Is Job's Lament from Genesis?
When Adam is expelled from the garden of Eden and kept from the Tree of Life, his ultimate punishment is death. As Paul puts it, speaking of Adam, “Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). Yet, whereas Adam is punished with death, Job bemoans what he sees as the punishment of life and draws on the creation account in Genesis to make his point.
In Job’s initial lament, he curses the day he was born, saying, “Die the day I was begotten, and the night that said, ‘A strong one is conceived.’ Let that day be darkness (חשק; hosheq); may God above not seek it out or shine light (אור; ‘or) on it.... Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light but have none” (Job 3:3-4, 9). Job’s rhetoric recalls the first day of creation, when darkness (חשק; hosheq) reigned before God said, “Let there be light (אור; ‘or)” (Gen 1:2). Job’s complaint inverts God’s creative act on the first day: whereas the Lord shines life-giving light on the first day, Job asks for his own life to have ended at day one!
Job continues to subvert Genesis when he recalls the creation of Adam. According to Genesis, “God formed the human from dust (עפר; afar)… and breathed into his notstrils the breath (נשמה; nishmah) of life (חיים; hayim)” (Gen 2:7). Job recalls this creative moment in his lament over impending death, saying, “Remember, O God, that my life (חיי; hayai) is but breath (or “wind” רוח; ruach); my eyes will never see happiness again…. Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust (עפר; afar) again?” (Job 7:7; 10:9). As he believes himself to be staring death in the face, Job draws on biblical descriptions of the first life to underscore his sorrow unto death.
Yet through the pain, Job still remembers God as his creator and sustainer. Despite his discomfort, Job refuses to relinquish his righteousness. Instead, he finds strength by recalling the language of Genesis. Just as God had breathed divine “breath” (נשמה; nishmah) into Adam’s “nostrils” (אף; aph), Job declares, “As long as my breath (נשמה; nishmah) is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils (אף; aph), my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit…. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go” (Job 27:3-4, 6). The righteous sufferer uses Genesis to highlight his hardship, but Job also recalls the initial creation to affirm the divine Spirit within him and to uphold his God-given integrity.
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