By Adam Kotsko
The Immanent Frame - Tuesday, October 7th, 2014
The book of Job is a book about curses. That is what is at stake in the accuser’s wager with God: “stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face” (Job 1:11); “stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face” (2:5). Job’s wife, the only surviving reminder of his previous wealth and prestige, advises him to “Curse God and die” (2:9), and though he refuses to do that, he does proceed to “[curse] the day of his birth” (3:1). Throughout the lengthy dialogues that make up the rest of the book, it seems fair to say that his friends—initially sympathetic but gradually outraged—view his accusations against God as tantamount to cursing him, as a form of blasphemy.
It is here that I believe Giorgio Agamben’s work can prove fruitful for the reading of Job, because his book, The Sacrament of Language, is also a book about curses—or more precisely, about oaths and the many ways they can go awry.
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