Job 9

This second line is translated several ways. Many translators say something like this: “He walks on the waves of the sea,” which sounds like a foreshadowing of Jesus walking on water (Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:16-21). Others say, “He walks on the back of the sea dragon” or “sea monster.” The Hebrew words yam (Sea) refers to an ancient Middle Eastern sea god that, in mythological stories, was defeated by higher god. So this line could mean God is more powerful than the sea god, and perhaps any other god humans could dream up. The Hebrew word darak, which we’ve translated as “launches,” has a lot of possible meanings, which makes life more confusing for the already wildly confused sacred corps of Bible translators. Several possible meanings: walk, shoot, make it go, guide, press. Sometimes, it’s guesswork. Yet the context is clear. God is the Creator.

Names of the constellations are all guesses. Scholars seem least confident in the “Bear.” Some prefer the stars of Taurus the bull or Virgo, which ancient Arab writers said included stars that look like dogs barking at a lion. All three constellations—Bear, Orion, and Pleiades—were well known because they are easy to see and their rising and setting helped farmers, especially, read the timing of the changing seasons.

In ancient mythological stories, the sea creature called Rahab represented chaos in the world. Bible writers seemed to use that familiar story to illustrate that God turned chaos into a creation as beautiful as the heavens and the earth. Bible writers also occasionally associated Rahab with Egypt, one of Israel’s persistent enemies throughout the centuries.

All his children and their families died when a windstorm blew over the house and crushed them all to death (Job 1:19).

Laughing at the disastrous death of an innocent person doesn’t sound particularly godly. But perhaps most of us could relate to Job’s confusion about what happened and his anger toward God for letting it happen. The kind of tragedy Job faced is one that can often go either way for people of faith. It can push them away from the faith or it can lead them into the faith and bring them closer to God. But here, Job is feeling his anger. And perhaps most people in his situation would feel it too.

It’s unclear exactly where God throws Job, in his imagined scenario of God as a bully. Whatever it is or wherever it is, it stinks. Bible scholars have translated the Hebrew word saha, many ways. It could mean: pit, dungeon, slime pit, excrement, a ditch. Since he had bathed before and stunk after, we followed him into a worst-case scenario. It’s not pretty. And it shows the intensity of Job’s anger.