Job (9:1–10:22)
Be righteous (9:2). Legal motifs and terms abound in Job; in fact, some have described the book as one big lawsuit, with God as plaintiff and Job as the one who stands accused.106 In Mesopotamia the gods, especially the sun god, control justice, and gods can be adversaries in court. There is one comparable example where a king calls on Shamash, the sun god and god of justice, to judge him.107 “One time out of thousand” (9:3) refers to impossible odds (see also Deut. 32:30; Job 33:23).
Moves mountains (9:5). Chapter 9 (like chs. 26 and 38) describes God as the Creator. The Old Testament uses common ancient Near Eastern metaphors when describing creation, but God is the only Creator. He can move mountains and shakes the pillars of the earth (9:6). The ancient world believed that the earth rests on pillars (cf. Ps. 75:3; see also foundations in Job 38:4, 6; Ps. 18:15 [= 2 Sam. 22:16]; Ps. 82:5; 104:5). In Job 26:11 the pillars of the heavens quake. God shakes the heavens, earth, dry land, and sea (Hag. 2:6). On a Babylonian kudurru, which may depict the world, one can detect a large pillar.108
Pillars of earth visible at the corners of the unfinished kudurru
Rama/Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Louvre
God controls the sun and makes the stars (Job 9:6–9). God stretches out the heavens (26:7; Ps. 104:2; Isa. 40:22)109 and treads on the waves of the sea (Job 9:8). In the Babylonian creation epic the god Marduk creates and destroys the constellation to indicate his power. After defeating Tiamat, he split her in two; half of her he sets up and makes as a cover, heaven, and stretches out the hide. He then establishes the constellation of the stars.110
Treading means to defeat or subjugate (Job 9:8; cf. Deut. 33:29). The image of the ocean as chaos has already been seen in 3:8 (there called Leviathan) and 7:12 (used parallel with Tannin), where it is put under guard, while in 38:8–11 it is shut up behind doors; its limits are set with doors and bars and halted from going any further. In the Ugaritic myths the god Baal defeats Yam, the sea god.111 On a stela 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 mountains. Treading on the sea is parallel to treading on high places.112
The sun … does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars (9:7). God has the power to stop the sun from shining and to seal up the stars, which may refer to obscuring their light through eclipses. The NIV adds the word “light,” which does not occur in the Hebrew. Alternatively, the idea may be that God restrains the stars by establishing the stations of the stars, as is known from Mesopotamian astronomical texts. In the Mesopotamian series called MUL APIN the paths of the gods Anu, Enlil, and Ea are set.113
Creation and World PictureA-28
The concepts of creation and cosmos are common in Job and are described in detail in 9:5–10; 26:7–14; 38:4–41:34. The ancient Israelites shared many common cosmological (structure of the world) and cosmogonic (origin of the world) beliefs with the ancient Near East world, although for them there was only one Creator. According to the Hebrew Bible the cosmos consists of heaven, earth, and the underworld. In Genesis 1 it is heaven (sky, expanse), earth (land), and waters (sea, deep). Above are the heavens. The earth rests on pillars (Ps. 75:3) or foundations (1 Sam. 2:8). Below the ordered earth is the underworld or Sheol, a concept well attested in Job (sidebar on “Death and Sheol” at 7:9; cf. also 11:8–9).
In Egyptian thought the world was a disk resting on the primeval waters (Nun). Egypt was in the center, with the other countries on the periphery. Above was the sky goddess Nut, studded with stars. In Mesopotamian thought the cosmos was a spheroid with two parts: above was heaven (also called “on high”) and below the underworld (what we would call “hell”). In the center was earth (an island in the salt ocean) with apsu (fresh water) below it. At the western and eastern extremes were high mountains supporting the vault of heaven (cf. 26:11). The cosmos consisted of three (heaven, earth, underworld), four (heaven, underworld, sea, and earth), or even six parts (when dividing the heavens into three parts); see illustration at 11:7.
Modern artistic reconstruction of an ancient Israelite view of the cosmos. The sky, supported by mountains at the edges, holds back the waters above as it arches over the flat, disk-shaped earth which is upheld by pillars. Numerous graves lead to the netherworld, Sheol, and the cosmos waters surround the earth on the horizontal plane, as well as the entire cosmos on the vertical plane. Lurking in the depths is mighty Leviathan (here more in Medieval design). The temple on earth is matched by the temple in heaven, the dwelling place of God. The skies are inhabited by birds as well as celestial bodies and rain is let through windows of heaven. Stars are engraved on the underside of the sky.
John H. Walton, drawing by Alva Steffler
Bear and Orion, the Pleiades (9:9). The stars (cf. sidebar on “Stars” at 38:28) called Orion and Pleiades are always mentioned together (Amos 5:7–8), because the Pleiades were believed to be seven sisters pursued by the hunter Orion. In 38:31–32 God challenges Job to control the stars, but the order is Pleiades, Orion, and Bear. The Bear is also called the “Big Dipper” (or perhaps the “Little Dipper”) and is near the celestial North Pole. Orion is seen in the winter skies of the northern hemisphere. The Pleiades is a cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus.114
Cylinder seal with Pleiades portrayed as seven circles at top left
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, courtesy of the Louvre
The cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet (9:13). Rahab115 is not known from the ancient Near East or in the cognate languages but is, like the Tannin (7:12) and Leviathan (3:8; 41:1), a sea monster representing chaos, who was destroyed at creation (see sidebar on “The Cosmic Battle with Chaos” at 41:1). Rahab also occurs in the cosmogony in Job 26:12, where it is cut to pieces. In Psalm 89:10–11 and Isaiah 51:9–10 God cuts Rahab to pieces, pierces the monster (Heb. tannîn), and crushes it. Rahab is used parallel with the drying up of the sea and the waters of the deep (Heb. tehôm) over which he rules. It is used for Egypt in Psalm 87:4 and Isaiah 30:7 in the sense of a political enemy.
I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life (9:21). This is a difficult phrase. Job is blameless but does not care for himself. The Hebrew “I do not know myself” has been compared with the expression in Akkadian medical texts, “He does not know himself,” denoting a loss of consciousness.116
He destroys both the blameless and the wicked (9:22). This irony also occurs in the Mesopotamian Erra epic: “Like one who plunders a country, I do not distinguish just from unjust, I fell (them both).”117
Boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down (9:26). In ancient Egypt boats made of papyrus (cf. 8:11) were a common sight and are often depicted on Egyptian paintings; small models were placed in tombs.118 In the Ugaritic Aqhat epic the goddess Anat hovers among falcons and hawks and uses the mercenary Yatpan as one does with a falcon to swoop down and slay Aqhat.119
Relief from the tomb of the vizier Pta h-hotep at Saqqara shows papyrus boats.
Werner Forman Archive
Washed myself with soap and my hands with washing soda (9:30). Job tries to establish his innocence by referring to the strongest 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 (Deut. 21:6), but is done in vain (Ps. 73:13). This will not cleanse Job (cf. Jer. 2:22).
Moulded me like clay (10:9). God is not only the creator of the universe as described in chapter 9, but also of humans and an individual like Job (10:8–9). The idea that humans are made from clay also occurs in 33:6.120 A different Hebrew verb is used that indicates pinching off clay. Job 4:9 refers to “houses of clay” in the literal sense rather than to the creation of humans from clay. In Genesis 2:7 man (Adam) was formed from the dust of the ground, and the metaphor of the potter is used in Isaiah 29:16; 45:9; 64:8, and Jeremiah 18:6 (also Rom. 9:20–21).121
The Egyptian god Khnum fashions the pharaoh on his potter’s wheel.
Brian J. McMorrow
In the ancient Near East, Egyptians believed that the god Khnum created on a potter’s wheel.122 In the Wisdom of Ani, “Man is clay and straw, the god is his builder.”123 In the Gilgamesh Epic Enkidu is made by the goddess Aruru from clay;124 in the Babylonian Theodicy the god Ea creates by pinching off their clay;125 and in Ugarit126 El creates a healer in the same way. According to the Atrahasis Epic, a human is created by mixing clay with the flesh and blood of a god.127 For this reason God can turn Job to dust, which indicates death (see Gen. 3:19; Ps. 90:3; also sidebar on “Death and Sheol” at 7:9).128
Curdle me like cheese (10:10). This is another image 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, even held by a female figure, who may be some goddess, from early sites (ca. 4000 B.C.) such as Gilat near Beersheba.129 The churn is depicted on Egyptian tomb paintings.130
Chalcolithic cult vessel from Gilat in the form of a woman with a churn on her head
Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com
To the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow (10:21). Cf. 7:9–10 for “place of no return.” Death (see sidebar on “Death and Sheol” at 7:9) is a place of darkness (cf. also comment on 17:13).