Job and a Prayer Circle

In the opening lines of his Testament, Job tells his three virgin daughters and seven sons (see Job 1:2) to form a circle around him (the second son's name is Choros): "Make a circle around me, and I will demonstrate to you the things which tha Lord expounded to me, for I am your father Job who is faithful in all things."(Testament of Job or ToJ 1:2.) Job next tells the circle how the Lord, after healing him of his awful ailments, said, "Arise, gird up thy loins like a man!"(ToJ 47:5.) "And the Lord spoke to me in power, showing me things past and future." (ToJ 47:10.) He tells his daughters that they will have nothing to fear in this life from the adversary because the garments they wear are "a power and a protection from the Lord." (ToJ 47:11—12.) Then he tells them to arise and gird themselves to prepare for heavenly visitors. (ToJ 47:12.) "Thus it was that when one of the three daughters . . . arose and clothed herself . . . she began to utter words of wisdom in the angelic language, and sent a hymn up to God, using the manner of praising of the angels. And as she recited the hymns, she let the Spirit make marks [charagmata, cuts or rents] on her garment." (ToJ 48:1—4.) The next daughter girded herself likewise and recited "The Hymn of the Creation of the Heavens," speaking "in the dialect of the archons [cf. the council in heaven]."(ToJ 49:1—3.) The third daughter "chanted verses in the dialect of those on high . . . and she spoke in the tongue of the cherubim," her words being preserved as "the prayers of Amaltheias-Keras." (Abraham's Temple Drama by Hugh Nibley)