Job

Author: Unknown

Job is set outside Israel and asks why a righteous man is handed over to suffering.

Outline

  1. The test (1–2)

    Job loses his children, his wealth, and his health, and he does not curse God.

  2. The friends (3–31)

    Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar argue that suffering proves guilt, and Job refuses their case.

  3. Elihu (32–37)

    A younger man rebukes Job and the three friends and points to God’s greatness.

  4. The Lord answers (38–42)

    God questions Job from the whirlwind, and Job’s fortune is restored after he prays for his friends.

Key verses

  • Job 1:21

    Job says the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, and he blesses the Lord’s name.

  • Job 19:25

    Job says he knows that his Redeemer lives and that he will see God.

  • Job 42:7

    The Lord says the friends have not spoken of him what is right, as Job has.

Job does not open in Jerusalem or in the time of a named king of Israel. It opens in the land of Uz, with a man who is blameless, upright, and careful about his children. The reader is then taken into a scene the characters never see. The adversary appears before the Lord and argues that Job fears God only because his life is hedged. The Lord permits the test, first of Job’s possessions and children, then of his body, with the limit that his life be spared. Job tears his robe, shaves his head, and worships. His wife tells him to curse God and die. He will not. Three friends come and sit with him seven days without speaking, which is the last silence in the book for a long time.

Job curses the day of his birth. The friends answer in cycles. Their theology is orderly: God does not punish the innocent, so Job must have sinned, and if he will confess he will be restored. Eliphaz appeals to a night vision and to the discipline of the Almighty. Bildad appeals to the tradition of the fathers. Zophar says God is exacting less than Job’s guilt deserves. Job grants that no one is pure before God and refuses the conclusion they draw from his sores. He wants a hearing. He accuses the friends of being miserable comforters. He describes the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the poor in terms that will not fit their proverb. In chapter 19 he says his Redeemer lives and that he will see God, a line spoken from a dung heap, not from a resolved argument.

The cycles end with Job’s long oath of innocence. He lists the sins he has not committed: adultery, abuse of servants, refusal of the poor, trust in gold, joy at an enemy’s ruin. He asks for an indictment written by his adversary. Elihu then speaks, angry that the older men have failed to answer and that Job has justified himself rather than God. He says suffering can be a warning, and he describes God’s power in the storm. He prepares the voice that is about to speak, and he is not the voice.

The Lord answers out of the whirlwind, and he does not give Job the file on the heavenly council. He asks where Job was when the foundations of the earth were laid, whether Job can bind the Pleiades, and whether he can explain Behemoth and Leviathan. Job puts his hand over his mouth. A second speech leaves him saying that he had heard of God by the hearing of the ear and now his eye sees him, and he repents in dust and ashes. The Lord then turns on the friends. They have not spoken of him what is right, as his servant Job has. They must ask Job to pray for them. Job’s brothers and sisters return. His herds are doubled. He has more children, and he names the daughters. The book does not say the children who died were replaceable. It says the test ended, the friends were wrong, and the man who argued with God was the one God called his servant.

Chapters