Birth on the Knees

Job, overwhelmed by suffering, imagines the moments from womb to nursing in which he wishes he had died. His lament, however, preserves surprising evidence about how women once gave birth.

Dr.

Juliane Eckstein

Dr.

Juliane Eckstein

Categories:

Vayeshev

When Job, bereft of family and property and stricken with illness, curses the day of his birth, he asks:^[1]

‏^{איוב ג:יא} לָמָּה לֹּא מֵרֶחֶם אָמוּת
מִבֶּטֶן יָצָאתִי וְאֶגְוָע.

^{Job 3:11} Why did I not die from the womb—
exit the belly and perish?^[2]

Job continues:

‏^{איוב ג:יב} מַדּוּעַ קִדְּמוּנִי בִרְכָּיִם
וּמַה שָּׁדַיִם כִּי אִינָק.

^{Job 3:12} Why did knees meet me,
and why breasts that I sucked?

The final line is a clear reference to the mother breastfeeding, but whose knees are these, and what image does this question evoke?

1. The Father Places the Child on His Knees

Some interpreters have claimed that the knees belong to the father, who receives the recently born child and places it on his knees in an act of legal recognition. Such a practice is suggested by the description of Joseph’s great-grand-children being born on his knees:^[3]

^{בראשׁית נ:כג} וַיַּרְא יוֹסֵף לְאֶפְרַיִם בְּנֵי שִׁלֵּשִׁים גַּם בְּנֵי מָכִיר בֶּן מְנַשֶּׁה יֻלְּדוּ עַל בִּרְכֵּי יוֹסֵף.

^{Gen 50:23} Joseph lived to see children of the third generation of Ephraim; the children of Machir son of Manasseh were likewise born upon Joseph’s knees.

A similar custom, known as sublatio or tollere, in which the father lifts the child to signal his acceptance of it into his household, is well-attested in Roman and Greek sources.

This interpretation, however, introduces the father into the scene of Job’s birth, though he is never mentioned in the surrounding verses or in the chapter as a whole. Moreover, nothing in the Bible suggests that a father would place a child on his knees to signal the child’s acceptance as his legitimate offspring.

In addition, from a historical point of view, the presence of a father at the birth of their child is a rather rare phenomenon. Only in the last decades has it become a widespread custom in many countries around the globe. In ancient Israelite society, however, fathers would not typically have been present at birth, at least according to Jeremiah:

^{ירמיה כ:טו} אָרוּר הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר בִּשַּׂר אֶת אָבִי לֵאמֹר יֻלַּד לְךָ בֵּן זָכָר שַׂמֵּחַ שִׂמֳּחָהוּ.

^{Jer 20:15} Accursed be the man who brought my father the news and said, “A boy is born to you,” and gave him such joy!

Finally, it makes little sense for Job to include the father in his wish that he had died at birth, since the father would not have been as important to the survival of the newborn as the mother.^[4]

2. Father or Midwife Kneels to Receive the Child

Based on ethnographic studies among Arab Bedouin tribes carried out in Transjordan at the beginning of the 20^th century, some scholars posit that the image is that of the father kneeling in front of the parturient woman to receive the child.^[5] This solution is also implausible. Aside from the time span between the composition of Job (4^th century B.C.E., at the latest) and these studies, the studies suggest that the practice was atypical, citing only one tribe where the man was supposed to kneel in front of his wife during childbirth.^[6]

More plausible is that a midwife or another type of female helper would be kneeling in front of the parturient woman.^[7] Anthropologists have noted that very few contemporary peoples know of childbirth without a female attendant, and this would hold true for ancient societies as well.^[8]

Nevertheless, the introduction of a midwife seems strange in the context of a passage that is otherwise focused on the child’s interactions with the mother’s body. Moreover, if the first person that the infant encounters outside of the womb is the midwife, it would more probably be her hands or arms rather than her knees that the infant encounters.

3. The Mother Is Sitting on Someone’s Knees

Citing the story of Rachel and Bilhah, others argue that the verse suggests that the parturient woman is giving birth while sitting on someone’s legs:^[9]

^{בראשׁית ל:ג} וַתֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה אֲמָתִי בִלְהָה בֹּא אֵלֶיהָ וְתֵלֵד עַל בִּרְכַּי וְאִבָּנֶה גַם אָנֹכִי מִמֶּנָּה.

^{Gen 30:3} She said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Consort with her, that she may bear on my knees and that through her I too may have children.”

The phrase, וְתֵלֵד עַל בִּרְכַּי, “bear on my knees,” however, is likely idiomatic and would not describe the actual physical process of childbirth taking place on Rachel’s knees. It might figuratively refer to an act and maybe even to a rite of adoption. Or it may refer to no custom at all, but to the intended effect: If the child is legally Rachel’s, then she would be the one to hold it on her knees, caressing and taking care of it.

In addition, if Genesis is referring to adoption or a similar legal institution, that custom would have no bearing on the interpretation of the birth scene in Job.

4. The Mother Puts the Child on Her Knees

Others suggest that the image of the knees refers to maternal care and/or nursing.^[10]Proponents often cite the example of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal nursing on the knees of the goddess Ishtar (whose temple was in the city of Nineveh):

^COS^{1.145, rev. 6–8} You were a child, Assurbanipal, when I left you with the Queen of Nineveh; you were a baby, Assurbanipal, when you sat on the lap (lit.: “knee”)^[11] of the Queen of Nineveh! Her four teats were placed in your mouth: two you would suckle and two you would milk before you.^[12]

In addition, ancient Egyptian iconography contains numerous examples of Isis lactans statuettes or amulets, which depict a seated Isis with an infant Horus sitting on her knees and nursing from her breast. Many amulets and scarabs of this image have been found in the Levant, dating to well into Persian times.^[13]

Yet the only parallel in the Bible that depicts a mother holding her own child on her knees involves an older child about to die!

^{מלכים ב ד:כ} וַיִּשָּׂאֵהוּ וַיְבִיאֵהוּ אֶל אִמּוֹ וַיֵּשֶׁב עַל בִּרְכֶּיהָ עַד הַצָּהֳרַיִם וַיָּמֹת.

^{2 Kgs 4:20} He picked him up and brought him to his mother. And the child sat on her knees until noon; and he died.

Moreover, this interpretation fails to reckon with the Piel verb קדם in our verse: מַדּוּעַ קִדְּמוּנִי בִרְכָּיִם, “Why did knees meet me?”

The verb often conveys the sense of the subject explicitly moving towards the object, facing it.^[14] From the child’s perspective, this suggests a dynamic process in which someone’s knees move towards the child. This is not consistent with the rather static image of a child being breastfed. It is, however, consistent with an image of birth.

5. A Kneeling Birth Position

Our Western culture is pervaded by the mental prototype of childbirth in the supine position.^[15] A short perusal of various movies and TV/internet series is enough to recognize this very narrow and recurring pattern.

This scene is usually set in a hospital, often with precautions that one would expect in an operating room—medical gloves, surgical masks and a sanitized environment. Most significantly, the parturient woman herself is always lying on her back, even when she is giving birth far from any civilized context.^[16]

This image of childbirth is, nowadays, deeply rooted in Western, medicalized culture.^[17] Thus, someone reading “Why did knees meet me (face first)?” and imagining a woman in childbirth, lying on her back, knees bent above her belly, will hardly be able to imagine how the two—the infant and the knees—should ever meet.

The image only makes sense if it reflects a different position for the parturient mother: upright and kneeling. A newborn exiting the womb from this position would automatically turn to the side and come to rest on the floor between the legs of the mother, facing her knees.^[18] From the perspective of the newborn, expulsion from the womb would seem as if the knees of the mother were approaching to meet it.

Birthing Practices in the Ancient World

Women in childbirth in antiquity are hardly ever depicted lying on their backs.^[19] On the contrary: they are portrayed as standing, sitting, crouching, squatting, using a birth stool,^[20] or—relevant to our purposes here—kneeling.^[21]

Ugarit

In a mythic text found in Ugarit’s famous library (ca. 13^th–14^th c. B.C.E.), the god El commands two women:

^{KTU 1.12 I 14-27} “Place the bricks, go into labour and bear (jld) the Eaters, let her kneel (brk), and bear the Devourers.”^[22]

The language of this myth is difficult and the text defective. Nevertheless, giving birth is clearly connected with kneeling; the root b.r.k is the same as ב.ר.ך in Hebrew.

Egypt

A hieroglyph for birth-giving – A hieroglyph for “giving birth”—known as early as in the third millennium B.C.E, but attested for several later dynasties—shows a kneeling woman, beneath which the head and arms of an infant appear.^[23]

The birth house in Hermonthis – A relief in the birth house of Hermonthis (modern Armant), a temple dedicated to the local solar goddess Raet-Tawy and her son, the young sun god Horus-pa-Re-pa-khered (=Harpre), shows the goddess kneeling on the ground, with the infant god being drawn from her by a divine midwife. The scene is flanked by more divine midwives and wet nurses, the divine father of the child, Amun-Re, and the goddess Nekhbet.^[24]

Cyprus

Among the many examples from the region of Greece and Rome is a very early figurine from the chalcolithic period (4^th–3^th millennium B.C.E.) found in Paphos. The small, 1.5-inch tall, dark grey picrolite figure depicts a kneeling woman, naked, with a swollen belly held by her two hands. She likely represents a goddess, and the figurine may have served as an amulet during parturition.^[25]

Though the items discussed here are from different areas and periods, all feature a kneeling position that typified ancient births and that likely lies behind the image in Job.

Biblical Evidence: Eli’s Daughter-in-Law

The brief account in which the priest Eli’s daughter-in-law gives birth suggests a similar birth position:

^{שׁמואל א ד:יט} וְכַלָּתוֹ אֵשֶׁת פִּינְחָס הָרָה לָלַת^[26] וַתִּשְׁמַע אֶת הַשְּׁמֻעָה אֶל הִלָּקַח אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים וּמֵת חָמִיהָ וְאִישָׁהּ וַתִּכְרַע וַתֵּלֶד כִּי נֶהֶפְכוּ עָלֶיהָ צִרֶיהָ.

^{1 Sam 4:19} His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she knelt down and gave birth, for her contractions had come upon her.

The verb וַתִּכְרַע is often translated as “she went into labor,” “she bowed down,” “she crouched down,”^[27] or “she broke down,” but the basic sense of the Qal verb כרע is “to kneel” or “to kneel down.”^[28] For example, YHWH declares: לִי תִּכְרַע כָּל בֶּרֶךְ, “to Me, every knee shall kneel down” (Isa 45:23). Similarly, when Solomon finishes praying at the dedication of the Temple, he rises up, מִכְּרֹעַ עַל בִּרְכָּיו “from kneeling on his knees” before YHWH’s altar (1 Kgs 8:54).^[29]

Thus, the image in the narrative of Eli’s daughter-in-law is of a woman kneeling down to give birth. Equally, the image behind Job 3:12 is one of Job’s mother giving birth on her knees.

Two Different Stages of Life, Not One

Once the birthing position is recognized, the intent of Job’s curse on the day of his birth becomes clear. He begins with a wish:

‏^{איוב ג:יא} לָמָּה לֹּא מֵרֶחֶם אָמוּת
מִבֶּטֶן יָצָאתִי וְאֶגְוָע.

^{Job 3:11} Why did I not die from the womb—
exit the belly and perish?

These lines are often misunderstood as synonymous references to death after birth.^[30] The prepositional phrase מֵרָחֶם (literally “from the womb”), however, indicates that the child is in the womb at death, as Jeremiah’s curse on the man who brought news of his birth to Jeremiah’s father makes clear:

^{ירמיה כ:יז} אֲשֶׁר לֹא מוֹתְתַנִי מֵרָחֶם וַתְּהִי לִי אִמִּי קִבְרִי וְרַחְמָה הֲרַת עוֹלָם.

^{Jer 20:17} Because he did not kill me from the womb so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb pregnant forever.

Thus, Job’s wish references two different stages of life: 1) a miscarriage or stillbirth in the first line;^[31] and 2) a live birth that ends with a neonatal death in the second.^[32] Likewise, the next verse represents two different life stages, in this case, birth and breastfeeding:

^{איוב ג:יב} מַדּוּעַ קִדְּמוּנִי בִרְכָּיִם
וּמַה שָּׁדַיִם כִּי אִינָק.

^{Job 3:12} Why did knees meet me,
and why breasts that I sucked?^[33]

Job’s curse offers a logical chain of parallelisms, in which each bicolon refers to missed opportunities for an early death in two different stages of life: miscarriage/stillbirth vs. neonatal death (v. 11), and death at birth vs. death from lack of breastfeeding (v. 12).^[34]

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December 11, 2025

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Footnotes

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Published

December 11, 2025

Last Updated

December 11, 2025

[1] The passage belongs to the first of Job’s monologues. It starts the first cycle of speeches and the poetic section of the book of Job in general.

[2] Translations from the book of Job are Juliane Eckstein’s. Other biblical translations follow NJPS, with modifications.

[3] E.g., Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Hiob, KHC 16 (Freiburg: Mohr, 1897), 21; Marvin H. Pope, Job: Introduction, Translation, and Notes, 3rd ed, AB 15 (New York: Doubleday, 1973), 31; Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job: A Commentary, OTL (London: SCM Press, 1985), 110; John E. Hartley, The Book of Job, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 95. Also cited to support for this theory are: Rachel adopting her slave Bilhah’s child by placing it on her knees (Gen 30:3; see Duhm, Das Buch Hiob, 21); and Zion’s children being dandled on laps—an image of the restored Jerusalem (Isa 66:12; see Hartley, The Book of Job, 95).

[4] David J. A. Clines, Job 1–20, WBC 17 (Dallas: Word Books, 1989), 90.

[5] See, e.g., Horst, Hiob, 49–50; Choon Leong Seow, Job 1–21: Interpretation and Commentary, Illuminations (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 356. They quote Alois Musil, Arabia Petraea: III. Ethnologischer Reisebericht (Wien: Alfred Hölder, 1907), 214, on such a practice among an Arab Bedouin tribe.

[6] Musil, Arabia Petraea, 214. Furthermore, Musil’s notes relied on unsystematic conversations and experiences (ibid., vi–vii).

[7] See, e.g., August Dillmann, Hiob, 4th ed., KEHAT 2 (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1891), 26, who speaks of a female helper (“Helferin”) or the father, but not in an act of legal recognition, as in (1). This interpretation is probably the background for the translation in the Living Bible: “Why did the midwife let me live?”

[8] See Clellan S. Ford, A Comparative Study of Human Reproduction, Yale University Publications in Anthropology 32 (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1964), 55–58. Compare Genesis 35:17, 38:28; Exodus 1:15.

[9] Bernhard Stade, “Auf Jemandes Knieen gebären”: Gen. 30, 3. 50, 23. Hiob 3, 12 und אָבְנַיִם Exod. 1, 16,” ZAW 6.1 (1886): 143–156; Charles Fontinoy, “La naissance de l’enfant chez les Israélites de l’Ancien Testament,” in L'enfant dans les civilisations orientales = Het kind in de oosterse beschavingen, ed. Aristide Theodorides, Paul Naster, and Julien Ries, AOB 2 (Leuven: Peeters, 1980), 103–118, here 116, who also gives anthropological evidence.

[10] Seow, Job 1–21, 356; Pope, Job, 31; Habel, The Book of Job, 110; Clines, Job 1–20, 90. Additionally, numerous Bible translations incorporate one of these two interpretations: e.g., NIRV: “Why was I placed on her knees?”; New Living Translation: “Why was I laid on my mother’s lap?”

[11] Akkadian: burku.

[12] Maximilian Streck, Assurbanipal und die letzten assyrischen Könige bis zum Untergange Niniveh’s, VAB (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1916), 348–349. English translation by Alasdair Livingstone, “Dialogue between Assurbanipal and Nabu,” in The Context of Scripture 1: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, ed. William W. Hallo (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 475–476, here 476. According to the inscription, however, the goddess did not give birth to Assurbanipal, but adopted and nursed him after he was born to a mortal. Thus, the underlying image, if anything, has more to do with the story of Rachel and Bilhah than with Job, which is about the process of childbirth, not adoption.

[13] See e.g. amulet no. 31531 from Gat, or scarab no. 26527 from Atlit, in BODO: Bibel+Orient Datenbank Online.

[14] The Piel form of קדם occurs 24 times in the Bible, 19 of which are in poetic texts: 12 times in Psalms; 2 Samuel 22:6, 19; Isaiah 21:14; Micah 6:6 (2x); Job 3:12; 30:27. The verb carries a range of senses:

to precede (locally); to go ahead of (Ps 68:26; 89:15)
to precede (temporally); to come before in time (Jonah 4:2; Ps 119:147, 148)
to face someone; to approach somebody in a friendly way—with help, with food, with prayer (Deut 23:5 || Neh 13:2; Isa 21:14; Mic 6:6 [2x]; Ps 21:4; 59:11; 79:8; 88:14; 95:2)
to come upon; to face somebody, to approach as an enemy (2 Sam 22:6, 19 || Ps 18:6, 19; 2 Kgs 19:32 || Is 37:33; Ps 17:13; Job 30:27)

Job 3:12 very likely plays with meanings c) and d). Normally, it is a good thing for a newborn to face the knees. Whomever they belong to will provide a friendly welcome. For Job, however, this means meeting with the cold, hostile harshness of life.

[15] Everything that we, as humans, perceive must be structured and categorized by us to make sense of it. Our culture and personal experience influence how we form categories. When all the features we commonly associate with a particular category are displayed in one single object, it is called a “prototype.” This can be applied to events and scenes as well. See the discussion of prototype semantics in Eleanor Rosch, “Principles of Categorization,” in Cognition and categorization, ed. Eleanor Rosch and Barbara Bloom Lloyd (Hillsdale: Erlbaum, 1978), 27–48.

[16] An entertaining illustration for this is the video mashup from ScreenJunkiesdotcom, “Women in Labor Supercut,” YouTube (2010).

[17] It was at the court of French king Louis XIV (17^th c.) that doctors—instead of midwives—first attended childbirths, and that women were put into a supine position during that process. See Liselotte Kuntner, Die Gebärhaltung der Frau: Schwangerschaft und Geburt aus geschichtlicher, völkerkundlicher und medizinischer Sicht, 3rd ed. (Munich: Marseille, 1991), 119–120. From the French royal court, this practice spread among the European aristocracy, but it was not until after 1945 that the hospitalized birth in a supine position became the prototype in Western rural areas. And only in the second half of the 20^th century did it make its way around the world.

[18] The movement to face the mother’s knees is driven by the birthing process: While most newborns emerge face down, the infant will usually immediately turn to the side as it comes to rest on the ground. The newborn’s curved back of the head and curved spine make it impossible to lie on the back for long.

[19] Dierichs, Von der Götter Geburt und der Frauen Niederkunft, 71–101. For Mesopotamian evidence, see also: Marten Stol and F. A. M. Wiggermann, Birth in Babylonia and the Bible: Its Mediterranean setting, CUMO 14 (Groningen: Styx, 2000), 121–124; for Egyptian evidence: Weindler, Fritz Weindler, Geburts- und Wochenbetts-Darstellungen auf altägyptischen Tempelreliefs: Ein Beitrag zur prähistorischen Urgeburtshilfe an der Hand von 16 Originalaufnahmen in Lichtdruck und 12 Abbildungen im Text (Munich: Beck, 1915), 31.

[20] See for Egyptian evidence: Weindler, Geburts- und Wochenbetts-Darstellungen auf altägyptischen Tempelreliefs, 24–25; Erika Feucht, “Der Weg ins Leben,” in Naissance et petite enfance dans L'Antiquité: Actes du colloque de Fribourg, 18 novembre – 1er décembre 2001, ed. Véronique Dasen, OBO 203 (Fribourg: Academic Press, 2004), 47–49; for Greek and Roman evidence: Dierichs, Von der Götter Geburt und der Frauen Niederkunft, 84–92, 100. In the biblical account of Pharaoh commanding the midwives for the Israelite women to kill the male infants as they are born, he instructs them to look at the אָבְנָיִם, which is often translated “birthstool”:

^{שׁמות א:טז} וַיֹּאמֶר בְּיַלֶּדְכֶן אֶת הָעִבְרִיּוֹת וּרְאִיתֶן עַל הָאָבְנָיִם אִם בֵּן הוּא וַהֲמִתֶּן אֹתוֹ וְאִם בַּת הִיא וָחָיָה.

^{Exod 1:16 (NJPS)} He said, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”

(See also, e.g., NRSV, RSV, ESV.) The meaning of אָבְנָיִם, however, is unclear. It appears to be a dual form related to the noun אֶבֶן, “stone.” Elsewhere, the term apparently refers to a potter’s wheel (Jer 18:3), which does not fit the context here. Some scholars posit that the term refers to an object or objects of stone or brick that a woman would either sit on or crouch over as she gave birth. Others suggest that אָבְנָיִם refers to the genitalia of the infant, which the midwives are to inspect to determine the child’s sex. See the brief discussion and cited literature in William H. C. Propp, Exodus 1–18: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 2 (New York: Doubleday, 1998), 139.

[21] These encompass both literary and material testimonies and do not illustrate how actual ancient women would have given birth. Such information is not accessible to us today. But these materials demonstrate how the process of childbirth was conceived by ancient artists. They demonstrate that there must have been times when the common birth prototype featured kneeling.

[22] Translation by Stol and Wiggermann, Birth in Babylonia and the Bible, 121.

[23] Weindler, Geburts- und Wochenbetts-Darstellungen auf altägyptischen Tempelreliefs, 31; Feucht, “Der Weg ins Leben,” 46, fig. 2; Catalogue de la fonte hiéroglyphique de l'imprimerie de l'I.F.A.O. (Cairo: Institut Français D'Archéologie Orientale Du Caire, 1983) 54, figs. 3, 5.

[24] Carl Richard Lepsius, Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien: Vierte Abteilung. Denkmaeler aus der Zeit der griechischen und römischen Herrschaft (Berlin: Nicolaische Buchhandlung, 1973), pl. 60. The descriptions and explanations rely on the excellent reconstruction by Daniela Rutica, Kleopatras vergessener Tempel: Das Geburtshaus von Kleopatra VII. in Hermonthis. Eine Rekonstruktion der Dekoration, Göttinger Miszellen / Occasional studies 1 (Göttingen: Seminar für Ägytologie und Koptologie der Univ. Göttingen, 2015). A peculiar element of the relief is the lifted arms of the goddess, which may have been a gesture is meant to thwart off evil spirits, and which may have characterized female goddesses in childbirth or assisting in the process (Weindler, Geburts- und Wochenbetts-Darstellungen auf altägyptischen Tempelreliefs, 24–28). If this is true, then there was an Egyptian birth prototype in the first century B.C.E. that included a kneeling position and uplifted arms. This prototype also appears in ancient Greece. See the discussion of the Greek evidence in my article, “‘Why Did Knees Meet Me?’: Giving Birth on One’s Knees in Job 3:12,” CBQ 81.3 (2019): 381–404.

[25] Stella M. Lubsen Admiraal, “A Chalcolithic Cypriote Anthropomorphic Figurine in the Zintilis Collection in Amsterdam,” in Aphierōma sto Baso Karagiōrgē, ed. Georgios K. loannides, Kypriakai spudai (Leukōsia: Hetaireia Kypriakōn Spudōn, 1992), 41–51, here 43; Stella M. Lubsen-Admiraal, Ancient Cypriote Art: The Thanos N. Zintilis Collection (Athen: N. P. Goulandris Foundation, Museum of Cycladic Art, 2004), 17.

[26] This is a shortened form of the infinitive, לָלֶדֶת, from the root י.ל.ד, “to bear,” either as a scribal error or more likely as a variant fusing of the ד and the ת. Compare כְּמוֹ הָרָה תַּקְרִיב לָלֶדֶת, “Like a pregnant woman, close to giving birth (Isa 26:17). See Shimon Bar-Efrat, Das Erste Buch Samuel: Ein narratologisch-philologischer Kommentar, Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament 16 (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2007), 114, and David T. Tsumura, The First Book of Samuel, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 199.

[27] Some commentators cite a description in Job of a hind that is about to give birth to support interpreting the daughter-in-law’s birth position as crouching:

^{איוב לט:ג} תִּכְרַעְנָה יַלְדֵיהֶן תְּפַלַּחְנָה חֶבְלֵיהֶם תְּשַׁלַּחְנָה.

^{Job 39:3 (NJPS)} When they crouch to bring forth their offspring, to deliver their young?

E.g., Ralph W. Klein, 1 Samuel, WBC 10 (Waco: Word Books, 1983), 44; Hans Wilhelm Hertzberg, Die Samuelbücher, ATD (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1956), 35. This translation goes back to the LXX translation “καὶ ὤκλασεν” with the verb ὀκλάζω being commonly translated as “to crouch.” However, ὀκλάζω is also used with reference to animals lying down (LSJ gives examples with oxen, horses and wolves). When ungulates—hoofed animals such as horses, cattle, and deer—lie down, however, they first bend their front legs and kneel down, and only then does the rest of the body follow. Thus, the image in Job 39:3 would be consistent with the understanding of Qal כרע as “to kneel.”

[28] See, e.g., NIV, KJV, NRSV, and NJPS. Few commentators and translators have chosen the straightforward solution “to kneel down”: e.g., Amplified Bible; Modern English Version. One reason could lie in the context of this birth, which is highly unusual and very dramatic. Another reason could be that some leading lexicons, such as the widely used BDB, offer “to bow down” as the principal translation of Qal כרע, which goes back to the Vulgate translation (“incurvavit se”). The BDB in turn relies on the earlier editions of Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament. Later editions of other lexica have revised the principal meaning to “kneel down.” For 1 Samuel 4:19, however, they still offer the translation “to break down.” See especially HALOT.

[29] The word בֶּרֶךְ, “knee,” in both verses is from the root ב.ר.ך, seen above in the text from Ugarit.

[30] See, e.g., Clines, Job 1–20, 68, 72; Nahum M. Sarna, The Book of Job: A New Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1980), 6. This incorrect reading is also incorporated into most popular Bible translations: e.g., NIV, NJPS, NKJV, NRSV, and RSV.

[31] The ancient translations reflect a similar understanding of מֵרֶחֶם, rendering it as “in the belly” (“ἐν κοιλίᾳ,” LXX) or “in the womb” (“in vulva,” Vulgate).

[32] The term “stillbirth” is defined here as a baby born “with no signs of life […] after 28 completed weeks of gestation,” in accordance with the WHO definition, see World Health Organization, Making Every Baby Count: Audit and Review of Stillbirths and Neonatal Deaths (Geneva, 2016), 20. A “miscarriage” would then be a fetus born before 28 weeks’ gestation. “Neonatal death” is here defined as the death of a live-born child within 28 days of birth, in accordance with WHO definitions (ibid.). That verse 11 references two different scenarios has been recognized by others, especially by Gianni Barbiero, “The Structure of Job 3,” ZAW 127.1 (2015): 52.

[33] These two life stages are also paired in the psalms:

^{תהלים כב:י} כִּי אַתָּה גֹחִי מִבָּטֶן מַבְטִיחִי עַל שְׁדֵי אִמִּי.

^{Ps 22:10} Because you are the one who tore me out of the belly [birth], you inspired me trust at the breasts of my mother [breastfeeding].

[34] Psalm 22:10, cited in the previous footnote, contains another example of this type of parallelism.

[1] The passage belongs to the first of Job’s monologues. It starts the first cycle of speeches and the poetic section of the book of Job in general.

[2] Translations from the book of Job are Juliane Eckstein’s. Other biblical translations follow NJPS, with modifications.

[4] David J. A. Clines, Job 1–20, WBC 17 (Dallas: Word Books, 1989), 90.

[6] Musil, Arabia Petraea, 214. Furthermore, Musil’s notes relied on unsystematic conversations and experiences (ibid., vi–vii).

[11] Akkadian: burku.

[13] See e.g. amulet no. 31531 from Gat, or scarab no. 26527 from Atlit, in BODO: Bibel+Orient Datenbank Online.

to precede (locally); to go ahead of (Ps 68:26; 89:15)
to precede (temporally); to come before in time (Jonah 4:2; Ps 119:147, 148)
to face someone; to approach somebody in a friendly way—with help, with food, with prayer (Deut 23:5 || Neh 13:2; Isa 21:14; Mic 6:6 [2x]; Ps 21:4; 59:11; 79:8; 88:14; 95:2)
to come upon; to face somebody, to approach as an enemy (2 Sam 22:6, 19 || Ps 18:6, 19; 2 Kgs 19:32 || Is 37:33; Ps 17:13; Job 30:27)

[16] An entertaining illustration for this is the video mashup from ScreenJunkiesdotcom, “Women in Labor Supercut,” YouTube (2010).

^{שׁמות א:טז} וַיֹּאמֶר בְּיַלֶּדְכֶן אֶת הָעִבְרִיּוֹת וּרְאִיתֶן עַל הָאָבְנָיִם אִם בֵּן הוּא וַהֲמִתֶּן אֹתוֹ וְאִם בַּת הִיא וָחָיָה.

^{Exod 1:16 (NJPS)} He said, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”

[22] Translation by Stol and Wiggermann, Birth in Babylonia and the Bible, 121.

[27] Some commentators cite a description in Job of a hind that is about to give birth to support interpreting the daughter-in-law’s birth position as crouching:

^{איוב לט:ג} תִּכְרַעְנָה יַלְדֵיהֶן תְּפַלַּחְנָה חֶבְלֵיהֶם תְּשַׁלַּחְנָה.

^{Job 39:3 (NJPS)} When they crouch to bring forth their offspring, to deliver their young?

[29] The word בֶּרֶךְ, “knee,” in both verses is from the root ב.ר.ך, seen above in the text from Ugarit.

[31] The ancient translations reflect a similar understanding of מֵרֶחֶם, rendering it as “in the belly” (“ἐν κοιλίᾳ,” LXX) or “in the womb” (“in vulva,” Vulgate).

[33] These two life stages are also paired in the psalms:

^{תהלים כב:י} כִּי אַתָּה גֹחִי מִבָּטֶן מַבְטִיחִי עַל שְׁדֵי אִמִּי.

^{Ps 22:10} Because you are the one who tore me out of the belly [birth], you inspired me trust at the breasts of my mother [breastfeeding].

[34] Psalm 22:10, cited in the previous footnote, contains another example of this type of parallelism.

Dr. Juliane Eckstein is an Interim Professor of Catholic Theology/Religious Education at the Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg [College for Education] in Southwestern Germany. She received her PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, and she previously taught at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz, at the Ruhruniversität Bochum, and at the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen. She is the author of Die Semantik von Ijob 6-7: Erschließung ihrer Struktur und einzelner Lexeme mittels Isotopieanalyse [The Semantics of Job 6-7. Interpretation of Its Structure and of Individual Lexemes Using Isotopy Analysis] (Mohr Siebeck, 2021).

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