Job, Job

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Job, Job, good Lord, Tell me how you feel, good Lord." Sundry Biblical incidents are narrated: Pilate's wife and her dream of Jesus, Joshua stopping the sun, etc. Verses are very long, with variable numbers of lines
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, collected from Vera Hall and Dock Reed)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 14-16, "Job" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 53-56, "(Job, Job)" (1 text); pp. 225-226, "Job, Job" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 316-318, "(no title)" (1 text); pp. 344-345, "Job, Job" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10964
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "Job Job" (on NFMAla4)
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Job Job" (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swing Low" (a few lines)
NOTES [116 words]: The account of Joshua stopping the sun is found in Joshua 10:12-13. Pilate's wife's dream is found in Matthew 27:19 (only; the other gospels have no hint of the story, although all have Pilate being relatively favorable to Jesus. Catholic folklore had a lot to say about Pilate and his wife, but that surely was not known to the singers of this song). Methuselah's death at the age of 969 is in Genesis 5:27 (although the Greek translation gives different ages for the patriarchs). Allusions to the book of Job include:
* The death of Job's servants (Job 1:15-17)
* The death of Job's children (Job 1:19)
* "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CNFM225

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