JOB'S ASSAULT ON CREATION

by
LEO G. PERDUE
Phillips Graduate Seminary, Enid, OK 73702

I. Introduction: Wisdom and Creation

One of the cardinal features of Wisdom thought is creation. Prior to
Ben Sirah in the early part of the second century B.C.E., Wisdom texts
are silent about salvation history, covenant, and the David-Zion tradi-
tion. Rather, the sages spoke of God, the world, and humanity within
the framework of the two major traditions of creation present in the
religions of Israel and the ancient Near East: cosmology and anthro-
pology.' Creation provided the basis for sapiential ethics, for the sage
participated in sustaining the continuity and harmony of the world by
creating a sphere of well-being in which all life flourished and continued.
Truly ethical actions, from a sapiential perspective, were actualizations
of divine creativity.
Zimmerli's affirmation that wisdom "thinks resolutely within a the-
ology of creation" (1964, pp. 146-168) represents the consensus of
modern wisdom scholars, though few have attempted to describe in
comprehensive fashion the salient features of the sapiential understand-
ing of creation. Previous approaches to the topic, mainly taking the
form of prolegomena, have followed a thematic approach: anthropology
(wisdom is essentially a human enterprise to master life within the
context of the world and society), 2 theodicy (the questioning of divine
justice and rule of the cosmos), 3 cosmology (originating at creation, a
4
moral order permeates cosmic and social reality), and a dialectic of
cosmology and anthropology (there is an evolution in wisdom thought

I. For recent studies of creation in the Hebrew Bible, see Anderson (1984), Knierim
(1980, pp. 59-123), Schmid (1984), and Westermann (1974, 1984).
2. Brueggemann (1972), Priest (1968, pp. 281-288), Rankin (1936), Zimmerli (1933,
1964).
3. Crenshaw (1983, 1985) and Mack (1970).
4. Gese (I 958), Hermisson (1978), and Schmid (I 968).

295
296 LEO G. PERDUE

from emphasis on the human effort to master life to the understanding

of God as creator). 5 However, each of these thematic approaches suffers
from serious limitations. The anthropological approach tends to under-
value the importance of God and divine action in the literature, and is
challenged not only by the tradition's internal witness (e.g., "the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," Prov. 1:7) but also by important
studies which see a religious undergirding to the earliest strata (e.g.,
Gemser, 1968). To view theodicy as the center of wisdom thought is to
read the tradition through the lens of Job and Qoheleth. Certainly the
issue of divine justice is critical in wisdom texts, but it would be difficult
to fit the entirety of the tradition under this matrix. Even the view of
"order" {:'1j71ll') as central to wisdom does not take into consideration the
passionate image of Woman Wisdom wooing youth to her embrace, and
often conveys the notion of a static, inflexible structure which negates
divine freedom and human initiative. Finally, the dialectic of anthro-
pology and cosmology is far more inclusive of the variety of expression
that characterizes the complexity of creation thought in wisdom litera-
ture. However, the weakness of this presentation is its evolutionary
depiction of the movement from anthropos to theos, and from the
individual's attempt to master life in early wisdom to the understanding
of the creation of the world by means of divine wisdom.
A more convincing portrayal of the interaction of anthropology and
cosmology would see these as interacting within the structure of a
dialectic that dynamically shapes the creation tradition in wisdom. But
in the analysis of this dialectic what needs to be avoided is a too
systematic and rational accounting of the tradition which obscures its
linguistic and aesthetic dimensions. Indeed, the tendency to shape
wisdom thought into a rationalistic form and to avoid the poetic nature
of its language has been the greatest weakness in previous investigations.
The wise poets forged a synthesis between the Dionysian dance and
the Apollonian vision. There was the formal ordering of experience
through proverb, admonition, and instruction, but equally important
was the passionate and joyous response to the beauty, goodness, and
elegance of creation and life in Dame Wisdom's invitation and in the
composition of sapiential hymns. It is my contention that creation
language, i.e., how creation is talked about, provides the major entree
into the world of the sages. In the crafting of their creation tradition, the
wise used language to construct a mythic world into which they entered

5. Albertz (1974), Doll (1985), and Murphy (1985).

 JOB'S ASSAULT ON CREATION 297

and lived. This world, which provided the context for meaning and
orientation to existence, was created, sustained, and revitalized by the
power of words. And central to the language of creation in wisdom,
was indeed the active agent which shaped this linguistic reality, was
metaphor.
II. The Metaphorical Process
Understanding the Character of Metaphor
The primal component of religious language is metaphor (Tracy,
1979, pp. 89f.). 6 Properly understood metaphor is not a mere rhetorical
device which only embellishes, but does not have to do with the sub-
stance of language. Rather, being "as ultimate as speech itself, and
speech as ultimate as thought," metaphor "appears as the instinctive and
necessary act of the mind exploring reality and ordering experience"
(Murry, 1931, pp. 1-2). While language constructs reality, metaphor is
the essential feature of that world-building process. However, metaphors
are not only semantic building blocks which construct new worlds. They
are themselves constructed by the very worlds they build. When denied
their potency by being either forced outside the context of the reality
systems which they produce or transformed into literal referent, they
become estranged from their world which consequently disintegrates and
returns to chaos.
A metaphor is a "double unit," involving "two ideas," or "two halves."
Richards calls them "the tenor and the vehicle" (1936, p. 96), "where we
speak of something (tenor) as though it were another (vehicle)" (1936,
p. 116). More simply put, in this double unit the tenor is the principal
subject which is conveyed by a vehicle, or secondary subject (Booth,
1974, p. 22). To define metaphor involves more than the task of delineat-
ing characteristic features. Rather to understand metaphor is to see its
meaning in the process of becoming. For meaning is shaped not only by
the mere act of objective describing, but also by the engagement and
movement of both the poet (or implied author) who suggests the meta-
phor and the hearer (or implied audience) who responds. 7 This active

6. Tracy underscores the common affirmation "that all major religions are grounded in
certain root metaphors" (p. 89). For important studies of metaphor, see Barbour (1974),
Black (1962), Caird (1980, pp. 131-197), Ferre (1968), McFague (1982), Richards (1936),
Ricoeur (1975, 1977), Sacks (1979), and Wheelwright (1962).
7. Booth (1974, p. 22) emphasizes the role of the reader in noting that he/she "must
reconstruct unspoken meanings through inferences about surface statements that for some
reason cannot be accepted at face value."
298 LEO G. PERDUE

engagement of the perception of poet, metaphor, and audience is the

metaphorical process. The constituent features of this process as it
unfolds include the following.
First, essential to the character of metaphor is the seeming incompati-
bility of its two ideas. That is, a vehicle depicts its tenor in a manner that
is false when taken literally. The metaphorical relationship constructed
between tenor and vehicle is not one of factual, literal correlation.
Indeed, the linking together of two incompatible ideas shatters the
previous structures of linguistic reality that made these ideas initially
incompatible (Ricoeur, 1976, p. 51; 1977, p. 199). 8 It is this initial
incompatibility that at first disturbs and confuses, but then engages and
awakens the hearers to the possibility of new insight (Ricoeur, 1975,
pp. 77-78). The poet presents through metaphor a potentially revelatory
state to the audience.
Mimesis is the second feature of metaphor. Once the hearer examines
the tenor through the lens of its vehicle, a new set of associations is
attached. Through this unusual set of associations, new insight into the
tenor is presented, and the hearer may become aware that something in
the relationship is unquestionably true. There may be a shock in the
relating of tenor to vehicle, but it is what Wheelwright calls the "shock
of recognition" (1962, p. 74). Caird notes that "in a living metaphor,
although both speaker and hearer are aware that vehicle and tenor are
distinct entities, they are not grasped as two but as one" (1980, p. 152). 9
Without the vehicle, something in the tenor would have remained hidden
and obscure. Metaphor, having broken down its own linguistic relation-
ships, mirrors reality by creating for it a new vision.
A third feature of metaphor is transformation (metamorphosis).
Metaphors serve not only to restructure one's perception, but, if they are
compelling ones, they may even become organizing images which re-
structure the hearer's understanding of the visible world, including both
perception and activation of values. Metaphors become dangerous
things, for they possess the innate power to transform vision and its

8. Booth (1974, p. 23) is more skeptical about the capacity of metaphor to "shatter"
linguistic reality to force a decision about seeing the world in different terms. According to
him, the metaphorical process does not usually involve "repudiation or reversal," but
rather "exploration or extension." 'There is no moment of shock when incompatibles are
forced upon our attention, with the demand for active negative judgment, or if there is, the
shock is relatively muted, and it is caused only by the misleading form of the statement
(identity claimed where similarity is meant), not by any absurdity or impossibility in what
is said. The essential process ... is addition or multiplication, not subtraction."
9. Here Caird is following Richards (1936, pp. 96-97).
 JOB'S ASSAULT ON CREATION 299

0
sustaining values. ' And when metaphors become the shared heritage of
a culture, they become symbols so long as they and the culture that gives
them expression remain active and vital. Other metaphors become stock
metaphors incapable of producing response and transformation. Losing
their semantic power, these metaphors die, and the worlds which they
have constructed and maintained collapse (McFague, 1982, p. 41 ).
A fourth feature accompanies metaphor through the three stages of its
becoming: "tensiveness" (Wheelwright, 1962, pp. 45-69). Invariably there
is something in the relationship between tenor and vehicle which is not
true. Yet it is this tension between vehicle and tenor which provides both
vitality and transformative insight. Correlation and difference serve to
sustain the integrity and power of all metaphorical language. However,
when vehicle and tenor are made one, when metaphor is denied its
semantic integrity and corrupted into literal description, when similar-
ity becomes identity, metaphor loses its dynamic character and dies.
Or worse, metaphor is reborn as chaos, distorting if not destroying
perception.
The fifth characteristic of metaphor, ambiguity, also accompanies the
three stages of becoming and continues after meaning is shaped (Wheel-
wright, I962, p. 33). Metaphors are by nature ambiguous, in part be-
cause they evoke potentially different types of experience, and in part
because the tenor is in some way mysterious. This is especially true of
religious metaphors seeking to speak of the ineffable. 11 Potent meta-
phors do not possess "steno-meanings" which are shared by a large
number of people in exactly the same way. Rather they are incapable of
being limited to the boundaries of precise definition. When ambiguity is
denied, that which is fundamental to metaphor is lost. Then metaphor
loses its semantic value and dies. And the world which it has constructed
is reshaped into inflexible dogma.
Metaphors and the Mythic Traditions
Israel's sages appropriated from ancient Near Eastern mythic tradi-
tions and those biblical texts which were indebted to these traditions
four major metaphors for speaking about creation: fertility, artistry,

10. Ferre (1968, p. 331) and Ricoeur (1975, p. 75).

11. By ambiguity I am not suggesting the notion of vagueness. Rather the experience of
and knowledge about the holy take on multiple meanings and interpretations, not only in
the expressions of different religions and their various cultural contexts, but also within
the same religious tradition. Even root metaphors of major religions, for example "cove-
nant" in Judaism, receive multiple associations and evoke a variety of understandings.
300 LEO G. PERDUE

language, and battle. 12 The major literary genre which was the context
and narrative extension of these metaphors was myth, though mythic
formulations often influenced the theologoumena of other genres. 13
These metaphors in their mythic formulations provided the major cul-
tural traditions for securing existence in the world, legitimating social
structures, and undergirding religious faith and practice.
Myths of origin and maintenance often speak of creation in terms of
intercourse, procreation, midwifery, and parenting. Theogonies, the birth
and providential care of humans, and the seasonal rhythm of life and
death were mythic themes expressed and shaped through the fertility
metaphor. 14 In the Hebrew Bible, God is primarily the father of the
Davidic king (Ps 2, 2 Sam 7), Israel (Hos l l:l), and the individual (Job
10, Ps 139: 13-16), but on occasion also the mother who bore and gave
birth to Israel (Deut 32: 18), experiences a mother's tender feelings (Isa
49: 15), and gives the infant Israel nourishment from her breast (N um
11: 12). Theogonic images are used by the sages in portraying Wisdom as
a goddess given birth by the Lord prior to the beginning of creation
(Prov 8:22-31). 15 And Job 10 speaks of God's formation of Job in the
womb, granting life, steadfast love, and providential care.
The artistry metaphor portrays God as a craftsman fashioning an
elegant piece of art (Keel, 1978, pp. 204-205). Two images are frequent:
God is the architect who constructs the cosmos in the fashion of a well-
planned, beautiful building (Pss 18:7, 82:5, Job 38:4-7), and a skilled
potter or weaver who shapes humans from raw materials with care and
skill (Gen 2:7, Ps 139:13). The sages used these images to describe Dame
Wisdom's construction of her seven-pillared house in Prov 9: 1-6, in my
estimation, a cosmogonic activity in which wisdom constructs and orders
the world. Since the building of temples was considered a cosmogonic
activity in the ancient Near East, Woman Wisdom is the divine architect
who orders and shapes a world of beauty and life (Eliade, 1959, pp. 6f.).
And in Job IO God is the potter and the weaver who shaped Job in his
mother's womb.

12. Westermann (1974, pp. 39-40). For visual depictions of these metaphors, see Keel
( l 978). Jacobsen (1976) argues that central metaphors are the key to understanding the
changing character of religion and cosmology in Mesopotamian religion.
13. For an important survey of studies of myth in Israelite traditions, see Rogerson
(1974). Important analyses of myth in the Hebrew Bible include Childs (1962) and
Mccurley (1983).
14. Mccurley (1983, pp. 73-124) and Keel (1978, pp. 20lf.).
15. For a discussion of the feminine metaphor used for wisdom, see Camp (1985) and
Lang (1975).
 JOB 's ASSAULT ON CREATION 301

The third metaphor used to describe creation is language (Keel, 1978).

The creator speaks reality into existence by the potency of words. In the
Memphite theology, Ptah conceived in his heart (=Horus) what he
wished to create, spoke the mental image into being, and named the
newly created object. Thoth, the god of wisdom, became Ptah's tongue
which spoke the creative word giving existence to all things (ANET,
pp. 4-6). Genesis I and Psalm 33 are the best examples of creation by
word in the Hebrew Bible. Ben Sirah used this metaphor to speak of
Dame Wisdom who proceeds out of the mouth of God (Sir 24) and to
describe God's ordering and maintaining creation (39: 17, 39:31 ).
What unites these three metaphors in their appropriation by conven-
tional wisdom is the presentation of the cosmos as an aesthesis, a
harmonious and beautiful order in which the various components of
creation have their place, function, time, and norms for existence. Crea-
tion is a well-constructed, elegant house, its arrangement and appear-
ance one of beauty and delight, and its laws those of a harmonious
society regulated by authoritative decrees. Humans are those who re-
ceive the gift of life and enjoy the providential care of God. The task of
the sage was to shape aesthesis through language and act, perceive and
delight in its coherence and elegance, and contribute to its maintenance
through righteous existence, proper and elegant language, and the
making of lawcodes and moral instructions. Wise behavior helped to
shape and sustain creation and the social order grounded in the struc-
tures of life. These three metaphors express the sage's confidence that
the world was orderly, intelligible, beautiful, and just. And while there
were limits to knowledge and troubling instances of the chaotic, the sage
trusted in a beneficent creator who provided for the needs of creatures
and maintained the ongoing order of creation (von Rad, 1972, pp. 97-
112). Even more, reality (cosmic and social) was dynamic and open, not
static and closed to human participation, in either shaping and maintain-
ing or distorting and destroying.
Battle is the fourth major metaphor for creation in Israel and the
ancient Near East (McCurley, 1983, pp. 12-57; Keel, 1978, pp. 219-222).
Creation is a struggle between the creator and primeval chaos, usually
depicted as a dragon or serpent residing in the cosmic ocean. The classic
depiction is that of the Enuma elish which narrates the ascendancy of
Marduk, the god of Babylon, to kingship over the divine council, a
status gained by the defeat of Tiamat (AN ET, pp. 60-72, 501-503). This
battle with chaos is part of a larger mythic pattern that included conflict,
victory over chaos, kingship through enthronement and the building of
the temple, judgment, and creation. This metaphor and its extended
302 LEO G. PERDUE

mythic pattern (Fisher, 1965) are found in Old Testament laments

(Ps 74), theophanic hymns (Hab 3), and eschatological prophecy (Isa
51:9~11 ). However, Job is the first and only text in the Israelite and
Jewish wisdom corpus to make use of this important metaphor. And it
is this metaphor that challenges conventional wisdom's cosmology and
anthropology. Indeed, the literary pattern of the myth of the Chaos-
kampf, transmitted through the tradition of the theophanic hymns
(Exod 15, Hab 3; cf. Jeremias, 1965), provides the external frame of
interpretation for the Joban drama: the Lord is the king of the divine
council who comes each year to defeat the embodiments of chaos, enter
into judgment, and recreate the world. Creation as seen through the lens
of this metaphor is not an ordered world of beauty secure under divine
providence, but a reality, ever under threat, which must be maintained
through the struggle with the forces of chaos. But what makes the use of
the battle metaphor in Job even more disorienting is the contention by
the hero that the Divine Warrior has turned against his own creation
and his faithful servant to destroy them. It is the use of an unconven-
tional metaphor in a most unconventional way that is at the center of
the drama.
These four metaphors, central to and expressed by mythic and other
generic forms, were the linguistic building blocks of ancient Near Eastern
and Israelite understandings of creation and the social order. They
became the shared cultural symbols which expressed the fundamental
features of the mythic constructions of reality. Through metaphors and
the literary forms which became their poetic and narrative extensions
the world was ordered and the structures of life were maintained. To
threaten these metaphors, which became major religious symbols in the
cultures of the ancient Near East (Keel, 1978), was to place in jeopardy
the mythic constructions of reality which provided meaning and orienta-
tion to existence. Indeed, it is this assault on the metaphorical con-
struction of reality that is waged in the Book of Job. By destabilizing
these metaphors, Job attempts to return creation to chaos. 16
III. Job's Destabilization of Creation (Job 3)
The opening chapter of the poetic dialogues provides an abrupt,
though not entirely unexpected, shift from the "god-fearing" hero of the
Prologue to the devastated victim who begins an all-out assault on
creation and those mythic structures which keep the world from return-

16. I am presently completing a manuscript which demonstrates how metaphor func-

tions in deconstructing and then reconstructing the narrative world of Job (Wisdom in
Revolt. Creation Theology in the Book of Job).
 JOB'S ASSAULT ON CREATION 303
17
ing to chaos. The poet has used the old hero legend of Job to raise
questions about the integrity of Job, the moral nature of the universe,
and most importantly the power and justice of God. Now, after seven
days and nights of silence, a period immediately evoking the imagery of
creation (Gen l:l-2:4a), the opening words of Job are curse, exactly as
the satan had predicted and the wife had urged.
Translation
INTRODUCTION
I. Afterwards, Job opened his mouth and cursed his Day.
18
2. And Job responded and said,

STROPHE I
3. "Let the Day perish on which I was born,
And the Night which said, 'A Mighty Man 19 is conceived.'
4. Let that Day be darkness,
Let not Eloah above divine for it,
Let not light break forth upon it.
5. Let primordial darkness and deep blackness defile 20 it,
Let a thick cloud settle upon it,
Let the eclipse of Day2' fill it with terror.

17. The shift from pious worshipper in response to the first testing of the Prologue to
curser and indicter of divine justice in the dialogues may have been signalled by the
narrator's remarks about Job's response to the second testing. In the first response to
testing, the narrator assures us that "Job did not sin or charge God with wrong" (I :22).
However, in describing Job's second response, the narrator remarks that "Job did not sin
with his lips." This remark leaves open the possibility that Job's own thoughts are
beginning to change. The matter of intent behind words and actions had been clearly
underscored in I :6.
18. The Syr. and Targ. agree with MT's ;m; ("responded"). The term often means to
reply to a situation, not necessarily a speech or statement (I Sam 9:17, Judg 18:14, Num
11:28). Verse 2 provides the typical pattern of introducing speeches in Job (4:1, 6:1, 8:1,
etc.).
19. Interpreting i:ll ("man") as "mighty man, warrior, hero," on occasion one of royal
stature (Exod 12:37, Judg 5:30), a meaning more often associated with ii::Jl (Judg 6:12,
11: I, 2 Sam 9: I). The parallel text in Jer 20: 15 speaks of the birth of a "male" (i:JT).
20. Reading ?Kl as "defile," not "redeem" (see Dhorme, 1967, p. 26). The ritual cursing
would include desecration (cf. Mal 1:7, Ezra 2:62 = Neh 7:64). Fohrer translates the term
"redeem," interpreting the expression to mean that chaos will redeem day, thereby assert-
ing its right of ownership, for Day originally belonged to the powers of darkness (1963,
pp. I IO, 117).
21. C1' 'i'il'J:J literally means "like the bitterness of day." However, Pope's association
(1965, p. 29) of the root with a Syriac cognate meaning "black, gloomy" fits the present
context.
304 LEO G. PERDUE

6. Let the darkness of the underworld seize that Night,

Let it not be joined 22 to the days of the years,
Let it not enter the number (of days) 23 of the months,
7. Behold, let that Night be barren,
Let no ecstatic cry occur in it.
8. Behold, let the cursers of Yam 24 damn it,
The skilled ones who awaken Leviathan.
9. Let the stars of its dawn 25 become dark,
Let it wait in hope for light but find only nothingness.
Let it not look upon the eyelids of Dawn,
10. Because it did not close the doors of my womb
And conceal sorrow from my eyes."

STROPHE II
11. "Why did I not die at birth,
Expire at the time I came forth from the womb?
12. Why did the knees receive me,
Or the breasts that I should suck?
13. For now I would be at rest and silent,
I would sleep, then I would have rest,
14. With kings and counsellors of the earth,
those who rebuild ruins for themselves.
15. Or with princes who have gold,
who fill their houses with silver.
16. Or why was I not like an aborted fetus,
Like infants who did not see light?
17. There the wicked cease their raging, 26
And there those whose strength has expired are at rest.

22. in' (Qal imperfect jussive, "to be joined") is read in place of the MT 0t1n ("to
rejoice over"). See Gen 49:6 which parallels the same two verbs, "be joined to" and "come,
enter" {!CJ). The parallel passage in Jer 20: 14-18 has the motif of "joy" (v. 15).
23. The LXX adds "into days," probably an explanatory addition.
24. Reading C' ("Yam") for C1' ("day"). The "cursers of Yam" is a subjective genitive
meaning that priests of Yam are skilled to arouse Leviathan from the depths of the Deep
to destroy Night, Job's primordial enemy.
25. ~lUJ can mean either "dawn" or "evening twilight," though here it is probably the
former.
26. Tl1 refers to God's wrath shaking creation (Ps 18:8, Job 9:6). In Job 3 the allusion
may be to the "noise" (destruction, rebellion) that led to the near annihilation of humanity
by the gods in Atra-hasis (Lambert, 1969; cf. Isa 14:16).
 JOB'S ASSAULT ON CREATION 305

18. There the prisoners are together in repose,

They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19. The small and the great are there,
The slave is free from his lord."

STROPHE III
20. "Why is light given to the weary,
And life to the bitter in soul?
21. Those who wait for Death, but he does not come,
And dig for him like hidden treasures.
22. Those who rejoice greatly,
And exult when they find the tomb.
23. Why, to one whose way is hidden,
Whom Eloah has hedged in?
24. For my sighing comes before my bread,
And my groanings are poured out like water.
25. For what I exceedingly fear comes upon me,
And what I abhor approaches me.
26. I am not at ease, and I am not quiet,
I do not rest for wrath comes."
Job 3 and the Language of Negation
The dominant leitmotif which establishes the mood for this three
strophe, lament-like soliloquy is the contrasting word pair of light and
darkness. This creation motif connotes the fundamental duality of reality
which is re-presented in this poem: day/ night, life/ death, birth/ death,
order/chaos, and knowledge/mystery. The mood of dark despair is set
by the rich variety of words for darkness: llVn ("darkness"), n17:)7~
("death's shadow"), ilJJY ("thick cloud"), ?!JN ("heavy darkness of
the underworld"), 01' '1'17:) ("bitterness of day"= "eclipse") and il?•?
("night"). Mythic darkness is to engulf all forms of light: i11i1J ("day-
light"), ~!VJ •:::i:i1:i ("stars of twilight"), 11N ("light"), and 01' ("day"). The
image of darkness is the key motif for the first strophe (vv. 3-10), while
light is central to the last (vv. 20-26). What is unconventional in the use
of these creation images is the dominance of darkness over light and the
attempt through curse to obliterate all sources of light. Even in the
concluding strophe, the motif of light is used in a negative fashion. Here
it is the unwanted image of life that is thrust upon those sufferers who
desire death, but it refuses to come. Also negated is the typical associa-
tion of light with enlightenment (e.g., Ps 19), since Job denies there is
any explanation for why life is filled with unbearable suffering.
306 LEO G. PERDUE

Two other leitmotifs, also suggestive of creation, contribute signifi-

cantly to the thematic center for the poem: the word-pair "day and
night" in strophe I and "rest" and its associated terms in strophe II. The
first strophe centers on the Day of Job's birth and the Night of his
conception, personifying them into archfiends whom Job attempts to
destroy by the power of the curse. Following the first line in which Day
and Night are paired in the two parallel cola (v. 3), the initial strophe
subdivides into two parts: the cursing of Day (vv. 4-5) and the cursing
of Night (vv. 6-10). The word-pair "day and night" is common in
creation contexts, marking both the basic temporal dichotomy between
chaos and order and forming the major unit of time. In the Priestly
narrative, the first act of creation is the speaking of light into existence
and separating it from darkness. Light is then "named" Day and dark-
ness "Night," sealing and securing their differentiation by another lin-
guistic act of creation (Gen 1:3-5, cf. 1:14, 16, 18, 8:22; Jer 31:35, 33:25;
Pss 19:2, 74:16, 137:7-9).
An important leitmotif for the second strophe (l l-19) is "rest" (mJ;
vv. 13, 17) and its related terms: "lie down" (:J:::>1V; v. 13), "be quiet, at
peace" (~p1V; v. 13), "to sleep" (TlV'; v. 13), "cease tumult" (ni ?in; v.
17), and "be at ease, secure" (JX1V; v. 18). ~p1V, mJ, and ni (plus the term
i71V) recur in the final verse of strophe III (v. 26), when Job laments that
rest will not come. In the Priestly narrative, the Sabbath is the climax of
creation, the special day separated from all others and sanctified by
God. As the day on which God "rested" (n:J1V), the Sabbath is the day
which secures the temporal order of creation and maintains the struc-
tures of life. "Honoring" and "remembering" the Sabbath are human
actions in which the sovereignty of God over creation is recognized, and
humans, through imitative action, participate in divine creativity that
orders and maintains the cosmic and social structures necessary for life
to continue. While the Joban poet does not use the term n:i1V, he twice
uses the synonym mJ which occurs in several legal codes as a parallel
term (Exod 20:ll, 23:12; Deut 5:14). Yet in contrast to Sabbath rest
which sustains life, Job longs for the rest of the tomb in which all the
toil and trouble associated with life cease.
IV. Job 3 and the Destabilization of Creation Metaphors
As noted in the dominant Leitworter, this lament-like soliloquy uses
language to attempt to reverse creation, that is to return the world and
all life to primordial darkness (Cox, 1973, 1978). Through the language
of negation, Job also destabilizes the metaphors which were at the center
 JOB'S ASSAULT ON CREATION 307

of the mythic texts of origins and maintenance. Once the mythic tradi-
tions which had shaped and interpreted reality have disintegrated, the
plausibility structures of society and religion deconstruct. The world
returns to chaos.
Creation by Word
The major metaphor deconstructed by Job is creation by word. The
form of chapter 3 is similar to a lament, though without the standard
invocation and petition for divine aid (Murphy, 1981, pp. 23f.). Laments
on occasion referred to the primordial defeat of the chaos monster as the
basis for calling on God to arise and save the individual or community
from distress. In the place of the invocation and petition, however, is an
extended curse, consisting of seven incantations directed against the Day
of Job's birth and the Night of his conception (vv. 3-10). Curses were
normally spoken by magicians and priests in order to destroy an enemy. 27
In Egypt curses were placed in the Book of the Dead in order to provide
the deceased with power against the monster Apophis who would
threaten them on their journey to the afterlife (AN ET, pp. 11 12), while
priests uttered maledictions against Apophis, the incarnation of the
king's historical enemies and the powers of chaos, to preserve the order
of the kingdom and the rule of the king, both founded in the eternal
order of Maat (AN ET, pp. 6- 7). Akkadian incantations were often
initiated by references to creation, thereby participating in the power of
creation itself (Fishbane, 1971). Thus, curses drew on the vital power of
creation itself in order to maintain the order of nature, the state, and
individual life.
In stunning contrast, Job reverses the process by turning the maledic-
tions against creation. With seven incantations, Job attempts to destroy
his arch-enemies, Day and Night, not merely the times which are
associated with his own birth, but also the temporal order of creation.
And he calls on the priests of Yam, the Yam-cursers and skilled ones, to
use their destructive powers to arouse the sleeping Leviathan, the mon-
ster of chaos, to devour Day and obliterate all creation. In contrast to
laments which called on the God who had conquered chaos to arise, Job
attempts to arouse the monster of the Deep to work his destruction.

27. See the Balaam cycle (Num 22-24) where the King of Moab hires the seer to utter
curses to destroy the invading Hebrews. Ironically, the prophet can utter only blessings.
For detailed studies of the curse, see Blank (1950) and Schottroff(l969).
308 LEO G. PERDUE

Important in the effort to return creation to chaos are the significant

allusions to the Priestly account in Gen I: l-2:4a. The number of incan-
tations, some seven directed against Day and Night, echoes the temporal
frame of Gen I: l-2:4a. Further, Fish bane has convincingly argued that
the sequence of Job's incantations approximates that of the priestly
narrative (Fishbane, 1971, p. 154). Also important is the fact that the
eight major commands (altogether fifteen jussives) used to create and
structure the cosmic order in P are doubled in Job 3:3-10. Job uses
sixteen jussives and prohibitions in formulating the curses directed
against Day and Night, attempting thereby to overpower the creative
structure of divine language. Finally, in shaping the first incantation in
Job 1:4 ("let there be darkness," 1wn 'ii'), the poet reverses the first act
of creation in P, the speaking of light into existence ("let there be light,"
11N 'ii'). From these rather clear allusions, the deconstruction of crea-
tion by word, given classic formulation in the P narrative, is underway
in Job 3.
Creation by Birth
The second metaphor reversed by Job in chapter 3 is fertility. In the
first strophe, Job hurls seven curses against the Day of his birth and the
Night of his conception. In the P narrative, divine blessing is issued to
creatures and humans in order to enhance procreative power, thereby
ensuring the ongoingness of life. Once again Job reverses the language
of creation in Genesis I, this time by cursing the powers of fertility
which led to his existence.
The fertility metaphor is very important in the traditions of the
creation of the individual. The personal god or goddess is the one who is
responsible for conception, shapes the fetus in the womb, and either
gives birth or serves as a midwife at birth. This personal deity then
nourishes and sustains the individual after birth. In the Hebrew Bible
this tradition is found in such texts as Jer 1:4-10, Job 10:8-13, and
Ps 139: 13-18. Conception and birth are a new creation, the cause for
festive celebration, as this time is marked and remembered (I Sam 1-2).
It is a primal time of passage from nothingness to being, from darkness
to light. Through memory the individual is ritually transported to that
time of beginnings to reactualize the vitality and power of new life. And
renewed by festive occasion, the individual moves into the future to
engage the fullness of life. Yet in Job's language of negation, memory
has awakened tragic consciousness and the desire to annihilate his and
all life.
 JOB'S ASSAl:LT ON CREATION 309

Like Dawn and Dusk in Canaanite mythology, Day and Night appear
in the guise of two deities of fertility who engender life in the womb,
protect the fetus, and enable the birth to occur without harm. Against
these two personified gods, Job utters curses of sterility, designed to
negate their power to produce life and to return them to the realm of
chaos where all fertility and light are ended. 23 Day is to be engulfed by
the darkness of death, the blackness of chaos, and the impenetrable
cloud which conceals the mystery of God.
Identified with the powers of reproduction which this nocturnal god
rules, Night, guardian of the womb, who brings about conception,
possesses the knowledge that life's first stirrings have occurred, and
pronounces the sex of the child, is to become barren, incapable of
bringing about conception. Night will neither cry out in ecstatic climax
during sexual embrace, nor respond to God's call to come forth. Seized
29 30
(nv7) by Darkness, Night will not join (in') with Day during his
appearances each month. Denying the embrace of Day and Night, the
curse is designed to destroy their powers of fertility.
To aid his efforts to negate the powers of fertility possessed by Night,
Job calls on the priests of Yam to curse Night and to arouse sleeping
Leviathan to devour her. Like Apophis who threatens to swallow the
sun during his nocturnal journey across the foreboding cosmic ocean,
Leviathan is to swallow Night, negating the light of the stars of her
morning twilight. Night will not escape the grasp of chaos to gaze on the
enchanting eyelids of Dawn which signal the stirrings of Day from
slumber. Rather, Night is doomed to barrenness and darkness for not
closing the womb which gave Job life 31 and led to his travail (77.)ll). 32
The negating of the fertility metaphor continues in the second and
third strophes. In the second strophe (vv. 11 19) Job questions why he
did not die at birth. Implicit is his indictment of God as creator and
sustainer of the individual from the time of formation in the womb and
birth. God is the Lord of the womb, a theological affirmation residing
behind the epithet "God of Mercies" (0'7.)n1), and invoked by the

28. See the curse of sterility against the soil in Gen 3: I7.
29. The verb is used in the sense of sexual assault (cf. 2 Sam 11:4).
30. In this context, the verb may suggest sexual coupling.
31. The opening and closing of the womb is a divine power (see Gen 17:16-19, 25:21
26, 29:31, 30:22-24).
32. "Travail" refers to suffering in laments (Ps 90: IO) and to meaningless labor in
Qoheleth (I :3, 2: IO).
310 LEO G. PERDUE

psalmists to receive divine, parental care and protection (Pss 22:9-11,

139:13-16). Job's strong desire to have died at birth is a direct repudia-
tion of the tradition of divine conception and care from birth.
Further, in the second strophe, Job also negates a significant wisdom
understanding of creation. For the conventional sages, the creation in
the womb by God meant common origins for rich and poor. God's care
and protection were given to all, though this did not disallow social
inequality. Even so, the integrity of human existence meant one was due
the goods necessary for life (Prov 17:5, 22:2; Job 31:13-15). Yet, for Job
the poor and slaves enjoy no divine protection or support by the wealthy.
The metaphor of birth is not used to substantiate the theory of justice as
the just right to goods necessary for existence, but rather to stress that
Sheol is the only place where rich and poor, master and slave are equal.
It is the tomb, not the womb, that is the place of commonality for all
social classes.
The third strophe continues the fertility metaphor in two ways. First,
Job describes life in the image of light, the first experience of the new
born child. Second, in the effort to find out why humans suffer, Job
complains that God "shuts them in" (1~0). The same verb occurs only
one other time in the Bible, Job 38:8. In this latter occurrence, the term
refers to God's "shutting in" the destructive waters of Yam at his birth in
primordial times. 33 In Job 3 the verb refers to God's decision to keep
humans in the dark about the "why" of human suffering. This is the first
of many occasions where images applied to chaos will be transferred to
Job (e.g., 6:4, 7: 12).
Creation as Art
In the second strophe, there is an echo of the artistry metaphor which
is more pronounced in later texts (cf. Job 10: I 17, 38:4-7). In speaking
of those who will enter into Sheol along with prisoners and slaves, Job
speaks of "kings and counselors of the earth who rebuild ruins for
themselves." "Ruins" (.m:Jin) refers to "desolate cities" (Lev 26:31, 33;
Isa 44:26), including the city of Jerusalem (Isa 52:9), and on occasion to
the destroyed temple (Ezra 9:9). In royal theology, the kings are com-
missioned by gods to build and maintain sacred cities and temples for
divine dwelling. The construction of sacred sites was a ritual act with

33. Cf. Marduk's restraining the flood waters of Tiamat after her defeat (AN ET, p. 67).
 JOH'S ASSAlJLT ON CREATION 311

34
cosmogonic significance. This rite ordered creation and human society.
For Job even the mighty kings who engaged in these ritual acts of world
construction came to the same lowly end as the slaves they forced to
build their magnificent edifices.
Creation as Battle
The fourth metaphor which Job's assault on creation deconstructs is
the battle with the dragon. In many ancient Near Eastern mythical
traditions, the defeat of the dragon is the prelude to creation and the
maintenance of cosmic order (e.g., the Enuma elish and the Baal Myth).
The vanquishing of the dragon was a daily (Apophis) and yearly (Tiamat,
Yam) activity necessary to preserve the continuation of the structures of
life. Hebrew laments refer to the defeat of the chaos monster at creation
and again at the Red Sea in order to incite the Divine Warrior to arise
and save his people (Ps 74, Isa 51:9~1 l). Yet in this psalm of negation,
Job attempts to incite Leviathan to arise and devour all of creation.
The curse of Night by Job in v. 8 calls upon the "Yam-cursers" "to
awaken Leviathan." The "Yam-cursers" are probably incantation priests
who, on the one hand, were skilled in magical formulae used to lull the
dragon to sleep, causing him to cease his destructive terror. 35 On the
other hand, they also had magical formulae to arouse the sleeping
monster from his watery sleep and to incite him to attack a specified
enemy. 36 An Aramaic incantation provides an important parallel:
I have ... confronted the evil foes [and] said to them if you have in any
way sinned against Abuma son of Gribta [etc.]. ... I am enchanting you

34. See Eliade (1959, pp. 6f.). The construction of temples as a cosmogonic act is clearly
expressed in the Enuma elish where the building of the Esagila-"The house of the
foundation of heaven and earth," Marduk's temple in Babylon, is positioned within the
myth of the creation of the world (ANET, 68-69). After the Esagila had been built by the
Anunnaki, a festival and rites of dedication are held, and the norms for the ordering of
heaven and earth are fixed. Temple raising and reconstruction, accompanied by ritual,
establish and maintain world order. Baal's gaining of kingship, enacted by the building
and ritual dedication of his palace following the defeat of Yam, is also a cosmogonic act in
Ugaritic mythology (ANET, 129-138). Perhaps the best known example of a king involved
in the rebuilding of ruined temples and reinstituting their religious rites is Nabonidus.
35. Ritual language was used by priests of Re to repel Apophis (ANET, pp. 6- 7), and
Ea charmed Apsu to sleep, before dispatching him with the sword (ANET, p. 61).
36. Cf. Job 41 :2 where Yahweh describes Leviathan as so fearful that no human would
dare "stir him up" (i~Y) to fight against him. In Isa 51:9-11, the image is reversed, as the
community's lament attempts to "arouse" (i~Y) a sleeping God to come forth to do battle
against their enemies as he once fought Rahab and the dragon.
312 LEO G. PERDUE

with the spell of the Sea and the spell of Leviathan the dragon .... I am
bringing down upon you the ban and excommunication which were set
upon Mount Hermon and upon Leviathan the dragon and upon Sodom
and Gomorrah. 37
Spells were also used by Marduk and Tiamat against each other prior to
battle. 38
Job wishes to have Leviathan to arise and devour Night, thus bringing
to an end not only his personified enemy who caused his conception, but
also the temporal order of all creation. The stars were not simply the
lights providing guidance at night, but in theopoeic imagination became
the armies of God, the heavenly hosts who fought under the Lord's
command (cf. Judg 5:20). To devour the stars is to destroy this heavenly
army and to defeat their commander.
Job's efforts to awaken Leviathan are not mere rhetorical embellish-
ment of the language of an embittered sufferer. Rather, by means of the
power of the language of curse Job attempts to destroy this mythical
formation of reality and to collapse creation itself. And it is clear from
the descriptive hymn sung by the Lord in praise of Leviathan (Job
40:24-21 :26) that Job's efforts to arouse Leviathan have succeeded.
V. Conclusion
In Job 3 the sage-hero has transformed a lament into a soliloquy of
curse and death. Job's own metaphors of meaning, grounded in the
myths of creation, have been negated by his own experience. With the
darkening of vision, orientation to existence has been lost, and the
alluring peace of the tomb beckons. Yet, Job 3 is not a poem on the
attraction of the grave in the fashion of the Egyptian sage who praises
death and the well-being of the afterlife which awaits him (ANET, 407).
Nor is it a poem in which Job curses only his own life and attempts to
hasten his solitary journey toward the grave. Rather, Job's soliloquy is a
direct assault against creation itself. Through the language of negation,
which invokes curse instead of bles~ing, replaces Sabbath rest which
restores the vitality of creation with the peace of the tomb, and returns
light to its origins in darkness that time may cease, Job attempts to
destroy creation. Most significantly, the four metaphors which are at the

37. Text 2 of Montgomery (1913). See Gordon (1966, pp. 1~9).

38. ANET, p. 64. ::J::Ji' ("curse") in Job 3:8 is the same term for the military curse in the
Balaam episodes (Num 22:11, 17; 23:8, II, 13, 25, 27; 24:10).
 JOB'S ASSAULT ON CREATION 313

mythic center of the traditions of creation in Israel and the ancient Near
East are destabilized by Job's language of negation. Word, procreation,
artistry, and battle are reversed in the effort to collapse the mythical
construction of reality. And with this collapse, the world would return
to chaos. 39

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