Piercing Leviathan: God's Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job
Edited By: D.A. Carson
Stock No: WW00337X
Piercing Leviathan: God's Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job  -     Edited By: D.A. Carson
    By: Eric Ortlund

Piercing Leviathan: God's Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job

Edited By: D.A. Carson
IVP Academic / 2021 / Paperback

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Product Description

One of the most challenging passages in the Old Testament book of Job comes in the Lord's second speech (40–41). The characters and the reader have waited a long time for the Lord to speak—only to read what is traditionally interpreted as a long description of a hippopotamus and crocodile (Behemoth and Leviathan). The stakes are very high: is God right to run the world in such a way that allows such terrible suffering for one of his most loyal servants? Is Job right to keep trusting God in the midst of much criticism? But it is difficult for modern readers to avoid a sense of frustrating anticlimax as the book ends.

Eric Ortlund argues that Behemoth and Leviathan are better understood as symbols of cosmic chaos and evil—that a supernatural interpretation fits better exegetically within the book of Job and within Job's ancient Middle Eastern context. It also helps modern readers to appreciate the satisfying climax the narrator intended for the book: in describing Behemoth and Leviathan, God is directly engaging with Job's complaint about divine justice, implying to Job that he understands the evil at loose in his creation better than Job does, is in control of it, and will one day destroy it.

In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Ortlund considers different interpretations of the Lord's second speech and their potential exegetical and pastoral weaknesses. He shows how a supernatural interpretation of Behemoth and Leviathan puts modern readers in a position to appreciate the reward of Job's faith (and ours) as we endure in trusting God while living in an unredeemed creation.

Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

Product Information

Title: Piercing Leviathan: God's Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job
By: Eric Ortlund
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 248
Vendor: IVP Academic
Publication Date: 2021
Weight: 11 ounces
ISBN: 1514003376
ISBN-13: 9781514003374
Series: New Studies in Biblical Theology
Stock No: WW00337X

Author Bio

D. A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.


Eric Ortlund (PhD, Edinburgh University) is lecturer in Old Testament studies and biblical Hebrew at Oak Hill College, London. He is the author of commentaries on Esther and Malachi in the forthcoming ESV Bible Expositional Commentary series.

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