A helper-beast, brother-jackal, and daughter-lamb: Lonely humans and companionate animals in Hebrew Bible texts

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Recent social and scientific research has suggested that human loneliness can be alleviated through companionship with nonhuman animals. This chapter examines hints of this perspective in three texts from the Hebrew Bible. In Genesis 2, God discerns that it is not good for the human to be alone, so he creates diverse animal life to accompany the human. However, no animal is deemed suitable for this task. In the book of Job, part of the protagonist’s affliction is his ostracization from human society (Job 19:13–19). Job consequently engages in two flights of imagination where he envisions possibilities of cross-species companionship, positioning himself as kin to jackals (30:29a), ostriches (30:29b), and maggots (17:14b). In no case, though, does Job consider this a real solution to his problem. In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan tells a story in which a poor man has a close interspecies relationship with a ewe lamb. This relationship is ruptured when the lamb is taken and killed, but the text does not report the poor man’s feelings at his loss. None of these case studies, then, conclusively establish animals as a solution to human loneliness; yet, each of them holds out this possibility
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAll Alone
Subtitle of host publicationPerspectives on Loneliness in the Hebrew Bible
EditorsSamuel Hildebrandt, Ekaterina Kozlova
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherT. & T. Clark
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2024

Publication series

NameLHBOTS

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