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The Book of Job (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Finally Job cried out: God damn the day I was born and the night that forced me from the womb..." (more)
Key Phrases: servant job
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Entralling." -- --George Steiner, The New Yorker

"The thoughtful reading of this astonishing translation has been for me a rare experience combining poetry and enlightment." -- --Erik H. Erikson


Product Description

The theme of The Book of Job is nothing less than human suffering and the transcendence of it: it pulses with moral energy, outrage, and spiritual insight.

Now, The Book of Job has been rendered into English by the eminent translator and scholar Stephen Mitchell, whose versions of Rilke, Israeli poetry, and the Tao Te Ching have been widely praised. This is the first time ever that the Hebrew verse of Job has been translated into verse in any language, ancient or modern, and the result is a triumph.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (June 26, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060969598
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060969592
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,578 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #12 in  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Mitchell, Stephen

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Finally Job cried out: God damn the day I was born and the night that forced me from the womb. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
servant job
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76 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars All right, I'll give it five stars, May 25, 2001
. . . even though I'd like to deduct a star for its omissions.

As with so much of Stephen Mitchell's work, it's easy to pick on him for what he's decided to leave out. Here, his translation of Job omits the hymn in praise of Wisdom and the speech (in fact the entire presence) of the young man Elihu. I tend to disagree with his reasons for skipping them (yes, yes, I know some scholars regard them as later additions). But having read his translation for nearly a decade now, I have to admit we don't miss them much.

His work has been described as "muscular," and that's a very apt term. Not only in Job's own language (from his "God damn the day I was born" to his closing near-silence after his experience of God) but in the voices of all the characters -- and most especially in the speech of the Voice from the Whirlwind -- Mitchell's meaty, pounding, pulse-quickening poetry just cries out to be read aloud.

And as always, I have nothing but praise for Mitchell's gift of "listening" his way into a text and saying what it "wants" to say. In particular, his translation of the final lines has a wee surprise in store for anyone who hasn't already read it. (He disagrees with the usual repent-in-dust-and-ashes version and offers a denouement more fitting to the cosmic scope of Job's subject matter.)

Moreover, all this and much else is discussed in a fine introduction that -- in my opinion as a longtime reader of Mitchell -- may well be his finest published commentary to date.

Essentially, he deals with the so-called "problem of evil" by simply dissolving it. The God of Mitchell and of Mitchell's Job is not a feckless little half-deity who shares his cosmic powers with a demonic arch-enemy and sometimes loses; this God, like the God of the Torah itself (and incidentally of Calvinist Christianity, at which Mitchell takes a couple of not-altogether-responsible swipes), is the only Power there is. Ultimately God just _does_ everything that happens, because what's the alternative? "Don't you know that there _is_ nobody else in here?"

As I suggested, there are a handful of half-hearted jabs at traditional (usually Christian) religion, but for the most part it should be possible for a theologically conservative reader simply to read around them. (This is a nice contrast with Mitchell's Jesus book, which -- to the mind of this non-Christian reviewer -- seems to be brimming with anti-Christian "spiritual oneupmanship.")

So it's not only a fine translation that properly recognizes Job's central theme of spiritual transformation, but a universally valuable commentary into the bargain. If you haven't read any of Mitchell's other work, this is a great place to start. And if you _have_ read some of Mitchell's other work, do get around to this one. It's probably his best.
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41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Read Mitchell for color and intensity, not accuracy, December 25, 1997
By A Customer
Having just finished producing a staging of Mitchell's translation of the Book of Job, I can vouch for his superior translation of the intensity, color, and tempo of the book. His words are strong (sometimes stronger than the Hebrew), and his consistent three-beat-per-stress treatment lends audible poetic unity to a book that, in many translations, can seem a verbal mush. His essay isuseful for its esoteric parallels, and is enjoyable reading. Like the translation, though, the essay explains by simpliying the book. This simplification is built of numerous omissions,reversals, rewordings, rearrangements, insertions. Often the poetry is simply his, not the text's. As Mitchell will occasionally note in his comments, he "improvised radically." Indeed. So, use the Mitchell to lend color and tempo to your reading of a more accurate translation. (The new Jewish Publishing Society translation is excellent) Use Moshe Greenberg's essays, perhaps, to provide a sense of the complexity and depth of the book. If read alongside a more accurate translation, the Mitchell will prevent it from being dry -- no small thing. Let Mitchell help your hear the book, let another translation help you see it.
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Glowing Book, October 24, 2000
By Shantonu (New York City) - See all my reviews
I first read the Book of Job in the New King James translation. That was a truly amazing event--I felt that somehow I had experienced what Job had, and that I was learned the same painful lessons that Job had. Great poems can do that.

I'm sure if I had read this version, it would have had the same effect.

Job essentially worships an idol. He worships an orderly God who runs an orderly, boring universe where the good get rewarded and the evil get punished. The real God shows him that things are a bit different. The universe is not simple, it is a grand, messy explosion of beauty where frail, innocent humans often get trampled. Is it just in a way that would conform to human standards of justice? God basically says, "Who cares, look at it."

Thus, a translator/poet has a tough job. In a few pages, he or she has to show the reader God's glorious universe. No easy task (except for G.M. Hopkins).

Mitchell gets it done with short "muscular" phrasing, reminscient of the way Lombardo treats the Iliad. I.e., Job ch 3 reads something like "Damn the day I was born/Blot out the sun of that day . . ." Along the way Mitchell eliminates some of the "interpolations" and "corruptions" that scholars have found were not part of the original text. And I don't think this detracts from either the beauty or the meaning of the poem.

I would have added a more detailed introduction however. If I may recommend a book, please also take a look at The Bitterness of Job: A Philosophical Reading, by John T. Wilcox. If you read these two together along with an orthodox translation like the JPS (mentioned in another review) or the NRSV, I think you will have a good grasp of this text from a wide variety of viewpoints, secular and religious. You can't get too much Job. As Victor Hugo said, "If I had to save one piece of literature in the world, I'd save Job."

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lovely Read
I truly enjoyed this translation. I'm not a Hebrew scholar, so I can't compare it to the original, but it had the "feel" of other ancient Near Eastern literature, e.g. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lesli

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for... Everyone
I had a very skeptical feelings twords this piece of literature since it was a requirement for my freshman literature class. Read more
Published on March 29, 2007 by ZZTMASTER

4.0 out of 5 stars Did Mr. Mitchell Miss the Point? (A Jewish Perspective)
From a Jewish perspective, this is an ultimately flawed but wonderfully easy-to-read adaptation (rather than a straight translation) of Job (Iyov). Read more
Published on February 1, 2007 by Leonard Moskowitz

5.0 out of 5 stars Why?
To meaningfully ask the question "why?" in a religious context, one must first be familiar with Job--there is simply nothing in scripture that approaches the question of human... Read more
Published on January 23, 2006 by J. Brian Watkins

5.0 out of 5 stars It did the job
I finally found a version that encouraged me to spend enough time with the work to get to know it and also to appreciate the poetry. Read more
Published on September 23, 2005 by Ronald Lacharite

5.0 out of 5 stars From John in Virginia
This book intelligently discusses the myths that surround the Book of Job. Stephen Mitchell does a credible job dispelling these. Read more
Published on July 24, 2005 by JBA

3.0 out of 5 stars Off to a good start...
Contemporary translations of the book of Job are needed. Stephen Mitchell provides a good one. There are many passages where he translates in a very every-day even street... Read more
Published on November 25, 2003 by J. D Jones

4.0 out of 5 stars Why?
Job has a sudden change of fortune, he losses his health, wealth, family, and status. He addresses the question "Why? Read more
Published on June 6, 2001 by Esther Nebenzahl

5.0 out of 5 stars This Story is Timeless
While Mitchell's own translation of the Book of Job is the central text of this book, I find the author's commentary to be of greatest value. Read more
Published on October 13, 2000 by Edwardson Tan

5.0 out of 5 stars At last, a reliable text.
After centuries of textual corruption and manipulative misinterpretation of Job by religious authorities, the Bible's greatest and (possibly) oldest book has at last been properly... Read more
Published on February 21, 1998

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