Introduction

Project Job is an study in coincidence and synchronicity.

It began decades ago when I first stumbled upon the sentence “I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls” in Job 30:29. At the time, I thought it was simply an example of excellent writing. I love the mood it evokes.

Later, I chanced upon this passage in Michah 1:8: “Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.” Surely it was just a coincidence, but again I loved the imagery and the emotion the passage evoked.

Then years later, in Isaiah 34:13, I discovered this passage: “And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.” Again, I loved the sound of it and the images it conjured in my mind.

But then I started to wonder: Three verses in different books of the Bible, all containing owls and dragons and all concerned with the same feeling of desolation and loss — and yet you don’t see the speaker as defeated. You imagine he is surviving, standing among the ruins, ready to continue the fight.

Now put all three verses together into one passage:

“I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.”

Beautiful.

Naturally, I wondered if there were other verses. These seem to be the only three sentences in which owls and dragons both appear. However, both creatures are quiet popular in the King James version of the Bible. I have a few ideas as to why that would be, but for now, let’s concern ourselves only with the verses themselves.

First I complied all mention of owls and dragons in the King James Version of the Bible. Then I eliminated all the duplications. Oddly enough, there are quite a few places in which verses are repeated almost word for word. I assume the writers borrowed from one another or the phrases were common clichés of the period the KJV was written. Next, I sorted the lines into two divisions: past tense and future tense. All the phrases were either history or prophecy it seems. Finally, I sorted the lines in alphabetical order. On a whim, I decided I like the descending order sort better than the ascending. (The Word descending into the World of Man?)

These are the results:

Past

When the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
They worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
There appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
The wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.
I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

Future

Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.
There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
The wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said: My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

The next stage, of course, is interpretation. Feel free to try your hand at interpreting or arranging the verses yourself. Think of it as modern qabalah with understanding as the prize.