin of the cosmos) beliefs with the ancient Near Eastern world, although for them there was only one Creator. According to the Hebrew Bible, the cosmos consists of heaven, earth, underworld and sea. In both Egyptian and Mesopotamian thought, the world was understood as a disk resting on the primeval waters. Most people saw their own place as in the center, with the other countries on the periphery. Above was the sky, studded with stars, which were thought to be engraved in the solid sky.

indicates that the earth rests on pillars, as does (cf. foundations/footings in ; ; , ; ; [also shaken]; ). In , the pillars of the heavens quake. God shakes the heavens, earth, dry land and sea (). On a Babylonian kudurru (boundary stone), which might depict the world, a large pillar is depicted that undergirds the cosmos. Throughout the Bible and the ancient Near East, what is most important is the role of the gods in the operation of the cosmos. This is generally expressed in relation to the way they viewed the world around them (cosmic geography). In Job, God controls the sun and makes the stars (). God stretches out the heavens (; cf. ; ) and treads on the waves of the sea (). In the Babylonian creation epic, the god Marduk creates and destroys the constellation to indicate his power. After defeating Tiamat, he splits her in two; half of her he sets up and makes into a cover—heaven, which he stretches out over the cosmos. He then establishes the constellation of the stars.

In , “treads” means to defeat or subjugate, as in . The image of the ocean as chaos was already seen in (there called Leviathan) and in (there it is put under guard), while in it is shut up behind doors; its limits are set with doors and bars and halted from going any farther. In Ugaritic myths, the god Baal defeats Yamm, the sea. On a stele from Baal’s temple at Ugarit the wavy lines on which the god Baal is standing have been interpreted as the waves of the sea and as the mountains.

All of this demonstrates that the Israelites’ thoughts about the world around them were quite similar to those of all their neighbors, though they differed concerning which divine entity/entities were in control. ◆

“Unfinished” Kudurru. Kassite period, attributed to the reign of Melishipak (1186–1172 BC) depicts a large pillar that undergirds the cosmos.

Kim Walton. The Louvre.

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moves mountains without their knowing it. Ch. (like chs. ; ) describes God as the Creator. The OT uses common ancient Near Eastern metaphors when describing creation, but God is the only Creator. The cosmic geography of the ancient world is generally founded on observation and experience, so what does the author have in mind as he describes moving or overturning mountains? Close analysis reveals that the translation should likely go a different direction. The verb the NIV translates “moves” (Hiphil, ʿtq) only occurs a few times in the OT; in Genesis it refers to the movement of the patriarchs from place to place (; ). Therefore, we would translate as “God traverses the mountains.” The Akkadian cognate etequ means to pass through difficult territory. This would parallel his treading on the seas in v. . The next problem is to identify the subject of the verb “to know” (“He traverses mountains and they do not know”). It is not impossible that the mountains here are being personified, but another option is that the subject is those who resisted him in the previous verse (v. ). These resisters do not emerge unscathed, for God traverses the difficult passes of the mountains without his enemies’ knowledge, and thus overthrows them (the resisters, not the mountains).

He speaks to the sun. God orders the cosmos day by day, not just once for all. God’s command causes the sun to rise or not rise. This view is to be differentiated from Egyptian mythology in which the sun and the sun-god are indistinguishable. In that view, deity does not call forth the sun—he rises as the sun and chaos causes the sun to darken. seals off the light of the stars. Verbs of shutting, when used with this preposition (“off”), mean to lock something in. The seal would be affixed to a closed door to make sure that what is inside is not disturbed. The ancients believed that the stars were engraved on the underside of the solid, rotating firmament and that they moved along paths (in Akkadian literature, the paths of Anu, Enlil and Ea). To seal the stars would not be to inscribe them, but to establish their paths so that they could not change. Such would be an act of creation, bringing order to the cosmos. Alternatively, and perhaps preferably, we might understand the phrase as parallel to the first part of the verse—hence, order is disrupted. Sealing the stars would then refer to shutting them out so they could not enter the paths to shine in the heavens. In , God “brings out” and “calls forth” the stars (cf. , where he “marshaled” them); he does not do so here, but he keeps them shut behind sealed doors.

the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades. To interpret this verse, we need a better understanding of constellations in the ancient world. Celestial omens from the ancient world are well known; several sets of tablets give detailed information about the stars and constellations. There are many constellations, but three of the most prominent (judging by their place in the lists and the omens connected to them) are Pleiades (Akkadian zappu; Hebrew kimah), Orion (Akkadian šitadallu; Hebrew kesil), and Taurus (Akkadian alû, “Bull of Heaven”). We can identify these and the many other constellations in Akkadian and Sumerian texts because of the technical information they include about the times of their rising and setting and their positions in the sky at various times during the year.

In contrast, we have much less information to determine the names of the Hebrew constellations; the OT refers to constellations in only three contexts (here; ; ). Scholars offer guesses concerning the identity of these constellations from commentary to commentary, based on comparative Semitic etymology or the renderings of the earliest translations (e.g., Greek).

Constellations are often the subject of omens (for good or ill) in Akkadian literature. For example: “If Leo is dark: lions and wolves will rage and cut off traffic with the Westland.” Since God is the one who makes the constellations, he is the one who uses them to portend ominous events that are understood as acts of judgment, as in this context.

the cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet. Rahab is not known from the ancient Near East or in the cognate languages, but like the Tannin and Leviathan (; ), is a sea monster representing chaos. Rahab also occurs in the cosmogony (origin of the cosmos) in , where it is cut to pieces. In and , God cuts Rahab to pieces, pierces the “monster” (Hebrew tannin) and crushes it. It is used parallel with the drying up of the sea and the waters of the deep (Hebrew tehom), over which God rules. Rahab is used for Egypt in and in the sense of a political enemy.

Chaos creatures in the ancient world were believed to belong to the nonordered world. Nevertheless, the gods could and did control them if they were inclined to do so. They could be domesticated, and they could be used to accomplish tasks for deity, yet they could also be neglected or rebellious.

He destroys both the blameless and the wicked. This irony also occurs in the Mesopotamian Erra epic: “Like one who plunders a country, I [the god] do not distinguish just from unjust, I fell (them both).”

boats of papyrus. In ancient Egypt, boats made of papyrus (cf. ) were a common sight, and they are often depicted on Egyptian paintings; small models were placed in tombs.

soap . . . cleansing powder. Job tries to establish his innocence by referring to the strongest of cleansing agents, soapwort, made of the roots of the plant leontopetalon, and the alkaline solution lye. In ancient times, people did not wash with soap as we do, but applied oil to the skin, which was then scraped off. Washing of hands was a ritual of purification (), but it could be done in vain (). This will not cleanse Job, as is described in .

someone to mediate between us. In the ancient Near East, people sometimes would ask for their personal gods to mediate on their behalf in the divine council. At other times, gods are seen as judges who mediate a person’s situations. Arbitration was also carried out in human courts in a variety of ways. One means of mediation was carried out by someone in the family acting on a person’s behalf.

shaped me and made me . . . molded me like clay. God is the Creator not only of the universe (ch. ), but also of humans and even an individual like Job (here). The idea that humans were made from clay also occurs in . There, a different Hebrew verb is used, which indicates pinching off clay. refers to “houses of clay” in the literal sense rather than metaphorically to the creation of humans from clay. In , man (adam) was formed from the dust of the ground, and the metaphor of the potter is used in ; ; ; (also ). This was a generally accepted idea in the ancient near East. In Egypt, it was believed that the god Khnum created on a potter’s wheel. In the Wisdom of Ani: “Man is clay and straw, the god is his builder.” In the Gilgamesh Epic, Enkidu is made by the goddess Aruru from clay, and in “The Babylonian Theodicy” the god Ea created by pinching off clay. In Ugaritic literature, El creates a healer in the same way. According to the Atrahasis epic, a human was created by mixing clay with the flesh and blood of a god. For this reason, God can turn Job to “dust” (v. ), which indicates death, as described in, e.g., ; .

curdle me like cheese. Another image (see previous note) is here used for the creation of Job. He was formed in his mother’s womb like cheese from milk in a churn. Such churns are known from archaeology and depicted on Egyptian tomb paintings.

See note on .

Egyptian priest Renpetmaa with hands raised in worship before Re-Horakhty, c. 900 BC. The stretching out of the arms or hands, raising the hands with the palms outward at face level, is a gesture of prayer typical in the Old Testament (; ).

Wikimedia Commons

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stretch out your hands to him. The stretching out of the arms or hands, raising the hands with the palms outward at face level, is a gesture of prayer typical in the OT (e.g., ; ; ). It is known from Mesopotamian sources and is depicted in Egyptian art. This gesture is illustrated on a carved ivory casket from Hazor in Canaan dating from the time of the Israelite kings. The gesture also occurs in Ugaritic literature, where the king lifts his hands to heaven while offering a sacrifice.

, stripped. The Hebrew word is sometimes translated “barefoot.” Ancient Near Eastern art shows prisoners of war being led away naked and barefoot (cf. ; ). To go barefoot is often a sign of reverence () and penitence (), but here it represents shame, because stripping someone of clothes indicated a loss of honor (; cf. ; ; ).

shackles. The meaning of the verse is not clear, but it might refer to bound captives. Bound captives are shown frequently in ancient Near Eastern art. Feet can also be fastened in shackles (; cf. ; ).

physicians. In the ancient world they were experts in the use of herbs and other sorts of treatments, but others were specialists in the magical or supernatural causes of disease. Their remedies could involve something as serious as exorcism, but other times involved incantations and rituals. Since Job’s friends are trying to help him identify the causes or solutions to his circumstances, they are playing the role of such physicians.

proverbs of ashes. Ashes could be mixed with water to make a solution for writing, but it was not durable and could easily be erased, similar to modern chalk. defenses of clay. Clay might also refer to an unfired clay tablet that could be easily erased. Alternatively, the reference to clay might refer to building material for a city’s defensive walls.

hide your face. The hiding of the face of God refers to God’s wrath (; ), because he has seemingly become Job’s enemy. Job wants God to summon him and show him his sins (vv. ). In Mesopotamia, seeing the face can refer to a deity, but it is also used in a legal context. To see someone’s face means to enjoy their favor.

shackles. See note on . The terminology used in this verse can refer to putting limits or boundaries on the extremities. The shackles function to restrict the movement of the feet.

A person’s days are determined. In v. , the image of the fleeting shadow is used (cf. ). In , a mortal’s days are shown to be limited. The Gilgamesh Epic and the Aqhat Legend from Ugarit make it clear that death is the fate of humankind and only the deities possess eternal life. Destinies are decreed by the gods and one’s fate is sealed in the divine realm. These are typical perceptions in the ancient world.

If someone dies, will they live again? Like everyone in the ancient world, Job believes that life continues after death, but such a belief offers little hope if life in the netherworld is dreary drudgery. Trees can resprout (vv. ), but humans have no such prospects (vv. , ); they are more like the riverbed that simply dries up (v. ). Job wishes that it were otherwise, that he could take refuge in the grave and then be brought back to life (v. ), but he realizes that such an option does not exist.

the first man ever born. Associated with wisdom in the ancient Near East. According to Mesopotamian tradition, the first sage was Oannes (as preserved by the Jewish historian Josephus), who taught humans civilization, writing, crafts and science. Later came the many apkallu, the antediluvian sages who were perfect in wisdom. Adapa was the first of these semidivine sages with supernatural wisdom who served the kings who ruled before the flood. Thus the statement reflects ancient Near Eastern thinking rather than Biblical tradition. Adam was not portrayed as someone of great wisdom until much later.

holy ones. Refers not to fallen angels but to heavenly beings who are held accountable for the tasks to which they were assigned. See notes on ; .

mortals . . . are vile and corrupt. God does not trust humans, because they are corrupt. In “The Babylonian Theodicy,” it is said that the creator deities “gave twisted words to the human race, they endowed them in perpetuity with lies and falsehood.” In some of the more radical speeches in Job, God is portrayed in similar ways. By the end of the book these are recognized as flawed views about God.

wanders about. Connected with depression and reflects examples from Mesopotamia. The hero Gilgamesh, e.g., grieves over his dead friend Enkidu and wanders around: “like a lioness deprived of her cubs he paced to and fro, this way and that.”

fat. Obesity was a sign of prosperity and therefore of God’s blessing, since only the prosperous had the resources to overeat and the leisure to become fat.

a vine . . . an olive tree. Symbols of abundance and fertility in the Hebrew Bible; those stripped of unripe grapes and blossoms will not bear any fruit. In the same way, the plans of the wicked will come to naught.

A vivid scene of target practice on a cylinder seal from Beth Shan, where Pharaoh Ramses II is shooting arrows at an ingot with captives fastened to it, c. 1279–1212 BC. Job uses the metaphor of God as warrior attacking him ().

Cylinder Seal with name of Rameses II, 1279–1212 BC, from Beth Shean/Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem/The Israel Antiquities Authority Collection/Bridgeman Images

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These verses use the metaphor of God as a warrior attacking Job (cf. ; ). In the ancient Near East, the warrior-god Resheph is depicted with a bow, as would befit a divine warrior. An even more vivid illustration might be the scene of target practice on a cylinder seal from Beth Shan, where pharaoh Rameses II is shooting arrows at an ox-hide-shaped target with captives fastened to it.

sackcloth. Expresses mourning (see the article “Mourning”). brow. “Horn” in Hebrew, a symbol of power in the OT (cf. ) and the ancient Near East. Asiatic deities and deified rulers wear horned headdresses as symbol of their power. The horn has been debased by being buried in the dust, in the same way that horns could be cut off to render them powerless (e.g., ).

the path of no return. See the article “

”

the pledge you demand. Legal language (see the article “Negative Confessions and the Oath of Innocence”). A pledge was a piece of personal property given as a guarantee for later payment (cf. ), as known from ancient Near Eastern law, and as done by Judah in , when he gave his seal and staff as a pledge. The pledge can also be a person, as in ; (Judah for Benjamin). Here, Job appears to be identifying his own life as a pledge to ascertain his innocence.

If the only home I hope for is the grave. The grave (Hebrew sheol [see the article “Death and Sheol”]) is described as a home (lit. “house,” as with death in ). The tomb was the home or house of the dead, but bones were also kept in ossuaries in the form of houses, and one such ossuary found is inscribed with the word “Sheol.” my bed in . . . darkness. In , a bed is made in Sheol (NIV “depths”). Because tombs were dark, lamps were placed in them to provide light; tombs at Ugarit have niches for oil lamps. Sheol is a place of darkness. In Mesopotamian myths, the underworld is described as a place of darkness, deprived of light. In the ancient world, the tomb/grave is considered the entryway to the netherworld, so the same language refers to both tomb and netherworld at the same time.

go down to the gates of death . . . descend . . . into the dust. In Job also wishes to “go down” to the grave (Sheol). The same idea is found in Ugaritic literature, when the deities El and Anat declare that because Baal is dead, they will also descend into the earth. Dust is often linked with death or Sheol (see the article “Death and Sheol”). In Mesopotamian myths, the underworld has seven gates through which the goddess Ishtar and the god Nergal must pass; it is a place to where one “goes down,” and the inhabitants eat dust. This might be because when people entered tombs, they were found to be full of dust. The Egyptian underworld also had gates, and the Egyptian tomb had a “false door” through which the spirit could enter.

net . . . mesh . . . trap . . . snare . . . noose . . . trap. In these verses the NIV translates six Hebrew terms for various hunting devices. These traps were used by ordinary people, especially to catch birds (; ). On the net, cf. and note. The mesh consisted of branches lightly woven together and placed over a hole, into which the victim would fall. Besides the hunting metaphor, magical spells and hexes were also identified as snares to trap people in their power. It would not be unusual for someone to hire a specialist to put a spell (lay a “snare”) for an enemy.

death’s firstborn. There has been much discussion on this designation, which only occurs in the OT in the book of Job. Three ancient Near Eastern candidates have been proposed for this demon: (1) the Ugaritic personified Death (Mot), (2) the Syro-Canaanite god of war and pestilence Resheph and (3) Namtar, the Mesopotamian messenger and vizier of the underworld goddess Ereshkigal. None of these three bears the title “firstborn,” although Resheph has sons. Namtar is the “offspring” of the underworld-goddess Ereshkigal, but not explicitly called her “firstborn.” The intention may be to link the figure with that of Ugaritic Mot, the demon of death, who in Job is personified as having a firstborn son, disease, who is eating away Job’s skin. In Ugaritic mythology, Mot is a devourer who swallows the god Baal and humans. It is also possible, however, that the reference is a literary personification that does not have any particular mythological figure or demon in mind.

king of terrors. This designation is unique to Job. The same idea might be reflected in ; ; ; . For the terrifying character of the Ugaritic Mot, see previous note. In Mesopotamia, the god of the underworld and pestilence Nergal (West Semitic Resheph) is called “king of the land of terror,” and his abode “the terrible house.” The underworld is described as “filled with terror.” See the article “Death and Sheol.”

sulfur. Brimstone, which burns to produce acid gas and was found in the regions of volcanic activity and the Dead Sea. It was used for fire, fumigation and for medicinal purposes, as is known from Akkadian texts and in rituals of purification to counteract witchcraft. In and it refers to divine judgment, but is not used with that connotation in most ancient Near Eastern literature.

roots dry up . . . no offspring. The state of the wicked is described. This destruction occurs in the curses of tomb inscriptions; e.g., whoever desecrates the coffin of Eshmunazar, “let him have no root below or fruit above.”

People of the west . . . those of the east. People from both directions, i.e., all humankind. The Ugaritic goddess Anat kills people on the seashore (west) and to the east, i.e., all humankind.

net. Cf. . This is related to the hunt and the idea of the “divine net.” The Stele of the Vultures, commissioned by the Sumerian king Eannatum of Lagash, shows enemies caught in a net. The figure holding the net might be Eannatum or the god Ningirsu. Eannatum claims in his inscriptions: “Over the people of Umma I Eannatum threw the net of the god Enlil.” The Babylonian god Marduk catches Tiamat and the other monsters with a net, and the god of pestilence Erra also has a net. In a hymn of praise to Hammurapi of Babylon, the king is described as a net over the enemy, evil and offenders.

siege ramp. Cf. the war imagery in . Here, Job is attacked by troops advancing in force, who build a siege ramp (cf. ) and encamp around his tent. In the ancient Near East in wartime, the defenders protected themselves behind massive city walls while the city was encircled and attacked by siege troops with siege machines. See the article “

” my tent. The reference to a “tent” instead of a city is grim humor.

My breath is offensive to my wife. In the Egyptian Dialogue of a Man with His Soul, the image of the unpleasant smell is used. In the Wisdom of Ani, a name is said to stink. The dead also suffer from bad breath.

only by the skin of my teeth. This is either ironic, given that teeth do not have skin, or, more likely, a reference to the gums (see ), indicating that the teeth have fallen out. There is no indication that it is used here like the English cliché meaning “barely.”

recorded . . . on a scroll . . . engraved in rock. Job wishes that his words were recorded on a scroll, inscribed with iron and (NIV “on”) lead, engraved in rock forever. Scrolls could be of papyrus or leather (vellum). Iron styli or chisels were used to make engravings in stone. The reference to lead may refer to letters filled in or inlaid with lead. Ancient Near Eastern rulers inscribed their deeds in stone on cliffs. Often something was written in this way for the gods to read, rather than for people to read. In the ancient Near East and OT world, memory and remembrance was important, especially after death. For this reason, the Ugaritic hero Danel wants a son who will set up a monument for his clan so that they will be remembered. Letters were even written to the dead in Egypt and Mesopotamia asking for their help. Someone who passed a commemorative funerary stele in Egypt had to say a prayer or bring an offering.

I know that my redeemer lives. This phrase has been made famous by Handel’s “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,” from his oratorio Messiah, which reflects the popular Christian Messianic interpretation. There are two interpretations—that the Hebrew goel (NIV “guardian-redeemer”) refers to a vindicator or defender (see ) of Job’s action against God, who is his adversary, or that God is his Redeemer. Since the word appears in a context in which there is a dispute between God and Job, most consider it unlikely that it refers to God as the redeemer. It might be a personal independent deity, or it might be compared with the mediator/advocate in ; or the angel/messenger in . Job asks for deliverance not by God but from God, and the “redeemer” is Job’s defense attorney. It is still disputed whether Job here refers to resurrection, but most modern interpreters consider it unlikely (see the article “

”).

In ancient Israelite law, the “guardian-redeemer” (Hebrew goel) was someone who protected the interests of his kin by buying property or paying debt and ensuring that the name of a deceased person lived on (, ; ; ; see note on ). It was usually a near relative (brother, uncle, cousin) or a kinsman. Yahweh can be a redeemer of Israel from Egypt (e.g., ) and the exile (e.g., ), but also of the needy, widows and orphans (; ). This is a very different sort of redemption than what Jesus provides, because in this type of redemption, the individual’s rightful standing or possession is restored. This redemption views the subject as innocent, whereas the redemption Christ provides assumes their guilt.

, serpents. In v. it is the serpent’s poison, the fangs of an adder, that will kill him. The “serpent” (Hebrew peten) in vv. , is a large snake, and the “adder” in v. is the carpet viper. In ancient texts, “venom” (also called “gall”) was understood not only as tasting bitter, but as a poisonous and deadly substance.

spit out the riches . . . vomit them up. This idea is comparable to the Egyptian “Wisdom of Amenemope,” where goods taken from the poor are “a block in the throat, It makes the gullet vomit.”

iron weapon. Might be a sword, a weapon used in close combat. bronze-tipped arrow. Lit. “bow.” If Job is able to flee from the sword, the long-range arrow will get him. Bows of metal or with metal covering were not used; arrows were made of wood or reed with metal tips or points.

fire . . . will consume him. On divine fire that “eats” things, see note on .

expose . . . rise up. In ancient Near Eastern treaties, heaven and earth (in addition to deities) are called as witness (cf. ; ; see note on ).

clap your hand over your mouth. As in and , it can be a gesture of awe and astonishment (cf. ) or of silence (cf. ; ). It might be depicted on a seal showing the hero Etana, who went to heaven on the back of an eagle; the seal shows one astonished onlooker holding his hand to his mouth.

never fail to breed . . . do not miscarry. The prosperity of the wicked is described in terms of fertile bulls and cows. In contrast, in the curses of the ancient Near Eastern Sefire Treaty, “7 rams will cover an ewe, but she will not conceive.”

timbrel. A small hand drum. lyre. Had a wooden frame with strings, as shown on the Ur Standard and a Megiddo ivory. pipe. Made of reed or metal. See the article “

”

go down to the grave. See note on ; see also the article “Death and Sheol.”

Anubis, god of mummification, resting upon a chest of gilded wood from the tomb of Tutankhamen. Because of riches buried with the dead, tombs were concealed and also guarded ().

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watch is kept over their tombs. Because of riches buried with the dead, tombs were concealed but also guarded, as is known from ancient Egypt. Tombs were sealed, such as the door of the tomb of Tutankhamun. In Egypt, the guardian of the dead was the jackal-god Anubis, assistant of Osiris the lord of death. One seal impression depicts Anubis, the jackal-god and protector of the dead, with nine bound prisoners.

demanded security. In the OT, a creditor could demand security in the form of clothing, but was supposed to give back a cloak at night (; , ; cf. ). A Hebrew letter on an ostracon from Yavneh-Yam might refer to the same custom; someone complains that his garment was taken and he wants it back. Legal collections from the ancient Near East show an interest in protecting debtors from those who would take advantage of them.

powerful man. Lit. “man of arm” (see note on ).

vaulted heavens. In the ancient Near East, heaven was sometimes seen as a dome, but sometimes also disk-shaped. According to Egyptian cosmology, the sky was the goddess Nut, who formed an arch above. See the articles “Cosmic Geography,” and “

”

gold of Ophir. An eighth-century BC ostracon found at Tel Qasile mentions “gold from Ophir,” but the location of Ophir is still unknown (East Africa, Arabia or possibly India). It might have been reached via the harbor of Ezion Geber at Elath in the Red Sea. See notes on ; .

tested . . . come forth as gold. Gold is used as a symbol of testing because of the process of purification it must go through. Job will be tested by God as the faithful are in ; . That there are grades of purity is evident from the Amarna letters (Nos. 7, 10), in which the Babylonian king writes that the gold that was brought to him was not pure enough. In that text the gold is not metaphoric, as it is here in Job, but it demonstrates the need for diligence in the purification process.

boundary stones. The “boundary stone” or “boundary marker” (as with the Babylonian kudurru) was not so much a marker of property as a legal document that contained an inscription describing the owner of the property and curses on those transgressing this legal right. On an Egyptian painting, an official bows down to a small standing stone, puts his hand to his mouth to take an oath and swears: “As surely as the great god endures in the heaven, this boundary stone is properly erected.” The “Wisdom of Amenemope” advises its readers not to move the markers on the borders of the fields. Moving a boundary stone is regarded as an offense in ; ; ; .

the infant of the poor is seized. In Mesopotamia children could be offered as collateral, or simply seized from those who could not pay, though the latter was unlawful. In an archive of several generations of divination priests in the ancient town of Emar, several documents concerned the sale of infant children into the family and featured footprints of the children imprinted in clay.

crush olives. Olives were crushed in special presses, such as the one found at Ekron. A huge stone crushing-wheel was rolled over the olives placed on a basin. Stone weights (averaging 650 pounds [300 kilograms]) were attached to a beam, and the oil was squeezed out and ran into a vat. tread the winepresses. Wine was made by treading the grapes with the feet in stone troughs in earlier times, as is known from Egyptian paintings. The juice was then collected in a smaller vat before it was stored in wine jars.

order. The Hebrew word is rare and of uncertain meaning, though the NIV choice of “order” is logical given the context. Order was one of the most important issues in the ancient world, so much so that creation narratives were often more concerned with recounting the origins of order than the origins of matter. Order is established through the application of wisdom, and it demonstrates the authority of the one who has established it.

The dead. The Hebrew is “Rephaim,” which refers to the inhabitants of the underworld (e.g., ; ; , ). The Rephaim live beneath the waters of the underworld (water was sometimes associated with the underworld). These were among the blessed and beatified dead and the deified ancestors and rulers in Ugarit, and in the tomb inscriptions of the Phoenician kings Tabnit and Eshmunazar. In other parts of the Hebrew Bible, they are “giants” (e.g., ; ; , ).

Destruction. See note on .

spreads out the northern skies. Another cosmogony (as in ; see the article “Cosmic Geography”) is described in vv. . In , and , the Creator “stretches out the heavens” like a tent. northern. Hebrew tsaphon, which designates “north.” Zaphon is also the cosmic mountain par excellence (); it is located north of Israel, in Syria. Here it is synonymous with heaven (cf. ; ), where the deity resides. It was originally the deified holy cosmic mountain of Ugaritic mythology (identified with the Jebel al-Aqra, north of Ugarit) where the deities of the North-West Semitic pantheon, and especially the god Baal, were believed to assemble. The concept goes back to the Hittite-Hurrian mountain-god Hazzi and lives on in the Aramaic Amherst Papyrus from the first millennium BC. Philo of Byblos calls the mountain Kassion, as do other Greek texts. The cult of Zeus Kasios lived on until the time of Julian Apostata in AD 363.

Babylonian world map (c. 600 BC), the earliest known map of the world. This map shows outer boundaries similar to God marking out the horizon in .

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marks out the horizon. In , a “measuring line” is mentioned. This designates the outer limits of the cosmos, beyond which no mortal can go. A “world map” with boundaries is drawn on a seventh-century BC clay tablet with Babylon in the center. In ancient Near Eastern thought, depressions at the western and eastern horizons had cosmic gates through which the sun entered the sky during daytime and again passed through into the underworld at nighttime.

pillars of the heavens. See the article “Cosmic Geography.” According to Egyptian thought, the god Shu held up the sky, which was identified as his daughter the goddess Nut. The pillars of heaven could also refer to the Mesopotamian idea of a chain of large mountains at the edges of the world supporting the heavens or celestial vault (see the article “

”).

churned up the sea . . . cut Rahab to pieces . . . pierced the gliding serpent. See note on .

claps its hands in derision. The clapping of hands can indicate joy (e.g., ), but clapping in derision is a gesture of scoffing (cf. ) also known from Mesopotamia. See for clapping the hands scornfully in contempt of God.

Seven metals are known from the ancient Near East: three precious metals—gold, silver and electrum (a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver), and four base metals—copper, tin, lead and iron. Bronze was an alloy made from copper and tin. Various sources are available to study ancient Near Eastern metallurgy—textual references, excavated objects and metallurgical analysis. The countries of origin of these metals are still a matter of dispute among scholars, but the ancient Near East was the homeland of metallurgy. Gold was mined in southern Arabia and especially in Cush (Nubia) in the Sudan. Silver came from Anatolia and Iran, and copper from Cyprus and Iran. Iron came from Anatolia, Cyprus and Canaan, and tin from Afghanistan. Mining is known from excavations at the copper and turquoise mines of Serabit el-Qadêm in Sinai. A map of an Egyptian gold-mining district in the Wadi Hammamat can be found on a thirteenth-century BC papyrus, and the smelting of metals is depicted in Egyptian paintings.

Various jewels and gemstones are mentioned in and Biblical texts such as ; (stones in the breastplate of the high priest); (ornaments of the king of Tyre); and (stones of the New Jerusalem). The Gilgamesh Epic describes the trees of the gods with carnelian fruit, lapis lazuli foliage, coral, agate and hematite. These stones and jewels are sometimes difficult to identify, and they originated from various parts of the ancient world. Sapphire is identified with the deep blue stone lapis lazuli, which came from the province of Badakhshan in Afghanistan. Many stones were found in Egypt and nearby regions. ◆

Egyptian painting from the chapel of Rekhmire. The ancient Near East was the homeland of metallurgy. Here men are accomplishing two tasks, maintaining hearth heat and melting the metal. To stoke the fire, a bellows system has been developed: a leather bag is attached to a white bracket. The worker standing on the bags can change his weight from one foot to the other while he pulls on their strings; pressurized air is delivered directly into the furnace by reed pipes. Adjacent to the furnace is a pile of charcoal and a large vase (perhaps containing water to cool the tools). The crucible containing the metal is placed in, and removed from, the furnace by means of branches of wood.

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sources of the rivers. The metallurgist searches this far-off, mysterious and hidden place situated between the two oceans. According to Ugaritic myth, the abode of the chief god El was “at the source of the rivers.”

wisdom. See the article “

”

The deep . . . the sea. The hidden wisdom cannot even be found in the primeval oceans, described as the deep or the abyss (Hebrew tehom; cf. , ). In Mesopotamian thought, the Apsu—the deified subterranean water—was the original abode of the antediluvian sages, the apkallu (see note on ), and the realm of the crafty god, the god of wisdom Ea or Enki.

crystal. The Hebrew word, which occurs only here in the OT, is taken to refer to glass, which was known as an article of luxury. Glassware in the form of vessels was manufactured by the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians used it for inlays in jewelry.

Destruction and Death say. Here the forces of Destruction (Hebrew Abaddon) and Death (Mawet) are personified. Destruction. See note on . Death. See note on ; see also the article “Death and Sheol.”

The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom. The Lord is the only one who knows where to find wisdom, which is objectified in v. . As in the book of Proverbs (; ), real wisdom is the “fear of the Lord.” In the ancient Near East, the Mesopotamian god Ea/Enki was the god of immense wisdom, Marduk had the title “Lord of Wisdom” and the sun-god Shamash granted wisdom. Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible is used to denote the skills of the artisan (e.g., ), intelligence (e.g., ), and practical skills in life or an ethical lifestyle (; ; ; ). wisdom. The word is feminine in Hebrew, and wisdom is even personified as a woman (; ; ). Wisdom is sometimes linked with creation ().

drenched with cream . . . streams of olive oil. In Ugaritic texts, the god El has a dream and a vision that when the god Baal becomes alive again, the heavens will rain down oil, the wadis will run with honey—describing abundance and fertility. In other parts of the Hebrew Bible, the promised land is said to be “flowing with milk and honey” (; ), referring to its fertility and abundance in produce, more precisely dairy farming and agriculture.

gate of the city. See note on . The gate of the city was not just the entry between the walls, it was the center of commerce and public jurisprudence. Elders met in this public sector to hear and discuss legal cases. News was exchanged there, and business deals concluded. What we call “networking” today took place in the city gate, and here reputations were made or lost. Gates of the Iron Age had a number of chambers along the gateway, with benches lining them where business could be conducted, conversation could take place and cases could be heard. Prominent people in the city were often visible in the gate area, and there their public persona was on display. Both honor and shame found a myriad of ways to be recognized in this arena.

covered their mouths with their hands. See notes on ; . Here the phrase is used to mean “refrained from speaking,” referring to the respect Job enjoyed in earlier times when he was still a local chief. However, now he is shamed. When he used to go to the city gate and sit in the public square, young men stepped aside and old men rose (v. ). The chiefs and nobles did not speak in his presence (vv. ). In the ancient Near East, people of importance sat, while standing and kneeling was a gesture for greeting persons of high status. Such is prescribed in , and Solomon greeted his mother in this way (). In Ugaritic literature, Baal stands in attendance to El; in contrast, the arrogant messengers of the Ugaritic god Yamm do not pay respect to the chief deity by prostrating themselves.

clothing . . . robe . . . turban. Justice and righteousness can be portrayed as garments (cf. ; ). In , Job wears a collared tunic. turban. A head covering formed by a wrapped piece of cloth, kept in place by a headband.

I was a father to the needy. In , Job was charged with neglecting the needy. He longs for the days when he was still respected, and is described as the ideal patriarch (see vv. )—administering social justice by looking after the needy, the poor, the fatherless, the widow, the lame, the blind and the stranger. This is repeated in . Throughout the ancient Near East, the hallmark of the righteous individual or the just king was that they cared for the needy and vulnerable.

bow. Bows had many symbolic and metaphoric associations in the ancient world that are not necessarily transparent to modern readers. The bow is a symbol of glory (Hebrew kabod) and power. In , the unstrung (therefore unusable) bow is part of Job’s affliction. The bow (cf. ) is often depicted in scenes of military assault in ancient Near Eastern art as a common offensive weapon. The Ugaritic Aqhat received a bow from the craftsman-god Kothar, but it was coveted by the warrior-goddess Anat, and Aqhat was murdered for it and the bow destroyed. When a bow was broken (; ), it implied pending destruction. One treaty reads: “May Astarte break your bow in battle.” The traditional iconography of the pharaoh of Egypt shows him trampling on nine bows (the traditional enemies of Egypt), and the defeated enemy snaps his bow. An Assyrian relief shows a defeated Elamite cutting his bow as a gesture of defeat and loss of power.

waited . . . as for showers. Job’s words were awaited like showers and spring rain. In the Ugaritic Keret epic, the farmers wait for the rains of the god Baal and express their joy over the coming rain. This sort of comment makes sense in the meteorological context of the Levant. The success of the agricultural season was dependent on the rains that fell during the winter (the rainy season). The “early rains” and “latter rains” marked the beginning and end of the rainy season that prepared the ground for planting. Whether urban dwellers or farmers, people were heavily dependent on the growth of local crops. A rainy season that began late, ended early or contained less than normal rainfall signaled an underproductive harvest season that could lead to want or even disastrous drought and famine. This background gives poignancy to the metaphor employed here.

the light of my face. This facial expression of joy is known from Ugaritic and Akkadian sources. When the Ugaritic hero Danel hears that a son will be born to him, “his face lit up with joy, His countenance glowed. Signs of worry disappeared from his forehead as he laughed.” After eating and drinking, Enkidu in the Gilgamesh Epic became merry, and his face lit up. In contrast, the innocent sufferer in the Babylonian Ludlul bel nemeqi (“I will praise the lord of wisdom”) complains, “When my ill-wisher heard, his face lit up / When the tidings reached her, my ill-wisher, her mood became radiant.”

sheep dogs. Dogs (Canis familiaris) are the oldest domesticated animals and were highly valued. In Mesopotamia, the healing-god Gula is sometimes portrayed in dog form. In Egypt, dogs were mummified and formed part of the animal cult. A large dog burial place was found at Ashkelon, possibly linked with a healing cult, though interpretation remains elusive. Dogs were regarded as pets in ancient Egypt and are depicted in Egyptian paintings with collars and sitting under their masters’ chairs. One beloved pet was buried in a wooden coffin. On Egyptian paintings they are also used in war, and on Assyrian reliefs they are shown being used for hunting. Shepherd dogs are shown on the cylinder seal depicting Etana (Illus. to ). However, in contrast, “man’s best friend” is not highly regarded in the OT (; ; cf. )! Dogs were not pampered household pets as today; they were dangerous scavengers that ate corpses and the refuse of ancient cities and towns. In the Amarna letters, the vassal calls himself the “dog” of the pharaoh, as does the servant in the Lachish letters.

salt herbs. Refers to saltwort (Artiplex halimus), an edible but sour plant. According to the Talmud, the plant was for the poor and starving. food. Or “fuel” (see ). root of the broom bush. These roots make good charcoal (), but are not edible. broom bush. The prophet Elijah sat under one (see and note).

drive me before the wind. Cf. . For God as a storm-god, see notes on ; ; see also the article “

”

bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living. Death (Hebrew Mawet) is a house (Hebrew bet, NIV “place”), as with Sheol in . See note on ; see also the article “Death and Sheol.”

blackened. This is a difficult verse and has been understood as referring to Job’s skin, which turned black because of disease (v. ; ). In the diagnostic medical texts and omen texts from Mesopotamia, black skin lesions (evidence of necrosis) are observed and remedies suggested. Since this is a different Hebrew word than that used in v. (“black”), it could refer to ashes that blacken the skin.

jackals . . . owls. In ancient Egypt, the god connected with the dead, the protector of the necropolis and the god of embalming the dead was Anubis. He was represented in the form of a jackal or canine. The reason for the link with these animals might be that canines or jackals often roamed between tombs, even scavenging on the corpses. In Job, the metaphor of the jackal is used because of the wailing sounds they make. Wailing and howling are linked with the jackal and the owl (cf. , where God wails and howls like a jackal, and moans like an owl). When cities are cursed in treaties they are said to become mounds for foxes and owls, i.e., desolate places. owls. The Hebrew word can sometimes be translated “ostriches,” but owls are nocturnal and feared for their eerie screeches, so “owls” makes better sense in this context.

skin grows black. See note on v. .

lyre . . . pipe. See the articles “

” “

” mourning. See note on ; see also the article “Mourning.”

Job’s eyes are being treated as vassals brought under a suzerain’s control. Since as translated seems an obvious statement about sexual ethics, we must consider the textual details carefully. The Hebrew verb (bin) describing the forbidden activity (here translated “look lustfully”) generally describes close or careful examination of an object. In only one other occurrence () is the Hebrew verb bin followed by this Hebrew preposition (translated “at” in and “for” in ), and in it refers to seeking out (but not finding) the wicked. No occurrences of this Hebrew verb carry sexual nuance.

This interpretation does not satisfactorily explain why the prohibition to Job’s eyes is limited to a particular class of woman (NIV “young woman”). If sexual ethics are truly at stake, it would be more natural for his covenant to extend to any woman. Furthermore, if a girl remains under her father’s protection, as does a betulah (“young woman”) by definition, she is a viable candidate for marriage—and society at this time was comfortably polygamous.

The Hebrew of the second part of the verse begins with a common interrogative particle: “what” (Hebrew mah). Although Job’s usage of this particle is consistent, most translations choose not to render it in this particular verse (e.g., NIV “not to look”). Typically in Job, this particle introduces a rhetorical question (“what?”), which seems likely here as well. employs the same Hebrew verb (bin) as this verse to direct the reader to “look” all around for the location of the wicked; within its context, this directive suggests that if one inquires diligently after the status of the wicked, the search will yield nothing. If we apply this observation to Job’s statement, the sense is as follows: “Since I have made a covenant with regard to my eyes, what interest would I have in inquiring after a betulah (i.e., investigating her availability)?”

Inquiring after a betulah is not the same as inquiring after a prostitute. If the text truly was speaking against lust, the verb hmd (“covet”) would be a more likely word choice. For another likely wording, see . Betulah generally does indicate a virgin, but virginity is more circumstantial than truly representative of the word’s core meaning. More to the point, a betulah is a marriageable girl still within the household of her father and under his protection. One would inquire after a betulah in order to arrange a marriage. Such an inquiry could potentially be motivated by lust (cf. ), but that is only one of several alternatives and may not be automatically inferred. In point of fact, any arranged marriage begins with inquiring after a betulah.

In light of this discussion, Job’s covenant regarding his eyes cannot be interpreted as a commitment to asceticism, because he already has a wife (as noted not only in , but also in ). The logical alternative is that the statement concerns the acquisition of a harem. A large harem was an indicator of power and status in the ancient world. Job eschews amassing multiple wives and concubines, and characterizes this decision as a covenant regarding his eyes in order to underscore the point that he is not even “on the prowl.” This avowal mirrors his statement in that he is not absorbed in the pursuit of wealth. Job has undertaken neither a vow of poverty nor a vow of chastity, but rather he avoids the obsessive pursuit of prestige. This interpretation takes account of each word choice the author has made, and therefore presents the most likely interpretation. Accordingly, the verse has nothing to do with sexual ethics, as important as they may be. Instead, it accords with Job’s many pronouncements that he has not attempted to consolidate or abuse his power—tempting actions for a person in his position (cf. Samuel’s lecture in regarding the tactics of a king building a power base). ◆

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let God weigh me in honest scales. Scales and weights in various shapes (lions, ducks or cattle) are known from ancient Near Eastern art. These were used to weigh metals such as gold and products for trading. According to Egyptian belief, the heart of the deceased was weighed on a scale to determine whether it was pure (as with metals). Just balances or honest scales were important in the ancient Near East, and are described in the Bible in ; ; ; cf. (“boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales”); (“dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights”). The problem of false scales is dealt with in Mesopotamian texts such as the hymn to Nanshe. Ancient Near Eastern kings determined the standard of weights to prevent corruption and cheating through the use of false weights. The weights were standardized by the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu. In the Egyptian “Wisdom of Amenemope,” the student is advised not to alter the weights. God hates false scales (), and in a hymn to the god Shamash, merchants who switch weights lose capital.

may my wife grind another man’s grain. In OT times, grain was ground by women using a stone millstone, many examples of which were found in Canaan. The millstone consisted of a saddle quern and a hand-operated grinding stone, and was one of the most important implements in the ordinary ancient Israelite home. The law prohibited anyone from taking it as collateral (), and it was also a symbol of destruction (). Millstones could be used as weapons (; ). In , it is used to describe the strength of the chest of the Leviathan. sleep with her. Lit. “bow down to her.” In the ancient Near Eastern treaty curses, the same idea occurs in the treaty of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon. In Egypt, young men are warned: “Do not fornicate with a married woman. He who fornicates with a married woman on her bed, his wife will be copulated with on the ground.”

Destruction. See note on .

regarded the sun . . . or the moon. Job refers to the worship of the sun and moon, which was common in the ancient Near East (Mesopotamian deities like Utu/Shamash and Nanna/Sin; Egyptian deities Ra, Aten and Thoth; and Ugaritic deities Shapshu/Shapash and Yarikh), but forbidden by . In , the Lord God is described as “a sun.” The importance of the sun and moon is indicated by the Ugaritic texts CAT 1.24 and 161. Solar and lunar worship in ancient Israel is evident from texts such as , ; ; . The righteous Judahite king Josiah did away with the sun and moon worshipers (). Canaanite iconography indicates the importance of astral symbolism in the Assyrian period. However, the book of Job in this verse rejects any cult of the sun or moon as an acceptable form of worship.

my hand offered them a kiss of homage. Kissing can be a form of worship; in , calf idols are kissed, and in , Baal is kissed by his followers. The gesture of putting the hand to the mouth and “throwing” a kiss to the deity was known in Mesopotamia, as is shown on a statuette of a worshiper from Larsa. This figure has his hand before his mouth without touching it, the thumb and index finger are extended and the three other fingers curled. Cf. notes on ; .

no stranger had to spend the night in the street. The stranger (Hebrew ger) was a foreigner who did not own land and had no home, as in , but should not be mistreated (cf. ) or left in the street, as described in , because the Israelites themselves and their ancestors used to be strangers in Egypt () and in Canaan (). In contemporary terms, “stranger” describes one who would be designated as landless and disenfranchised.

contains what has been called “Job’s declaration of innocence.” Job lists a catalog of crimes: lust (v. ); falsehood (v. ); adultery (v. ); injustice to servants (v. ); indifference to the poor, the widow, the fatherless and the naked (vv. ); injustice to the fatherless (v. ); trust in wealth (vv. ); worship of sun and moon (vv. ); rejoicing over the enemy’s misfortune (vv. ); inhospitality (v. ); hypocrisy (v. ). Such an oath presumes that if Job swears falsely, God will be obligated to punish him for both the crime and false oath.

According to ancient Egyptian belief, the deceased appeared before a tribunal of divine judges consisting of the underworld-god Osiris and 42 judges. The heart of the deceased was weighed on a scale against the feather of Maat, which represented justice, to determine whether the heart was pure. The weighing was done by the jackal-headed Anubis, the assistant of Osiris, and the result recorded by the scribal god Thoth (represented as an Ibis-headed figure or a baboon) and reported to the enthroned Osiris. In order for the heart not to speak against the deceased, a spell was recited.

The deceased was interrogated by the divine tribunal, and on this occasion “spell” 125 from the Egyptian “Book of the Dead”—called the “declaration of innocence” (or “negative confession”)—was recited, which included, e.g., that the person had not committed evil against another person (whether poor or slave) and had not blasphemed.

During the Babylonian Akitu festival the king also uttered a confession contending that he had not sinned, particularly that he had not humiliated citizens.

A “declaration of innocence” also occurs in Akkadian legal texts, and in the seventh-century BC Israelite legal ostracon from Yavneh-Yam, the plaintiff claims to be without guilt. Finally, in a Hittite prayer of the mid-second millennium BC, there is an intriguing declaration of innocence by the king, Kantuzzili. He claims that he has not sworn falsely, eaten forbidden food or stolen ox or sheep, and that he was not selfish (phrased in terms of sharing his food and water). This example has an additional similarity, because Kantuzzili is using his declaration to try to bring an end to a plague. Like Job, he insists that his record be tested to show that he is innocent. ◆

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wear it on my shoulder . . . like a crown. Prominently displayed and worn proudly. An item on the hand, neck or forehead was a constant reminder to the wearer (; ; ; ).

if my land cries out against me. Here, “land” possibly refers metonymically to those who work the land on his behalf. In , it is commanded: “Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy . . . Pay them their wages . . . Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.” warns that the wages that one has failed to pay are crying out, and that the cries “have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.” However, Job denies in v. that he has failed to pay the laborers their wages.

Elihu. Means “he is my God”; it was a common name in the Bible, especially in the time of David. Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram. The name of Elihu’s father and even his clan (Hebrew mishpahah, NIV “family”) are mentioned. Buz was the nephew of Abraham () and Ram might be related to the Arameans. ; mentions Buz in connection with Dedan, located in Arabia.

new wineskins. Wine was usually kept in bottles of clay (), some even with stoppers, as known from Egypt. Wineskins () were made of animal skins, and several examples from ancient times have survived. Elihu himself is so “full of words” (v. ) that if he does not get the chance to speak, he will burst (cf. ). The image is that of bottled-up wine—new wine forms gases as it ferments, which could make the skins burst if the gases could not escape. In the NT parable of the new wine in old wineskins (), old skins become dried up and are not usable any longer, because the expanding gases of the fermenting new wine will tear them.

a piece of clay. See note on .

feet in shackles. See note on .

dream. See note on .

the pit. Also vv. , ; the grave (see note on ). The Mesopotamian underworld was reached by way of a staircase, but the pit might also refer to the hole dug in the ground to make a grave. from perishing by the sword. Cf. ; might be translated “crossing the River” (see ), which could refer to the so-called river of death—i.e., preserve him from death. In the ancient world, it was believed that the border of the underworld was marked by a river, and that the dead had to cross this “river of death” by boat and had to pay a ferryman. This is the River Styx of classical mythology and the deified Hubur in Mesopotamia. In the Gilgamesh Epic, the “Waters of Death” are crossed with the help of the ferryman Urshanabi, and “The Babylonian Theodicy” mentions the river of the dead. Bitumen boats found in royal tombs at Ur might be related to this belief. Models of boats found in tombs and full-scale boats buried next to the pyramids reflect Egyptian beliefs on the subject. The deceased were believed to travel to Abydos and use boats in the underworld. The Ugaritic word (related to the Hebrew shalah in Job) is used for the deified river. Such a deity occurs in Phoenician personal names, and one name might even be linked with the Egyptian underworld-god Osiris.

an angel . . . a messenger, one out of a thousand. reads “Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.” In the past, this has been interpreted as referring to a guardian angel (cf. ) or an interceding saint, while others have taken it as the Mesopotamian idea of the personal god who acted on behalf of the mortal in the divine assembly. The angel (cf. ; ; see note on ; see also the article “

”) is here merely an advocate or defense attorney who acts on his behalf and pleads his case as a mediator.

renewed . . . restored as in the days of their youth. Restored youth and physical regeneration have always been the wish of humankind. In the Gilgamesh Epic, the hero receives a magical plant called “Old Man Grown Young,” the plant of regeneration, but it is stolen from him by a snake.

gives songs in the night. Because the night was a time of danger and was feared by ancient people (cf. ; ; ; ), such songs served the purpose of calming down the distressed. In , the morning stars sing. Some commentators read, “gives strength in the night.”

draws up the drops of water. It would be easy for a modern reader to think of the water cycle of evaporation, condensation and precipitation when reading this verse, but that is not how it would have been read in the ancient world. The processes of drawing out and refining that are indicated by the Hebrew verbs of this verse would have been understood in the ways in which God brings moisture from the waters above and the waters below—these are the cosmic waters that were believed to surround the earth. Elihu’s statements reflect ancient poetical thinking and do not have to be scientifically accounted for or explained.

fills his hands with lightning. This is an example of an ancient explanation (rather than a modern scientific one) of a natural phenomenon. As in , God appears as the bringer of lightning and thunder (cf. ; , , ). In , “rays flashed from his hand.” Thunder-gods are shown in the art of the ancient Near East brandishing thunderbolts and lightning in a menacing way, as a gesture of absolute power. The god Baal carries lightning when he goes to the realm of the underworld-god Mot. In another text, Baal is described as holding lightning while enthroned.

The Lord is described as a thunder-god in ; cf. . In (cf. ), he answers Job out of the “storm” (or perhaps the “windstorm,” as in the vision of ). Ancient Near Eastern texts often refer to thunder as the manifestation of the power of deities in times of war, as in . In the voice of God is compared to thunder. In Ugarit, the voice of Baal is synonymous to thunder, and he makes the earth shake. Thunder-gods appeared in various manifestations and forms, and also under different names in the ancient Near East. In Mesopotamia, it was Ishkur and Adad/Hadad, although Marduk also uses thunder and wind to defeat Tiamat. The Syro-Canaanite thunder-god was called Baal (Ugarit and Phoenicia) or Hadad (especially among the Arameans). In the Ugaritic myths, Baal is a thunderer, and he carries the title “rider of the clouds.” The Egyptian god Seth was also a god of thunder. He was identified with Baal, and the name “Baal” in hieroglyphs was written with the Seth animal determinative. The Egyptian word for “thunder” is also written with the Seth animal determinative. It is therefore clear that even though the God of Israel is being revealed as distinct from the gods of the ancient Near East in many important ways, at the same time, ideas about deity in the ancient world are adopted and applied to explain Yahweh’s character. Our knowledge of the ancient Near East can help us understand these metaphors and images.

the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze. It was thought in the ancient Near East that the sky was a solid dome or a flat roof (see the article “

”). The idea of the sky as a metal dome appears in Persian cosmogonic texts. mirror. In the ancient Near East, mirrors were not made of glass, but were mostly beaten and polished bronze. Many such mirrors with a bronze reflecting surface are known, especially from Egypt.

The divine speech in has been compared with the Egyptian name lists or catalogs of things (Onomastica). These lists start with heaven and the stars, deal with meteorological phenomena like rain and thunder, the earth and water, persons and their occupations, towns and buildings, land and products, and end with parts of animals. This tradition is also known from Mesopotamia, where there are lists of trees, domestic and wild animals, birds and fish, and food and drink; but the order in Job is closer to that found in Egypt. Such lists were viewed as displays of wisdom in the ancient world. Sometimes they were lists without elaboration that simply showed a wide knowledge of objects in a similar category. More important, a list such as this one showed insight into how things work—their habits and routines. The presence of such a list, therefore, indicates that Yahweh is showcasing his wisdom. ◆

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Whereas the emphasis in ch. was on Job as part of creation (see the article “Cosmic Geography”), ch. emphasizes God as Creator and the fact that Job was not present (“Where were you . . . ?” v. ) at the creation of the world. In the Mesopotamian poem to Erra, rhetorical questions are also used by the creator-god Marduk, as is the case with God in Job.

earth’s foundation . . . cornerstone. Creation is described like the construction of a building, and here the foundation and cornerstone are laid. The link between creation and building terminology is reflected by the prototypical ancient Near Eastern temple, which was seen as a reflection of the cosmos. The Egyptian temple, e.g., had pillars in the form of plants and a roof decorated with stars representing heaven. The shrine represented the primeval hill of creation, and there was a sacred lake within the precinct called the “divine pool.” Though the building blocks are being put in place, the interest is in how Yahweh has set up the ordered cosmos to operate at his command.

morning stars sang together . . . angels shouted. The stars and “angels” (or “sons of God” [see ]) that sing together at creation are parallel to one another and considered the same supernatural beings (see and note). In a Ugaritic text, the “sons of El/the gods” occur in parallel with “assembly of the stars.” In the rest of the ancient world, the stars were divinized, meaning that there was no distinction between the star as an object and the star as a god. In fact, in the ancient world, people did not know that the stars were material objects. In Israel, the stars were not divinized, but they were personified when equated with the heavenly hosts—the sons of God. Here, Israel is still working within the ancient mindset, but the text does not reflect polytheistic thinking.

shut up the sea. The battle with and control of the sea as symbol of chaos (see notes on ; ; see also the article “Cosmic Geography”) is observable in the principle cosmogony in the ancient Near East (Enuma Elish IV: 139–40). Hints about such a battle can be found in . In most Biblical contexts, God is seen as setting boundaries for the sea and restricting its movements. He is clearly in control.

dawn. Hebrew shahar; it is personified, as in ; , where it is woken up. In Ugaritic literature, Shahar is a god, the child of El, and acts with other gods, such as the sun-goddess; in , it refers to the eyes of the Leviathan. The metaphor in this verse reflects the mindset of the ancient Near East in personifying the dawn, but it does not go as far as to deify the dawn, as other ancient people might have done. From contexts like this, we can see that personification/deification pertains not only to objects in the cosmos, but to functions as well.

The earth takes shape like clay under a seal. In the same way the image on the clay stands out when pressed by a seal, the earth takes shape in the growing light and the landscape becomes clearer.

wicked are denied their light . . . upraised arm is broken. The symbolism of light (the sun) versus darkness was common in the ancient Near East, especially when intended to highlight a deity’s power. The sun is not mentioned precisely in this sense in , but it is used as a symbol of righteousness (cf. ). Darkness is a time of danger, but when light appears or the sun rises, then dangerous animals such as lions are dispersed () with the result that the threat of harm in the darkness is alleviated. In the hymn of the pharaoh Akhenaten to the sun-disk Aten, the rising of the sun introduces life. Darkness is compared to death, and night is portrayed as a time when robbers, lions and serpents harm people. When the Aten shines, darkness is dispelled, and life may flourish. Ancient Near Eastern iconography shows the destruction of evil by the sun: when the sun rises, dangerous forces are dispersed, and their arms are broken.

gates of death. Death (Mawet, see note on ; see also the article “Death and Sheol”) in this verse has gates, as does Sheol (see note on ) and tsalmawet—another Hebrew word for death (cf. “midnight”; “darkness”). Mesopotamian descriptions of the underworld tell about the seven gates and a divine gatekeeper.

storehouses of the snow . . . of the hail. This expression derives from the cosmic geography of the ancient world. In their view, precipitation was kept in storehouses and taken from the storehouses and put into the clouds, which in turn dropped the water on the earth. These storehouses were believed to be at the horizons. See the article “Cosmic Geography.”

Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? According to Ugaritic mythology, Baal, the storm-god, had three daughters. The third one’s name was Tallay, meaning “dew,” or (better) “dewy.” One theory in the ancient world was that the dew came from the stars. Such information indicates that this question addresses a known issue in the ancient world, but, of course, in the context of Yahweh’s speech, the rhetorical question is meant to indicate things that were not known.

clods of earth. Regions like Syria and Canaan, where there were no large rivers as there were in Egypt and Mesopotamia, were dependent on rain. Without rain, the earth would become dry and the clods of earth would literally stick together.

The thrust of the argument in ch. : Does Job know how animals hunt and give birth, or from where their strength and movement come? Only God as Lord-of-animals (a familiar art motif in the ancient world) can control them (cf. ; ). But as Lord-of-animals, he does not destroy the animals, but takes care of them—even the lion is fed ().

the wild donkey. The onager; it can be differentiated from the horse because of the much shorter tail of the donkey, the shorter standing mane and the typically larger ears. Here the donkey is not the dumb and lazy animal of the popular Western image, but a symbol of the wild, as it cannot be tamed (v. ; cf. ; ; ; ). Assyrian reliefs depict the hunting of such wild donkeys. People who break treaties are cursed to roam the desert like the wild ass, the desert symbolizing the periphery of civilization. This sequence of animals in ch. includes those that were considered mysterious in the ancient world and had admirable qualities.

the wild ox. This animal is very strong and difficult to tame (cf. ; ). In the Ugaritic texts, the goddess Astarte hunts a bull, as did the Assyrian kings. Ox hunting is also depicted on Assyrian reliefs, and a beautiful golden dish from Ugarit shows a king in his chariot hunting wild bulls.

treats her young harshly. Ancient people thought that the ostrich, out of cruelty (cf. : “heartless like ostriches”), left its young after laying the eggs.

laughs at horse and rider. The ostrich can outrun a horse, as observed by Xenophon. Ostriches are depicted in Egyptian paintings, and the ostrich feather was the symbol of the goddess Maat. They are objects of curiosity as demonstrated in art that shows Tutankhamun hunting ostriches and an Assyrian hero pursuing an ostrich.

the horse. Described as a war animal that is used for carrying a quiver, spear and lance (v. ), and that is familiar with the scent and cry of battle (v. ). Horses were used to pull chariots, but riding came later. Assyrian reliefs show soldiers on horseback, but cavalry was applied on a large scale only by Alexander the Great, the Scythians and the Parthians. In v. , the horse leaps like a locust, and in locusts are compared to running horses.

the hawk . . . the eagle. The last two animals described are birds of prey and large meat eaters. They have mighty wings (v. ) extending 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length. The young birds drink blood and, like vultures, they eat corpses on the battlefield (v. ; cf. ).

In the dialogues, Job wonders why God is treating him like a chaos creature (); in the discourses, Job suggests that God is acting like a chaos creature (). Here in God’s second set of speeches, Yahweh picks up both of Job’s charges and alters Job’s fundamental assumption by implying that chaos creatures are in fact part of God’s ordered world.

Most of the ancient world believed that chaos creatures were outside of the established order and often viewed them as a threat to that order. In contrast, the Hebrew Bible consistently expresses God’s control of chaos creatures and merges them into the ordered cosmos. For example, they are created (which entails being drawn into the ordered cosmos) in , and they are passive rather than threatening in .

The passages about Behemoth and Leviathan appropriately follow Yahweh’s challenge to Job to bring low all the proud (), for Leviathan is identified as the king over all who are proud (). Leviathan should be labeled an “anti-cosmos creature” rather than a “chaos creature.” These creatures exist on the fringes of the ordered world. Although creation entailed bringing order to the cosmos, the cosmos was not seen as a totally ordered system. The fact that there is a Garden of Eden, where a high level of order exists, but also space outside the garden, where order has yet to be established, evidences the distinction. Liminal creatures (such as coyote, owl and ostrich) are near the boundaries of the ordered world. Nonzoological creatures such as Behemoth, Leviathan, Rahab and Tannin are not viewed as unbridled threats, but neither are they drawn totally into the ordered sphere. Nahash, the serpent of , is another example of an anti-cosmos creature. Anti-cosmos creatures are creations of God, but are the “thorns” and “thistles” of the animal world.

Significant problems exist for the suggestions that Behemoth and Leviathan are either zoological specimens or now-extinct creatures that once roamed the earth. In the former category, while Behemoth’s location among the lotus plants in the reeds of the marsh () might bring to mind the mighty hippopotamus, the description of the tail () makes such identification impossible. Likewise, those who suggest some huge now-extinct plant-eating dinosaur would have trouble explaining how it is concealed among the lotus plants. In the same way, although Leviathan may have some characteristics of a Nile crocodile, its fire breathing () and multiple heads () refute that identification. Perhaps those in antiquity would have viewed the hippopotamus and crocodile as reminiscent of Behemoth and Leviathan, and perhaps even as their spawn in some sense, but Behemoth and Leviathan are the archetypes and personify abstractions that hippopotamus and crocodile do to a much lesser degree.

Alternatively, it is not uncommon to see Behemoth and Leviathan identified as throwbacks from ancient mythology. Behemoth would perhaps be represented in figurines and reliefs of a human-headed bison, and Leviathan, also referred to in Ugaritic texts (as Litan), would be the seven-headed dragon that appears on seals and engravings in Mesopotamia.

A third direction taken by interpreters posits Behemoth and Leviathan as figures known from West Semitic mythology, primarily available in the Ugaritic texts. Some scholars associate them with Mot and Yamm, while others prefer to identify Behemoth with El’s calf, Atik (Arš), and Leviathan with the Ugaritic mythological sea dragon, Litan. ◆

Human-headed bison, Mesopotamia, 2150–2100 BC. It is common to see Behemoth identified as a throwback from ancient mythology, such as a human-headed bison.

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I put my hand over my mouth. On a relief of the Persian king Darius I, a Median stands with his hand raised to his mouth as a gesture of respect in the presence of someone greater than him. This same gesture is seen much earlier on the stele of Hammurapi as he stands before the god Shamash. Though it is a well-known gesture, its meaning is still subject to various interpretations (see notes on ; ).

an arm like God’s. The arm (like the hand) can indicate power and strength, as in the Hebrew of (see note there). In , God saves Israel with an “outstretched arm.” In a letter from Ugarit, the hands of the gods are strong like death, and at Mari, a god’s hand destroys cattle and men. The visual representation of deities brandishing weapons in a menacing way also reflects the power of the arm.

clothe yourself. God challenges Job to dress himself in glory, which is ironic, given it refers to something only God can do. God is “clothed with splendor and majesty” (; cf. ). The Mesopotamian deities had power or glamour, called melammu; divine statues in the ancient Near East were clothed, and deities are represented as covered in light or stars. Marduk “wore” the auras of seven gods, and the monsters of Tiamat were “clad” with glories.

sight of it is overpowering. The Leviathan is so powerful that his very appearance makes one lie low (TEV) or fall to the ground (GNT). The idea of such fear is known from ancient Near Eastern mythology. In the Babylonian creation epic, the gods are powerless against the might of Tiamat. In Ugarit, when the messengers of the sea-god Yamm appear, the gods lower their heads onto their knees. In v. , when the Leviathan rises, the “mighty” (Hebrew “gods”) are afraid of him and retreat. In the Gilgamesh Epic the deities are afraid when the flood comes.

jagged potsherds. Like the one used by Job in . threshing sledge. Made of parallel boards with sharp stones. The scales on the belly of the Leviathan leave marks like a threshing sledge when it is dragged over the grain.

Leviathan is found in Ugaritic texts that contain detailed descriptions of a chaos beast, representing the seas or watery anarchy in the form of a many-headed, twisting sea serpent, who is defeated by Baal. There is a close affinity between the description of Leviathan in as a “coiling serpent” and the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, which speaks of how the storm-god “smote Litan the twisting serpent.” In both cases, there is a sense of the God of order and fertility vanquishing a chaos monster. Several other passages in the OT mention Leviathan, but most of them, like , speak in terms of God’s creative act that establishes control over watery chaos (personified by the sea serpent). In , however, that struggle between order and chaos occurs at the end of time. It may be that Satan, portrayed as a seven-headed dragon in , also echoes the Leviathan, “the tyrant with seven heads.” Biblically, Leviathan would therefore most easily fit into the category of a “supernatural” creature (like cherubim) as opposed to a natural or purely mythological creature. As such, it may appear in extra-Biblical mythology, as well as being symbolized by something like a crocodile (as in , though Leviathan is not specifically referenced in that context). The point in Job is that if Job cannot domesticate and control Leviathan, he certainly should not expect to control God.

Some interpret Leviathan as connected to what is called a chaoskampf motif—a battle of God against chaos to bring order to the world at its creation. A more substantiable motif for cosmogony is that of the “Lord of the Cosmos.” The Hebrew Bible is consistently interested in divine kingship, an interest it holds in common with the rest of the ancient world. Cosmogony is one context in which divine kingship can be demonstrated, but it is only one of many. Yahweh’s kingship is expressed over the operations of the cosmos, whether they pertain to precipitation or politics. He is superior to other gods (though he does not bother to fight them and is not said to rule over them—these would give them too high a standing), and he rules nations and empires. Theomachy (God in battle) is typically a motif in contexts in which Yahweh is harnessing those powers that would rebel against his rule. The passages in the Prophets and the Psalms nowhere indicate that the formation of the cosmos comes as a result of defeat of other powers, only that Yahweh’s rule of the cosmos is accomplished as he defeats rebels or harnesses powers. ◆

Seven-headed monster plaque, Mesopotamian, 2450 BC. Leviathan () is a cosmic monster often thought to have multiple heads.

Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com

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repent in dust and ashes. Typical to ancient Israel, the idea of the link between honor and shame is at play here. Job honors God and acknowledges his shame by repenting in dust and ashes, a practice linked with mourning in , (see the article “Mourning”).

the LORD restored his fortunes. The Ugaritic king Keret lost seven sons, and he is promised seven, even eight, as with Job, who lost seven sons and three daughters, but whose calamity now will be overturned.

piece of silver. Hebrew qesitah. This is not a coin, but a piece of silver used in business transactions. The relatives and friends give Job money in the way that was customary in ancient times before the days of coins and notes. gold ring. These are depicted in Egyptian art and worn as jewelry.

inheritance. It was not common for daughters to inherit in the Semitic world and, according to , a daughter only inherited when there was no son, whereas Job has sons. The inheritance by daughters does, however, occur in some cases, but it is rather additional inheritance to the normal dowry.

a hundred and forty years. Might be a doubling of the perfect number of 70 years. Joseph reached an age of 110, the ideal age in Egyptian texts. fourth generation. Joseph saw his grandchildren to the third generation (), Job to the fourth!

an old man and full of years. Used also of Abraham (), Isaac () and David ().

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