The potential of other forms of moisture (Job 38:28-30)

The focus in this strophe shifts from the majestic torrential rainfalls – but with life- giving waters – to the softer forms of moisture: the rain (ר , v.28a), dew (ׇ טׇ מ לׇ ט־יׇ ל גׇ א,

219

See also the psychological interpretation of the book of Job and the modern Jewish holocaust in the book: Alford, C F 2009. After the Holocaust: The Book of Job, Primo Levi, and the Path to Affliction. New York: Cambridge University Press, 58ff.

220 _{The sprouting of grass ( ׇ ש דׇאָּׁצ מא ) in the dry ground of Job 38:27 might be read as echoing the sprouting of}

vegetation in Genesis 1:11-12 (א ש דׇ ץ ראָָּׁהׇ א צוֹת ו) implying the present fertility of the land that was previously barren. In both texts, the land was in a state of desolation before God’s actions. In Genesis, the desolation is described in terms of והוֹבָּׁוׇוה ת (formless wasteland), while in Job the land is in a situation of ה אׇ שׇ מוׇה אׇ ש (total desolation). In Genesis, the fertility of the land is made possible by further separation of waters that gave place to the dry land (ה ש ב ) which later puts forth grass. In Job, the fertility of the dry ground is made possible by ׇ יׇ ה beneficial distribution of life-giving water/rain to the wasteland and desolate land. In both texts, the theme of water is at the basis of the productivity of the land.

v.28b), ice (ח , v.29a) and hoar-frost ( ׇ כׇ רׇָּׁק ר , v.29b). The unfrozen pair of water, Rain ׇ פ and Dew which form drops (םיִׇל גׇ א221) stand in interlinear parallelism with the pair of frozen forms, Ice and Hoar-frost in Job 38:28-29 (Vall 1995:505). The question ‘Does the rain have a father?’ is a rhetorical question expecting a No answer.222 All three questions in Job 38:28-30 about the origin of rain, dew, ice and hoar-frost should be answered as follows: no one begot the rain and the dew drops; the ice came from no one’s womb and no one gave birth to the hoar-frost (Vall 1995:512).

It is, however, implied that God is the one who brings rain in contradiction to the myth of the Canaanite entourage of the storm god Baal comprising ‘Pirdya, daughter of mist’ and ‘Taliya (Dew), daughter of showers’ (Habel 1985:542). Perhaps Job 38:28 is intended in part to refute the notion that Baal is responsible for the rain and dew as is the case in the polemical words of Jeremiah 14:22. Earlier, Job’s friend Eliphaz stated that God is ‘the one who brings rain upon the face of the earth, who sends water on the surface of the fields’ (Job 5:10; see also 12:15; 26:8; 28:25-26; 36:27-28).

In this sense, Schökel and Díaz223 argued that Job 38:28-29 is an obvious vestige of a myth where the male sky fertilises the female earth through the semen rain and dew. However, the rain and dew in our text are not even viewed for their fertilising role, but their birth. It is implied that their mysterious origin would testify to the extraordinary functions they can play on earth (Habel 1985:543).

The author and the implied reader of Job 38:28 are surely aware of the relevance of rain and dew in an arid land of Israel. Ancient Palestine was a land whose fertility depended exclusively on the fall of the yearly rain (Dt 10:11-17). Due to its ecological

221

This word is a hapax legomenon. It is not found anywhere in the Bible. The rendering ‘drops’ is based on the context and the ancient versions (Vulgate, Targum, Syriac).

222 _{Buttenwieser claims that the question ‘Does the rain have a father?’ should be answered affirmatively. He}

claims that in Arabia and in Scotland ‘the wind’ is referred to as ‘the father of the rain.’ This scholar links the verse with Proverbs 25:23 that reads ‘the north wind brings forth rain’ (1922:289). The question is not even about knowing the origin of the water of the strophe, but to show the limitation of the human mind.

relevance for the land of Israel, rain was even a subject of prayers.224 In this sense, the final aim of the Sukkot festival during the days of the Temple’s reconstruction was to assure the fall of rain (Patai 1939:253).

Likewise, during the dry season, dew was a very significant source of water. That is why the pair ‘rain and dew’ occur together many times in many parts of the Bible.225 The issue is that apart from human efforts at water-storage and irrigation, crops that grow during the dry months (olive, fig or grape) depended on dew especially in the central coastal plain where dew contributes up to 55mm of water per year.226 In Genesis 27:28, dew is part of the blessings that Isaac entrusted to his son Jacob, while Gideon could wake up early in the morning and wring dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water (Jg 6:38). The absence of dew and rain is seen as a curse in 2 Samuel 1:21:

You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor bounteous fields! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, anointed with oil no more (NRSV).

Rain and dew are therefore not only two main sources of water from the sky, but also fall earthward and act without human effort as declares Micah 5:7:

Then the remnant of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, shall be like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which do not depend upon people or wait for any mortal (NRSV).

It is thus implicit in Job 38:28 that the falling down of rain and dew is not an accidental feature even though Job does not understand it, but a proof of the deeper order in nature. Rain and dew are so relevant in ancient Israel that the simile in Hosea

224 _{The prophet Samuel produced rain by praying God to prove to the people that their wickedness is great in his}

eyes (1 Sm 12:17-18); The prophet Joel convoked the priests and the ministers of the altar to gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord to pray for the end of drought (Jl 1:8ff).

225 _{Baly (1957:143) recently reported that during the summer drought, the growth of grapes significantly relied}

on dew fall. For biblical references, see 2 Samuel 1:21; Deuteronomy 32:2.

226 _{Dew-fall in ancient Israel depends on moist air from the Mediterranean and is heaviest near the coast and on}

the western side of the central hill-country. See Table No 3 ‘Mean annual dew amount (mm)’ in the article of Gilead, M & Rosenan, N 1954. Ten Years of Dew Observation in Israel. IEJ 4/2, 120-123.

14:6 declares that God will be like dew227 of Lebanon for Israel, while in Hosea 6:3 it said that YHWH will come to Israel ‘like the rain, like the spring rains that water the earth’. We also know from the apocalyptic prophecy of Isaiah 26:19 the idea that certain dead people could receive unction of the vivifying dew that must bring them back to life (Martin-Achard 1956:106). This refreshing power of dew will make the dust bring back the dead:

Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead (Is 26:9, NRSV).

The other forms of moisture include frost and ice (Job 38:29-30). Psalm 78:47 depicts frost as a life-threatening water-related phenomenon that can destroy a sycamore/tree, while Zechariah 14:6 views the day of the Lord as lacking threats of cold and frost. Ice is often depicted as something that cannot last, it disappears by the rise of heat (Job 6:16-17). However, in Job 38:29-30 ice plays a significant role of hiding the face of the Deep (םוֹה ת) together with its chaotic terrors against the created order. In Job 38:16-17, Job is rhetorically exposed to massive unruly secrets that keep the םוֹה ת:

16

Have you gone to the springs that fill the sea, or walked about in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? (NRSV)

Briefly, the whole strophe of Job 38:28-29 focuses the reader’s attention on diverse and amazing life-giving functions that the enlisted water-related phenomena play in nature. The rain and dew have no father, but play a major role in creation to which humans are witness. Though the water of the sea is notoriously unruly (Job 38:16-17) and impossible to collect once it is spilled on the ground (2 Sm 14:14; Ps 22:15), God is able to gather the water into small, delicate drops of dew over the surface of the earth that play a significant role in agriculture without human efforts. The slim rocks of frost and huge chunks of ice hide the terror of the Deep. The water-related

227 _{The Hebrew word used here is ןוֹנָּׁב ל כׇ וֹלׇ חי ר ו (for him as fragrance of Lebanon). The intertextual analysis}

could read the word ׇ חי ר ו as scent of water in relation to Job 14:9 or even dew in relation to the permanent presence of dew on the mountain Lebanon that is its fragrance.

phenomena are viewed for their own (intrinsic value), their ‘way’ (ךְ ) in the created ׇ רׇ ד order, and not for how they can be useful for humans.