Some thoughts on the book of Job

I've always had a special connection to the book of Job. It has the hardest Hebrew in the entire bible. The most elusive book, which seems to leave one with a very simplistic sense of how God acts. But the more I probe its meaning, the more i discover how deep and amazing this wonderful book is.


In the book of Job, Satan goes to God יהוה and tries to compel him to test Jobs faith. God יהוה accedes and the book ensues with Satan - Hebrew for adversary - bringing calamity after calamity on Job.

I want to analyze some of the names in the book, since it is the names of the important characters that imparts the secret metaphysical meaning of the text.

Satan means "adversary", and the name of God used in the book יהוה, which roughly translates as "being" only appears in the opening narrative, where Satan implores God to test Jobs faith, and at the very end, when God appears to Job. In between, in the 40 some odd chapters, only these names of God appear: אֱלהִים, אֱלוֹהַּ , אל שדי‎ ...El Shaddai, Eloah, and Elohim.

First speech was from אֱלִיפַז , which can be read as "My God is [refined] Gold". HeTemani - "the southerner", which come from the root "Tam" - unblemished, complete..

As important indication of what kind of philosophy he propounds is in the verse: כִּי-אָדָם, לְעָמָל יוּלָּד; וּבְנֵי-רֶשֶׁף, יַגְבִּיהוּ עוּף. 7 "But man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward". Eliphaz seems to be accusing Job of not merely acting immoral, but by his very vocation, his work, was why God was chastising him; because to be apart of the world is to be apart of an evil and impure realm. And so, the God of Eliphaz is a God of asceticism. His name comes from the Hebrew word "Pazaz" - refined Gold, and he is from a realm of purity, and completion (Tam). His spiritual philosophy is monastic. It is retreat from the world.

The second speaker is בִּלְדַּד הַשּׁוּחִי Bildad the Shuhite. Bildad is more ambiguous. It could mean "not love" "Bal Dod", or it could mean "Bel Loved". I think the former makes more sense. HaShuhi would mean "the lowly one". So Bildad hashuhi would roughly translate, in a archetypal sense, as "not love, lowly"

A verse i feel touches on the essence of his dialogue, is verse 9: כִּי-תְמוֹל אֲנַחְנוּ, וְלֹא נֵדָע: כִּי צֵל יָמֵינוּ עֲלֵי-אָרֶץ "For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow--"

The 3rd friend if צֹפַר הַנַּעֲמָתִי Zophar, the Naamathite. Zophar, from the root Zaphah - "to look about", HaNaAmathi, from the root "NaAmah" "pleasantness". Therefore, look out for pleasure, or for desire.

Again, in Jobs 3 friends, we find three different perspectives, all of an ascetic, world retreating nature, that attributes Jobs sufferings to his engagement in the world. He must be refined and without blemish. He must not love (yearn) and must be lowly, and he has to look about, and watch out for pleasures. He must in short, be estranged from the world.

The final friend, the youngest, and the one who sat aside while the three elders (signifying 'elaborate and sophisticated' modalities) spoke, was Elihu

וַיִּחַר אַף, אֱלִיהוּא בֶן-בַּרַכְאֵל הַבּוּזִי-- מִמִּשְׁפַּחַת-רָם:
בְּאִיּוֹב, חָרָה אַפּוֹ-- עַל-צַדְּקוֹ נַפְשׁוֹ, מֵאֱלֹהִים

2 "Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram;
against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God."

אֱלִיהוּא Elihu, literally means "My God is He", or "He is my God". What's striking about this name is the second person "Hu". God is identified as the OTHER. Not myself, not merely my thoughts, my feelings, or my abstentions from the world. God is IDENTIFIED WITH THE WORLD - with the other, and not with the self.

בֶן-בַּרַכְאֵל "Son of Barackel". Barackel means "blessing of God". Elihu sees everything as a blessing. Whatever one encounters, is a blessing from God, and hence, the perception of Elihu (My God is He) is a corollary of, the "blessing of God" .

הַבּוּזִי. The Butzite. From the root "Bazah" - to divide, cut through. In order to recognize blessing, one has to see into the world. He has to cut through it. He has to despise (Heb. Booz) the world, before he comes to the penetrating perception of its blessedness.

מִמִּשְׁפַּחַת-רָם "from the family of Ram". A family is a general heading. Ram means "Height" or "Lofty", referring to the essential nature of the insight of the world's purpose.

Elihu's entire speech emphasizes the sheer pointlessness, and arrogance in judging WHY things happen to us on earth. Elihu says there is another, there is God, and we cannot possibly know why He acts the way he does with man. It is vanity to bother giving explanations, to pretend you have know the secrets of creation.

כִּי, מָלֵתִי מִלִּים; הֱצִיקַתְנִי, רוּחַ בִּטְנִי

18"For I am full of words; the spirit within me constraineth me.".. He desists from speaking, and leaves it to the other, to God, to uphold the burden of "why".

וַיַּעַן-יְהוָה אֶת-אִיּוֹב, מנהסערה (מִן הַסְּעָרָה); וַיֹּאמַר.

"Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:"

It's telling that God speaks out of the Sa'arah - the whirwind, the divider between creation and the void. No human being can go there and derive meaning, because there, the question of meaning evaporates. ONLY God can convey meaning from there to here, since he is beyond the entire creation. Only he can dictate meaning and purpose in this world.

מִי זֶה, מַחְשִׁיךְ עֵצָה בְמִלִּין-- בְּלִי-דָעַת

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"

Why do you pretend to know what the truth is? Your words are inherently devoid of knowledge. Since you too are apart of the "M'Lin" "the word". How can the word know the nature of the word?

שְׁמַע-נָא, וְאָנֹכִי אֲדַבֵּר; אֶשְׁאָלְךָ, וְהוֹדִיעֵנִי "Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak; I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me."

Hear - listen to my prayer, and i will speak. I will petition thee, and you will make known to me what I need to know. This essentially says that the petition of the soul, the seeking the other, incites the other to make 'known' - to give one an intuitive knowledge, an awareness, and a strength to go onwards.

לְשֵׁמַע-אֹזֶן שְׁמַעְתִּיךָ; וְעַתָּה, עֵינִי רָאָתְךָ 5 "I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee"

Hearing is one thing. But experiencing "Seeing" is quite another. It's telling that the verse uses the singular "eye" instead of eyes, referring to a spiritual sight.

Only after Job came to the awareness, symbolized by Elihu, of God being the "other", outside creation, did YHVH, יהוה , the being which underlies the powers - אֱלהִים, אֱלוֹהַּ , אל שדי - the names used for God by Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, appear. Only when man recognizes the strangeness, and otherness, of his place in this world, does the being of creation appear.

Satan, the adversary, from the very beginning, served as the force which led sufferring soul of Job אִיוֹב (from the root "Yavav" "to cry, shrill") To יהוה .

I agree with most of what you said, but you have the first part wrong. God brought Job to Satan's attention.

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

reply to post by dontreally


Great Work! Very scholarly post.

I learned a great lesson from JOB, too! Made me realise I was just a creature and put me in my place. Even Jacob is just a worm before The Almighty Creator of The Universe!!!

very interesting perspective! the book of JOB is a very special book indeed! it touches every mental,emotional,and physical of mans quest to understand his purpose. it is a truly mystical book!
it sounds like you study kabbala. do you read and understand the meaning of the hebrew charecters(i wish could,but slowly i learn) i think applying gamatria to this book would proove fascinating!
excellent post,good to see another person who is interested in more than the `face value`of the bible.
look foward to more thoughts on `the word of GOD
shalom

The book of Job is my personal favorite. I have read it, and got the jist of it. I actually named 1 of my daughters one of the names at the emd, when he was blessed with 3 daughters.

So thanks for your post, going to reread it,

I think of this book often when running into Bible Belt Legalism.
I am glad for you post!

reply to post by dontreally


Great read. You would enjoy a book called, The Way of Hermes. It is a good translation of the Corpus Hermeticum. In it, many of the keys to understanding the Bible are outlined.

I must say, i feel completely different about the book of job. Its true that it does have some very poetic phrases ("For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow--") brilliant really. However, i find it to be one of the most offensive books in the bible. Lets take it from the start...first of all, Satan just strolls on into heaven. (Job 2:1) -"Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord." I take issue with this immediately in that somehow Satan walked into the presence of God, in the holiest place. The most evil thing to exist, who was forever cast from Heaven, somehow walks right back on in. This actually happens in the first chapter as well, almost word for word, so apparently Satan comes and goes from heaven as he pleases. Following that in verse 2- "And the Lord said unto Satan, from whence comest thou?....." Now why would God who is all knowing, omnipotent and omnipresent, have to ask Satan where he had been? It just seems a bit absurd. In the next few verses, God asks Satan if he has noticed what a great and faithful man Job is. That he is perfect and upright and that there is no one on earth like him. Satan tempts God(for the second time) to basically ruin Jobs life to see if he will turn against God. And for some insane reason, God decides to allow it to happen. He gives Satan the go ahead to do whatever he wants to Job as long as he spares his Life. In the ensuing chapters, Job faces many trials and tribulations, he is covered in boils, he loses all of his wealth and all of his family dies. A man who is described by God to be perfect and have unshakable faith is tormented for no other reason than God felt like playing chess with Satan. The whole story makes God out to be a bored man who wanted to play with someones life for his own amusement. At the end of the story Job of course remains faithful and all his possessions are restored. YAY happy ending! WHAT? What does that teach anyone? A man who has done no wrong, and praises God everyday is mercilessly punished. What is the point of testing him? Especially to that degree? To prove a point to Satan? In churches when this story is taught they make the whole point out to be, "Have faith and God will provide and get you through the hard times!" But Job already had faith, he had already proven himself. And as for his things being restored after all is said and done, how does that replace what he lost in the first place? Sure money and material possessions can be replaced. But human life, your whole family destroyed? That is something that can never be replaced. Even if Job went on to have 50 more children, he would(as any human would) always mourn the loss of the ones who had been taken from him for no reason. I think that this Book of the Bible is so damning to who God is supposed to be. I dont think God is anything like this. And yes, i realize it isnt to be taken literally, but if this is what people are presenting to others to make them have faith in anything at all, id say it completely fails.

reply to post by BamStonin


It doesn't completely fail, because many people imbibe the simple message of the book. And many - such as myself - look at this book as the archetype of how one is meant to respond in times of suffering.

As i tried to explain, the book is a long metaphor, as all the books of the Bible are. All the names refer to archetypes, to ways of thinking, concepts, etc.

The very name Iyov - Job in Hebrew, is from the root - yavav - "To cry, shrill". It's a book MEANT for the one who suffers.

As with all books in the Bible, there is a literal meaning, and a metaphysical meaning. The former for the laymen who has trouble with abstract, convoluted ideas, while the latter is for the philosophical mystic, who seeks a deeper meaning.

This is essentially how all spiritual traditions, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, work. There's an outer tradition, the "simple text", and the deeper spiritual concepts the text makes allusion to. The latter is true meaning. The former can be misleading, but still conveys an 'impression' of the esoteric.

I think the deepest idea in the book is how the names of God, Eloah - "power", Elohim "powers", El Shaddai "power of "enough" , are only referred to by Jobs 3 companions. This is significant. They speak of God only from the way things APPEAR. From the outside, from the position of the observer observing the powers of nature, in their harshness and seeming randomness. Only Elihu, who sees God as the other, as the He who is beyond the powers, beyond the apparent, and the imminent, brings the deepest stratum of Gods being YHVH, into the sufferers (Job) purview.

This is highly significant.

When Satan is understood not as an adversary in the sense of a thing to be afraid of, but as a force which compels spiritual growth, which leads one to the One - the BEING of reality, then you will understand how beautiful a book of spiritual wisdom the book of Job is.

I'm sick of this book being libeled by spiritually immature secularists who see only the way things 'appear' and then assume that God is a tyrant, a being to be hated. Jungs "answer to Job" is an expression of this secular darkness of spirit. It takes the book from its literal perspective (ignoring the profound metaphysics of it) and seeks to give a 'better answer' a gnostic one, for how to deal with the problem of evil.

Fact of the matter is: Whats more important? God or your family? Answer: God. If you love God, you love your source, you'll accept with love whatever comes to you.

I find it funny that you try to insinuate throughout your response that my take on the book of job is that of a laymen and your is one of a "mystic" who seeks a deeper meaning. Not knowing me, you wouldnt know how deeply ive studied the bible and many other religious works or what my back ground in them is. Nor do i feel the need to tout it around.

Of course there is a deeper meaning to many things in the bible...some to be taken literally and other metaphorically. While i disagree with you that the book of job is meant to buoy the spirit of one who is down trodden, more than anything i find myself laughing at your holier than though response and the attitude that you bring to the "mysteries" of this book.

Good for you if you have taken something meaningful from it. I in no way wish to take that away from you. However, when you seek too deeply into something you miss the simple message in it. And unfortunately this particular book of the Bible misses the mark on delivering a positive message. There are many good points in the Bible, but not all are gems of knowledge. This is a clumsy attempt at proving redemption. It makes God seem careless for those who truly serve him and makes a mockery of everything God and his love stands for. If you wish to uphold this image of God so be it, but i will uphold the one i know is truer to his spirit.

reply to post by BamStonin


I thought i was actually patient with my reply to you. And I didn't notice any egotism, or attempt to denigrate your view as that of a laymen. If you feel that way, perhaps that's your own projection (how you feel projected onto what I wrote)

While i disagree with you that the book of job is meant to buoy the spirit of one who is down trodden

The name of the book is Iyov. Do you read Hebrew? Iyov is from the Hebrew root "Yavav" - "To shrill, Cry out"... And yet you think the point of the book isn't "to buoy the spirit of one who is down trodden"??

Cool your ego down so you can think more reasonably. .

Also, one CANNOT, as a matter of principle, understand the deeper ideas in the Bible without a basic knowledge of the Hebrew language...or at least a Hebrew/English dictionary to help you understand the significance of names, places, etc.

more than anything i find myself laughing at your holier than though response and the attitude that you bring to the "mysteries" of this book.

Your post was illogical, and I didn't like it. If that's "holier then thou" - deal with it.

Good for you if you have taken something meaningful from it. I in no way wish to take that away from you.

You don't have to. You've essentially shown everyone here how mature you are. You want to hold to your own preconceived opinions of the book, DESPITE, your inherent lack of knowledge of it, fine. Don't expect me to respect that opinion as if it were meritorious. Yes. Any person can reject a scientific proof - like the world being round - and be free to insist that it's flat. Do I have to respect that? No. Likewise here. I've shown pretty well the presence of archetypal ideas in the the book of Job, but you've decided to completely ignore it.. Most people have found it interesting, but you, due to whatever antagonism you might have towards the Bible, don't feel that way. And that's an emotional response; not an intellectual one.

Look: If you were paying attention to the deeper ideas of this thread, you would have been impressed by the spiritual-psychology of the book of Job.

The name of every Biblical book expresses it's archetypal theme. Thus, Iyov (job in English) speaks of the archetypal sufferer, and hence, the main character of the story has a name derived from the Hebrew word 'to shrill, cry out". Not meaningful? Did you already know that?

The book conveys a consistent archetypal theology, from beginning to end. It's use of certain divine names in the beginning, middle and end, all refer to the relationship of the sufferer- his archetypal mentality (the 'friends' he speaks with, also refer to attitudes taken by the mind) and the cosmos - God. If you didn't quite catch all that, don't blame me. Reread the thread.