Job Chapter 3
Depression, Anger and Sea Monsters
This is a beautifully dark and angry chapter. Job isn't holding back. He's grieving and he's going through all the stages.
The Curse the Day Stage (Anger)
This is the best part. Job not only wants to curse the day that he was born. He wants to erase the day from history. If only August 3 went into August 5 so that Job couldn't be born on August 4. I know it's some hyperbolic poetry, but my ADHD science fiction informed brain cant's stop viewing it as a Dr. Who plot.
Job even invokes the Leviathan for the first time. When I started reading this book, I was expecting grief. I was expecting philosophical musings on the nature of suffering. I was even expecting Job to reject the dire “everything happens for a reason” cliches.
I was not expecting sea monsters. There are so many sea monster references in Job. If you have a Bible in your house, check out chapter 41 where God describes the Leviathan. Tell me that doesn't sound like an 8 year old describing Godzilla. The Leviathan has big sharp teeth and lightning sneezes and armor skin. It's sooooo cool.
Job just hopes that people who might be able to control the Leviathan could also curse the day of his birth. “May those who curse, curse the day I was born; those prepared to harass the Leviathan.” The word for day (yom) is one vowel away from sea (yam) while curse (oreree) sounds a lot like harass (orer). I actually used harass. Other translations go with rouse or invoke.
So this chapter is basically curse the day I was born. May it disappear from history. May everyone curse that day and erase it. Also BIG KAIJU MONSTER. Job decided to add Biblical Godzilla to his elegy.
I almost said just imagine that in modern poetry, but Bryan Thao Worra is out there writing poetry about decolonization, diaspora and monsters. Just buy his poetry. It's great. Or google Zombuddha if you want an incentive.
The Stoicism Stage (Depression)
This section begins with “Why did I not die at birth?” and then makes death sound downright attractive. Had Job died at birth, he'd be lying with kings and nobles. Everyone is equal in the crypt. Slaves are free. Prisoners are resting. He sounds like Socrates at the end of his trial when he told everyone that he wasn't afraid of death because death is either a great nap or an opportunity to meet Odysseus and Achilles.
This section feels almost too persuasive. I like living. I want to live as long as possible, but Japan's suicide forest sounds amazing. We all have to die eventually. Why not go into a distant forest and end it all surrounded by trees and wildlife? This is the kind of stoic view that allowed Roman nobles to open their wrists and then spend the rest of the day drinking wine and reading as their live slowly bled out.
The God Could Kill Me at Any Time So What's the Hold-Up Stage (Bargaining?)
Job wants to die, but he's not going to do it himself. He's already rejected his wife's suggestion that he “curse God and die.” Seems obvious that his wife was telling him to kill himself. Cursing God with words is not going to do it. So Job indirectly asks God to kill him.
In fact, Job wonders why God gives life to the bitter. Why doesn't God kill the broken people? It seems like death would be better. Only do they actually want to die? Let's ignore the euthanasia debate (please) and focus on Job wanting God to kill him. Sure, he thinks it'd be nice if God killed everyone else like him, but he's mostly concerned with his own ruined life and the fact that he has to keep living it (long after the thrill of living is gone...damnit....I hate that song).
The Groaning is Bread Stage (Acceptance)
This isn't the kind of acceptance that we expect at the end of mourning. Job is still very much in mourning. The five stages don't fall into easy patterns. You don't hit the anger stage and leave the depression behind. Job has come to a form of acceptance. The anger and depression aren't over; Yet, he's not cursing the day, asking God to kill people like him or waxing poetic on death. He's just saying that he is nourished by groaning and uses a water simile for anguish.
What he feared has overtaken him. The horrible truth of living is that it could all go away. You can build up a family, a fortune and a sense of stability. It could go away with a terrorist attack or a hurricane. That anxiety is usually at a low ebb but we all know that all of our loved ones could die tomorrow. Like most people, Job feared losing everything. Unlike most people, Job actually did lose everything. Tragedy gets us all eventually.
We leave this chapter with Job expressing his feelings in a simple true way. He feared tragedy. Tragedy happened. Now he sits with his feelings.
Next Week: Eliphaz spouts some puerile bullshit.