Why does Job sound so poetical?

[xdisciplex]

What seems strange to me is that this whole stuff which Job and his friends say sounds so poetical, it sounds like a psalm from David. Do normal people talk like this? And why does always one person talk at a time and during the whole time the others are quiet? Why doesn’t Job interrupt his friends while they are talking? Why does always one person talk and all the others listen? Somehow this seems made up to me like a script from a movie. Job sounds like a poet. Why should a person which is angry and hurting talk like this? Why doesn’t he simply freak out? Would you talk like a poet when everything around you is falling apart?
Some this doesn't seem like a real life situation could it be that Job is just a story which is supposed to teach us something but it never really happened?

 

[Link]

xdisciplex

Job is poetry, so that may answer part of your question.

And in some countries, people take long turns when they talk. That happens here in Indonesia sometimes, and it was kind of frustrating for me when i got here.

Someone said Americans talking is like people playing tennis, and Japanese are like bowling. It takes a long time for their turn to finish and the point to be made. With Americans we have really short turns when talking.

 

[xdisciplex]

Are you saying that if it's poetry it's made up and never really happened?! :tear:

 

[tragic_pizza]

Are you saying that if it's poetry it's made up and never really happened?! :tear:

The histories you and I read are written after-the-fact, and oftentimes by individuals and groups who were not eyewitnesses to the event.

Poetry, also, has been written about historical events.

Religious literature can thus be both poetic and have its roots in historical events.

 

[Jim1999]

Poetic form is quite common in speech. For example, J.F. Kennedy used poetic form when he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you. but ask what you can do for your country." It did not alter the fact, but made the fact more memorable.

Winston Churchill used poetic language in every speech he made: "We shall fight on the beaches, We shall fight on the landing grounds, We shall fight in the fields and in the streets....." This made his speeches memorable and impressive.

Hebrew poetry is not the same as we are most familiar; with metre and rhyme. Rather Hebrew poetry has reiteration and parallelisms. Reiteration was the chosen writing style of the Canaanites and te earliest Biblical poetry.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Scarlett O.]

What seems strange to me is that this whole stuff which Job and his friends say sounds so poetical, it sounds like a psalm from David.

:smilewinkgrin: That's because the book of Job is a poem. It's a didactic poem (a poem of instruction, reason, or morality).

It's also set in a prose "framing device". That is to say it's not lyricial, like the psalms nor is it rhyming. In fact, ancient Hebrew poems did not rhyme.

It sounds like a poem because it is a poem.

Do normal people talk like this? And why does always one person talk at a time and during the whole time the others are quiet? Why doesn’t Job interrupt his friends while they are talking? Why does always one person talk and all the others listen?

Because it is presented in a poetical device, each person's point of view is expressed individually. We don't know if some of what each person was saying was overlapped with other speakers....."butting" in so to speak. I'm sure that in the reality of Job, it was.

Somehow this seems made up to me like a script from a movie.

Poems do sound that way sometimes. But that doesn't mean that the poem isn't historically accurate as to content or actual events.

Job sounds like a poet.

Job is not the author. According to bible scholars a whole lot smarter than anyone on the BB, the author is unknown and the date of writing is unknown.

What is known is that the events of Job were very early in man's history.

Why should a person which is angry and hurting talk like this? Why doesn’t he simply freak out?

Job did freak out. He ranted and raved in cursing the day that he was born. He had a huge pity party. Just because you and I read his word in the formal "King James" and in poetry form shouldn't detract from the fact that Job wanted to die.

Some this doesn't seem like a real life situation...

James 5:11 refers to Job as a real person. "Behold, we count them happy who endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy."

So does Ezekiel 14:14, 20. "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it (a famine brought about by the unGodliness of the people), they should deliver only their souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.............Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it (a pestilence brought about by the unGodliness of the people), as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, they shall deliver only their own souls by their righteousness.

God is saying to Ezekiel that when he sends down a punishment on His people for their evil acts as a "nation" that not even men like Noah, Daniel, nor Job could survive. Only their three souls would survive because they were righteous men.

Certainly there were stories in the bible that never really happened, they were used to prove and point and teach us something. Those stories are called parables. They were quoted by Jesus. To tell if a story is based on actual events or not, look for names.

If the people in the story are have actual names....Adam, Eve, Job, Peter, .......then the stories are real.

If the story begins...."there was a certain man" or "there was a certain woman"....then the story is probably just being used for effect.

...could it be that Job is just a story which is supposed to teach us something but it never really happened?

Your argument that Job cannot be a real person nor the events of his life real because of the poetical nature of the book doesn't have any credibility as an argument.

There are waaaay too many epic and historical poems that are factual in nature, that is they are a re-telling of REAL events, and have kept history alive for us.

Here are just a few of the many thousands of examples:

• "Battle of Lexington" by Sidney Lanier
• "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Francis Scott Key
• "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Real and actual events are immortalized in epic poetry all of the time. Most of it began as didactic in nature, but has come to be beloved as inspirational.

Such is the case with the book of Job. Job, the real man with real tragedies in his life and a very real moral victory!

 

[webdog]

Are you saying that if it's poetry it's made up and never really happened?! :tear:

Poetry doesn't have to be fitcitonal only. When my sister died, I wrote a poem about how I felt, which was all non fiction.

 

[Helen]

Job is most probably Jobab, the thirteenth son of Joktan, Peleg's brother (see Genesis 10). This identification is possible because we are told he lived in the land of Uz (his great uncle). In the Alexandrain LXX, the most ancient Greek translation we have of the OT (from about 300 BC), there is a note at the end of the book of Job that he lived almost 300 years. This would be in line with the ages at the time of Peleg and shortly after.

At the time of Peleg the continents were dividing, rather massively and destructively. An interesting note of science here. The radioactive decay going on in the interior of the earth was melting rocks, turning them to magma. Melted rocks/minerals gain about 10% in volume in the melting process. That translates into an 18% increase in circumference of a sphere. That, for the earth, is about 4700 miles -- the width of the Atlantic Ocean.

This was happening during the several hundred years of Peleg's, and Job's, lifetimes. If you read the book of Job with an eye out for the evidences of the catastrophes he experienced, you will see what the earth was like then. The opening of Job mentions the fire of God and mighty winds. Elsewhere we see references to keeping watch on the sea (tsunamis pull back from the land before they rush forward, inundating it), and seeing the foundations of the earth laid bare. We read of mountains being overturned, of magma crystalizing into gems in places, of cavemen, of the ice age in the Middle East, and more. Job lived through terrifying times.

 

[xdisciplex]

Thank you for your replies. :thumbsup:

I thought that everything in Job happened exactly the same way it is also written down in Job and somehow this whole setting rather reminds me of a play than of a real event because of the poetical style and also because there is always one person speaking at a time and they also express themselves so eloquent and their replies are also pretty long. I don't know how everything was back then but if I imagine the same situation today I imagine it to be totally different. If Job happened today then I bet he would just curse and let out his anger and his friends would interrupt him and maybe everybody would be talking at the same time and it would be a huge chaos. But in Job everything is so controlled. They just sit there and then one person starts to talk and the others listen and they don't just say a few sentences but their statements are all so long and I find it even hard to imagine that somebody could come up with such stuff out of nowhere. I mean it's not that they are reading their stuff from a paper, it's all free speech. All these things rather remind me of a play where everything is scripted and they are just acting upon it. This is why I asked this question because Job seems so scripted.

 

[Link]

It would be easier to speak Hebrew poetry off the top of one's head if one were a native speaker i suppose than it would be to do so in English.

Also, if Job spoke Proto-Semetic, the book could be seen as an inspired translation of his words in Semetic (or revelation of his words in another language.)

 

[xdisciplex]

Could you give somebody a poetic reply in free speech without having a script? This would basically be the same as freesytle rhyming. I think this has to be very difficult.

 

[Jim1999]

If one is accustomed to public speaking, it is not difficult to form rhyme during free-speak.

For example, my native tongue is Cockney Rhyme from East London. We grew up rhyming words. When one gets away from Cockney he tends to continue rhyming. In preaching, I often give a word, and then explain that word by using another word...that too, is a form of rhyme.

Alliteration is another form of rhyme.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[xdisciplex]

For example, my native tongue is Cockney Rhyme from East London. We grew up rhyming words.

Hmmmm.... I'm curious how this sounds. :smilewinkgrin:

 

[Jim1999]

A simple example would be going upstairs,,we go apples and pears.....to visit Uncle Ted,,going to bed...the rhyme is apple and pears,,,,stairs...the last word of couplet rhymes with the intended word......tea pot lids are kids, whilst skin and blister is sister and one or t'other is brother.

That should give you an idea...just imagine an entire conversation like that.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[xdisciplex]

I understand. I just didn't know that this is called Cockney Rhyme from East London.