The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
Job 37 - No mention of any women.
38:8 - "Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?"
39:1-3 - "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer? Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young?"
Job 40 - No mention of any women.
Job 41 - No mention of any women.
42:11 - "Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring."
42:13 - "He also had seven sons and three daughters."
42:15 - "In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers."
My Comments
Yeah, God, you're really awesome. You made all of this shit: the Earth, the plants, animals, stars, planets, rain, lightning, wind, etc. You've done a whole lot.
Does this mean I should worship you and give thanks? Even when you actively allow my family to be destroyed, all of my property taken from me and my body plagued with disease?
Fuck. No.
I think Felicia Days the second coming but if she came by and shot my dog you can bet I would kill a bitch no matter how awesome she might be. (And if Felicia Day ever does see this, seriously, I love you so much. The Guild is one of my all time favorite shows ever. Ever.)
So God sits around and basically beats his chest for about 4 chapters and so what? Honestly, so fucking what? What god acts that way? It's like a child. "I may have ruined everything but I also made everything so WORSHIP ME DAMMIT!!!" It's embarrassing.
I'm fairly certain it was physics and natural laws and the stars exploding that created everything I see around me, and yet I am not worshiping those. Hell, the stars died for me and they don't even expect me to worship them back. The stars get my respect (not worship) because they are truly awe inspiring, not because they are awe inspiring and then threaten me with eternal torture because I didn't happen to love them back.
On top of this Job's wife never returns. Job is rewarded twofold and his wife isn't there? He doesn't even get a new wife? And he's given seven more sons and three more daughters but how did they get there? Did they appear fully formed? Were they born? And if they were born, who bore them? For heaven's sake it makes no sense!
I have decided that Job's wife went off and killed herself halfway through the book just so she wouldn't have to listen to Job bitch anymore. I can't say I blame her, I thought about it myself a couple of times, but I also have the advantage of being able to just close the Bible and not have to listen to it anymore. Poor women didn't even get that luxury. She lost all her children and any property she had vicariously through her husband and on top of that she had to listen to him whine 24/7. I'm sure she's happier in Sheol.
Also: Take note, I believe this sentence is the most important in the entire book of Job.
"...they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him..."
People, not God, showed Job sympathy and gave him comfort when God only provided him with evil.
Damn straight.
Monday: Psalms
I found this interesting:
ReplyDeleteJob 42:13-15 "He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren."
Of Job's first set of seven boys and three girls, we got no names. We aren't given the names of his later seven sons. But his later three daughters all have their names given. I wonder why that is. It's a rare case of boys being unnamed while girls are named.
Also, their father gave them inheritance among their brethren, which need only be remarked if it's not ordinary. So most girls get no inheritance. In the usual case, if a man has no sons, do his daughters split the swag or does it go off to a nearest male relative? Can a daughter's husband score swag as a son? Is this a reason for Barzillai to have renamed himself?
Inheritance laws for families that have no sons were addressed in Numbers. Daughters are left the inheritance as long as they have no brother's or husbands, and they can keep the inheritance, presumably, until they marry (in which case I assume it passes to the husband). This would be why they are encouraged to marry into the same tribe so that when the father's inheritance passes to the husband it at least stays in the same family tree.
ReplyDeleteI assume we do not hear about this very often because it probably rarely occurs. If someone only had daughters I bet they were married off asap to prevent an inheritance issue like this. And people seemed to have so many children that eventually one is bound to be a boy.
I'm still uncertain about Barzillai. We really don't get enough info about his situation. :/
It is very interesting in this case that the daughters received inheritance even though the sons were all still alive. This, so far, we have not seen. So apparently Job loved these replacement children even more than his original children. Plus it seemed God gave Job the deluxe package when he replaced his kids by giving Job the most beautiful daughters in the land. What a lucky dude, right? God certainly is good.
After reading your comment, I saw it like this:
ReplyDelete1. The names of Job's daughters are given.
2. Job's daughters are the fairest in the land.
3. The daughters of Job are given an inheritance.
I am wary of reading more into this than I should, but can't help wondering if 1 and 3 aren't dependent on 2. There's no other factor mentioned that would account for it, though.