For the caption Blake put phrases from Job 3:7
"Lo let that night be solitary
And let no joyful voice come therein"
And beneath Blake put
"Let the day perish wherein I was born" (Job :3:7)
Under that Blake put descriptively the last verse of Job 2:
"13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great."
Job 3:3-23 (Job's big speech):
Edinger in explanatory notes on page 37 selected these verses:
3 "May the day of my birth perish,and the night it was said, 'A boy is born!'
4 That day—may it turn to darkness;
may God above not care about it;
may no light shine upon it.
...............
11 "Why did I not perish at birth,
and die as I came from the womb?
12 Why were there knees to receive me
and breasts that I might be nursed?
13 For now I would be lying down in peace;
I would be asleep and at rest
14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,
15 with rulers who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
..........................
20 "Why is light given to those in misery,
and life to the bitter of soul,
21 to those who long for death that does not come,
.........
23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?"
Job posed the $64,000 question. With When Bad Things Happen to Good People, a book by Harold Kushner, a progressive rabbi, we have a modern attempt to deal with the issue, well nigh universal among people of faith. "Into every life some rain must fall" and similar truisms express a common response; those afflicted severely (like Job was) may say why, God? why did you let this happen. We all understand that God is all-power and all-knowing, so why? Perhaps it's the primary problem of religion, and Job virtually between the two testaments (chronologically) presents it here.
Blake had an earlier (caustic) response to the issue: "first God Almighty comes with a thump on the head; then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal"
Jesus is known to 'sit at the right hand of God'; some people say that Satan sat at the left hand of God-- until he fell--which is a poetic way of saying that God includes good and evil, the discovery that the good man, Job, made.
Edinger refers to Job's "ultimate metaphysical question of existence", and he goes on to offer one of three responses:
1. "in despair at finding himself an orphan in the cosmos [a person may] commit suicide either literally or psychologically, for example by succumbing to cynicism."
2. He may find a community or a creed with a religious myth that silences the question.
3 "a numinous encounter with the Self may occur.....such an event answers experientially the urgent question", which should satisfy the psychology adepts.
Jesus is known to 'sit at the right hand of God'; some people say that Satan sat at the left hand of God-- until he fell--which is a poetic way of saying that God includes good and evil, the discovery that the good man, Job, made.
Edinger refers to Job's "ultimate metaphysical question of existence", and he goes on to offer one of three responses:
1. "in despair at finding himself an orphan in the cosmos [a person may] commit suicide either literally or psychologically, for example by succumbing to cynicism."
2. He may find a community or a creed with a religious myth that silences the question.
3 "a numinous encounter with the Self may occur.....such an event answers experientially the urgent question", which should satisfy the psychology adepts.
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