The Terrors of the Book of Job

First to the literary aspects. As a side note, there seems to be a love of odd numbers (at least as the opening number, ie 7, 500, 7000). Though Job has an even number of children, they can be divided into seven and three; he owns 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, and there are three friends who come to visit him (plus a fourth one who is not mentioned until he speaks). I have heard that this is a common occurrence, though I do not know why these numbers are so favored.

On a more thematic level, there is a decided obsession with birth. To begin with, especially by the standards of that era, having ten children was extremely rare, and thus assumedly would suggest that God had favored the couple. Also, I doubt that all of the livestock had been bought, and thus it suggests that the animals as well are extremely fertile (thus a truly charmed home). When Job begins to pray to God for forgiveness and removal of the horrors he is facing, he proclaims that he has returned to the form from whence he came, thus naked as he was in birth. His resolve breaks with the stanza cursing his birth, wishing that rather than the life giving event that it typically stands for, that it would steal away his life. There are many similes/metaphors dealing with birth also, such as the sea braking forth as if were being birthed (though this is a somewhat inaccurate metaphor, as the child does not return inside).

Unfortunately, this work also seems to be quite opposite from the movement of the romantics. How can one claim that it is wrong for a king to rule over his people strictly, to kill people just because he can, tax them to points they cannot afford, and then chastise them most sanguinarily when they arise in protest; when all of this is done by God? It is clearly stated that the only reason that Job is put through all of these trials is because he is the most righteous, and thus he makes for a lovely experiment. It seems to send the message, 'do not be too good, or else I will use you like a guinea pig, and your life will be ruined'. And what of his children? They were never convicted of a crime, and yet God saw it fit to permit a house to fall on them! With this parallel, the Wicked Witch of the East must have been a not-the-best Christian who just so happened to be attached to someone being tested. And of course, once Job has finally broken down because he has lost everything, and God is doing nothing to make his existence even moderately tolerable, then God appears in the most flamboyant way he can possibly find, and berates Job for thinking he had been abandoned. This seems to point out why it is important to be God-fearing, rather than God-loving (inspiration for 'The Prince' perchance?). The most disturbing aspect of all of this, is that once God has decided that Job shall no longer be tested, he grants him the reward of twice as much livestock, and... a new family? God saw it fit that because he disposed of Job's original family, that he could just give him a new one, and that would be perfectly fine. A mirror of today's consumerism, one might add.