The Bible Plot

Worked Example: Job With the Name Meanings Inserted

This lesson uses everything so far. Read the passage first, then read it again with the meanings put in.

The passage (BBE):

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. He was without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping himself far from evil. ... For, Job said, It may be that my sons have done wrong and said evil of God in their hearts. And Job did this whenever the feasts came round. ... Then, opening his mouth, and cursing the day of his birth, ... Let it be cursed by those who put a curse on the day; who are ready to make Leviathan awake. ... For I have a fear and it comes on me, and my heart is greatly troubled. ... Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me? — Job 1:1, 1:5, 3:1, 3:8, 3:25, 7:12 (BBE)

The same passage with the meanings put in:

There was a man in the land of Consultation whose name was Hated. He was without sin and upright, fearing the Judges and keeping himself far from evil. ... For, Hated said, It may be that my sons have done wrong and said evil of the Judges in their hearts. And Hated did this whenever the feasts came round. ... Then, opening his mouth, and cursing the day of his birth, ... Let it be cursed by those who put a curse on the day; who are ready to make Wreathed Beast awake. ... For I have a fear and it comes on me, and my heart is greatly troubled. ... Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?

The meanings used: Job is 'hated (i.e. persecuted)' (H347), built from a root that means 'to be hostile, be an enemy' (H340). Uz is 'consultation' (H5780). Elohim, the Judges, is the plural word for the rulers who decide what stands (H430). Leviathan is 'a wreathed animal', a serpent or large sea-beast (H3882).

Three notes on the meanings. For Job, Strong's gives 'hated (i.e. persecuted)'. The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon calls the meaning unknown and the derivation dubious, though it also reads the name as 'object of enmity'. The course uses Strong's. For Uz, Strong's says 'consultation' and the Blue Letter Bible entry also glosses it 'wooded'. The course uses Strong's because it fits a man who is weighing things up in his own head. For Leviathan, Strong's also lists 'mourning', which is how the King James Bible renders Job 3:8. The BBE reads the word as the beast, and so does the course.

How to read it, step by step:

  1. The name and the ground. He is called Hated and he lives in the land of Consultation. A name shows what the state is like, so the story runs after its kind. His name is built from the word for 'be an enemy', and hostility is what the story brings to him. The ground is a place of taking counsel, and counsel is exactly what he is doing in Job 1:5: 'It may be…'. He reaches a verdict about his sons with no evidence at all.
  2. The filing. From outside, Job 1:5 looks like Ask, Believe, Receive. He gets up early, he makes the offering, and he does it 'whenever the feasts came round'. But look at what he is holding while he does it. It is not a good he assumes. It is a wrong he fears. The rule runs on what is held, not on what is performed, and Job states the rule himself in Job 3:25 (BBE): 'For I have a fear and it comes on me'. What he keeps assuming is what arrives.
  3. Underneath. Job 3:1 and 3:3 (BBE) have him cursing 'the day of his birth' and saying, 'Let destruction take the day of my birth'. He is rejecting his own starting point. Then Job 13:24 (BBE) reads, 'as if I was numbered among your haters'. The word for haters there is the enemy word (H341), the same family as his name. The hated one is also the one doing the counting. The hostility he lives under is the hostility he holds toward himself.
  4. The scene. Genesis 1 builds the scene first and puts the man in it last. Light comes and is divided from dark. The lights are set in the sky on day four. The great sea-beasts are made on day five: Genesis 1:21 (BBE), 'And God made great sea-beasts'. Only then does Genesis 1:26 (BBE) bring in the man, 'let him have rule over the fish of the sea'. Everything is in its place before he steps into it, and he is set over it. Job does the reverse. In Job 3:4-9 (BBE) he asks for the day to be dark, for no light to shine on it, for its morning stars to be dark, and for those 'ready to make Leviathan awake'. He undoes what was made on days one and four and rouses what was made on day five. The night he aims at is the one on which 'A man child has come into the world' (3:3), so he is attacking the arrival of the one meant to rule. Then he puts himself into the scene he has made. Job 7:12 (BBE): 'Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?' The word for sea-beast (H8577) is the Genesis 1:21 word. In Genesis the man stands over the sea-beasts. Here he stands among them. Even the ground has no fixed place, because the lexicon can only say that Uz is probably somewhere in the Arabian desert. Job 41:1 (BBE) later asks, 'Is it possible for Leviathan to be pulled out with a fish-hook', and the question shows what the hand that gave up the rule can no longer do.
    • Genesis 1: the scene is made in order, then the man is put in it and set over it.
    • Job: the scene is undone out of order, then he puts himself in it, under it, with no fixed place.
  5. The turn. Job 42:5-6 (BBE): 'Word of you had come to my ears, but now my eye has seen you. For this cause I give witness that what I said is false, and in sorrow I take my seat in the dust.' He withdraws what he said. Job 42:10 (BBE) then says the Lord 'made up to Job for all his losses, after he had made prayer for his friends'. The story turns when the filing is amended.

A note on the sea-beast words. Leviathan (H3882) is a different Hebrew word from the sea-beasts of Genesis 1:21. That one is tannin (H8577), and it appears in Genesis 1:21 and again in Job 7:12. Leviathan is linked to it by category, not by spelling, and Brown-Driver-Briggs sets the two side by side in Psalm 74:13-14. This page does not claim they are the same word.

A note on Job 42:6. Older translations read 'I abhor myself'. The Hebrew verb is ma'as (H3988), 'reject, despise', and Brown-Driver-Briggs lists Job 42:6 among the places where the object is omitted. The American Standard Version prints 'myself' in square brackets for that reason. The BBE reads 'what I said is false'. This page does not rest on the 'myself' reading. Step 3 stands on Job 3:3 and Job 13:24, and both readings of 42:6 agree that he takes back what he said.

See Job 1: the court sets the condition before it runs the test.

Remember: the name was on file before the story began, and the fear he acted out in Job 1:5 is the one he names in Job 3:25. Genesis makes the scene first and sets the man over it. In Job he wrecks the scene, wakes the sea-beast, and puts himself among it. Performing a request while holding a fear still files the fear.