Job 3:11-19 and journey of the soul and escape and reverie

After Job dumps his huge emotional bomb in 3:1-10, where he finds comfort in the langauge of darkness, curse and obliteration, he turns to some questions and ruminations in 3:11-19. At various times I have considered 3:11-23 either to be one (long middle) section of the speech or to consist of two shorter sections (3:11-19 and 3:20-23). The question is not as crucial if we can understand the flow of this section. By "flow" I mean the psychological realities that underlie the structure of Job's words. I seek to discover if and how the literary structure of 3:11-19 is true to our experience of speaking great distress.

An Overview of 3:11-19

Let's begin with some comments about structure. As we know, Job first (3:1-10) recites his anger and pain with all the insistence of a jackhammer deep-pounding skyscraper foundation pillars into the earth. Then, in 11-12 he asks one question, but uses four images to ask the question. In short the question is, why was I ever born? In 13-15 he "answers" the question not so much by giving a response to it directly but by using the question as his starting point for a mental journey to Sheol. That is he "answers" his question by using the question as a launching pad rather than a limiting agent. He isn't asking, 'Why was I born?' so that he can say, 'Well, because my parents got together on such and such a day,' or 'because God wanted to show His glory through me in such and such a way' or, like Esther, 'because there was some kind of need for my skills in judging, amassing wealth, etc.'

He "answers" the question by imagining a situation contrary to his current reality. He would have been at peace (v.13). Thus, in 13-15 he describes the peace that would have been his. He imagines it like a person might wistfully imagine what life would have been like had s/he taken X road rather than Y road, had X not happened, had a different set of circumstances, even slightly different, confronted him/her at a crucial time in the past. Job first imagines a time of rest (v.13), using four powerful verbs that negate the pounding insistence of vv.1-10, as if the four verbs are like a set of earplugs or an ancient IPOD to drown out the din of 3:1-10. After he has quieted the internal din, he moves to a consideration of the shape of that imagined world in 14-15. In short, life in that world would be life with the movers and shakers of earth, who spend their lives rebuilding ruins and building great wealth. Job admires the amassers of the past.

3:16-19

But his thought process isn't done. In v.16 he asks a similar sort of question to that in 11-12, and then launches into another answer in 17-19 that bears a family resemblance to the answer in 13-15 but differs from it in significant ways. It is as if the question restimulates Job's mind, making him return to his launching pad so that he can blast off once again. The question is thus another 'why was I born'-type of question. He responds this time by focusing not so much about his companionship with the kings and rulers of the earth but on the presence of the "little people" in Job's imagined world. What is striking, however, is that these little people in Sheol will no longer be doing the activities that made them little on earth. Some were wicked, but they will no longer be so; some were prisoners, but they will be free from their chains; some were laborers, but they will no longer need to heed the world of their masters.

The Unity of the Human Family

In two instances in 17-19 Job's language focuses on the sense of "oneness" or "togetherness" that will characterize that place. The first word of v.18 in the Hebrew is yahad, the word for "one." The prisoners are at ease "as one" or "together." Then, in v.19, the text says that "the small and the great are there," stressing the inclusiveness of the place. The thought of a community in Sheol, with rich and poor together, with great and small as one, with the wicked ceasing from their wicked behavior, with laborers on break, with the kings and princes enjoying the memories of their wealth and the great accomplishments of their reigns, is a delightful one. It is Job's way of reversing the reality of Babel, that Gen.11 reality where great and small might have been in one place but they were confounded because the Lord confused their tongues. Now, the great and small are together and the assumption of this Joban picture is that communication, rest, fond memories and harmony prevail.

Conclusion

This essay has sought only to describe in detail the flow of these verses. The next will focus on some of the language of the section and the psychological verisimilitude of Job's description. But for now, let's enjoy the imagined trip with Job. Where have you traveled in your travails of pain? Have you just let the insistence of the pain dominate your life or have you had the ability to "retreat" or "take a journey" to a mental Disneyland, a Maui or Kauai of the soul? Describe those journeys to another person. Maybe these descriptions are the springs of true creativity in life.

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