JOB - PAGE 5

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Satan going forth from the presence of the lord
Butts Set of Illustrations for the Book of Job
Page 5

This is the Legend on the engraving which Blake later made of this image:

"Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? (Job 30:25)

 

Behold he is in thine hand; but save his life (Job 2:6)

 

So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord (Job 1:12)

 

and it grieved him at his heart (Genesis 6:6)

 

Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire (Psalm 104:4)"

Job 2
[4] And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
[5] But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
[6] And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
[7] So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

The outer disintegration moved inward as Satan received permission to touch Job's 'flesh and bone.' Job would endure experiencing Satan as an inner force which separated itself from God and had the power to alter Job's consciousness of God. It is worth noting that Blake pictures Satan pouring poison on Job's head. The mind and spirit would be the point of attack although Job would experience painful symptoms in his body.

We notice once again three levels in this image. Working from the bottom we see Job distributing alms to the poor. Job's relationship with God is secured by following the law and making sacrifices from his abundance to those whom God has not so blessed. This is Job's self perception: that he is protected by angels because he has won favor with God.

In the central image Satan is moving downward, out of God's presence. His fellow Eternals are surprised and dismayed by his action.

Above Satan, God is shown mournfully sitting on his on his stone throne, holding onto his book of the law and the scroll of the Elect.

Minna Doskow in William Blake's Jerusalem, commented on Blake's portrayal of the effect that Satan, as Albion's Spectre - the Reactor, had on the functioning of his mind. Like Job, Albion was to experience the dissonance of his disordered mind in a world built on false principles until he could recognize his error.

"The Divine Voice also supplies the imaginative view of Albion's separation from his Spectre Satan. First, he differentiates Satan's negativity from Albion's sleep, exemplifying the difference between a state and an individual within that state, and second, he shows how Albion's malfunctioning mind produces Satan, who absorbs and dominates him, exemplifying the difference between the creation and the creator. As pure negativity, Satan is the 'Reactor', who can only oppose and deny like the Spectre of Albion's sons in chapter 1. He also tries to destroy what is positive and grounds 'his reaction into a Law/Of Action, for Obedience to destroy the Contraries in Man.' As negativity, Satan lacks independent concrete existence, so he establishes Albion's historical institutionalized religion in order to achieve that existence. The worldwide effects of his established religion appear...throughout space and time as Albion's inner errors are reflected in the world...Satan, however, unknowingly serves eternal purposes in his actions (as Los's Spectre does too), for negativity must first become concrete in order to be exposed and abolished. Satan must be 'revealed in his system', which is Albion's religion with its codes and laws before exiled humanity can return to its divinity. The Divine Voice tells us about religious error exactly what Los told us about scientific error in chapter 1, that Falsehood must be embodied before it can be recognized as error and corrected. This is the constant imaginative truth which unifies all of existence, true of religious as well as rational error." (Page 96)

Jerusalem, Plate 43 [29], (E 191)
"Then the Divine Vision like a silent Sun appeard above
Albions dark rocks: setting behind the Gardens of Kensington
On Tyburns River, in clouds of blood: where was mild Zion Hills
Most ancient promontory, and in the Sun, a Human Form appeard
And thus the Voice Divine went forth upon the rocks of Albion    

I elected Albion for my glory; I gave to him the Nations,
Of the whole Earth. he was the Angel of my Presence: and all
The Sons of God were Albions Sons: and Jerusalem was my joy.
The Reactor hath hid himself thro envy. I behold him.
But you cannot behold him till he be reveald in his System       
Albions Reactor must have a Place prepard: Albion must Sleep
The Sleep of Death, till the Man of Sin & Repentance be reveald.
Hidden in Albions Forests he lurks: he admits of no Reply
From Albion: but hath founded his Reaction into a Law
Of Action, for Obedience to destroy the Contraries of Man[.]     
He hath compelld Albion to become a Punisher & hath possessd
Himself of Albions Forests & Wilds! and Jerusalem is taken!
The City of the Woods in the Forest of Ephratah is taken!
London is a stone of her ruins; Oxford is the dust of her walls!
Sussex & Kent are her scatterd garments: Ireland her holy place! 
And the murderd bodies of her little ones are Scotland and Wales
The Cities of the Nations are the smoke of her consummation
The Nations are her dust! ground by the chariot wheels
Of her lordly conquerors, her palaces levelld with the dust
I come that I may find a way for my banished ones to return      
Fear not O little Flock I come! Albion shall rise again.

So saying, the mild Sun inclosd the Human Family."

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