Job At Warp Speed (Chap 6-7)

As per my last post on Job, the next bit is a huge stretch of Job going back and forth with his friends. They relay similar arguments (“you must have sinned somehow”) with similar responses from Job (“no I didn’t! this sucks”). So entering warp speed, I’ll point out the curiosities and interesting bits that jumped out at me:

Job’s Anguish

Job often expresses a wish to die so the pain would end: Would that my request were granted, That God gave me what I wished for; Would that God consented to crush me, Loosed His hand and cut me off; Then this would be my consolation (6:8-10a). God here is presented as a master torturer from a military dictatorship, using his anti-Hippocratic-oath medical skills to make sure the victim is in maximum pain but doesn’t die. Kind of like crucifixion. Or this.

There’s an excellent characterisation of depression. When I lie down, I think ‘When shall I rise?’ (7:4). However this seems to be taken from the much earlier Long List of Threats to the Israelites — In the morning thou shalt say: ‘Would it were even!’ and at even thou shalt say: ‘Would it were morning!’ for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see (Deut 28:67). A possible copyright lawsuit?

Once more, there really really seems to be no afterlife in Job. For soon I shall lie down in the dust; When You seek me, I shall be gone (7:22b). Once more, sucked in to attempts at a consistent traditional Jewish or Christian theology.

A Heavenly North Korea

There’s a famous line in the Psalms: What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou thinkest of him? Yet Thou hast made him but little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour (Ps 8:5-6). Here, God being so mindful of humans is seen as a good thing. However Christopher Hitchens describes it as a celestial North Korea. My reaction was to agree. Imagine a being that watches you take a dump every day of your life!

Job is of the same opinion. What is man that You make much of him, That You fix Your attention upon him? You inspect him every morning, Examine him every minute, Will You not look away from me for a while, Let me be, till I swallow my spittle? (7:17-19). Of course this appears to be a juicy mockery of the pompousness of the Psalms quote above. I wonder if it’s deliberate. I hope so, because it would then be one of history’s first examples of religious comedy. I can just picture Job as a Biblical George Carlin:

Job: My favourite line in the Psalms says “What is man that you’re mindful of him?”
[Pause. Audience perks up, expecting some pious praise.]
Job: That’s right, why are you mindful of him? Leave him the fuck alone? Can’t a guy take a dump for 5 minutes??

I’m really starting to warm up to this Job fellow — if only more of the pious had his non-nonsense BS-detection attitudes!