Hi, I am Harry Venice, an Attachment, Trauma, and Jungian Therapist who is also certified to score the Adult Attachment Interview for Reflective Function.

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Lecture 4: the Book of Job - a Jungian Psychology Perspective

Photo: a rare hard cover, illustrated edition of the Book of Job.

In the previous lecture (Harry Venice Psychology Podcast season 2, episode 3), I provided a summary of the Book of Job. In today’s lecture I focus on the psychological themes of the Book of Job. The video (Youtube) and audio version of this lecture can be found in my series on Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’: Season 2, Episode 4 of the Harry Venice Psychology Podcast. Below, I condense my lecture below into a blog post for your convenience.

The book has a basic structure which I break down into five sections. In today’s lecture, I provide my psychological insights following the 5 section structure of the Book of Job. That 5-section structure is as follows:

The Beginning (Chapters 1–2) – God makes a bet with Satan to test Job’s loyalty to God and Job suffers
Job debates with his friends (Chapters 3–31) – Job debates with his friends and his friends do not support him despite his unfair suffering
A young man speaks: randomly a young man named Elihu interrupts the debate with Job and his friends (Chapters 32–37)
God’s “Answer” to Job (Chapters 38–41): God responds in an aggressive, bullying, and abusive manner to Job
The ending (Chapter 42) – After Job “sees” God he repents and God ‘restores’ Job

Section 1 Breakdown: the Beginning (Chapters 1–2) – God makes a bet with Satan to test Job’s loyalty to God and Job suffers

The first part of the bet and the first lot of ‘material’ suffering.

What makes Job’s suffering worse and more of a sin from God are the facts surrounding the bet he makes with Satan especially when they are juxtaposed with the good nature of Job:

Job is described as a man who was “the greatest of all the people of the east” (Job, Ch.1).
He was so loyal to God that he would rise early in the morning and offer “burnt offerings” and even gave offerings in case his “children have sinned” and “cursed God in their hearts” (Job, Ch. 1).
Before his bet with Satan, God admits the following about Job: “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
When Satan hears this, he questions God and says “have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of hands and his possessions have increased in the land…But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to his face.”
God had many options at this point. He could have simply dismissed Satan. All the evidence before him, supported that Job was a good man, in fact he was described as a man who was “the greatest of all the people of the east” and God himself called him a blameless man [and] that there is none like him on earth, [he] fears God”.

Instead of following his own words and the evidence before him, and instead of following the moral, ethical, and fair thing to do. God takes Satan’s bet. God performs an act of narcissistic abuse. God becomes the ultimate unsafe attachment figure. This is not Attunement, security, safety, comfort, or support for the exploration of the Self. God “toys” with a good human being. But as we’ll see, it is not really just toying with a human, what God does is “EVIL” and even the ending of Book of Job describes God’s conduct as “evil” (see Job, Chapter 42.11).

So how did God respond to Satan?
God replied:

“Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”

In modern day terms, “behold, all that he has is in your hand”, means that God allows Satan to take away all of Job’s possessions from him. However, what is really sick is that ‘possessions’ does not just include material objects. It also includes human beings including innocent servants of Job and even his 10 children (7 sons and three daughters).

When God says, “Only against him do not stretch out your hand” it means that Satan cannot kill Job, that Job has divine protection. It means that Satan could do things to Job’s property and those he knows ranging from his children to his servants… but he cannot personally “stretch out” his “hand” to Job because Job physically has the divine protection of God. But what sort of ‘divine protection’ is this? Isn’t killing someone’s ten children and letting them live to experience the emotional pain, almost worse than death?! Is this not abuse? What about the loving servants that died? Doesn’t this “stretch out” Satan’s, and by command also “God’s” hand directly to Job?

Oh kids… it gets worse! Just wait until we explore the second part of the bet.

What Job suffers and loses in the first part of God’s bet with Satan:

This is explored more deeply in the previous lecture, but in summary he loses:

All his donkeys and oxen and his servants are slain with swords in a violent raid.
A fire falls from God in heaven and burns up all his sheep and servants.
Another violent raid occurs where men take Job’s camels and kill all his servants with swords.
Job’s ten children are then killed. While Job’s 7 sons and 3 daughters were eating and drinking at his older brother’s house, a great wind came and struck the four corners of the house and fell upon the young people and they died.
The above four events are the only losses reported in the first bet with Satan. But I personally include the killing of his servants in the first three reported events as a separate loss.

Despite all of this, Job did not curse God. Instead, he said:

“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD”
- Job, Ch.1.21

The bible notes that: “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

The second part of the bet, where Job is “only spared his life” by God

Satan speaks with God again after Job suffers and is aware that Job did not curse or betray God.

But this, just like a narcissistic parent, was not enough for God. The narcissist parent, the devouring mother, the tyrannical father: they will take away your childhood, they will waste the best years of your life, they will use you for their emotions, suck you up like a sponge, drain all your blood energy…. And then ask for another drop of blood, ask for more from you. It is NEVER enough… in fact if you politely say ‘no I cannot give you more…. What about me’… they will often then attack you and gaslight and role reverse the blame.

God’s shadow

Well … poor old Job finds himself in the same position. Because he gave God everything, even his own children were killed directly from a wind from God in heaven… and yet he did not blame God. YET…. This was not enough.

However, God does acknowledge this loyalty and admirable obedience in Job when he says:

“He still holds fast his integrity still, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason”

But in doing so he reveals his shadow, his lack of consciousness and his projection. He says to Satan “you incited me” against Job. He blames Satan for his own conscious wilful act of abuse against his loyal subject Job. This lack of responsibility for his own actions and abuse is in God’s shadow. It is also a classic infantile projection. Like when someone gets caught doing the wrong thing and says “you made me do it”. Or even more common, when an adult who could be 40 or 50 years old blames their parents for doing something bad or doing something against their will: “its their fault”… “if they had been good parents, I wouldn’t have done X [ie. ‘x’ can be a bad behaviour, yelling, raging, or even choosing an unwanted career or having an unhappy life]”.

I have much more sympathy for the infantile adult who is projecting, than when God or a narcissistic parent unconsciously abuses a child or adult.

So although God directly commanded Satan “to destroy him without reason”, God does not own this. God puts the responsibility on Satan. And perhaps, this is the sort of infantile consciousness buried deep in God’s shadow that allows him to then raise the stakes and punish Job more. Because God reveals here, that in his psyche, he is not responsible for the destruction of Job, his life, and his loved ones. It is Satan’s fault. And with this psychological understanding, perhaps we can mentalize (MBT) with God’s perspective and understand that he is not aware of his own wrong doing (much like many narcissistic parents), and perhaps that is why is behaviour is violent, destructive, unconscious, and morally repulsive.

The second bet

Satan replies to God’s shadow laden compliment to Job, by saying:

“Skin for Skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.
But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”

In other words, Satan said that any man, even the most loyal and honourable, will give “all” or anything that he has; to save his own life (e.g. he will give away his possessions to save himself for example due to his fear of God). But “touch his bone and flesh” (e.g. physically harm him or threaten his physical health), and he will curse you to your face (e.g. he will betray and curse God).

God completely gives Job over to Satan’s hands. He literally says:

“Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

So, Satan has Job completely in his “hand” with the only stipulation being that he “only spare his life”.

Satan then strikes Job down “with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head”.

When Job’s wife questions why Job is still loyal to God, Job replies: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” This shows the Job is conscious of the opposites. This is a man of high, high consciousness who can hold the opposites psychologically rather than split them off and project them. Furthermore, he not only holds the tension of the opposites, which is the key to individuation, but he also is able to unite them in while he is physically suffering the deepest pain. So, he is able to not only hold the opposites but see how they can co-exist and that there is a third possibility, one that is beyond just the split of good and evil.

Importantly, the bible narration acknowledges that what was done to Job here was “evil”.

And what I emphasise to you, is that God did this. The God-image, the masculine representation of the unconscious, Yahweh, did this to a beautiful, pious, loyal man.

An “evil” that many children of narcissistic parents around the world have also suffered.

My remarks on God allowing this “second bet” to take place

God says “only spare his life” but what happens is almost worse than ‘death’ because Satan plagues Job with painful sores all over his body from head to toe. And when they heal, they’re open again and Job is in pain. Hearing how Job outlines the pain he is physically and emotionally suffering is very disturbing. How can God allow this? How can God be ok with this? How can God have the audacity to then verbally abuse, bully and punish Job even further when he answers job? Isn’t this what would have inspired Carl Jung to ‘answer Job’?

Edinger said that if you are not emotionally troubled, disturbed, or even pissed off when you read Carl Jung’s Answer to Job, then you do not psychologically comprehend what you are reading. I feel the same about both the Book of Job and Carl Jung’s Answer to Job.

So if this is what Divine Protection is… that you cover my body with painful sores, you kill my ten children, my servants, destroy my property, turn my friends against me (destroy my attachments, support networks and attachment figures), and as I digest that, just when my sores heal, they’re open from head to toe and I suffer again. If this is divine protection… I don’t want it! What God is this?!

Section 2 Breakdown: Dialogue (Chapters 3–31) – Job’s Debates with Friends and his friends do not support him despite his unfair suffering

In Section 2 of the book, Job is visited by three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

His three friends do not provide support and validation for their abused friend. Instead, they argue that Job must have sinned and done something wrong to deserve his suffering. The dialogue and debates go back and forth for quite some time there is no agreement or resolution by the end of it. However, Job insists on his innocence and demands an explanation from God. He questions God and demands an answer.

The ’Book of Job’ has such deep themes that there could be an entire lecture series just on the original primary source, in addition to my dissection of Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’. Accordingly, I am only able to pick a few interesting parts from the Book of Job and I have chosen a couple which I have identified but have not heard others discuss. So below I provide two interesting parts of Section 2 but be aware that there is so much more in my notes, that I would I have to make an entire podcast season just on the ‘Book of Job’ itself to do justice to the psychological themes it contains.

The shadow and the “hired hand”

There is a direct reference to “the shadow” made by Job:

“Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
So I am allotted months of emptiness and nights of misery … the night is long.”
- Job, Ch.7.1-7.4

In this passage, a hired hand looking for wages is equated with “emptiness” and associated with a slave looking for “the shadow”. In modern times, many of us have become “hired hands” and we are “slaves” whose workplaces and bosses a lot us “months of emptiness”. Job indicates here that, as slaves, as hired hands of consciousness, we long for “the shadow” (the unconscious knowledge, the Self) but instead we end up having a different king of shadow experience, a literal and not psychological one where “the night is long”.

This image and symbol of being a hired “hand” is important because it links back to the symbolism and importance of left handedness and right handedness. There are also many sayings about this and idioms. And you must remember that the unconscious loves colloquialisms, sayings, cliché phrases, etc. They pop up in dreams and also, sometimes we don’t know that a dream image has an underlying colloquialism or saying being presented and we need a Jungian Analyst or Jungian Therapist to bring that to our awareness (e.g. from our shadow perspective we don’t see the link, but an objective, trained observer can see it).

Let’s amplify this “hand” business for a minute. Firstly, this mention of being a hired “hand” reminds me of the association of the left side, and left handedness, with the unconscious and the right hand, and right sidedness, with conscious Ego awareness. So, if we are a “hired” hand, in a way, we are a slave as Job alludes, because we are a hired consciousness, hired for an Ego act wanted by someone else. Now if we allow ourselves to be hired, and are conscious of the ‘hiring’, then that is different. We are not a slave, we are choosing.

Photo: my favourite and personal edition of the Perceval Grail Myth that I study (note that this was Jungian Analyst Robert Johnson’s hero journey myth story that he personally identified with. He felt he was a Perceval.

But the issue of “hand” also reminds me of the beginning of the Grail Myth, Perceval, where the author, Chrétien de Troyes, describes how one royal ruler was just and fair, while another was not. This great ruler was very generous and charitable but he did not tell people about his charity, and no one knew it was him giving things, helping the needy, and being generous.

In describing this just and fair ruler, the analogy of the left hand not knowing what the other does is given.

“The left hand unaware
What the right hand does, hidden
Except from those who receive it
And from God [ie. The Self], who sees our secrets
And can read our hearts and our bellies.”
-Perceval, the story of the Grail, Chrétien de Troyes, Yale University Press, page 2.

The left hand being “unaware” links with the left side’s symbolic link to the unconscious (eg. Shadow and what we are not aware of) … it lays “hidden” from the right hand (which is associated with Ego consciousness. However, in this analogy, the Self (eg. God) is aware that the left is unaware what the right hand does. The Self can see “our secrets”. So it can be seen that when we give from a true place without needing recognition, the Self sees this and there is a conscious awareness of the process. However, when we are giving from a shadowy self serving place, our shadow or unconscious (eg. The left hand) may be unaware) what the right does, but the Self and unconscious will see it and know and likely send messages to us in our dreams or other unconscious ways.

This really links with the shadow because often gifts come with strings attached and are held over our heads. This is in the shadow of the “gift giver”. Edward Edinger said that a gift always has some string attached even when given with the best intentions. He said, that’s just how the psyche works, and once you can accept it, namely: accept the shadow element of human nature and the psyche, then you can see the sometimes ‘invisible’ string attached to the gifts we give (e.g. it is invisible to the Ego).

But there is an element of deep awareness and self-satisfaction layered in Jungian Psychology. Individuating to an extent where you are happy with what you did. Genuinely. That is a deep understanding of ones own shadow and when we are operating from the Self, the gift is as pure as it can be. There is a sacrifice involved. We sacrifice our narcissism, our need for approval, our need to feel special for the gift, and sacrificing, consciously, the ‘string’ we want to attach to the gift, even the previously unconscious string. This is what Edinger was getting at in his remark about gifts. Its bloody deep and tricky in real life. Because when we peel it back, there is at least a shadowy emotional string attached to the gift… it can be as simple as feeling good about ourselves.

In this passage of Perceval, this hand analogy is extended with reference to the bible and I provide that passage from Perceval below:

“"Hide your good deeds from your left hand"?
The left hand, according to this
Tradition, is pompous pride,
Hypocritical and false.
And what does the right hand mean?
Charity, which never
Boasts, but conceals its goodness,
Lets no one know except Him
We call both God and Charity.”
-Perceval, the story of the Grail, Chrétien de Troyes, Yale University Press, page 2.

Here the left hand, (eg. when we are unconscious of the shadowy nature of our giving), is associated with hypocrisy, falseness, and pride. You see, real charity, “conceals its goodness”, and lets no one know except “Him” (eg. the Self).

I love the ending of the quote: “We call both God and Charity”. I would say, “We call both Self and Charity”.

Of course, these references are biblical and link directly to the bible and Book of Job. Furthermore, they are from the Grail Myth which is a primary source relevant for the hero’s journey, shadow integration, alchemy, individuation, and finding the Self.

The scapegoat and narcissistic abuse

Another striking passage to me was when Job pleads to God as he debates his friend. The language and emotional pain and desperation and frustration reminded me of the role of the scapegoat and when a person is the recipient of narcissistic abuse within a family dynamic:

“If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?” (Job. Ch.7.20)

The reality is that Job, just like the family scapegoat, has done nothing wrong. But lets pretend for a minute that he did make a mistake… so what? Cant he be forgiven? We all know that a narcissistic abuser will not forgive, even when there is a genuine mistake. That is why there is such power in Job’s further plea to God:

“Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?” (Job Ch7.21)

If you have suffered narcissistic abuse, you can understand and feel the utter frustration and confusion at how there can be no forgiveness from such a bastard who would hurt you and then expect obedience… but if even if you did wrong, why not pardon me and forgive me? Can’t I be a human who is fallible? Why do I have to be perfect in accordance to what you see as perfect? Let me be a human being! … those are the desperate pleas and urges that Job makes but they are also the sad please that victims of insecure attachment and narcissistic abuse make to their parents for decades, even as adults.

Section 3 Breakdown - Random Interruption: the Speech of a young man named Elihu (Chapters 32–37)

As reader, I found it quite random that a young man who “burned with anger” and interrupts the discussion because Job “justified himself rather than God” (Job, Ch.32.1). He was even angry at Job’s three friends because “they had found no answer” to Job (Job, Ch.32.3). This younger man, Elihu, intervenes, makes some interesting, even insightful remarks. He claims that suffering can be a form of discipline and that God's ways are beyond human understanding.

Dreams and the shadow

There is one passage where the younger man mentions dreams. Before I share the quote, I would like to emphasise that the unconscious is linked with the Self and God is a symbol of the Self. So when we look at this quote, I want you to think about the Self, unconscious images that appear in dreams, and how the Self communicates with us in dreams via the unconscious. The quote is below:

“For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber in their beds,
Then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings.”

Although a young man, he speaks which wisdom. He is saying how the Self or God communicates to use via dreams, visions and the unconscious but we, in our Ego awareness, do “not perceive it”. We are stuck in the worldly realm of the Ego and of time and space. From this position we cannot see the “divine drama” of the Ego and the Self, of Job and Yahweh, of the collective unconscious, of the pleroma (ie. Jung discusses the pleroma and the limits of time and space in Answer to Job, it just requires deep analysis to understand what he is getting at).

The second and third sentences of the quote are self-explanatory for those who understand Jungian Psychology and Jungian Analysis. Quite simply, it is in our dreams, late at night, when the unconscious speaks to us, reveals the shadow, gives us warnings … it is then that the Self or ‘God’ gives us warnings that even “terrifies” us. But will we listen? Will open our mind up to the “divine drama”? or will we literally remain asleep with our “ears” closed.

Section 4 Breakdown - God’s “Answer” to Job (Chapters 38–41)

Photo: The Lord answering Job out of the whirlwind by William Blake

After the young man speaks, God answers Job out of a whirlwind.

Instead of “answering” Job. He in fact reverses the tables and “questions” Job. As we’ll see in my lectures on Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’, there is a lot of bullying, aggression, intimidation and I would say narcissistic gaslighting and abuse involved in this display by God. Rather than take accountability for this role in making Job suffer, God grandstands and emphasizes his divine wisdom and power, and contrasts this with Job’s human limitations.

Importantly, God does not “answer” Job. Instead, he begins by insulting Job and then says I will “question you”. This is actually a classic move by narcissistic abusers, especially narcissistic parents who often resemble an unconscious god image who does not know his or her shadow. As I read ‘Book of Job’, I noticed this theme of questioning and answering. And I believe that is why Carl Jung named his book “Answer to Job”. Jung is provided Job with the “answer” he deserved but never got. Carl Jung provided his answer to job.

Leviathan and Behemoth

Photo: Behemoth and Leviathan as drawn by William Blake.

We will be covering this section of the Book of Job deeply in other lectures, but I will just note that this is the section where God mentions Leviathan and Behemoth. If you are well versed in Edward Edinger’s work, you will know that he places great significance on the terrifying nature of witnessing and having an experience of Evil, which is like an encounter with Leviathan and Behemoth, the terrifying beasts created by God in the Old Testament bible.

Section 5 Breakdown - Epilogue (Chapter 42) – God ‘restores’ Job

Photo: Job and His Family Restored to Prosperity by William Blake

I cover the factual parts of this in my previous lecture. But in summary, Job repents and God forgives him. God becomes angry at Job’s three friends but ultimately forgives them. The Job is restored by having double his previous wealth, and he is given the same amount of children as he previously had (7 sons and 3 daughters), and then he lives a long, full life until the ripe old age of 140.

There are just three very brief things I want to emphasize here:

Firstly, it is not possible to “restore” Job for the loss of his children. You can’t replace human lives and human souls, especially children, by bringing in new people to replace them. It must be emphasized that Job’s 7 sons and 3 daughters were murdered by the direction of and with the authority of God. So I do not accept a narrative or moral claim that his children were truly restored.
Secondly, the author of the Book of Job admits God brought “evil” onto Job. This is a very important and critical admission in the bible! The direct quote is:

“they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him.”
Job, Ch. 42.11

Thirdly, there have been theories that more than person wrote the Book of Job, or that at least, the ending was changed at a later date to make God look better. The idea being that, if the ending was left with God abusing and grandstanding over Job it would make the Old testament God look bad… too bad in fact. In modern terms, it would be really bad PR and a marketing disaster worthy of being “canceled”. In line with this theory, the ending was changed in a way where Job is ‘restored’ so that God seems fair and there can be some justification for the suffering and abuse Job endured for doing no wrong to God.

If you want to do go on this inner path of individuation, Jungian Analysis, Shadow Work, trauma healing or to repair insecure attachment, book a Free 1:1 Discovery Call with me today: https://calendly.com/harryvenicepsychology/30min

It is only through 1:1 Jungian Analysis and Jungian Therapy that you can find the deep shadow of this “divine drama” that plays out in our psyche.

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Always Believe. Stay Brave. Never Give Up.

Harry Venice

Attachment, Trauma, and Jungian Therapist

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