The Wildness of Creation: An Interpretation of the Voice from the Whirlwind in Job

Abstract The significance of God’s speaking through the voice from the whirlwind and Job’s subsequent repentance has often been interpreted as a scolding by God for questioning divine providence and/or as the assertion of inscrutable mystery. This paper offers an alternative hermeneutics consonant with an open and relational understanding of the nature of God, arguing that Job can best be interpreted as a strong endorsement of the unpredictability and wildness of nature, as God grants creation the freedom to act according to its own integrity. This argument compares Elihu’s speech, which asserts divine complete control of nature, with the voice from the whirlwind that asserts the wildness of rain and ice, of various animals, and of the Behemoth and Leviathan, these latter associated with chaos. It concludes that Job, in experiencing God in the wildness of the whirlwind, finds a new model of divine agency wherein God graces creation with freedom.