Job 7:20: A Burden to God or to Himself? William Blake’s Monistic Exegesis of Job’s Nightmares as a Resolution of Theodicy

In the introduction to the book of Job, God allows Satan to inflict terrible devastation and suffering on his prominently righteous, pious, and prosperous God-fearing servant, Job. In response to his suffering, Job’s three well-meaning friends assert various Deuteronomistically oriented “sin and retribution” theological answers. The result is not comfort for Job, but ongoing nightmares. At Job 7:20 Job addresses God in response to his nightmares, but here a text-critical problem arises: There is a crucial difference between the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) and the Septuagint (LXX) versions. The MT states “I have sinned … (why am I) a burden against myself?” (KJV). The Greek (LXX) version has: “If I did sin … (why am I) a burden on you?” (my italics). Modern English Bible translators have responded to text-critical research by rejecting the majority MT version of Job7:20, and chosen to render the LXX version instead. The hypothesis of this article is that the difference in these two versions of Job7:20 makes a significant difference in terms of the understanding of theodicy in the book of Job; the MT version of Job 7:20 allows for an exegesis which goes a long way towards resolving the underlying problem of theodicy. Furthermore, the rejection of the MT version by text-critical scholars as reflected in modern English translations may point to significant implications in terms of the “parting of the ways” between Christianity and its Jewish origins. This article uses an interdisciplinary and intertextual methodology to explain the hypothesis. The main source is the monistic exegesis of the book of Job in the set of engravings by the artist/poet William Blake (1757–1827). Two apocryphal books, Tobit and 4 Ezra, are used to explain Blake’s exegesis because they confirm certain important aspects of Blake’s exegesis.