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4 - Wishing Away One’s Birth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2021

Hanne Løland Levinson
Hanne Løland Levinson
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Summary

Job and Jeremiah share a unique death-wish motif, the wish to have died before they were born. This death wish is related to the death wish in despair, because despair is clearly part of the motivation here, but it is still a distinct category, reflected in the content of the wish. This category appears only outside of the biblical narratives, in poetic texts. As part of their laments, Jeremiah and Job ask “Why did I come forth from the womb? (Jer 20:18) and “Why was I not hidden like a miscarriage?” (Job 3:16).

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The Death Wish in the Hebrew Bible
Rhetorical Strategies for Survival
 , pp. 89 - 118
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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