http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/10407763

The Book of Job as Hebrew theodicy an ancient near eastern inter- textual conflict between law and cosmology

The book of Job is analyzed as Hebrew theodicy centering in a debate over divine justice with the sides forming two major themes--law versus cosmology. The book may be viewed as providing a solution to the problem of divine justice and human suffering in a natural step forward in a long trajectory of its ancient predecessors of theodicy--especially, Ludlul bel nemeqi and The Babylonian Theodicy--on whose foundations it was constructed. For Job, the solution involves two innovations: an appeal to cosmology and use of the combat myth. In order to accomplish this, the poet of the divine speeches utilizes Enuma Elish, Tablets IV and V, whose chaos-creation order he reverses in order to show that evil has not been fully conquered by God. Instead, the divine speeches suggest that divine justice is cosmological rather than judicial.

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