Texts in Conversation
Job portrays the dead as stirring beneath the waters, while 2 Samuel depicts being swept away by waves of death and bound by Sheol. Both draw on a common ancient Near Eastern cosmology that links the sea with the underworld, presenting watery chaos as another way of describing the realm of the dead.
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2 Samuel 22:5
Hebrew Bible
3 My God is my rocky summit where I take shelter, my shield, the horn that saves me, my stronghold, my refuge, my savior. You save me from violence! 4 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I was delivered from my enemies. 5 The waves of death engulfed me; the currents of chaos overwhelmed me. 6 The ropes of Sheol tightened around me; the snares of death trapped me. 7 In my distress I called to the Lord; I called to my God. From his heavenly temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Job 26:5
Hebrew Bible
3 How you have advised the one without wisdom, and abundantly revealed your insight! 4 To whom did you utter these words? And whose spirit has come forth from your mouth? 5 “The dead tremble—those beneath the waters and all that live in them. 6 The underworld is naked before God; the place of destruction lies uncovered. 7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth on nothing.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... the earth as the place where the bodies of other people are to be found would surely have to be mentioned too. But in any case, the object of both clauses is 'the dead'. The language is clearly not intended to distinguish soul and body, but simply to speak of the return of the dead. There seem then to be two possible explanations for the reference to the sea. It may be the place for a special category of the dead: those who have died at sea. Whereas those who are buried in the earth are thought of as being in SheollHades, those who die at sea are thought of as being in the subterranean ocean. But there seems to be no other evidence for this distinction. So more probably, and in the light of several Old Testament passages which closely associate the subterranean ocean with Sheol (e.g. 2 Samuel 22:5-6; Job 26:5; Psalm 69:15), the sea is here simply another synonym for Sheol ..."
Bauckham, Richard
The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses
(pp. 280-281) Brill, 1998
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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