Job 7

The left image is the engraving.
.                                                The right image is the picture.

Job 2:
[7] So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote 
Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

[8] And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat 
down among the ashes.

The sun is going down, which in Blake's terminology means we are 
leaving Eternity to sojourn in this dark dirty world.

Job lies there covered with boils while his wife bows at his feet and 
give him this awful advice in verses 9 and 10:
Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

[10] But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish 
women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, 
and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his 
lips.

---

What did Blake think of this passage?:

"The disease of Shame covers me from bead to feet: I have no hope

Every boil upon my body is a separate & deadly Sin.
Doubt first assaild me, then Shame took possession of me         
Shame divides Families. Shame hath divided Albion in sunder!
First fled my Sons, & then my Daughters, then my Wild Animations
My Cattle next, last ev'n the Dog of my Gate. the Forests fled
The Corn-fields, & the breathing Gardens outside separated
The Sea; the Stars: the Sun: the Moon: drivn forth by my disease 
All is Eternal Death unless you can weave a chaste
Body over an unchaste Mind! Vala! O that thou wert pure!"

(Jerusalem Plate 21-2; Erdman 166)

The disease he speaks of (boils?) is the false religion that 
Job has been afflicted with, a legalism instead of love and 
forgiveness. (He's actually not talking about Job; he's talking 
about himself, about you and me!)

Blake's Job realizes his self-righteousness, perhaps the only 

unforgiveable sin.

(cf Golgonooza 130-31)

And from Edward Edinger (28-31):

The broken pitcher in the bottom border of the engraving 

suggests that the ego as a container may break if more is 

poured into it than it can stand.

Cf a broken shepherd's crook at the bottom left suggests that 

Jehovah is not a very good shepherd- a facet of 

disillusionment with the conventional church.

Quoting Zechariah 6-10:

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁶ Likewise, I will no longer have pity on the people of the 
land,” says the Lord. “I will let them fall into each other’s 
hands and into the hands of their king. They will turn the land 
into a wilderness, and I will not rescue them.”

⁷ So I cared for the flock intended for slaughter—the flock 
that was oppressed. Then I took two shepherd’s staffs and 
named one Favor and the other Union. 

⁸ I got rid of their three evil shepherds in a single month.
But I became impatient with these sheep, and they hated me, 
too. 

⁹ So I told them, “I won’t be your shepherd any longer. If you 
die, you die. If you are killed, you are killed. And let those 
who remain devour each other!”

¹⁰ Then I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, showing 
that I had revoked the covenant I had made with all the 
nations.