Note: After months of writing more than I was posting, This is my last “pre-finished” piece and the rest will be write and post. I wonder if anyone noticed.

Job 1:20-22

20 At this job arose, rent his robe, cutoff his hair, threw himself upon the earth, and lay there prostrate

21 saying:

Naked I came out of my mother’s womb,

naked I shall depart,

Yahweh gives, Yahweh takes away,

Blessed be the name of Yahweh.

22 Yet in all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrong doing.

This is Job’s response to the loss of his things. It is of course dominated by the loss of his kids and the manner in which I put the words renders his response as normal everyday “people die” terms. Many of the translations turned “lay there prostrate” as worshipped. While I do not disagree that Job is there to worship, the fact that he is worshipping is not yet evident. Just because someone is laying down, does not mean they are worshipping. It is obvious from 21 that he is worshipping, but since this is the prose section, I felt no need to foretell.

Renting or tearing his robe and cutting one’s hair was apparently the custom at that time and not specific to any one religion. Many of the versions used shaved his head, but I thought cut was more appropriate to what probably happened as it probably happened all at once and not over the period of time it would take to “shave” one’s head while being tormented by news that all of your kids have just died.

Only one other version had something similar to the one “threw himself to the ground” that I chose. In my mind he was not falling, but “jumping” to the ground to get in a proper place before God. The active over the passive so to speak. Again, I picture this whole verse as one three-second burst of action. Tear, cut, throw.

Again, nothing here would have been out of the ordinary for the times.

Verse 21 pushes the response to a point it is hugely unique and put Job on the map so to speak. Nakedness tends to get people’s attention. The Hebrew phrase apparently had a meaning more akin to I came into this world with nothing and I shall leave it with nothing, but naked was apparently the best English word available. One of the hidden concepts so to speak is that Job came from the chaos/darkness of pre-creation and expects to return there after death. Much more of this comes out in the poetry, but here it seems as a foreshadow or preview of what is to come.

The second half of this verse stands on its own as a summary of Job.

Verse 22 wraps up this initial response with the highlight of the test of Job that Satan and God had different expectations for. Job does not sin, he does not blaspheme God, and Satan should be humiliated. Of course, he is not since he has pride as a sinful characteristic, but he sure called that one wrong.

Half-way through the introductory prose and I have had the chance to read Job 1 about a dozen times all together. I have put together about nine study pieces and enjoyed every bit of it. If the story ended here, it would have been a tremendous blessing. I look forward to learning more as I continue through the year and see how far I get this year when I look back this time next year.