Job

The Book of Job reads like a seachange from the earlier historical books of the Old Testament. Not only is it very different in style, with much of its language lyrical, but also more cosmic in scope, the stuff of myth rather than history. As well as the grand old figure of Job, we have God and Satan playing prominent roles, almost like puppet masters, as well as three of Job's friends – Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar – and small cameos from Behemoth and Leviathan. Essentially, the book is about suffering, in a world where the Gods either don't care about humanity or play with our fates for sport.

William Blake's depiction of Behemoth & Leviathan

The story revolves around a wager between God and Satan about whether the just and upright Job can be shaken out of his piety if he loses everything. God looks on as Satan inflicts a series of disasters on Job – including stripping him of his wealth, riddling him with disease and killing each of his 10 children – in the hope of making him renounce God. His three friends then deliver three apologias for divine injustice, and Job is riled by the idea that he somehow warrants the disasters that have afflicted him. He curses the day he was born in chapter 3, and feel a strong sense of having been abandoned by God and a sense of his own mortality (but "a shadow"), yet his faith remains steadfast and by the end of the book he seeks a meeting with God to confront him about why he has been tested in this way.

Job and his family, before disaster strikes

Throughout the Book of Job, there is a deep sense of loss and this pervasive element – combined with the poetic language – reminds me a lot of Shakespeare's Hamlet or King Lear. Chapter 7 is particularly downbeat, with lines like, "my flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust", which reminds me of Hamlet's quintessence of dust speech. Other lines such as, "Clothed me with flesh and skin, and fenced me with bones and sinews" (10:11), are reminders of our mortal cage, while the section in chapter 14 about how trees can regenerate, but humans cannot, reveals a disillusion and pessimism in Job that is reminiscent of Hamlet or Lear. The dark language continues later on in the book too, notably: "Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night" (27:20). Perhaps the crowning moment of gloom is the quote:

                                     "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. 

My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. 

My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep" (30:29-31)

Job's evil dreams

In reply to his three friends who say that his suffering is punishment for his sins, Job shows a complete refusal to accept their point of view, saying: "Ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value" (13:4). Job later becomes aggrieved and angry that his friends are so harsh with their words, offering no support or comfort (19:2). He defines wisdom and understanding as, "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding" (28:28), in other words Job's outlook is simple: Do good and avoid evil, while also refraining from trying to see into the mind of God, as his three friends have done. Job closes his parable and his discussion with his friends with the line, "Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley" (31:40), as if to say that if his assessment of things is wrong, then let God ensure that he never flourishes again in future.

Job rebuked by his friends

Before God responds to Job, a younger man Elihu interjects and attacks Job's three friends over the course of six chapters (32-7), insisting that the righteous suffer just as much as the wicked. His speech offers very little of substance, and may have been a later addition to the text. Either way, it breaks the flow of the narrative, and it's best to see God answering Job out of the whirlwind in chapters 38-41 as a direct response to Job's plea for the Almighty to respond to him (31:35). People's opinions will always differ widely on whether God's reply to Job – about why he had to endure such suffering – are ethically satisfying or not. It reminds me of a book group discussion that I had about chapter 5 of Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, called Rebellion, about the suffering of children. Some are satisfied with the aesthetic response of the Creator and others, like myself, are not.

The Lord answering Job out of the whirlwind

God uses poetic language, asking Job rhetorically whether he has the power to bind the constellation of Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) or loosen the belt of Orion (38:31-32), sounding to my ears like a tyrant who wants to strike fear in his subjects so that they never dare question why they should endure such needless suffering. At the end of the book, Job is restored to his former wealth and social standing. He also regains his family, though it's not clear whether they're the same 7 sons and 3 daughters, or whether his wife survived to procreate another 10? Like many aspects of this mystical book, there are many questions left unanswered – not least what Job felt about having to undergo this ordeal just so God could win a wager with Satan.

When the morning stars sang together

PS: A note on the language. This book is beautifully written and very poetic. There are several examples of phrases that have made it into the English language and remain in common usage, including "labour in vain" (9:29), "give up the ghost" (10:18) and "skin of my teeth" (19:20). I'm not sure if this book is where all these phrases originate, but it seems likely. Either way, it's another sign of the Book of Job's huge influence on English literature and language.

Job and his family restored to prosperity

PPS: All the images above are taken from William Blake's illustrations of the Book of Job, the ultimate companion to any study of this book.