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An Equivocal Meaning of “God has hedged in” in Job 3:23

  • Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies
  • Abbr : KJOTS
  • 2022, 28(4), pp.69-97
  • DOI : 10.24333/jkots.2022.28.4.69
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Old Testament Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : October 1, 2022
  • Accepted : November 28, 2022

Sarah Ryu 1

1백석대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study attempts to make the message of Job meaningful to modern readers by observing the small meaning hidden in the language, text, rhetorical position, and arrangement in the Hebrew Bible. This study presents that "surrounded by God" in Job 3:23 is used by Job to denote confinement without an exit, blocking the way of Job. But earlier in Job 1:10, in Satan's accusation in the prologue, it was first used to imply protecting all. These two meanings thus make a semantic collision. In Job 3, Job's lamentations continue to yearn for death until verse 23. As a result of investigations, the meaning of "the way was hidden" in v. 23a reveals that God had hidden the path to the death Job longed for, and Job's frustrations was exacerbated by being "surrouned by God" in v. 23b. This indicates that the possible way was blocked by God. On the contrary, in 1:10, it is used by Satan in a sense of protection. I argue that this semantic clash could be seen as a rhetorical device to reveal the author's ultimate intentions. This suggests that blocking with death makes the protection of life more revealing. Although Job longed for death to escape from suffering, he pointed to God's action as the cause of his inability to die. God has hidden and blocked the way to death. God protected Job from death.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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