Sunday, July 04, 2010

Job Picture 14

Picture 14:
We're still in Job 38; Edinger wrote on page 53 "At first Yahweh had appeared as an undifferentiated energy-phenomenon, the whirlwind; in this picture a structured universe is revealed in an image of totality."

I would say 13 was intensely awesome and 14 intensely creative--and beautiful. He said "out of the ordeal a world is born".

Following seven stars above the picture Blake wrote: "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion (Job 38:31).

Note the quotes on the Creation from Genesis 1 in the margins, on the left:
"Let there be light",
"Let there be a firmament"
"Let the waters be gathered
together in one place, and let the dry land appear"

And on the right:
"And God made two great lights"
"Let the waters bring forth abundantly"
"Let the earth bring forth cattle, and creeping thing, and beast" (These are all verses from Genesis 1.)

Underneath the picture Blake wrote: "When the morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7)

This is the dawn after the darkness; we might consider it a mark of Job's rebirth. As gruesome as Job's test appeared, good things happen from now on (Picture 15 appears pretty awful, but it's something that Job and his wife watch rather than suffer.) Hereafter the Illustrations for The Book of Job get increasingly sunny!

1 comment:

ellie Clayton said...

For a color version of the picture, see the watercolor image from the Butts set of Blake's illustrations in the Blake Archive.
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=but550.1.wc.14&java=yes