#23 - Faith Amid Despair & the Poem of Wisdom — Job 19 & 28

Objective

I Will: Rewrite Job 19:23–27 in contemporary English without weakening its force; complete a three-circle wisdom map for Job 28; draft a resilience definition that uses Dickinson and Job 1–3, 7/14, and 19/28 and states what resilience is not.

Notes

Think! Read! Don't just look at the words on the page!

Assignment

Step 1: Close Read Job 19:23–27

1. Words to own: Redeemer, earth, flesh, and yearns.

2. Circle every word about writing, carving, or making a record. Why does Job want permanence now?

3. Underline: I know / my redeemer / lives / in the end / my flesh / my own eyes.

4. Star the tension: skin has been destroyed vs. in my flesh I will see / I myself will see him with my own eyes.

5. What does Job want carved in rock?

6. What does he claim will still happen after the body fails? 

7. Students rewrite the declaration in contemporary English without losing its force.

Step 2: Wisdom Poem Map

1. Job 28:28 (core line): “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

2. Draw three overlapping circles on the back of this page or use the boxes below as the three “circles.”

   1. Circle 1: what humans can extract

   2. Circle 2: what they cannot buy

   3. Circle 3: where the poem finally places wisdom (28:28).

Step 3: Resilience Definition Draft

1. Use the texts we have actually read: Dickinson (“Because I Could Not Stop for Death”), Job 1–3, Job 7 and 14, and today’s Job 19 and 28. A definition that only says “never give up” will not pass.

2. What resilience IS (working draft)

   1. Resilience is...

   2. Evidence 1 (text + brief so-what): 

   3. Evidence 2 (different chapter or Dickinson): 

3. What resilience IS NOT