Job's Ritual of Mourning

18 Pages·2008·1.445 MB·English

by  Richard W. Medina

Job's Entrée into a Ritual of Mourning as Seen in the Opening Prose of the Book of Job
Author(s): Richard W. Medina
Source: Die Welt des Orients, Bd. 38 (2008), pp. 194-210
Published by: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG)
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Job's Entree into a Ritual ofM ourning as Seen in the
Opening Prose of the Book of Job*
Richard W. Medina
Joban scholarship has overlooked a ritual treatment of Job 1:20-21. In view of this, after exploring
the practice of mourning rites in the context of ancient Israel and the Near East, this essay
endeavors to explain the social function of Job's ritual acts (tearing the garment, head-shaving, and
descent to the ground) and speech, in terms of A. van Gennep's and T. Turner's theories on ritual
process, the examination of biblical and extrabiblical parallels along with the syntax of theH ebrew
verbs. It is concluded that the mourning rites portrayed in Job 1:20-21 trigger the transformation
of Job's ordinary identity into an undefined or ambiguous identity; at the same time, theym ark his
transition from day-to-day life to a liminal phase as identification with the dead. He remains in this
paradoxical condition until the end of mourning when he reintegrates into normal life and his
misfortune miraculously reverses (Job 42:7-17).
1. Connections
The Hebrew Bible describes a vast array of rituals1 connected with almost
every sphere of life.2R itual texts exist in both prescriptive and descriptive
* This essay is dedicated to my friend Gerald A. Klingbeil, who encouraged me to explore
ritual patterns in the Hebrew wisdom literature. I wish to thank Bernd U. Schipper, JerryG ladson,
Kathleen M. O'Connor and Walter Brueggemann for their kind help in commenting on an earlier
draft of this essay. I am also grateful to the anonymous referee for his/her beneficial remarks.
1 Jan Platvoet has provided an embracing definition of ritual thatm ight be employed to de
fine or identify the ritual phenomena in the Hebrew Bible: "Ritual is that ordered sequence of
stylized social behaviour that may be distinguished from ordinary interaction by its alerting
qualities which enable it to focus the attention of its audiences - its congregation as well as the
wider public - onto itself and cause them to perceive it as a special event, performed at a special
place and/or time, for a special occasion and/or with a special message." J. Platvoet, "Ritual in
Plural and Pluralist Societies," in Pluralism and Identity: Studies in Ritual Behaviour (ed. J.
Platvoet and K. van der Toorn; SHR 67; Leiden: Brill, 1995), 41. For other definitions and a
comprehensive discussion of biblical rituals as well as their investigation to date, see G.A.
Klingbeil, Bridging theG ap: Ritual and Ritual Texts in theB ible (BBRSup 1;W inona Lake, Ind.:
Eisenbrauns, 2007).
2 A wide-ranging discussion on ritual in the context of the cultural universe can be found in
G.A. Klingbeil, A Comparative Study of The Ritual of Ordination as Found in Leviticus 8 and
Emar 369 (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 1998), 5-52.
Die Welt des Orients 38/2008
S. 194-210 ISSN 0043-2547
? Vandenhoeck & RuprechtG mbH & Co. KG, Gottingen 2008
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Job's Entree into a Ritual ofM ourning 195
iterations,3p roviding a time capsule or snapshot to communicate the beliefs
and values of a specific group in a given context.4 The passage of Job 1:20-21
is a piece of ritual text composed with admirable artistryw, hich depicts Job's
mourning for the loss of his family.W hat does this ritual enactment signal to
participants, readers or onlookers? It triggers the transformationo f Job's ordinary
identity into a ritual identity; at the same time, itm arks his transition from day
to-day life to a liminal ritual condition as identificationw ith the dead.
It is unfortunate to note that commentaries, even them ore up-to-date, have
overlooked a ritual treatment of Job 1:20-21,5 offering no explanation about
the ritual functions6 and significance of Job's behaviors.7 It appears that Joban
studies8 have focused per se on historical-critical, theological, dialogical9
3 Compare the introduction of the terms in B.A. Levine, "The Descriptive Tabernacle Texts
of the Pentateuch," JAOS 85 (1965): 307-18; See also G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion
According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit (trans. W.G.E. Watson; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisen
brauns, 2004), 14f.
4 G.A. Klingbeil, "'Momentaufhahmen' of Israelite Religion: The Importance of the Commu
nal Meal inN arrative Texts in I/II Regum and Their Ritual Dimension," ZAW 118 (2006): 24-25.
5 R.L. Alden, Job (NAC; Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 1993), 61; S.E. Balentine,
Job (Smith & Helwys Bible Commentary; Macon, Ga.: Smith & Helwys, 2006), 56; D.J.A. Clines,
Job 1-20 (WBC 17; Dallas, Tex.: Word, 1989), 34-35; A. de Wilde, Das Buch Hiob. Engeleitet,
Ubersetzt und Erlautert (OTS 22; Leiden: Brill, 1981), 89; J.H. Eaton, Job (Old Testament
Guides; Sheffield: JSOT, 1992), 2; J.C.L. Gibson, Job (The Daily Study Bible; Philadelphia, Pa.:
Westminster, 1985), 16; N.C. Habel, The Book of Job: A Commentary (OTL; Philadelphia, Pa.:
Westminster, 1985), 93; J.E. Hartley, The Book of Job (NICOT; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
1988), 77; F. Hesse, Hiob (Zurcher Bibelkommentare 14; Theologischer Verlag: Zurich, 1992),
35; Gerald J. Janzen, Job (Interpretation; Atlanta, Ga.: John Knox Press, 1985), 43; CA. Newsom,
"The Book of Job," in The New Interpreter's Bible (ed. L.E. Keck; Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon,
1996), 4:352; M.H. Pope, Job (AncB 15A; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965), 15; W.D.
Reyburn, A Handbook on the Book of Job (UBS Handbook Series; New York: United Bible
Societies, 1992), 53; D.J. Simundson, The Message of Job: A Theological Commentary (Augsburg
Old Testament studies; Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg, 1986), 37; E.B. Smick, "Job," in The
Expositor's Bible Commentary (ed. F.E. Gaebelein; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1988),
4:882; J.A. Wharton, Job (Westminster Bible Companion; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster, 1999),
20; G.H. Wilson, Job (NIBCOT; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2007), 26, 28.
6 Robert K. Merton has made a distinction between manifest (objectives/consequences for
the actor) and latent functions (objectives/consequences for the community) for social behavior.
R.K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (enlarged ed.; New York: Free Press, 1968), 114-20.
7 J.G ordon McConville postulates that ritual in theO T has been often denigrated in biblical
studies because of a supposed opposition it poses to "spiritual" religion, and the effort has even
been made to show that itw as regarded as passe by the OT itself (J.G. McConville, "The Place of
ritual inO ld Testament Religion," IBS 3 [1981]: 120-33); though commenting on Priestly rituals,
Frank H. Gorman's insights are worth citing here: "[R]esearch has focused primarily on textual
analysis without great concern for the social nature of ritual. Rituals must be understood in terms
of their socio-cultural context. This demands a methodological shift ... from a text oriented
analysis to a socio-cultural analysis." F.H. Gorman, Jr., The Ideology of Ritual: Space, Time and
Status in theP riestly Theology (JSOTSup 229; Sheffield: JSOT, 1990), 13.
8 A comprehensive survey of past and recent scholarship on Job can be found in CA.
Newsom, "Considering Job," CurBS 1 (1993): 87-118; idem, "Re-Considering Job," CurBR 5
(2007): 155-82.
9 Based on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Carol A. Newsom argues that the book of Job
represents an attempt to create a dialogue of genres (voices) or a polyphonic text. She says that Job
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196 Richard W. Medina
issues, etc.10 or conversations about the reception history, excluding the book
of Job as a source of Israelite beliefs and practices.11 In view of this lassitude
towards ritual, after exploring the practice of mourning rites in the context of
the ancient Near East, I venture to explain the functions of the acts and speech
limned in Job 1:20-21, through a ritual theory and an examination of biblical
and extrabiblical parallels as well as the syntax of the Hebrew verbs. Before
moving on to the next section, itw ill be instructive to review Arnold van
Gennep's theory of "rites of passage" and Terence Turner's "hierarchy of
operations," which will serve as a theoretical approach for this study.
A. van Gennep points out that the life of an individual in any society is a
series of passages: "For every one of these events there are ceremonies whose
essential purpose is to enable the individual top ass from one defined position
to another."12 These ceremonies, he calls rites of passage, involve separation,
transition (or the so-called liminal or threshold phase) and incorporation, and
are associated with those critical transition phases in life, such as birth, initia
tion, marriage, parenthood, and death. Although Turner criticizes van Gen
nep's ritual process as a linear series of moves or stages on the same level, he
does link itw ith the notion of the transformation of identities in the form of a
vertical mediation between levels of operations of differing logical types:13
is introduced by a didactic narrative, including aesthetic devices (repetition, idealized exaggera
tion, simple binary character oppositions, strongly evaluative narrator, etc.) that create a moral
world of clear values and simple truths. The narrative otherwise is continued by another genre that
follows the storyw ith a form of literary,m oral, and sophisticated conversation (both aesthetically
and in terms of the complexity of itsm oral vision). Idem, The Book of Job: A Contest ofM oral
Imaginations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 17-18.
10 Relying upon thew ork of the psychohistorian, Robert Jay Lifton, Dan Mathewson offers an
ambitious study on death's multiple meanings in the book of Job as a consequence of the collapse
of divine justice. He writes: "Whereas divine justice acts as a symbol system that grounds the
meaning of death for Job's friends, when Job experiences disaster and senses that this symbol
system collapses, death for Job loses its anchor. Job's struggle throughout the book will be to
articulate a new symbol system in order that his experiences of suffering can be understood in a
new and newly meaningful context. This new context will also supply Job a stable place from
which to understand death." D. Mathewson, Death and Survival in the Book of Job (Library of
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 450; New York: T & T Clark, 2006), 25.
11 A provocative essay dealing with the presence of transformed Israelite religious traditions
in the book of Job is found inG .J. Janzen, "The Place of the Book of Job in the History of Israel's
Religion," inA ncient Israelite Religion: Essays inH onor of Frank Moore Cross (ed. P.D. Miller,
Jr.,P .D. Hanson and S.D. McBride; Philadelphia, Pa.: Fortress, 1987), 523-37. Cf. G.A. Klingbeil,
"Altars, Ritual and Theology: Preliminary Thoughts on the Importance of Cult and Ritual for a
Theology of theH ebrew Scriptures," *T54 (2004): 495-515
12 A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (trans. M.B. Vizedom and G.L. Caffee; Chicago, 111.:
University of Chicago Press, 1960), 2-3, 10-11 (my italics); see also P.C. Rosenblatt, R.P. Walsh
and D.A. Jackson, Grief and Mourning in Cross-Cultural Perspective (New Haven, Conn.: HRAF
Press, 1976), 86-87.
13 T. Turner, "Structure, Process, Form," in Theorizing Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches,
Concepts (ed. J.K reinath, J. Snoek and M. Stausberg; Numen Book Series: Studies in the History
of Religions 114-1; Leiden: Brill, 2006), 212; cf. D. Handelman, "Framing," in Theorizing
Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts (ed. J.K reinath, J. Snoek and M. Stausberg; Numen
Book Series: Studies in theH istory of Religions 114-1; Leiden: Brill, 2006), 582.
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Job's Entree into a Ritual ofM ourning 197
The 'passage' of the person ... undergoing the ritual, leading to his/her ... 'aggregation' to the new
status or condition, consists in formal terms of transformations. As such, it comprises more
powerful operations of a higher logical type than the simple negation or confirmation of the
classificatory identities that comprise the initial and final phases of the ritual process ... the rites
of separation and aggregation have this job of insulating the normative categories and relations ...
Between these two points, the initiands or other entities undergoing transitions or passages become
identified with the transformational processes of them edial or liminal phase of the ritual.14
Based upon the opinion of both authors, the rites of separation and incorpo
ration are devices that enable the individual to enter another sphere of reality.
They instigate and channel the transformative processes of social status and
space-time incidental. During the liminal or transitional phase, the person
temporarilya dopts a kind of "unidentifiedm eta-identity" as opposed to the ordi
nary identities of the initial and final phases.15 Accordingly, in a ritual ofm our
ning, by performing a series of rites (of separation) the participant enters into a
liminal stage as well as adopts a temporary ritual identity.T hen he/she situates
"between thew orld of the living and thew orld of the dead,"16 taking on am
biguous "modes of behavior, which typically combine seclusion and with
drawal from ordinary social lifew ith anti-social behavior."17T he mourner's trans
formed status in this case appears incompatible with the normative statuses and
relations of the everyday world. The question on how this ritual performance
occurred in the ancient Near East is the subject of the ensuing section.
2. Ritual ofM ourning in the Context of the Ancient Near East
Ancient Near Eastern literature has preserved a rich repertoire of mourning
rites18w hich doubtless reflect the funeral practice of the time.A lthough some
of these texts can be as far as 1500 years, them ourning rites they describe
have many common features, which attest to the conservative nature of the
ritual practice, especially with regard to the ritual ofm ourning.
For space limitations several textsw ill be omitted.19 This section will just
look at a text that possesses striking similarities to Job 1:20-21, namely the
mourning of DIlua nd cAnatu over Ba 7w. This poem will serve as a backdrop
for the ritual performance recorded in the Joban text.O ne of them ost promi
nent features of Canaanite religion is its focus on the death of Baclu. When
14 Turner, "Structure," 211-14 (my italics).
15 F. Jeserich, "An Invitation to 'Theorizing' Theorizing Rituals: Some Suggestions forU sing the
Indexes," in Theorizing Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts (ed. J.K reinath, J. Snoek and
M. Stausberg; Numen Book Series: Studies in theH istory of Religions 114-1; Leiden: Brill, 2006), 708.
16 Cf. Van Gennep, 146-48.
17 Turner, "Structure," 214.
18 X.H.T. Pham, Mourning in the Ancient Near East and theH ebrew Bible (JSOTSup 302;
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 16.
19 Cf.B. Alster, "The Mythology ofM ourning," Acta Sumerologica 5 (1983): 1-16.
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198 Richard W. Medina
Baclu receives the command to descend to the netherworld, he acquiesces to
the demand, but thew ay he carries ito ut is confusing. Instead of "descending"
he journeys to the edge of the earth and there, in the parched desert of death,
meets his fate. The disappearance of Baclu, the storm-god, was catastrophic
and the cause for greatm ourning.20W ithout the seasonal rains provided by this
deity, the land quickly became infertile,a nd life itselfw as in danger. Note the
reaction of DIlu and cAnatu:21
KTU1.5 VI 11-25
Thereupon theG racious One, the kindly god,
descends from the throne, sits on the footstool,
(descends) from the footstool, sits on the earth.
He pours dirt of mourning on his head,
dust of humiliation on his cranium.
for clothing, he is covered with a girded garment.
With a stone he scratches incisions on (his) skin,
with a razor he cuts cheeks and chin.
He harrows his upper arms,
plows (his) chest like a garden
harrows (his) back like a (garden in a) valley.
He raises his voice and cries aloud:
Baclu is dead, what (is to become of) the people,
the Son of Dagan (is dead), what (is to become of) the hordes
(of the earth)?
After Baclu, I also shall descend into the earth.
KTUX.5 VI 30-1.619
She [arrives] at where Baclu was fallen [to the] earth;
for clothing, she is covered with a girded garment.
With a stone she scratches incisions on (her) skin,
[with a razor] she cuts cheeks and chin.
[She harrows] her upper arms,
plows (her) chest like a garden
harrows (her) back like a (garden in a) valley.
Baclu is dead, what (is to become of) the people,
the Son of Dagan (is dead), what (is to become of) the hordes
(of the earth)?
After Bal>lu, we also shall descend into the earth,22
with him Sapsu, luminary of the gods, shall descend.
DIlu and cAnatu are exhibiting stereotypical mourning behaviors. When the
scene begins, DIlu is seated on his thronew ith his feet on the footstool, pre
20 G.A. Anderson, A Time toM ourn, A Time toD ance: The Expression of Grief and Joy in
Israelite Religion (University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991), 60.
21 "The Baclu Myth," translated by D. Pardee (COS 1.86:267-68).
22 Based upon Ugaritic and Hebrew parallels of mourning customs, J.G len Taylor argues that
the place to which DIlu and cAnatu descend (KTU 1.5 VI 25; 1.6 I 9) designates the netherworld
rather than the earth. J.G. Taylor, "The First and Last Thing to do inM ourning: KTU 1.161 and
Some Parallels," in Ascribe to the Lord: Biblical & Other Studies inM emory of Peter C Craigie
(ed. L. Eslinger and G. Taylor; JSOTSup 67; Sheffield: JSOT, 1988), 159-60.
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Job's Entree into a Ritual ofM ourning 199
sumably dressed in real attire. Upon hearing of Baclu's death, DIlu removes
himself from his seat,m oves to his footstool, and finally lies on the ground. He
puts dirt on his head.23 Both DIlu and cAnatu are covered with girded garments,
pound their bodies, shave their faces, gashes their bodies, and cry out in
despair. Through stylized movements, acts and speech, they enter into the
liminal state of mourning, decouple from the sphere of day-to-day life and
adopt a transitory ritual identity.T he fact that they explicitly declare that they
are descending to the underworld itself as identificationw ith the dead Baclu
indicates that their perception of reality has been totally twisted; their lives
seem to have no sense or value without the living storm-god.
In ancient Israel, mourning ritesw ith descent to Sheol also signal the indi
vidual's entry into a betwixt and between condition. Not in every circumstance
is the term "mourning" used, but its function in a ritual sequence is clearly
seen.W hen Jacob learns of Joseph's death, he tears his clothes, girds his loins
with sackcloth, and mourns his son form any days (Gen 37:34). All his sons
and daughters come to console him, but he refuses to be comforted. Jacob says
he will go down as mourner to Sheol to his son. The scene closes with Jacob
weeping for his dead son (Gen 37:35). Other examples of realization ofm ourn
ing rites at time of death can be cited. With his clothes torn and dirt on his
head, an Amalekite brings toD avid the news of Jonathan's and Saul's death (2
Sam 1:2; cf. 1 Sam 4:1 Iff). Likewise, David and his men tear their garments
when they receive this aggrieving message (2 Sam 1:11). Job's ritual enact
ment is another example of mourning the dead, which will be treated in detail
in the next section of this essay.
3. Job's Entree into a Ritual ofM ourning
The first chapter of the book portrays three different scenes. The first one
reveals Job's geographical origin and identitym, entions his close and extended
-
family children, animals and servants -, and describes his children's feasts
and daily worship response to God (1:1-5). The next scene takes place in the
presence of God. Satan puts into question the genuineness of Job's integrity;
and the Lord gives him permission to destroy Job's family and possessions
(1:6-12). The last view seems to reverse the first one. It shows the loss of
- -
Job's family animals and children and the enactment of a ritual of mourn
ing (1:13-22). The passage of Job 1:20-21 represents a piece of ritual text that
pictures, as a photograph, Job's movements, actions and speech signaling a
social transition in his life.24
23 Anderson, A Time toM ourn, 63.
24 I am indebted here to thew ork of Saul Olyan in explaining how mourning behaviors signal
a transition in social life (S.M. Olyan, Biblical Mourning: Ritual and Social Dimensions [Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2004]).
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200 RichardW . Medina
T
^nnin
nn^i 21
t?k pap -n^ cni?
J<]nrr3j rr
npxbnTjr n
a
20 And Job arose,
b
and tore his robe,
c
and sheared his head,
d
and fell to the ground,
e
and bowed down,25
a
21 and said:
b
"Naked came I out26 of my mother's womb,
c
and naked will I return there;
d
YHWH has given,
e
and YHWH has taken away;
f
may the name of YHWH be blessed."
Syntax and structure of a given passage are closely intertwined. Specifically
in regard to texts dealing with ritual action, movement and speech, it is impor
tant to understand the syntactic conventions which may help in interpretingt he
25 For a very long time the perfect ninntfnw as regarded as a Hithpael form of nno inw hich
metathesis had ocurred. However, research intoU garitic has clearly indicated that it is a relic from
an earlier stage of the language. One is here dealing with a verb stem mn that is used in a stem
formation tow hich a /hist-/o r lyistl syllable is added. Only one verb occurs in this stem formation,
namely mn, "to bow" (See C.H.J, van der Merwe, J.A. Naude and J.H. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew
Reference Grammar [Biblical Languages: Hebrew 3; New York: Sheffield, 2002], 139). Corre
spondenly, Ttnsn. can be parsed as waw consecutive + verb Histafel imperfect 3rd masc. sing.
26 Although the reading ^nir isw ell supported by theM T and theA leppo Codex, it appears as
enlarged by an Daleph, tiks% in the Qere orthography and in some Hebrew medieval manuscripts -
edited by B. Kennicott (1776, 1780), J.B. de Rossi (1784), and CD. Ginsburg (1908-1926). The
difference between both readings is the omission and inclusion of the Daleph. Ancient Phoenician
inscriptions, which predate Hebrew, do not indicate the matres lectionis - which were later added
to the original Hebrew script to facilitate the reading - either in them iddle or at the end of a word.
Accordingly, the absence of the Jaleph in Tiy could reveal an early orthography practice. Another
explanation might be that the scribe(s) probably considered the Jaleph as quiescent, thus omitted it
and transferred its vowel to the preceding letter (cf. E. Kautszch and A.E. Cowley, Gesenius'
Hebrew Grammar [2d ed.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1910], ? 23/, 14k; cf. P. Joiion and T. Muraoka, A
Grammar of Biblical Hebrew [SubBi 14; 2 vols.; Roma: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1991],
? 78/). For alike spelling occurrences see E. Tov, Textual Criticism of theH ebrew Bible (2d rev.
ed.; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2001), 255; P.K. McCarter, Jr., Textual Criticism: Recovering
the Text of theH ebrew Bible (GBS 2; Philadelphia, Pa.: Fortress, 1986), 54-55.
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Job's Entree into a Ritual ofM ourning 201
ritual performance.27 It ism y argument that Job 1:20-21 is a genuinely artistic
composition that displays a fine interaction of its grammatical constituents in
order to portray a ritual. Table 1 below seeks to show the syntactic layout of
the passage. The terminology here employed requires a word of explanation.
By "verbal form" I mean the simplest grammatical morphemes which can
come at the head of a clause, such as the narrative WAYYIQTOL and the
jussive YIQTOL. By "grammatical constructions," instead, Im ean the various
combinations which verbal or nominal forms take on in the text, such as
(WAW)-x-QATAL and WAW-x-YIQTOL; these constructions do not nor
mally fill the firsts lot in a clause.
Verse Hebrew Text Verbal Form/ Functions/
_Construction_Aspects
20a WAYYIQTOL Inchoative
Dps1
b i^I??rnX inp!n WAYYIQTOL Successive
l^Kh'nX TP! WAYYIQTOL Successive
d Ssn WAYYIQTOL Successive
nnnin WAYYIQTOL Successive
2ia "iraK"! WAYYIQTOL Successive
b
*m ]pap cp nrcr] cnsy bny x-qatal single/Emphatic
TOtt? Dhl?! WAW-x-YIQTOL Continuous/Emphatic
d
]rtfH liT x-QATAL Single/Emphatic
. e WAW-x-QATAL Single/Emphatic
nfp bTn,irT,,l
'IP*' ^ ^ YIQTOL Jussive/Consecutive
Table 1: A Global View of Verbal Forms and Grammatical Constructions of Job 1:20-21
The ritual perfomance is shown as framed by six sussessive
WAYYIQTOLs,28 which capture the nature of Job's acts, movement and
speech, stress their order, secuence and interreladtedness: Tinun n^")k
Sept ItfKTnK Tjn ibm-m I7np?5 d??i, "And Job arose, and' tore'his
robe, and sheared his head, and fell to the ground, and bowed down, and said".
Interestingly, every disaster save one (Job 1:17) features the root bs: 'fall'
27 G.A. Klingbeil, "The Syntactic Structure of the Ritual of Ordination (Lev 8)," Biblica 11
(1996): 509-19; see also R.W. Medina, "La estructura sintactica y la interpretation de Exodo 6:2
9," DavarLogos 4.2 (2005): 101-15.
28 For a methodological foundation for this textual analysis, see here A. Niccacci, The Syntax
of the Verb in Classical Hebrew Prose (trans. W.G.E. Watson; JSOTSup 86; Sheffield: JSOT,
1990), 23-34, 163-91; idem, "Finite Verb in the Second Position of the Sentence. Coherence of
theH ebrew Verbal System," ZAW 108 (1996): 434-40; cf. L. Vegas Montaner, "Sintaxis del verbo
hebreo biblico: nuevas tendencias," in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.
Proceedings of the 6th EAJS Congress Toledo, July 1998. Volume I: Biblical, Rabbinical, and
Medieval Studies (ed. J. Targarona Borras and A. Saenz-Badillos; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 222-31;
B.K. Waltke and M. O'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, Ind.:
Eisenbrauns, 1990), 547-54.
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202 Richard W. Medina
until Job himself, after 'arising' finally succumbs and falls too.29 The sixth
WAYYIQTOL embraces a two-element syntactic construction.30 The first
element is composed of two compound clauses forming together the protasis:
natf nitiK b"ifi *m ]M? m*??] CPSJ) Dny, "Naked came I out of my
mother's womb, and naked will I return there;" and ngb rnrn ]nj rniT,
"YHWH has given, and YHWH has taken away." The second element of the
construction includes one simple clause operating as the apodosis: 'IP'!
Dtf VT, "may the name of YHWH be blessed."31 In addition, there is a merism
created by the contrasting verbs "come out," and 2Wy "return;" another
merism is in the second compound clause with the antithesis of the verbs ]n3,
"give," and npb, "take away."32
' >
MetaphoorfB irth 1 ( TheG ratuiotyfY HWH
"Naked came I out of my mother's womb" /?K "YHWH has given"
,_(x-QATAL)_J [_(x-QATAL)_,
/-\ /-\
Metaphor of Death The Taking Away of YHWH
"and naked will I return there" /?\ "and YHWH has taken away"
^_(WAW-x-YIQTOL)_J [_(WAW-x-QATAL)_t
f Blessingo fY HWH's Name 1
^
"may the name of YHWH be blessed"
s_(YIQTOL)_t
Figure 1: SyntheticParallelism of Job 1:21^
Figure 1 displays stunning verbal, syntactic and thematic correspondences
on the protasis. The metaphor of birth is stressed by the implied idea that
YHWH gives life. The parallelism is emphasized by the occurrence of identi
cal grammatical constructions (x-QATAL-x-QATAL). Similarly, the meta
phor of death is accentuated by the notion that YHWH takes life back to
Himself. Both clauses possess analogous syntactical patterns (WAW-x
29 V. Hoffer, "Illusion, Allusion, and Literary Artifice in the Frame Narrative of Job," in The
Whirlwind: Essays on Job, Hermeneutics and Theology inM emory of Jane Morse (ed. S.L. Cook,
C.L. Patton and J.W.W atts; JSOTSup 336; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 97.
30 For my analysis here, I follow Niccacci's views on the two-element syntactic construction
(2SC) to see the inner relationships of clauses. For convenience the first element of the 2SC is
called the "protasis" and the second the "apodosis" even though they do not refer exclusively to a
conditional clause. For more details see Niccacci, The Sintax of the Verb, 125-62.
31 Waltke and O'connor, Biblical Hebrew Syntax, 422, observe that rpba, "blessed," is a delo
cutive productive Pual. They mean by "delocutive" a verbal form referring to a speech act.
32 Alden, 706,62.
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