The young speaker strides forward, one hand pointing to the sky.
Bible in art · Job
The Book of Job, plate 12: I am Young and ye are very Old wherefore I was afraid
William Blake · 1825
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Plate 12 of William Blake’s Job engravings (1825). Elihu, the youngest, has waited for the older men to finish.
He strides in from the left under a night sky full of stars, pointing up; Job sits with folded arms and the friends listen together on the right. Round the border Blake engraved lines from Elihu’s speeches and a sleeper, with rows of tiny figures rising past him.
From the text
- “I am young in years, while you are old” (Job 32:6)
- “In a dream, in a vision in the night, when deep sleep falls upon men” (Job 33:15)
The artist’s own
- A starry night sky over the scene
- A sleeper and rising figures in the border
Details
Elihu
Stars
The night sky is full of white stars.
Job
Job sits listening with arms folded.
The friends
The three older men sit together at the right.
William Blake, British, 1757–1827. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection, 1963.303.13) · Engraving (proof impression) · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).