A tall robed figure stands on a cloud in a burst of rays.
Bible in art · Job
The Book of Job, plate 9: Then a Spirit passed before my face the hair of my flesh stood up
William Blake · 1825
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Plate 9 of William Blake’s Job engravings (1825). Eliphaz, the first friend to speak, tells of a vision that came to him at night.
Blake draws the story and the storyteller together: above, the sleeper in his bed and the tall figure in light; below, Eliphaz pointing up as he tells it. The text says the form could not be made out (Job 4:16); Blake gives it a body and a face.
From the text
- A word that came in visions of the night (Job 4:12–13)
- “a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled” (Job 4:15)
- “Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?” (Job 4:17)
The artist’s own
- The vision and the man telling it in one picture
- A clear figure for a form the text says could not be discerned
Details
The figure in light
The sleeper
A man lies in bed, startled, his hands raised.
Eliphaz
Kneeling, he points upward as he tells his vision.
Job and his wife
They sit and listen.
William Blake, British, 1757–1827. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection, 1963.303.10) · 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/).