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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow PLATE XVII. And my Servant Job shall pray for you. - Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job

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Subject Area: Art
Subject Area: Religion

PLATE XVII. “ And my Servant Job shall pray for you. ” - William Blake, Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job [1823]

Edition used:

Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job. With Descriptive Letterpress, and A Sketch of the Artist’s Life and Works. By Charles Eliot Norton (Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1875).

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PLATE XVII.

I have heard Thee with the Hearing of the Ear, but now my Eye seeth Thee.

The Lord appears in radiance, holding his hands in blessing over the heads of Job and his wife, who with trustful countenances kneel before him. The three friends crouch as in fear behind them, with their backs turned to the Lord, two of them hiding their faces, while Bildad the Shuhite glances up askance at the awful Presence. The chief motto is from a verse of the last chapter of the book a little altered: “I have heard thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee.” The subordinate texts are full of meaning and of beautiful application. They form here, as in other plates, an admirable “moral” for the main story.

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