This may be the most unique, thuroughly modern approach to the book of JOB (old testament) I have ever come across (it is the only ‘blogged’ version of any piece of scripture I have come across for that matter). I think this is great… feel free to read a bit. I don’t even think this guy believes the Bible, he is simply tackling it from a literary standpoint. It is quite insightful and funny at the same time.
The Book of Job’s enthralling, baffling conclusion. By David Plotz – Slate Magazine
God doesn’t merely humble Job. He savors the humiliation, demolishing poor Job with sarcastic jabs. Listen to this incredible dis: “Where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? Surely you know.” That “surely you know” is so mean, so petty. God takes too much pleasure in making Job feel like a tiny, ignorant speck.
Vicious, petty, cruel?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùdefinitely. But incredibly beautiful, too! God’s self-congratulatory speech is one of the most spectacular passages in the Bible, a masterpiece of imagery and forceful language, one killer phrase after another. Indulge me as I quote a favorite bit about the making of the ocean:
Who shut the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb??¢‚Ǩ‚Äù When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, And prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, And said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther, And here shall your proud waves be stopped?”
Chapter 42
But wait, even God apparently recognizes that He’s in the wrong! In the final chapter, God rebukes the three friends and acknowledges that Job is “right.” All the bragging of Chapters 38 through 41 was just posturing, God flexing His big muscles before quietly admitting He’s wrong. God restores Job’s fortunes. Job gets twice as many sheep and camels as before, and 10 new children?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùseven sons, and three daughters, who are the most beautiful girls in Uz. This is the rare, perhaps the only, time in the Bible where the book tells us the names of daughters but not sons. The three hot daughters are Keziah, Keren-happuch, and Jemimah (yup?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùthat’s where Jemima comes from), but the sons are anonymous. Job lives to the ripe old age of 140.