exxxegesis

it makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron

more in the seamonster series:
part I: seamonster poem
part II: an inventory of seamonsters
part III & IV: monster jerky 

PART V: exxxegesis

Apologies, but I must reproduce all of Job 40-41 here:

Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down its tongue with a rope?
Can you put a cord through its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
Will it keep begging you for mercy?
Will it speak to you with gentle words?
Will it make an agreement with you
for you to take it as your slave for life?
Can you make a pet of it like a bird
or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
Will traders barter for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
If you lay a hand on it,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
Any hope of subduing it is false;
the mere sight of it is overpowering.
No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
Who then is able to stand against me?
Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.

I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
its strength and its graceful form.
Who can strip off its outer coat?
Who can penetrate its double coat of armor[b]?
Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
ringed about with fearsome teeth?
Its back has rows of shields
tightly sealed together;
each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
Flames stream from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
Smoke pours from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
Its breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from its mouth.
Strength resides in its neck;
dismay goes before it.
The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
Its chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before its thrashing.
The sword that reaches it has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
Iron it treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood.
Arrows do not make it flee;
slingstones are like chaff to it.
A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had white hair.
Nothing on earth is its equal—
a creature without fear.
It looks down on all that are haughty;
it is king over all that are proud.

Job rides the leviathan in front of a grotesque procession of demons and tormentors, M. van Heemskerck (1559)

At last, God concludes this long, braggardly, erotically descriptive speech about how incredible Leviathan is and how awesome He Himself is for vanquishing the seamonster, and Job duly apologizes and admits the mightiness of the Lord – ‘I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes’ (Job 42:6) – some tremendously humble shit coming from a man whose entire family and existence has been destroyed because God was up too late playing dice with the Devil.

God’s entire speech seems like He might be feeling a touch guilty for all the punishments heaped upon honorable and virtuous Job. Once Job grovels a bit and God feels victorious in his gamble against Satan, He proceeds to love-bomb Job, bequeathing upon him fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters… After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years. (Job 42: 11-17)

But let’s enjoy Job 40-41 just a moment longer:

…begging you for mercy
…the mere sight of it is overpowering
…put it on a leash
…flames dart from its mouth
…I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form
…hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone
…the folds of its flesh are tightly joined
…it makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron
…and leaves a glistening wake behind it
.

PART VI: a love poem

oh god
pull me in with a fishhook
tie down my tongue with a rope
I’ll beg you for mercy, speak 
to you with gentle words, say
I’ll be your slave for life, make
a pet of me like a bird, oh god.

I understand now:
your love for me, like all loves
is terrifying, begs to be destroyed
lest it destroy – I understand

oh god I admit this is what I desired
though I could not bring myself to say it:
the storm and sea finally united in ecstatic
sprays of foam, tempest and turbulence
your lightning electrifying my waters

In that day the LORD with his sore and great 
and strong sword shall punish Leviathan 
the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that 
crooked serpent; and he shall slay the 
dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27:1)

your sore and great and strong sword
punishing me, killing me again and again
everything we wanted to say but could only
say in eternal ancient battle oh god oh god
oh god I love you too.