Job 31, The Oath of Innocence, and the Sage

Dick, Michael B.

doi:10.1515/zatw.1983.95.1.31

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The Irrelevance Of God To Job's Chapter 31 Oath1

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Cited by 11 publications

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“…His curse, 'let me sow, and another eat; and let what grows for me be rooted out' (31.8), where 'what grows for me'-J44-might also be translated 'my offspring', comes dangerously close to describing what has already happened to him. Georg Fohrer and Michael B. Dick both notice this incongruity and suggest that 'the author has used an independent text' 34 to form part of Job's oath. This explanation, though, is unconvincing.…”

Section: The Irrelevance Of God To Job's Chapter 31 Oathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job's Crisis of Language: Power and Powerlessness in Job's Oaths

Pelham¹

2012

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

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When Job loses everything, it may seem that what he has left are words. Yet, testing the limits of language in his new situation through a series of curses and oaths, Job becomes increasingly aware that his previously powerful words have been sapped of their former force. Although commonly supposed that, in his final oath of ch. 31, Job effectively forces God to answer him, this article argues that Job's call for God's response is a ruse, based on his experience of God's silence and absence. In ch. 31, Job speaks seemingly powerful words, fully aware of their powerlessness; his aim is to invest them with the power they lack by convincing his hearers that they are in fact powerful.

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Section: The Irrelevance Of God To Job's Chapter 31 Oathmentioning

confidence: 99%