A man runs in with arms flung wide.
Bible in art · Job
The Book of Job, plate 4: And I only am escaped alone to tell thee
William Blake · 1825
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Plate 4 of William Blake’s Job engravings (1825). One messenger after another brings Job news of disaster.
A man runs in from the left, while a second can be seen far behind him on the road. Job and his wife look up from a stone seat. In the top border a tiny winged Satan stands on a globe — “roaming through the earth”, as the border says.
From the text
- “I alone have escaped to tell you!” (Job 1:15–16)
- “While he was still speaking, another messenger came” (Job 1:16)
- Satan “roaming through the earth” (Job 1:7)
The artist’s own
- A second messenger already on the road behind the first
- A Gothic town in the distance
Details
The messenger
Another on the road
Far behind, a second messenger hurries towards them.
Job and his wife
Seated on a stone bench, they lift their hands at the news.
In the border
A tiny winged figure stands on a globe: Satan roaming the earth.
William Blake, British, 1757–1827. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection, 1963.303.5) · 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/).