Psalm 107:40

Hebrew Bible

38 He blessed them so that they became very numerous. He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number. 39 As for their enemies, they decreased in number and were beaten down, because of painful distress and suffering. 40 He would pour contempt upon princes, and he made them wander in a wasteland with no road. 41 Yet he protected the needy from oppression and cared for his families like a flock of sheep. 42 When the godly see this, they rejoice, and every sinner shuts his mouth.

Job 12:21

Hebrew Bible

19 He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the potentates. 20 He deprives the trusted advisers of speech and takes away the discernment of elders. 21 He pours contempt on noblemen and disarms the powerful. 22 He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light. 23 He makes nations great and destroys them; he extends the boundaries of nations and disperses them. 24 He deprives the leaders of the earth of their understanding; he makes them wander in a trackless desert waste.

 Notes and References

"... if “parody” in a given text is established, it should have the following features: (1) “the allusive imitation” of “the precursor text”; (2) the mocking, polemical, or attacking mode of the parodied text. Then, does the claim of Job’s parody over Psalms satisfy those conditions? Firstly, what one needs to confirm concerning “parody” is whether the corresponding author of Job intends to imitate the original work, i.e. specific texts within the Psalms. Will Kynes, for instance, argues that the author of Job 12:21, 24 parodies Psalm 107:40 to mock Eliphaz’s speech.14 Although part of Job 12 is similar to Psalm 107:40, one may not deny another possibility: both texts may depend on a shared hymn and (more reasonably) Job 12:13–25 sarcastically responds to Job 5:17–26, where Eliphaz states that the one whom God reproves will be delivered and blessed.16 Essentially, it is more realistic to view such similarities of Job with psalmic texts as the spread of a broad intellectual network in its compositional period rather than as a quotation, an allusion, or an echo in a narrow sense. If the author of Job borrows from Psalm 107, the form of hymn poetry that people generally recognize at the time should be strengthened in its given dialogue of Job 12. However, Job 12:13–24, in general, highlights that the destructive power of the divinity dismantles the power and wisdom of political governors and leaders of all nations without any purpose ..."

Kwon, JiSeong J. "Not Parody, but Irony: Irony in the Book of Job" in Häner, Tobias, (ed.) Irony in the Bible: Between Subversion and Innovation (pp. 117-118) Brill, 2023

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