book of job thesis statement

The Book of Job in the Bible Essay

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Introduction

Dialogue between god and satan, the debate in covered in the book of job, significance of god’s speech.

Job is one of the Old Testament books in the Bible. It utilizes a combination of poetry and prose to explore themes of individual suffering and God’ justice. The main character in the book is Job, a staunch believer who loses wealth, friends, and succumbs to severe pain and suffering. He undergoes a dramatic transformation from wealth to poverty. Despite the loss, he does not lose his faith and continues to believe in God. Throughout the book, Job reiterates his innocence and rejects the argument that suffering is caused by sin. He is humble and faithful to God. However, his humility and faithfulness are tested when he loses his wealth and succumbs to suffering. The dialogue between Job and his three friends constitutes the greater portion of the book and covers 28 chapters (from chapter 3 to chapter 31). In the argument, Job’s self-defense, lamentation, and questions are responded to by a speech from God in a whirlwind.

The book of Job begins with a dialogue between God and Satan. Satan is asking permission from God to test Job’s faith. God validates Job’s righteousness by describing him as a righteous servant who is faithful and avoids evil. God challenges Satan by asking whether he has tested the faith of Job in the past. Satan responds by presenting a counterchallenge. He claims that Job will curse and stop believing in him if his wealth is taken away. God responds by telling him that Job’s wealth is under his power and he can do whatever he wants. As such, Satan is granted permission to test Job’s faith. However, God warns him not to touch his soul. He wants to prove to God that Job’s faith is weak and will vanish if he experiences suffering and pain. After being granted permission, Satan walks away from God’s presence.

The debate covered in the book focuses mainly on personal suffering and God’s justice in relation to Job’s life. These themes emerge in the debate that ensues between Job and his three friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) who visit to comfort him. The debate starts when Job attributes his suffering to God’s injustice and unfairness. The friends are surprised because of his attitude. Traditionally, people suffer because of their sins.

However, Job does not agree with the proposition. His friends advise him to search his conscience to uncover sins he committed to warrant God’s punishment. However, Job declines their advice because he opposes the claim that suffering emanates from sin. He maintains that he is innocent. He accuses God of injustice and argues that he does not deserve to suffer because he is humble, patient, and faithful. Job argues that his suffering is more than he can handle because his friends have abandoned him and God is taking pleasure in his pain and suffering. He prefers death other than a life of misery, pain, and suffering. Job curses life and wishes that he had died the moment he was born.

Eliphaz tells Job that God does not punish righteous people. He argues that Job is wicked and deserves to suffer as a form of punishment. He accuses him of impatience because he accuses God without finding reasons for his suffering. He maintains that Job’s suffering is characteristic of what befalls wicked people who offend God. Eliphaz tries to console him by telling him that nobody is just before God and he thus deserves to suffer. He advises Job to turn to God for help because no one else is available to help him. Job responds and claims that his friends have betrayed him by abandoning him because of his suffering. He accuses God of injustice and wishes that his life would go back to normal. He tells Eliphaz that he is justified to complain because he does not deserve to suffer.

Zophar accuses Job of wickedness and advises him to repent in order to mitigate his suffering. He tells Job that people portray either submissiveness or arrogance before God. He says that Job is arrogant and thus deserves punishment. He tells the job that God’s wisdom cannot be quantified or measured. He says that to show Job that his suffering is proof enough that he has committed sin. He maintains that sinners are rewarded by suffering.

He advises Job to repent in order to reestablish his relationship with God. Job responds by claiming that many other people are suffering and he is not the only one. He pleads with God to come to his aid and have mercy on him. In addition, he rejects the idea of life after death even though he is aware that God controls everything that exists. He rejects Zophar’s arguments and tries to reach out directly to God.

Bildad reiterates Zophar’s accusations by stating that Job is guilty of injustice against God and that is why he is suffering. He reprimands Job for lamenting because he believes that God is just and fair and does not punish good people. He tells Job that God does not make exceptions when punishing wicked people. Therefore, he should not expect God to have mercy on him because suffering is a reward for sin.

He tells Job that God punishes people who argue against him. Zophar states that God’s fairness was the reason why he is suffering because he cannot be exempted from punishment. Job responds by blaming God for his suffering. He is convinced that God has refused to give him reasons for his suffering because it is without reason. He states that he needs a mediator in order to reach God. However, after failing to get one, he begs for mercy and forgiveness from God.

The three friends maintain that God is just and does not punish the righteous, and uses suffering as a way of reminding people to repent. However, Job does not agree with their arguments. He maintains that he is innocent and God is unjust. In his misery and desperation, Job demands an explanation from God for his great suffering. In response, God answers him in a speech through a whirlwind.

In the debate, God’s speech is significant for the position takes by Job because of several reasons. First, it teaches that people should avoid accusing God of injustice and unfairness. God works in his own ways and people should not question them. Job’s suffering was a test of faith and patience. However, he chose to blame and accuse God of injustice. God’s speech proves that he cares for everyone despite the presence of pain and suffering in life. Third, God’s speech is relevant for Job’s position because it reveals God’s mysterious ways, which humans cannot understand. Instead of accepting God’s mysterious ways, Job decides to accuse God.

God’s speech contradicts the stand taken by Job’s friends. They argue that Job is suffering because he has committed sin. However, Job’s suffering is not because of wickedness but God’s will. According to the speech, he is suffering because God is exercising his power and has good reasons for allowing it. Moreover, God does not bring suffering upon Job as a sign of the d for repentance as the three friends claim. With regard to the stand taken by Job’s friends, God’s speech shows that human beings do not understand why God allows some things to happen to people. In addition, they ignore God’s power and control over creation.

The debate presented in the book of Job between Job and his friends focuses on suffering and God’s justice. The debate ensues after job accuses God of bringing suffering and pain upon him despite his innocence. Job argues that God is unjust because he lets him suffer without a proper reason. He accuses God of injustice and unfairness. On their part, Job’s friends maintain that God is just and does not punish righteous people. As such, they maintain that job’s suffering is as a result of his wickedness hence need for repentance.

In his speech that is a response to Job’s complaints, God reveals that he is ruler over all creation and his power surpasses that of all creatures. On the other hand, the speech is relevant to the stand taken by Job’s friends because it shows a lack of understanding of God’s power. They think that Job’s suffering is God’s wrath for his wickedness. The speech reiterates God’s power over creation, and his mysterious ways of doing things.

Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards
Materialist Theory of Christianity
Satan in Dante's "Devine Comedy" and Milton's "Paradise Lost"
Satan’s Comparison in Dante and Milton’s Poems
Strategic Addressing of a Wicked Problem (Breastfeeding)
Religious Teachings of Buddhist Doctrine
The Acts and the Gospel According to Paul
Religious Studies of Prayer: The Books of Luke and Acts
Luke-Acts Theological Content
Baptism Rituals and Theologies
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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God & Suffering: My Undergrad Thesis on the Book of Job

Thesis Cover: “Job” acryllic by Jenna Thomas // Inspiration: Job 36:24 – 37:24

The book of Job is about the immense, God-ordained suffering of the most righteous man of his time: Job. Probably written in the patriarchal age by an anonymous writer, the book of Job is a well-recognized literary masterpiece and is considered one of the major books of wisdom literature in the Bible. The book of Job is known for its profound, verbal illustration of the nature of innocent suffering and its confounding mysteries. It is not solely concerned with demonstrating the great pains of human affliction, however. The book of Job highlights the character and purposes of an incomprehensible, yet absolutely sovereign, perfectly wise, all-powerful, just, and mercifully redemptive God as the stable, constant backdrop of seemingly meaningless and unfair suffering.

God & Suffering Thesis

You’ve probably already heard that the book of Job is about suffering. But what is the main lesson that God teaches us about Himself through the book of Job?

You may have also heard that Job’s three friends–Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar–presented inaccurate conclusions to Job concerning the reason for his extreme suffering. But what about the argument of Job’s fourth friend, Elihu?

You may have heard of the patience/steadfastness/endurance of Job (James 5:11). But how do you explain his repentance in dust and ashes (Job 42:6)?

You may have read the first two chapters of Job, and then the last five chapters. Maybe you skimmed the bulk of the book in between. But what does the drawn out debate between Job and his friends communicate to us about the nature of God and suffering? What parts of the debate should we receive as truth?

And what can a worshipper of Jesus today profit from studying the book of Job?

In 2011 I had the privilege of defending an undergraduate thesis about the book of Job at USF. This gave me the precious opportunity to study Job for a few months. You can read my thesis here and see what I learned about God and suffering through my study of the book of Job. I pray you’re edified by it!

Thesis Defense 4/22/11 – USF Honors College

I have much more to learn about the book of Job, about suffering, and ultimately about God. I do pray that God will use this thesis to remind you and me (again and again) about His unchanging character so that we will be more trusting sufferers, and more faithful friends to sufferers, all to the praise of the glory of His grace in our lives.

Quina Aragon

Quina Aragon's articles, poems, and spoken word videos have been featured on The Gospel Coalition, Risen Motherhood, Journey Women, Fathom Mag, and The Witness: BCC. She resides in Tampa, FL with her husband Jon and beautiful, three-year-old daughter. Quina's first children's book, Love Made, is a poetic retelling of the creation story that highlights God as the Trinity, humans as His image bearers, and children as a delightful gift.

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i am writing my thesis in theological studies about the book of Job and Suffering: its Implication to the COVID 19 Pandemic. May I also used your thesis Ma’am as one of my thesis resources.

Thank you very much

Sure! Thanks!

I’m so sorry for my delay. I cannot seem to find the file for my thesis. I need to find it as soon as I have time.

Matters of Interpretation

Like books. Like, "of the Bible" …

abstract background in reds drab green yellow and black

A Deeper Look at the Book of Job

I did some extra reading on the book of Job over the past month. Here’s what I learned:

Job is an unusually complex book, even for the Bible. It includes clear and possibly perplexing divisions in the text: the narrative prologue and epilogue in chapters 1-2 and chapter 42; the carefully structured speeches of the “counselors” and Job, but with the sudden disappearance of Zophar and the sudden intrusion of Elihu; the mystical interlude of the meditation on wisdom in chapter 28; God’s final whirlwind speeches, all in world literature quality poetry. All of this has given rise to multiple theories about the literary relationship of all of that text. There are suggestions that the poetry is the later addition, or on the contrary that the narrative portions are the add-on. Maybe Job was a familiar or traditional character before the book was even written, or maybe he wasn’t. … it’s hard for a non-specialist to reach a conclusion.

Similarly, the scholars take different positions on which part of the book really holds “the key” to the interpretation of the book of Job. Some say the poetry. Some say the narrative. Some say God’s speeches at the end. Some say Job’s speeches, which reveal his personal and psychological transformation through his ordeal. Some have even said the Elihu speeches, sort of, even though most everyone describes him as a pompous blowhard. (“If you read those, you’ll find they sum up the Reformed position on suffering.” I received from my Hebrew Bible professor what I hand on to you-all.)

Aside from the literary and structural complexity, the text itself is “corrupt” in places, creating numerous text-critical and translation problems. (“Everyone knows this,” if by “everyone” we mean Biblical studies specialists, especially those who specialize in the wisdom literature. The difficulties with the text don’t mean that we shouldn’t read Job, of course, or take the text to heart. But it does mean that we probably need to be cautious about building whole theologies or even daily devotionals around individual words or sentences. You know what I mean.)

Job is pretty clearly not “a theodicy.” Another thing “everyone knows” – and here “everyone” means something like “everyone who remembers anything from world literature” along with “everyone who ever did a certain kind of Bible study on the book of Job” – is that the book of Job is “a theodicy,” a Biblical response to the challenge evil in the world poses for faith in God.

“Everyone knows” the subject matter of the book of Job is “the suffering of the innocent.” Even more precisely, its subject matter is the problem of “bad things happening to good people.” Job is righteous, more righteous than anyone, or even more precisely “blameless.” According to conventional Biblical wisdom, God will reward a person like Job with prosperity and safety. All this is a given. And the very premise of the text is that this blameless figure becomes the victim of terrible tragedy, on purpose.

However, the problem with thinking of the book of Job as “a theodicy” – that is, an argument or defense of the affirmation of God’s goodness in the face of the evil we see in the world – is that the book of Job really doesn’t present anything like a defense of God’s goodness in the face of evil (understood as “things that make people suffer”). There’s no philosophical discussion. Job and his counselors don’t really explore arguments; instead, they present different views of reality.

One view is a kind of “authorized” view, in which God rewards the righteous and punishes the unrighteous. We could call this the “retribution” view. It’s fully compatible with the view of wisdom presented in the book of Proverbs. We could also call it the “Deuteronomistic” view, since it’s the basic understanding of God presented in the book of Deuteronomy and in the Deuteronomistic history (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, & Kings).

The other is Job’s experiential vision of reality, in which that’s OBVIOUSLY not how reality works in practice. This view is a lot more consistent with the view of wisdom presented in the book of Ecclesiastes. (“I’ve tried and tried to see the world as described in the book of Proverbs, to get my experience to add up that way, and to recognize that Woman Wisdom who cries out in the street and rewards the wise and penalizes the foolish, and you know what, folks – I’m just not seeing it.” Qohelet 7:23-29. My version.)

Neither Elihu nor God in the whirlwind speeches does any better at presenting a theodicy. Elihu offers additional rationales for how suffering can effect the improvement of character – but needing to improve his character wasn’t Job’s problem, according to the narrative introduction. The God of the whirlwind in effect refers Job back to God’s creative … God-ness. This was noticed perhaps most famously by Carl Jung in The Answer to Job , in which Jung says, more or less, “Erm, God, you didn’t really answer Job’s question …”

We won’t find a philosophically satisfactory theodicy anywhere in the book of Job. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s Roland Murphy: “I can no longer treat the book of Job as a theodicy, a view held by many, in any shape or form” (130). (In fact, by insisting that the book of Job IS a theodicy, we could be making ourselves into something like the modern-day equivalent of Job’s counselors, denying the evidence right in front of our faces. We might want to think about that.)

There are other questions the book of Job does answer, perhaps. One of the shared characteristics of the book-length treatments of the book of Job I read this month was that each took a position on what the central question of the book of Job really is. Granted, they each take different positions. But that ability to read the book of Job and find many different profound questions addressed in the text probably tells us that the book of Job is the kind of profound, complex work of sacred world literature that deals with more than one profound spiritual question at once. (Great works of literature, even non-sacred ones, often have this feature, so this probably shouldn’t surprise us. People who talk as if some text of this kind has one and only one “true” meaning probably haven’t thought about this enough.)

So, Roland Murphy suggests that the main thing to notice about the book of Job is how it affects us when we read it. Gustavo Gutierrez says the main question is how to speak rightly of God, particularly when we are keenly aware of the suffering of the innocent. Philippe Nemo identifies the main question as that of the fundamental character of God, how God can be known beyond the conventional categories of normative social life. Susannah Ticciati finds the main lesson in the parallel searching out that both Job and God are doing, in which Job undergoes a personal transformation that brings him into intimate contact with God’s way of wisdom.

We ourselves, along with other readers, may notice that the book of Job also addresses other questions: how to listen to a sufferer, or rather, how NOT to listen; the problem of loss and restoration, and what counts as restoration (because do we seriously think that Job’s second family erased his sense of loss over those earlier children? Aside from the practical difficulty of how those children were related to Job’s wife); we could probably go on.

These reflections on the book of Job have been thought-provoking in their own right, and in particular Gutierrez and Nemo. In both cases, the authors turn our thoughts toward the idea of what our relationship to God is, or can be.

For Gutierrez, the question arises in the suffering of people who, themselves, have faith in God, and are committed to loving and following God’s instructions. How is it correct to speak of God, what is it correct to say about God? The insight comes from God’s statement to Job’s friends at the end of the book: “You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7) So we have to look at how the speakers have spoken about God. From this, one thing may be clear: it is NOT correct to say, when we encounter someone suffering poverty, loss, illness and so on, that they must have done wrong, that God must be punishing them. This is the line pursued by Job’s friends – and it was “not what is right.”

It also seems incorrect to suggest that a person’s loyalty to God is justified by the material rewards they will reap from this loyalty. This is another implication of the friends’ speeches. It suggests that human loyalty to God is properly conditional; that people would be justified in withdrawing their devotion or loyalty if were not to be rewarded. [I will want to come back to this.]

For Gutierrez, part of the lesson of Job is that correct speech about God involves two forms of speech about God, that need to come together. “Prophetic speech,” speech that denounces unjust suffering, has to inform and be informed by “contemplative speech,” speech that reflects a vision of God’s freedom and grace. “Job has learned from the Lord that the language the prophets use in speaking of God must be supplemented by the language of contemplation and worship (91).” The source of both is the presence of the entirely free God that demands that human beings practice justice, that impels human recognition of God as the “presence that leads amid darkness and pain” (91), and that grants grace as an entirely free gift.

The world of retribution – and not of temporal retribution only – is not where God dwells; at most God visits it. The Lord is not prisoner of the ‘give to me and I will give to you’ mentality. Nothing, no human work however valuable, merits grace, for if it did, grace would cease to be grace. This is the heart of the message of the Book of Job (88-9).

For Nemo, the heart of the book lies in the poetic sections, read as much as possible without a prior religious tradition to guide, or skew, their interpretation. According to him, this kind of fresh reading allows us to recognize how perfectly the text describes Job’s anxiety , his nameless dread of what “exceeds” the conventional, predictable, controlled world envisioned by his counselors, the proportional world he himself once inhabited. Pursuing this vision of the “excess” of the evil that confronts Job in his warrantless suffering leads to a recognition that what confronts Job is utterly indeterminable, and this fundamentally involves his relationship to God, who is the source of this “excess,” if not the excess itself.

Nemo’s argument is careful, complex, delicate, and brilliant. My summary here can’t do it justice. But its conclusion involves a recognition that the specific relationship humans puruse with God, the way the person agrees to work with or against God, matters. Frighteningly, Nemo’s God could be capable of evil. Particularly if our understanding of God is limited to the justice procured through “Law,” and through the kinds of “technique” or instrumentality that procure human control and intelligibility in our “world”-ly situation. It is worth quoting from Nemo’s conclusion at length here:

The thing about God that is equivalent to the Law is in fact not God at all, but rather is equivalent to the world. Conversely, there is something which exceeds the world and which is God, the one whom Job addresses, and that is: – Evil, as an insistence beyond everything that technical thought can render reasonable, – Good, as an open possibility beyond every failure of technique. This ‘something’ wants to make itself recognized (which is why it insists), but recognized as that which our intention will not dominate so long as our intention is not engged in a resolute fight against evil (139).

For Nemo, God is a “soul” related to the human “soul,” and is found to be Good to the extent that the human soul chooses for the Good, and acts resolutely in that direction, on that behalf.

At least – that’s my understanding of Nemo’s discussion. I would probably understand it better if I read it again, once or twice. I understand this much, though: reading it again, once or twice, would be completely worth it. Nemo seems to have the conviction that being on the side of Good is an imperative for faith; that is, that faith cannot allow itself to be seduced by anything less than Good, even if it promises greater certainty or clarity. That’s my kind of continental philosopher.

If I could only recommend one of these readings of Job, however, it would be Roland Murphy’s The Book of Job: A Short Reading . That book is wonderful. It’s a concise, accessible commentary that lays out all the issues that confront the reader of the book of Job clearly and simply – but, it seems, not over-simply – with the measured confidence of a scholar whose understanding of the wisdom literature is unsurpassed. Murphy’s treatment is charitable and kind, open and warm, informed and informative, and ultimately practical and honest.

Since Murphy’s invitation is to focus on “what the book of Job does to the reader,” it may make sense to end with a comment on what reading the book of Job, along with these books about Job, does to this reader.

What concerns me at this point in my history with the book of Job is this matter of “indifferent faith” or the (wrongful) conditionality of humans’ love for God. On one hand, I can accept this idea, at least up to a point: if we serve God only for “what’s in it for us,” if we don’t hang in there with God for God’s sake rather than for the rewards’ sake, we human beings are simply being mercenary. This is one of the profound problems with the “health and wealth” theology that’s so popular all around the US these days.

But it seems that it must also be wrong to worship God in the absence of signs of care and concern. If a person’s experience of God is only or even overwhelmingly negative – if God persistently appears to people as arbitrary, or as demanding suffering for suffering’s sake, or in other words, as acting like a sadist, surely it’s monstrous to insist that there is something “good” about human acceptance of those terms of relationship. And if one advances the argument (as Job does) that there’s nothing human beings can do to affect the terms of the relationship that God offers humanity, that makes it worse, not better. The implicit argument there, then, is that God gets to do whatever God wants, just because God is the most powerful being in all of Reality. And while that may be Realistic, it does not seem to be what we mean by Good.

I understand that analogies can only go so far when it comes to God, so that it’s undeniably wrong to apply the logic of girlfriends and boyfriends to this theological situation. But still – we all know that if our best friend were in a relationship with someone who was never kind and often cruel, who was even actively punitive, who caused them extremes of suffering, without explanation, and who occasionally shows up and points out that they really shouldn’t say anything because they don’t know what they’re talking about – we would encourage them to break up. We would feel it our duty as their friend.

I don’t feel it’s my duty to encourage people to break up with God. Largely because I don’t feel God is “that way,” despite the objective evidence of bads in the world around us. Because there’s good here, too; too much good to ignore, it seems to me, on balance.

I do feel it’s OK to question the wisdom of taking the “indifferent love of God” too far, though. The question, “Does Job fear God for naught?” comes from the Satan, after all. It’s a malicious question, a question calculated to obscure the nature of Goodness, and what’s important about Goodness. And the malice of the question itself comes from a kind of ignorance about love, and goodness, it seems to me.

At some point, Goodness must show itself as Goodness. That’s how Goodness … is. If we had to think that would never happen, and that it would be better for it never to happen, so that people could love God with a “pure,” “disinterested” kind of love, and that in order to realize our own “good” we would have to persist into eternity in the absence of that revelation – well, that would be a lie, I think, a lie about the nature of love and of the Good.

Of course, in our current condition we might be confused in a lot of ways about the nature of Goodness. We may, no doubt, have it confused with things that are not, really, all that Good – with health and wealth and leisure and so on, for instance. And to the extent that we call our confusion pleasant and good, to that extent the experiencing of that fog lifting, and of our confusion dissipating, might initially feel unpleasant, like suffering, or even like death.

Even then, however, even with our confusion, it seems to me that we cannot honestly imagine anything other than this: that the closer we get to loving God with all our hearts and souls and minds for Godself, instead of for ourselves and our self-interest, the closer we get to that love ultimately being its own reward. But – if it’s a reward, it will feel rewarding. And then, there we will be, not having loved God for naught after all. Not even able to do that, in the very nature of the thing.

I don’t see a way around this.

I can’t imagine it being any different.

WORKS CITED:

The Bible. New Revised Standard Version.

Gutierrez, Gustavo. On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent . Translated from the Spanish by Matthew J. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

Murphy, Roland E. The Book of Job: A Short Reading . New York: Paulist Press, 1999.

Nemo, Philippe. Job and the Excess of Evil . Translated by Michael Kigel, postface by Emmanuel Levinas. PittsburghDuquesne University Press. 1998.

Ticciati, Susannah. Job and the Disruption of Identity: Reading Beyond Barth. London: T&T Clark, 2005.

abstract image painging of suffering Job

Volume 40 - Issue 2

Five truths for sufferers from the book of job.

The book of Job is an obvious place to turn when a Christian suffers, but it is not easy to discern what God means to teach his people through this difficult book. This article interprets Job’s teaching on suffering from five broad perspectives: (1) God’s purpose in allowing suffering; (2) how Job “diversifies” our interpretations of suffering; (3) what God requires of us when we suffer; (4) what promises God makes about the end of suffering; and (5) how Job-like suffering grants us a new vision of God.

How does the book of Job help disciples of Jesus Christ remain faithful to God as they suffer—or walk alongside others who suffer—in ways that are extreme and inexplicable? Job is an obvious place to turn to when one is overwhelmed with pain, but it is easy for a casual reader to leave the book more mystified than encouraged. Job is an easy candidate for the Old Testament’s most difficult book. In addition to the textual and philological problems (which a good translation will negotiate for the reader), it is often difficult to understand what the participants in the debate are saying, and why. God’s answer to Job is also difficult to understand: why would 34 verses be given describing what is apparently a crocodile (41:1–34)? How is that supposed to help Job, and us as readers?

This essay certainly will not resolve or even address many of the problems of the book. For all its challenges, however, I believe the book of Job speaks directly to faithful sufferers in ways that, if not simple, are clear and encouraging. In my opinion, the book of Job is a greatly underused resource for endurance in discipleship in the midst of deep pain. I would like to explore five ways the book addresses suffering in the following pages.

It is important to clarify at the outset, however, that the book of Job is not universally relevant and is not intended to be. Human suffering is varied: sometimes the causes of pain are obvious, and sometimes God’s purpose in allowing it clear. But Job found himself in a kind of agony that was beyond all proportion, and one which he was at a loss to explain. For instance, he spends most of ch. 10 testing and rejecting different hypotheses as to why God might have allowed the tragedy of chs. 1–2: “Let me know why you contend against me!” (10:2). Job suffered in a peculiarly excruciating and confusing way, and his story addresses that kind of experience. But to say this is not to limit the relevance of the book, for Job-like suffering is extremely common. I would wager that everyone reading this piece either has experienced the peculiar kind of extreme, inexplicable suffering portrayed in the book of Job or knows someone who has.

Let us consider five main ways in which the book of Job addresses and interprets suffering, defines God’s role in it, and reveals what God expects of us as we suffer. As we do, the God who inspired this text will help us, like Job, to bless his name whether he gives or takes (1:21) and gain a new vision of the Lord (42:5).

1. Loving God “for Nothing”

I believe a key to interpreting the book of Job is found early in the first chapter in the Accuser’s 1 question, “Does Job fear God for no reason?” (1:9). Clearly the expected answer is negative: the Accuser is implying that Job is not faithful and obedient to God for God’s sake, but only because of secondary blessings which accrue in the relationship. Take those away, the Accuser says, and Job will openly curse God (v. 11). 2 A curse does not, of course, refer to obscene speech in the OT but is the act of abominating someone or something, regarding it as utterly ugly, worthless, and execrable. The accusation is that a relationship with God—with God —is impossible, because Job loves the gifts more than the Giver. Once the gifts are taken away, the game of “bribery and payoffs” will stop, 3 and Job will curse God by cutting off his relationship with God, by demeaning God as unworthy of love or trust.

This is the issue at stake in the book of Job: will human beings continue in a relationship with God in which all they gain from the relationship is God? Or are we just too selfish? Is our piety just for show? Will we ever treat God as anything more than a business partner or a means to an end? The opening chapters of Job show God putting his beloved servant in a position in which he loses every other reason to stay in a relationship with God except God himself. It starts to cost Job dearly to hold on to his relationship with God. As Thomas Merton writes, “if we love God for something less than himself, we cherish a desire that can fail us. We run the risk of hating Him if we do not get what we hope for.” 4

This is an issue of deep relevance for God’s people under the new covenant. This is the case because, while the outward form of the secondary blessings is not the same for us—faithful Christians are not promised wealth, cattle, and many slaves (1:2–3)—we all enjoy benefits in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ which are secondary to the ultimate blessing of the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and communion with God. Speaking personally, I never could have married the woman I did and started a family if it had not been for God’s grace at work in my life for many years before I met her. As I read Job 1–2, I must ask myself: if my family were suddenly killed in a car accident, would I praise God any less as I grieved and mourned that very real loss? For that is the meaning of Job’s worship in 1:20–21: without suppressing his pain, he considers God no less worthy of worship when he takes than when he gives. In other words, Job’s relationship with God is entirely on terms of grace: since everything he enjoyed was a gift from on high rather than reward for good behavior, God is not to be faulted when it is taken away. On the other hand, if God allows a Christian to suffer some great and painful loss, and if the Christian’s response is, “How dare you, Lord? You’ve betrayed me!,” then that Christian’s motives for faithfulness are (shall we say) less noble than Job’s.

We are only at the first chapter of a long and complicated book, and the Accuser’s question is only four words in Hebrew ( הַחִנָּם יָרֵא אִיּוֹב אֱלֹהִים , 1:9). But already we are deep into the complexities of the book of Job. Part of what the prologue of Job teaches is that sometimes God temporarily interrupts his normal policy of giving earthly blessings to his saints (remember Job’s restoration in 42:10–17) and puts us in a position where we have every earthly reason to give up on God. Sometimes God will appear to act like an enemy (13:24), like someone who has betrayed us. Furthermore, there is a sense in which God must allow these temporary and tragic interruptions in his goodness if he is to prove the reality of our relationship with him. This is the case because a relationship with God for God’s sake is the only kind of relationship that will save us. The true character of our faith—whether we have faith at all—is exposed in this kind of crucible.

This is probably why God does not simply rebuke the Accuser in 1:12, as he does in Zech 3:2. YHWH allows a terrifying test to confirm and solidify and demonstrate that a relationship with himself, for his own sake, is actually possible. Although he was not discussing the book of Job, C. S. Lewis expressed this issue well as he journeyed through the collapse of his faith:

If my house has collapsed at one blow, that is because it was a house of cards. The faith which “took things into account” was not faith but imagination. . . . It has been an imaginary faith playing with innocuous counters labelled “Illness,” “Pain,” “Death,” and “Loneliness.” I thought I trusted the rope until it mattered to me whether it would bear me. Now that it matters, I find it didn’t.

Bridge-players tell me that there must be some money on the game, “or else people won’t take it seriously.” Apparently it’s like that. . . . [Y]ou will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high; until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world. Nothing less will shake a man—or at any rate a man like me—out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself. 5

When God allows extreme and inexplicable suffering, when he appears to treat those who love him as if he hates them, the book of Job teaches that God is delivering us from our trivialization of God as a means to our ends and giving us opportunity, in the midst of unhidden and public grief (1:20), to worship God as God, for his own sake, regardless of any secondary blessing we might gain or lose. Such worship is painful, costly, and deeply honoring to God as the Lord and not a pet deity. Without these tragic experiences, even the best among us will slowly and unconsciously drift away from Job’s costly and beautiful worship in the first chapter of this book. In suffering, God is saving us, delivering us into a relationship with himself where he is actually God and Lord.

2. Three Kinds of Suffering

My sense is that current North American evangelical culture basically has two explanations for suffering: sin on our part or God’s work of growing us as Christians. Both are, of course, thoroughly biblical. With regard to the former, David writes that his wounds “stink and fester” because of his own foolishness (Ps 38:5). Similarly, David’s great psalm of repentance expresses the wish that the bones God has broken would rejoice (Ps 51:8). David is in pain, but it is no mystery why—and clearly the best response in such pain is repentance.

The second explanation of suffering mentioned above is clearly taught in the NT. James urges us counter-intuitively to regard trials as joy, because God is working perseverance in us—which ends in the very precious state of a Christian mature and complete, lacking nothing (1:2–4; cf. Rom 5:3–5). When God allows pain in order to grow us as Christians, the appropriate response is to “make every effort” (2 Pet 1:5) to supplement to our faith whatever virtue or blessing God intends to give through this painful means. John Owen wisely asks in this regard whether we have received “any eminent mercy, protection, deliverance, which thou didst not improve in due manner . . . or hast thou been exercised with any affliction without laboring for the appointed end of it?” 6

Neither of these valid explanations is, however, relevant to Job. The book is at pains to show us that it is not because of any fault in Job’s life that his affliction comes—quite the contrary, it is just his exemplary piety which attracts such unfortunate attention (1:8). YHWH’s praise of his servant is quite remarkable, for the phrase “none like him in all the earth” is most often used for God (Ps 86:8) and only one other time refers to a human being in the OT (1 Sam 10:24). 7 This is high praise indeed!

Similarly, we cannot explain Job’s suffering in terms of some immaturity or inadequacy in his faith. YHWH is not trying to grow his servant spiritually, because Job already shows all the signs of a mature saint. It is true, of course, that there is some uncertainty and perhaps excessive carefulness at the beginning of Job’s story in 1:4–5 (Job may be referencing this when he speaks of that fear which now comes upon him in 3:25). And Job does end the book by confessing his new and far more profound knowledge of God (42:5). But in terms of his moral character and the practice of his faith, Job is blameless (1:1). Not even the Accuser can find fault with him. Job shows all the virtues that Proverbs describes. In fact, after reading ch. 31, it is hard to imagine what more Job could have done to love God and neighbor in costly and beautiful ways. Nowhere in the book is it suggested that God allows the tragedy of chs. 1–2 to give Job some virtue or moral quality that he is lacking.

There is a second and more subtle reason why Job’s suffering cannot be explained in terms of spiritual growth. It is significant that the terms of the test in 1:9–12 exclude any secondary blessing whatsoever outside of God himself. Although the blessings listed are familial and financial, if Job received some spiritual blessing or virtue from his ordeal, it would be possible for the Accuser to repeat his accusation, this time with reference to a different part of Job’s life. I think there is a sense in which Job cannot benefit in any way from his ordeal except with regard to a deeper experience of and intimacy with God. And it is on just this note that Job’s final speech ends (42:5–6), instead of some kind of progress in holiness.

It appears that we need a third category of suffering. Sometimes God allows pain and loss that have nothing to do with sin in our lives and are not meant to teach us anything. Rather, our loss and bewilderment become an avenue by which God gives himself to us more than he ever could have before, when we were at ease (29:6). When God puts us into a position where we must hold onto our relationship with God for God’s sake only—in which we stand to gain nothing but God—we start to receive him more fully than we ever had before. Job’s amazed cry, “Now my eyes see you,” becomes our own (we will return to this at the end of this essay).

Attention to this aspect of the book of Job deepens and nuances how we interpret suffering and prevents us from well-intentioned torture of our friends who suffer, either by implicitly blaming them for their pain or by reducing their tragedy to moral lessons. The word “torture” may seem extreme, but that is how Job experienced the “help” of his “friends” (19:22). After all, anyone who has (for instance) suffered the loss of a child and then been blamed for it, or been told God is trying to teach them something, knows how bitter that kind of “help” is (cf. 6:5–7). When walking with a friend through traumatic suffering, it may be appropriate to find a time to ask if there is some sin which God is bringing to the surface, or some growth edge which this pain is exposing. But if one’s friend cannot find any unconfessed sin or area in which spiritual growth is needed, the friend may be undergoing a Job-like experience.

3. God’s Requirement for us in Job-like Suffering

When God allows tremendous and seemingly inexplicable pain, what does he expect from us? If we can find no explanation of our pain in relation to our sins or God’s good desire to grow us into maturity, what does God want us to do?

The answer in the book of Job is surprisingly simple. The Accuser predicted that Job would curse God when he lost everything (1:11)—that Job would give up on God, cut off his relationship with him and demean God as unworthy of any love or worship. In fact, Job did the opposite and blessed God when God seemed to be cursing him (1:21). 8 So far as I can tell, YHWH had no other requirement for his servant throughout the book. Although YHWH will confront some of the foolish things Job has said in the dialogues (38:3), God never rebukes Job for any sin.

When we find ourselves in Job-like suffering, what God wants from us is not complicated: we are to hold on to our relationship with him and not give up on him. Like Job, we may say some very foolish things about God in our pain. Like Job, these careless words will cause us intense pain when God restores us, as they did for Job (42:6). But God’s response to this foolish speech is extraordinarily gentle—although he does tell Job to prepare himself for the encounter (38:3), his initial question implies only that Job did not really know what he was talking about (v. 2). This is an extremely gracious way to respond to someone who has said just about everything negative one can say without cursing God.

In fact, in light of the “dark” things (38:2) Job has said about God, it is surprising that Job does not curse God. If it really is true that God destroys both blameless and wicked and laughs at the calamity of the innocent (9:22–24, a passage which summarizes Job’s case against God), why would anyone continue in their relationship with such a person? Wouldn’t one cut off their relationship with that kind of deity just on principle? But in the midst of his protest, Job finds within himself a contradictory drive to hold on to God, and a hope that he will somehow be reconciled to him (13:13–23, 19:25–27). D. A. Carson puts this well when he writes that even Job’s “demand that God present himself before Job and give an answer is the cry of a believer seeking to find out what on earth God is doing. Even while sitting in the ash pit, Job trusts God enough to express extraordinary confidence in him, and for no ulterior motive.” 9

So also saints in the new covenant, when they find themselves in deep pain that seems to have no point, will find themselves saying with Job, “Though he slay me, yet I will trust him” (13:15). Like Job, we endure (Jas 5:11), “not in serenity and tranquility, but in the energy to persist in faith . . . in the midst of contrary experiences.” 10 And like Job, they too will be vindicated for it (42:7–10). This is God’s expectation for us when we suffer in a Job-like way: not to give up on God, and to wait for him to restore us, whether in this life or the life of the world to come. 11

4. God’s Present Delight in Creation and His Final Defeat of all Evil

Job is an exhausting book, not the least because the dialogue between Job and his opponents (chs. 3–37) seem designed to frustrate the reader in both its length and lack of resolution. We are supposed to conclude that the human participants in this drama have absolutely no answer to Job’s problem, no matter how long they talk about it. By way of contrast, Job seems entirely resolved and reconciled to the God he has criticized throughout the book by the end of YHWH’s speeches (42:1–6). 12 Despite this, however, the reader may not share Job’s sense of relief and resolution. How is it that dozens of questions about different parts of creation and the animals in it (38:4–39:30) and long descriptions of what appear to be a hippopotamus (40:15–24) and a crocodile (41:1–34) elicit such awed worship in Job?

One common answer is that these speeches express the limitless power and wisdom of God. 13 Although this is not totally wrong, it does not quite explain Job’s change from protest to praise, because Job never denied that YHWH was powerful or (in a certain sense) wise. In 9:4 and 12:13, Job attributes to God just these two qualities—but in context, this attribution only deepens Job’s terror of God (see 9:5–18 and 12:14–25). This may sound strange, since wisdom is usually associated with moral uprightness in the OT (Prov 1:2–3). Job is using the word “wisdom” in chs. 9 and 12 to mean “effective ability” (a connotation it has elsewhere, such as Eccl 2:9). Since Job is deeply suspicious of YHWH’s righteousness at this stage of his story, the moral and ethical dimensions of the term do not seem to be in play.)

But if YHWH does not simply or only affirm his power and wisdom in his two speeches, how do they effect such a great change in Job? We can only examine these complicated chapters cursorily, but it is significant how they directly answer different aspects of Job’s protest in ways that explain Job’s about-face from criticism to worship. In 38:4–7, for instance, YHWH describes the founding of the earth in a way that counters Job’s conviction that God destroys the good order of creation by shaking the earth out of its foundations (9:6) and that the earth is under the control of the worst sort of people (9:24). Job has, understandably but wrongly, pulled into himself in his pain, viewing everything through the lens of his tragedy. In his eyes, the world is a sinister, chaotic mess. God expands Job’s vision to show him beings higher than himself unable to restrain their praise (38:7) as God establishes the very place Job has “darkened.” Similarly, 38:12–15 shows the moral edge to creation. The poetry is complex, but the description of the rising sun chasing the wicked away (v. 13) and breaking their arm (a symbol for strength, v. 15) implies that there is a moral edge to the architecture of creation. The order of creation resists evil—a very different perspective from Job’s in his protest. The description of the sea in 38:8–11 is especially striking in that it activates one of the most powerful biblical symbols for chaos and evil (cf. Ps 18:5–6, Hab 3:15, Rev 21:1). 14 Most often in OT poetry, YHWH wages war against the chaotic watery powers (e.g., Job 7:12, 26:11–13). Here, he treats the sea like an infant as he diapers it (v. 9), even though it is still resisting him! That is the meaning of the reference in v. 11 to the “proud waves” of the sea—even though it does not submit to him, YHWH still cares for this part of his creation as he restricts and contains it. YHWH is communicating to his scarred servant that he does allow some chaotic and sinister elements in his creation (such as the predators of 39:26–30), but only within strict limits (vv. 8, 10)—and he is far gentler and kinder even with chaos than Job has imagined. Creation is a good place in which God delights, not an amoral jungle ruled by an arbitrary tyrant, as Job had imagined.

YHWH’s second speech in chs. 40–41 deepens his engagement with Job’s protest. The animals described here are animals, but they stand for something more, similar to the serpent of Genesis 3:1 or the unclean animals inhabiting the waste places of divine judgment in Isaiah 13:20–22 and 34:14–15. Leviathan is a symbol for supernatural chaos elsewhere in the OT (as in Job 3:8, Isa 27:1; recall the fleeing serpent of Job 26:13). Furthermore, although the evidence is sparser, there are references in ANE literature to a chaos monster similar in description to Behemoth. 15 Failure to recognize the supernatural symbolism of these animals short-circuits the rhetorical strategy of these chapters. If YHWH is describing his prowess only over two animals which one might visit in a zoo, the speech becomes irrelevant to Job, not to mention a little pathetic. What is a man mourning dead children supposed to say to a deity who boasts of capturing a hippo? 16

But if Behemoth and Leviathan symbolize supernatural chaos which resists God, then the resolution to Job’s protest clicks into place: YHWH is allowing that there is a great evil at loose in his creation, but he promises one day to defeat it (40:19, 41:8). In fact, YHWH “raises the stakes” in this chapter by giving Job a close-up picture of an evil which Job is aware of (Job refers to Leviathan in 3:8) but cannot fully comprehend. It is as if YHWH directs Job’s gaze to a massive, writhing monster which Job cannot even touch, much less engage with in combat. Only Behemoth’s maker can bring a sword near to kill it (40:19), and only YHWH can and will engage in battle with Leviathan (41:8).

Tone is difficult to detect in a written work, but a feeling of joy seems to pervade these chapters. YHWH’s description of his world and his manner of ruling it in chs. 38–41 is anything but apologetic or defensive. Without being idealistic or unrealistic, YHWH goes so far as to praise his opponent (41:12–34). The person who most clearly sees everything which is wrong with creation is the person most enthusiastic about it. There is a kind of staggering joy driving the description of Leviathan. Perhaps that is the monster’s ultimate defeat, that our Savior is not only unintimidated by his opponent, but positively cheerful as he looks forward to the day when he pierces the fleeing serpent (26:13). What would it be to view creation with that kind of irrepressible, divine joy, before the redemption of all things?

These are complex chapters, but they are deeply encouraging to us as we suffer and wait before the redemption of all things, when God scours all evil out of his creation and makes it new. God’s present manner of ruling over creation is to allow evil some limited agency—for a time. The promise of the coming battle (41:8) helps us persevere when he allows evil some limited agency over us (for a time), and deepens our yearning for that day when we see him engage in glorious battle with a power we cannot now even fully comprehend.

In his new commentary on Job, Christopher Ash expresses this wonderfully when he writes,

[The] assurance that he [God] can do all things and that no purpose of his can be thwarted is the comfort I need in suffering and the encouragement I crave when terrified by evil. He does not merely permit evil but commands it, controls it, and uses it for his good purposes. . . . [The] God who knows how to use supernatural evil to serve his purposes of ultimate good can and will use the darkest invasion of my life for his definite and invincible plans for my good in Christ. 17

5. “Now My Eyes See You:” A New Vision of God

Job ends the book by worshipfully confessing that he has gained a whole new vision of God (42:5), a vision so great that all his previous knowledge of God is like unreliable second-hand information by comparison. Since Job is already exemplary in piety (1:8), this is quite a statement! What new insight does Job get at the end of the book? Job already knew about Leviathan (3:8), and none of YHWH’s questions in chs. 38–39 are especially difficult—even when they have to do with things Job does not understand, the questions themselves are not difficult to answer. 18 So Job does not appear to have received new information about God.

Job wholeheartedly submits to God’s particular way of ruling over creation before the redemption of all things. He is entirely reconciled to a world in which children sometimes die, and the best kind of lives are sometimes the most miserable. As he withdraws his complaint of injustice (cf. 40:7), he sees YHWH as God and Lord in a whole new way. By analogy, if a human friend allowed the death of one of my children or the destruction of my property, and did not apologize or explain himself to me, I would “curse” that former friend in that I would not continue in my relationship with him—and I would be justified in so doing. But God allows just such a tragedy to happen to Job, and he does not apologize or explain himself. Job remains forever ignorant of the true cause of his suffering (1:6–12; 2:1–6). So when Job worships this God, it proves how different his relationship with God is from every other relationship he has. It proves how much Job values God over any other relationship. Job sees YHWH in a whole new way as the Lord .

The same is true for modern readers of the book. When we suffer without knowing why and persist in our relationship with God without any explanation or apology from him, we too will have God stand before us as the Lord in a whole new way, as God in a way totally different from any other relationship we have.

6. Conclusion

The book of Job is not relevant in every circumstance, but Job-like experiences are all too common. This book teaches us that this kind of suffering is not a sign of God’s anger, or even a way to improve our moral quality as Christians. It is an avenue through which God reveals himself to us more profoundly than he ever could have in our safety and comfort. Job-like suffering becomes a context to love, honor and remain faithful to God for God’s sake, irrespective of any secondary blessings he might give, as we accept his present administration of ruling over a still-dangerous creation. The book of Job narrates how these times of suffering are temporary (42:10–12) and terminate in a new vision of God as God. In so doing, this difficult and challenging book speaks in clear and strengthening ways to Christians suffering and trying to remain faithful in their agony. 19

Finally, the ways in which the book of Job portrays and interprets suffering in God’s economy anticipate and pre-figure the Lord Jesus. If Job was blameless and upright in his relationship with God (1:1), Jesus was even more so. If Job innocently suffered the wrath of God in order to further God’s purposes, defeat the schemes of the Accuser, and prove the all-surpassing worth of knowing God, Jesus did even more so. If Job shows us imperfect but genuine trust in God in inexplicable suffering, Jesus shows us the same theme perfectly in his prayer in garden. And if Job ends with a vision of a universe cleansed of all evil, we see in Jesus how God actually brings Job’s hope about. As Ash writes, “It is not until the New Testament that we learn what it cost God to win this victory over the Leviathan.” 20 In sum, the book of Job shows us, in outline form, a greater Job, who suffered even more deeply than that OT saint, in whom God’s purposes were furthered even more deeply, who holds our hand as his leads us, in some measure, through his own pain.

[1] I refer to “the Accuser” above because it better captures the nuance of הַשָֹּטָן for an ancient Israelite audience than “Satan.” The noun with the definite article refers to a role, not a proper name. Within the context of the entire canon of Scripture, I do identify this figure with Satan in the NT (cf. Rev 12:9); but since ancient Israelites would not have been able to draw these connections, I prefer the more general term “the Accuser” when discussing the book of Job. See further discussion and other references in Norman Habel, The Book of Job , OTL (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985), 89, and C. L. Seow, Job 1–21 , Illuminations (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 272–74.

[2] The Hebrew actually reads ברך , “bless,” here and throughout the chapter (1:5, 10–11, 21; 2:5, 9). The usual theory is that the scribes “euphemized” the text to avoid having anyone say “curse God,” but this phrase occurs elsewhere in the OT (Exod 22:27, Isa 8:21). While it may be an example of “antiphrasm” (a word being used in the opposite sense of its normal meaning [C. L. Seow, Job 1–21 , 271]), Tod Linafelt notes that each verse can be translated as “bless” (“The Undecidability of ברך in the Prologue to Job and Beyond,” BibInt 4 [1996]: 154–72). The issue is somewhat academic, since the point is the same either way.

[3] Michael Fox aptly paraphrases the accusation that YHWH and Job are only “colluding in a game of bribery and payoffs” (“Job the Pious,” ZAW 117 [2005]: 360).

[4] Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island , reprint ed. (San Diego: Harvest, 1985), 18.

[5] C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed , reprint ed. (New York: Bantam, 1976), 42–43.

[6] John Owen, “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers,” in The Works of John Owen , ed. William Goold, reprint ed. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1995), 6:48.

[7] D. J. A. Clines. Job 1–20 , WBC 17 (Dallas: Word, 1989), 24. One of the ironies of the book is that although the friends, in their maniacal determination to condemn Job, insist that God “puts no trust in his servants” (4:18, cf. 25:4–6), chs. 1–2 show YHWH doing exactly that as he entrusts his reputation to Job, who is specified as YHWH’s servant (1:8).

[8] It takes us a little outside the purview of this essay, but within an OT framework, Job’s sufferings in chs. 1–2 are similar enough to the curses of Deut 28 or various proverbs (e.g., 10:27–31) that they would have looked like divine judgment for sin. Similarly, Job’s boils in 2:7 are the same affliction promised to disobedience in Deut 28:27, 35. This is why Job—incorrectly but understandably—speaks of the anger of God against him (16:9).

[9] D. A. Carson, How Long, Oh Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil , 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 124.

[10] Bruce Waltke with Charles Yu, An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Thematic, and Canonical Approach (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 936.

[11] In Phil 1:19, the echo of Job 13:16 suggests that Paul seems to be talking about perseverance in faith in the midst of suffering, not only his release from prison (see further Moisés Silva, “Philippians,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament , ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson [Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007], 836, as well as the now-classic discussion of Richard Hays in Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul [New Haven: Yale University, 1989], 21–24).

[12] The passage, and especially v. 6, is difficult and can be taken different ways. See the various possibilities listed in Thomas Krüger, “Did Job Repent?,” Das Buch Hiob und seine Interpretationen: Beiträge zum Hiob-Symposium auf dem Monte Verità vom 14.–19. August 2005 , ed. Thomas Krüger, et. al., ATANT 88 (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 2007), 217–29. I understand Job’s use of נחם to be meaningfully ambiguous: Job both repents of his criticisms of God and is comforted about his frailty and weakness (“dust and ashes,” as in Gen 18:27). In other words, Job is reconciled to the fact that, as dust and ashes, he can suffer so greatly, and repents of criticizing God for allowing it.

[13] See, for instance, Daniel Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 114, and Derek Kidner, The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1985), 71. The issues involved in interpreting these speeches are very intricate, of course, and various interpretations have been offered. For more options and fuller bibliography, see Leo Perdue, Wisdom in Revolt: Metaphorical Theology in the Book of Job , JSOTSup 29 (Sheffield: Almond, 1991), 197–98.

[14] “Sea,” Dictionary of Biblical Imagery , ed. Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 765–66.

[15] The goddess Anat describes a “divine calf” that she has defeated right after a reference to the seven-headed dragon in the Baal Epic ( KTU 1.3 III 34–43). Similarly, Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight the “Bull of Heaven” in the sixth tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic. Othmar Keel also documents how ancient Egyptians portrayed the chaotic Seth as both a hippopotamus and a crocodile in his contests with Horus ( Jahwes Entgegnung an Ijob , FRLANT 121 [Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978], 127–31).

[16] It should also be noted that ancient Egyptians could and did capture both hippopotami and crocodiles—so if Yahweh is here talking only of natural creatures, his rhetorical questions lose all force. See John Day, God’s Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea: Echoes of a Canaanite Myth in the Old Testament , University Of Cambridge Oriental Publications 35 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 65, 77, who references Herodotus 2.70. But, as above, this is a very cursory stab at a cluster of more complex issues. A more involved argument for a supernatural interpretation of Leviathan is given in Eric Ortlund, “The Identity of Leviathan and the Meaning of the Book of Job,” TJ 34 (2013): 17–30.

[17] Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross , Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 424.

[18] Michael Fox superbly shows how God’s questions in chs. 38–39 are not sarcastic or demeaning, nor meant to humiliate Job with his inferior knowledge. They are rather intended to draw Job’s eyes back to God, for however varied the question, the answer is the same: “Only you, Lord, can understand and control that” (“God’s Answer and Job’s Response,” Bib 94 [2013]: 1–23)

[19] Readers interested in reflecting on these themes further are directed to Robert Yarbrough, “Christ and the Crocodiles: Suffering and the Goodness of God in Contemporary Perspective,” in Suffering and the Goodness of God , ed. Christopher Morgan and Robert Peterson, Theology in Community (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 23–45. Although written from a broader perspective on suffering, Yarbrough’s reflections intersect with this study of the book of Job in a number of ways.

[20] Job , 422. Ash is one of the very few modern commentators who persistently pursues the Christological dimension of the book of Job. I recommend his work highly to any reader interested in exploring that subject further, even if I had some lingering questions about his approach. For instance, I suspect Ash is the first reader of Job to find a hint of Christ in the strange ostrich of 39:13–18 ( Job , 398). More substantially, Ash connects Job’s innocent suffering under God’s wrath with Christ’s suffering under the same (as I do above), and also notes the NT theme of the believer’s participation in Christ’s suffering (e.g., Mark 10:38–39). From there, it is no great leap to find in Job’s laments in chs. 3–31 a description of the suffering which Christians will sometimes undergo ( Job , 187, 206, 436). Although the point is well taken, I wonder if this reading gives sufficient account to the way in which Job misinterprets his experience: although Job does not know it, God is not accusing him (10:14) or directly breaking him “breach upon breach” (16:14). But this is not to detract from my admiration for Ash’s accomplishment in this area.

Eric Ortlund

Eric Ortlund is a tutor in Hebrew and Old Testament at Oak Hill College, London, England.

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The Book of Job

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The Book of Job , book of Hebrew scripture that is often counted among the masterpieces of world literature. It is found in the third section of the biblical canon known as the Ketuvim (“Writings”). The book’s theme is the eternal problem of unmerited suffering, and it is named after its central character, Job, who attempts to understand the sufferings that engulf him.

The Book of Job may be divided into two sections of prose narrative, consisting of a prologue (chapters 1–2) and an epilogue (chapter 42:7–17), and intervening poetic disputation (chapters 3–42:6). The prose narratives date to before the 6th century bce , and the poetry has been dated between the 6th and the 4th century bce . Chapters 28 and 32–37 were probably later additions.

The Book of Job’s artful construction accounts for much of its impact. The poetic disputations are set within the prose framework of an ancient legend that originated outside Israel. This legend concerns Job, a prosperous man of outstanding piety. Satan acts as an agent provocateur to test whether or not Job’s piety is rooted merely in his prosperity. But faced with the appalling loss of his possessions, his children, and finally his own health, Job still refuses to curse God. Three of his friends then arrive to comfort him, and at this point the poetic dialogue begins. The poetic discourses—which probe the meaning of Job’s sufferings and the manner in which he should respond—consist of three cycles of speeches that contain Job’s disputes with his three friends and his conversations with God. Job proclaims his innocence and the injustice of his suffering , while his “comforters” argue that Job is being punished for his sins. Job, convinced of his faithfulness and uprighteousness, is not satisfied with this explanation. The conversation between Job and God resolves the dramatic tension—but without solving the problem of undeserved suffering. The speeches evoke Job’s trust in the purposeful activity of God in the affairs of the world, even though God’s ways with man remain mysterious and inscrutable.

BibleProject Guides

Guide to the Book of Job

Key Information and Helpful Resources

The book of Job opens with a curious courtroom scene where the satan, or the accuser, challenges God’s way of rewarding righteous people like Job. The satan says that Job is only acting righteous because of God’s generous provision. But if God were to let him truly suffer, then Job’s true character would emerge. God rejects that idea, saying Job will continue to live faithfully even in the face of intense suffering.

Using dense Hebrew poetry, the author lays out Job’s brutal experiences and his wife’s and friends’ speculations about why Job is suffering. Is he not a righteous man? Why would God allow this? Job accuses God of failing to operate the world with justice, and he asks God to explain himself. What unfolds after this exchange helps us see that God’s wisdom is more complex than we often imagine.

7:15 • Wisdom Series

Who Wrote the Book of Job?

We are not sure because the author is anonymous.

Job is set in a land far from Israel called Uz. The author does not set the story in any clear period of ancient history (though sometime between the 7th and 4th century B.C.E. is likely).

Literary Styles

Hebrew poetry and narrative

Trusting God’s wisdom amid human suffering
The goodness of God’s world
The relationship (or lack thereof) between suffering and punishment
The mystery of God’s justice

The book opens with a short narrative (the prologue in chapters 1-2) and closes with another short narrative (the epilogue in chapter 42). The central body of the book contains many conversations in dense Hebrew poetry.

The Story of Job

The author introduces Job as an upstanding man from the land of Uz who honors God. We read about his large family and prosperous estate, and it becomes clear that Job is wealthy—a man with everything to lose.

The author then transports readers to a heavenly courtroom where God is meeting with spiritual beings. Among them is a figure called the satan, which in Hebrew means “the one opposed.” God presents Job as an admirable and righteous man. But the satan dismisses this, saying that Job only serves God because of his blessings and protection over Job. The opposer is sure that if God stopped treating Job so generously, Job would curse God. God knows that Job’s faithfulness is not based on circumstance, so he allows the satan to inflict suffering on Job’s life, affecting his family, riches, and health.

At this point, many of us are wondering why God would allow a good person to suffer this injustice. It’s an important question, and the prologue helps us get to the root: Does God’s justice mean he rewards and punishes people based on their behavior? And if good people suffer, does that mean God isn’t just? The book of Job explores this question and offers a surprising answer in the conclusion. But before we get to that, we’ll see how Job’s friends try to make sense of his suffering and God’s role in it.

Dialogue of Job and His Friends

Chapters 3-37 are full of dense Hebrew poetry that helps readers visualize a heated debate between Job and his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. The friends assume that God orders the world by a principle of retributive justice—if you’re wise and honor God, he will reward you with good outcomes, but if you are foolish and dishonor God, he will punish you with harsh circumstances. As the friends witness Job’s suffering, they conclude he must be guilty of wrongdoing. Job defends his integrity. While he agrees that bad deeds deserve punishment, he knows he’s innocent. So he speculates that God must be punishing him without cause. The friends passionately disagree, insisting that Job must have done something wrong.

Job and his friends argue back and forth in three cycles found in chapters 13-14, 15-21, and 22-28. Their debating continues until Job tires of responding to them and takes his complaints directly to God. His prayers show us the depth of his agony, confusion, and despair. He accuses God of being against him and guilty of coordinating all the injustices in the world. But then he realizes that can’t be right—God must be fair and all-powerful. But he still can’t reconcile why all these terrible things have happened to him, and he demands that God explain himself.

This section ends with the reply of a new friend, Elihu. He draws a more complex conclusion about why people might suffer. Elihu says that God may not be punishing them. Maybe God uses suffering for warning or building character. Unlike Job’s other friends, Elihu doesn’t claim to know why Job is suffering. But he is sure of one thing: Job is not qualified to judge God.

Job E3: Job vs. Elihu

God’s Response to Job

In a surprising turn, God visits Job in a powerful storm and responds to his prayers. A whirlwind of rhetorical questions exposes Job’s lack of understanding. God asks whether or not Job helped him create the cosmos or set the constellations in place. Has he ever awakened the sun or managed the Earth’s weather? Would he like to oversee the world for a day, according to his narrow principle of justice? God’s questions dismantle many of Job’s assumptions about justice, proving that the world is far more complicated than he ever imagined.

God then goes on to describe two terrifying creatures, the Behemoth and Leviathan. These creatures symbolize the dangers that exist in God’s world, illustrating that while the world is good, it’s not always safe and does not operate as humans assume. God’s world is beautiful, but it is also wild and dangerous. Both are true, but God doesn’t explain why. By the end of God’s powerful speech, Job is convinced he would not even understand God’s answer. And this leads us to the final scene in the book.

God’s Response to Job’s Questions About Suffering

Job was from Uz, an obscure land far from Israel. While Job followed the God of Israel, he was not himself an Israelite.

The Big Idea

God’s wisdom, goodness, and justice transcend our assumptions about fairness and push beyond the limitations of human reasoning.

Job humbly admits his narrow thinking that led him to accuse God of injustice. Job does not have sufficient knowledge to comprehend or pass judgment on God’s reasoning. But even without full knowledge of how God orders the universe, he can still choose to trust God’s wisdom and good character.

The book concludes with a short epilogue, showing how God restores Job’s losses and defends his character to his friends. God says their explanations of justice were inaccurate and clarifies that Job spoke truthfully about him. While Job was wrong to accuse God of injustice, he was right to eventually turn away from his friends’ accusations and trust God. Admitting his struggle and continuing to bring his questions to God in prayer was a faithful act from Job, and God is pleased with Job’s humility, honesty, and commitment to receive answers from him.

Reading Plan

Trusting God Through Suffering

The book of Job dismantles this idea. The whole story suggests that God's justice is more holistic, complex, and wise than any single human perspective can measure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most common questions people ask online about this book.

Job is the central character in the book of Job in the Hebrew Bible. The book\'s anonymous author portrays Job as a morally good non-Israelite from the land of Uz who experiences tremendous suffering.

Learn more about Job’s story by watching these videos.

Job Wisdom Series Video
Job Overview video

The author does not specify when the story takes place. However, historians and biblical scholars estimate that the author wrote it between the 7th and 4th centuries B.C.E.

The story takes place in the land of Uz, far from Israel. The author’s choice to spare many details about the setting (time and place) helps readers focus on the characters and plot development. However, the limited details reveal something meaningful. Dig into this deeper meaning by listening to the podcast episode below.

Job E2: Where on Earth is Uz?

Many of us have experienced or witnessed misery and wondered how God can be just when there is so much pain in the world he created. How can God’s justice and human suffering coexist?

Job and his friends wrestle with this question too.

We see Job as a despairing man in agony, longing for answers. We also see Job’s friends struggling to help. At times, they are well-intentioned and seem to care for Job. But in other moments, they are angry, defensive, ignorant, and judgmental. Job’s friends assume that suffering is always the result of God’s judgment—that it is always a form of punishment. Since God is just and Job is suffering, Job’s friends argue, then Job must be guilty of some kind of evil. But Job knows he’s not to blame for anything that could warrant his intense suffering, so he concludes that God must be unjust.

Readers experience a cosmic, behind-the-scenes view of Job processing his circumstances—we get to listen in on God’s responses to Job and his friends. As the story unfolds, the author continues to dismantle the idea that suffering must be a form of divine punishment.

Learn more:

The book of Job points to a God who is always acting with goodness and justice, including the times when people are experiencing or causing pain. A person’s suffering does not automatically mean he or she is receiving divine punishment. Suffering in our world is more complex, and Job shows us what it looks like to trust God’s justice and wisdom in the face of harmful or misguided assumptions about pain and where it comes from.

Reading Plan: Trusting God Through Suffering
Blog: The Story of Job: Discover How the Introduction Sets the Stage

Job realizes that he does not have sufficient knowledge to understand or pass judgment on God’s reasoning. Even without full knowledge of how God orders the universe, he chooses to trust God’s wisdom and good character. Job represents his grief by shaving his head and sitting in ashes, a common way of mourning in his world. In some ancient (and current) cultures, ashes symbolize death and mourning. Baldness symbolizes deprivation and a loss of strength.

Job loses everything—his property, his children, and his health—and he believes God is the one causing his suffering. Seeing nothing in his past that could justify such brutal treatment, Job questions God’s justice.

But through all of his questioning, Job still refuses to curse God. Instead, Job curses the day of his own birth. His blinding agony and confusion cause him to wish he had never been born.

The anonymous author does not overtly explain why Job praises God during his suffering, but a few details in the story offer clues.

When everything starts to fall apart, Job goes to his knees in worship and grief saying, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). The word “Lord” in our English translations often stands in for the personal name of God, “Yahweh.” This shows us Job’s personal relationship with God, which is likely part of the reason he praises God.

When Job’s wife tells him to curse God, Job responds, “Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). We also learn from Job’s prayer in Job 28 that, even though he cannot comprehend the complexities of divine wisdom, he still chooses to trust that God is truly good.

At the end of the book, God shows up in a whirlwind to respond to Job’s accusations. He guides Job on a virtual tour of the universe and asks him several rhetorical questions. Each question dismantles Job’s assumptions about justice, revealing that the world is more complex than Job had assumed.

Blog: God’s Response to Job’s Questions About Suffering

Downloads and Resources

Job Overview Poster

Scripture Reference Guide

Job Script References

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Article contents

Book of job.

Brian Doak Brian Doak Associate Provost for Academic Innovation, Libraries, and Research Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, George Fox University
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.654
Published online: 26 May 2021

The book of Job is the longest and most thematically and linguistically challenging of the “wisdom books” in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. In the book’s prologue (Job 1–2) the narrator introduces readers to a man named Job (Hebrew ‘iyyōb ; etymology unclear). Job’s prosperity extends into all areas of his life, and seems at least potentially linked to his moral status as completely righteous and blameless before God. The earthly scene then gives way to a heavenly setting, where a figure called “the accuser” (literally “the satan”; haśśātān ) appears before God. God boasts about Job’s righteousness, but the accuser counters, suggesting that Job’s moral achievement has been merely the byproduct of God’s protection. The accuser and God enter into a bet: Job’s children will be killed, Job’s possessions stripped, and Job’s body afflicted with a painful disease—all to see whether Job will curse God.

Job initially responds to the distress with pious statements, affirming God’s authority over his life. In a state of intense suffering, Job is joined by three friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and then eventually a fourth, Elihu—who offer rounds of speeches debating the reasons for Job’s situation (Job 3–37). Job responds to the friends in turn, alternately lamenting his situation and pleading for a chance to address God directly and argue his case as an innocent man. The friends accuse Job of committing some great sin to deserve his fate; they urge repentance, and defend God as a just ruler. God enters the dispute in a forceful whirlwind (Job 38), and proceeds for several chapters (Job 38–41) to overwhelm Job with resounding statements on creation (38:1–38), animal life (38:39–40:14), and visions of two powerful creatures, Behemoth (40:15–24) and Leviathan (41:1–11). The book ends with Job acknowledging to God the fact that he is overmatched in the face of divine power. God condemns the friends for not speaking “what is right, as my servant Job has” (42:7), and then restores Job’s lost possessions and children (42:10–17).

Job has enjoyed a rich reception history in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and, perhaps more than any other book in the Bible except Genesis, as a world literary classic in its own right. Within the Bible, it is the most bracing statement on the problem of suffering, as it presents a situation wherein a clearly righteous person suffers immensely—putting it at odds with more straightforward descriptions of why people suffer in Proverbs, Deuteronomy, and other texts. Scholarly research on Job has focused on the book’s place among other ancient Near Eastern wisdom materials, on questions of language (given the large amount of difficult Hebrew terms in the book), on historical-critical concerns about authorship and the way the book may have come together in its present form, and on the history of the translation of the text into Greek and other ancient languages. In the 21st century, interpreters have increasingly taken up readings of Job that situate it among concerns related to economics, disability, gender, and the history of its reception in many different eras and communities.

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Exegesis and Theology

The Blog of Brian Collins

Best Resources on the Book of Job

July 27, 2021 by Brian

Earlier this year I worked on a project for Lexham Press that involved the book of Job. Since I had a deadline, there was a limit to the number of resources I could consult. These are the resources I utilized.

Talbert, Layton. Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job . Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2007.

This is the first book that I would recommend to anyone beginning a study in Job. It’s not a commentary per se, and it doesn’t comment on detail on every verse (though see the endnotes for detailed interaction with the commentaries on key disputed points). Talbert’s book is a detailed, sequential guide to the book’s message and theology. It is the kind of book which the Puritans would have called experimental, meaning that Talbert desires for your study of Job to be transformative. Throughout he shows interpretative good sense—better interpretative sense than many of the commentators who wrote more detailed commentaries.

Ash, Christopher. Job: The Wisdom of the Cross . Edited by R. Kent Hughes. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.

This is an excellent, accessible commentary on Job, full of good interpretive sense and gospel warmth. I found myself in agreement with Ash’s interpretations more often than with any other commentator except Talbert. I recommend anyone wanting to study Job to start with Talbert and Ash.

Andersen, Francis I. Job: An Introduction and Commentary . Vol. 14. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1976.

This is a helpful evangelical study of Job by a scholar skilled in Hebrew. He is honest enough to note when the Hebrew text is currently beyond our understanding. In general, his judgments are good, though I hold to a more positive view of Elihu. The condensed nature of the writing makes this commentary difficult at times.

Belcher, Richard P., Jr. Job: The Mystery of Suffering and God’s Sovereignty. Christian Focus, 2017.

I read this commentary along with the Job chapters in Finding Favour in the Sight of God: A Theology of Wisdom Literature , in New Studies in Biblical Theology. I found both the Job chapters in the NSBT volume and the commentary itself, which is very accessible, to be helpful guides to Job. I tended to agree Talbert and Ash over Belcher when they disagreed, but I still commend Belcher’s work.

Seow, C. L. Job 1–21: Interpretation and Commentary . Edited by C. L. Seow. Illuminations. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013.

This is a critical commentary, and the author is too willing to see Job’s theology as being at odds with orthodoxy. Nevertheless, it is a helpful commentary for the following reasons: Seow is attentive to cross references within Job and with other parts of the Bible, he documents the history of interpretation of book of Job as a whole as well as the history of interpretation of each individual passage, and he comments on the Hebrew text. This commentary is worth consulting with discernment for these three reasons.

Fyall, Robert S. Now My Eyes Have Seen You: Images of Creation and Evil in the Book of Job . New Studies in Biblical Theology. Edited by D. A. Carson. InterVarsity, 2002.

One common error in using ancient Near Eastern background materials as a tool for understanding the Old Testament is the insistence that the pagan worldviews of the cultures surrounding Israel are the hermeneutical key for rightly understanding the Old Testament. Fyall explicitly rejects this approach, even as he argued for the appropriation of elements of Ugaritic mythology for rhetorical purposes in the book. I still think that Fyall needed to do more to demonstrate that the author and characters of Job would have been aware of Ugaritic myths. Such an argument, while necessary to Fyall’s thesis, is difficult to make given the difficulty of dating the book of Job. However, Fyall’s argumentation was not limited to ANE background. He also did a fair bit of convincing intertextual work. In the end he shifted my thinking on Behemoth and Leviathan from being descriptions of natural animals (perhaps a dinosaur and a crocodile) to seeing something supernatural as being in view. Fyall links Behemoth with Mot, the god of death and Leviathan with the god Yam, which he links with Satan. For the reasons noted above, I think the links with Mot and Yam are dubious. I wonder if it is best to see Behemoth and Leviathan as two names for one beast, a dragon representing Satan. God’s speeches to Job thus conclude with a warning that Job is not capable of defeating Satan on his own. Only God can do that for him.

Lo, Alison. Job 28 as Rhetoric: An Analysis of Job 28 in the Context of Job 22–31. VTSup 97. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003.

Job 28 and the surrounding chapters have become a playground for critical scholars. For instance, Clines proposes moving Job 28 to the end of Elihu’s speeches (and ascribing it to Elihu). He, and other scholars, think that if the speech is Job’s, the book comes to too early of a resolution. Many critical scholars also think that parts of Job 26 and 27 are more consistent with the speeches of the friends than with Job’s speeches up to that point. They propose rearranging the text to extend Bildad’s brief speech or to create a third speech for Zophar. Lo defends the integrity of the text as it stands. For instance, regarding chapter 26, Lo acknowledges that Job’s praise of God’s greatness echoes Bildad’s similar statement in chapter 25–right after Job has forcefully rejected Bildad’s position in the early part of the chapter. Lo argues that Job uses similar wording to make a different point, namely, that God’s greatness means that the friends are speaking beyond their understanding. Lo argues that chapter 28 is a speech of Job’s in which he reaffirms his fear of the Lord and of that as the path to wisdom. However, this does not resolve the problem for him since fearing the Lord and doing right did not prevent his suffering. Job 28 is thus an important transitional chapter in the book, but the resolution to Job’s struggle still lies ahead. All in all, this is a very insightful treatment of a key section of the book.

Robert V. McCabe, “Elihu’s Contribution to the Thought of the Book of Job,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal Volume 2 2 (1997): 47–80.

McCabe’s article is an insightful study of the importance that the Elihu discourses have in the book of Job. The Elihu speeches do several things. They delay the speeches of God, but in such a way as to prepare for them. McCabe thinks that Elihu has the same basic perspective as the friends. Thus his speeches summarize the friends’ position. Elihu also interacts with Job’s speeches directly, thus resurfacing his basic claims. Finally, Elihu anticipates elements of God’s speeches. In this way Elihu serves as an effective transition from the earlier speech cycles to God’s speeches.

Dunham, Kyle C. The Pious Sage in Job: Eliphaz in the Context of Wisdom Theodicy . Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016.

This book, a revision of Dunham’s ThD dissertation, surveys the history of interpretation related to Eliphaz, discusses him in relation to the Edomite wisdom tradition, and exegetes Eliphaz’s speeches.

Thomas, Derek. Proclaiming the Incomprehensible God: Calvin’s Teaching on Job . Mentor, 2004.

This book is a dissertation, and it reads like one. But it is a helpful study of Calvin’s treatment of Job.

Clines, David J. A. Job 1–20 . Vol. 17. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989. / Clines, David J. A. Job 21–37 . Vol. 18a. Word Biblical Commentary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006. / Clines, David J. A. Job 38–42 . Vol. 18B. Word Biblical Commentary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2011.

Clines’s massive three volume commentary on Job is considered a critical standard. He has detailed comments on the Hebrew text, and when key places or things occur in the text, the commentary becomes like a little Bible dictionary article. However, as I read the comments on the opening chapters I could tell that he was approaching the book from an Arminian theological viewpoint. As I read, I saw evidence of postmodern interpretive approaches at work. For instance, he interprets Job’s defense of his righteousness with a hostile, post-colonial hermeneutic of suspicion. Clines’s interpretation of the final chapters of the book hold that Job remained defiant to the end. My own sense was that Clines himself was angry with God. I can’t recommend this commentary and probably won’t use it again myself except to look at his grammatical notes on the Hebrew.

Dell, Katharine, and Will Kynes, eds. Reading Job Intertextually . New York; London; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2013.

Given that the introduction to the book and the introduction to most essays give a state of the play in intertextuality discussions, this is a good introduction to that topic. Notably, there is an emphasis on reader-oriented intertextuality. However, when dealing with canonical intertextuality, these authors neglect that there is a single Author of Scripture. Thus, some of what they identify as reader-oriented or synchronic intertextuality is in reality Author-oriented intertextuality. Non-canonical reader-oriented textuality often seems as mundane as the recognition that we read texts with other things that we have read in mind and that such previous reading can spark insights into the text that we are currently reading that we may not have otherwise had. I don’t think that reality need be spun up into a theory about reader-created meaning.

Since many of the authors in this collection do not function with a theologically conservative understanding of Scripture, the value of the essays varies considerably. However, I was able to glean from them quite a number of cross-references between Job and the rest of Scripture which will be useful for future study.

Walton, John and Tremper Longman III, How to Read Job. InterVarsity, 2015.

This book was already in my Logos library, and I read it to evaluate whether it would be worth buying Walton’s or Longman’s commentaries on Job. I decided not to purchase them. This may be a bit unfair to Longman as I found his Job chapters in The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom to be helpful and, interestingly, sometimes at odds with this book. In general, I find that of there is a wrong interpretive position to take, Walton takes it—and often with an air of condescension toward conservatives who hold to traditional interpretations. Traditional interpretations are not right because they are traditional, but oftentimes they are traditional because of their exegetical and theological soundness.

“Dialogue between a Man and his God,” “A Sufferer’s Salvation,” “The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer,” “The Babylonian Theodicy,” “Man and his God,” The Context of Scripture , 1:485-95, 573-74.

These are Akkadian and a Sumerian text about Pious sufferers. They are like Job only on the broadest strokes. Several have a pious sufferer who is restored to prosperity. One has a dialogue between a sufferer and a friend (which seems generally friendly), and several describe suffering in which there is some overlap with Job. However, none of these are of the length or the literary and theological sophistication of Job.

JeffreyO says

August 11, 2021 at 5:59 am

Hello Brian. I find your commentary book reviews very helpful and insightful. How about creating a category “Commentary Reviews” so readers can easily find your commentary reviews? In Christ, Jeffrey

September 21, 2021 at 10:54 am

Thank you for this comment. I’ve been thinking about creating a separate page recommended commentaries and links to my reviews.

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"Have you really read Job? Read him, read him again and again" : Kierkegaard, Vischer, and Barth on the book of Job

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The Book of Job and the Mission of God: An application of a missional hermeneutic to the book of Job

Davy, Timothy J (2014) The Book of Job and the Mission of God: An application of a missional hermeneutic to the book of Job. PhD thesis, University of Gloucestershire.

This thesis is a work in biblical interpretation and Christian theology, which seeks to develop and apply a missional hermeneutic to the book of Job; that is, to offer a reading of Job in the light of what I see as the missional nature of the Bible. Part one concerns the development of a missional approach to Job. I begin in chapter one by framing Christian mission using the concepts of missio Dei and holistic mission. Drawing on the emerging conversation on missional hermeneutics, I then set out an understanding of the missional nature of the Bible; that is, the Bible as a product, record and means of God’s mission. In chapter two I evaluate the use of Job in previous scholarship that has brought together the Bible and mission, identifying a number of themes and concluding that there remains significant room for a more intentional, substantial, sustained and nuanced treatment of Job in relation to mission. In chapter three I develop a framework for such a treatment with specific reference to missional hermeneutics, concluding with several adapted lines of enquiry that I follow through in the rest of the thesis. Part two concerns the application of this missional hermeneutic to the book of Job. In chapter four I pay particular attention to the universalising impulse evident in Job, seen especially in the non-Israelite theme in the book and in relation to the missio Dei. Of particular significance is my contention that in the book of Job, the very mission of God is at stake. I then compare the book with several similar Ancient Near Eastern texts to demonstrate Job’s distinctly Israelite beliefs, which contribute to the Bible’s articulation of Yahweh faith in contrast to competing renderings of reality. In chapter five I develop the reading by addressing the treatment of the poor in Job. By framing this missionally, I tie Job’s ethical teaching on poverty to the shaping of the Christian church’s participation in the missio Dei. The thesis demonstrates that a missional reading of Job is not only possible, but highly profitable, and contributes to the developing missional hermeneutics conversation in constructive ways. To conclude the thesis, in chapter six I revisit the concept of the missional nature of the Bible, this time by focusing on the book of Job as a product of mission, in relation to the story of God’s mission, and as a means of God’s mission. I then set out my contribution to scholarship and conclude with some suggestions for further research.

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Thesis Advisor	Email	URL
Mcconville, Gordon	[email protected]	UNSPECIFIED
Lo, Alison	[email protected]	UNSPECIFIED

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Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. We’re on a mission to change that. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ.

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How Should I Read the Book of Job?

John Piper Twitter @JohnPiper

Radically free to please god, what is healthy teaching, did my negligence kill my baby, faith sees 3-d, how did the false teachers misuse the law, where does empty talk come from.

Topic: Tough Texts

How should I read the book of Job?

The big picture of Job is that there was a man who was, in one sense, blameless in God's sight. He was leading a basically upright life. And there is a reality called Satan who challenges God that his man is not as good as he thinks he is. God gives Satan permission to attack Job, and he does so first through his family and possessions, and then through sickness.

Then there is Job's long illness, and his three friends come. At first they are quiet and offer some counsel, but then they begin to launch into an attack on Job that takes a true theology and distorts it all out of proportion.

Job has about 29 chapters of misapplied theology in the middle. It's very hard to navigate your way through those chapters and determine what is true and what is not, because these guys are mixing up truth and falsehood all over the place. I think you're supposed to get the big picture that God was not happy with these three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

And when Elihu shows up, he, I believe, begins to set it right. Finally God speaks and he sets it completely right.

Then there is the last chapter that puts the closure on the whole thing. There it says that God brought all of this upon Job; and Job proves in the end to be a better man than these other men, even though Job himself sinned and had to repent in dust and ashes.

The lesson from the big book of Job is 1) that God is sovereign over all our suffering; 2) he permits Satan to come into our lives and do horrible things to us; 3) he means to prove our faith and purify our lives through it; 4) in the end he will make it good, either in this life or in the life to come; and 5) Satan does not have the last word in the lives of God's people.

What do we learn about Satan in the book of Job, and how should that help us in our trials?

The first thing we should learn is that Satan is subordinate to God.

Satan goes to God with a desire, and he must get permission to carry it out. This is an awesome thing to realize, that Satan does nothing in this world except by God's permissive will. At any moment God could stop Satan from doing what he is doing.

Anytime we think we can blame Satan for something that is happening, we must also reckon with the fact that God is permitting it, which is what Job remarkably does.

When Satan attacks Job's possessions, ruins them all, and then takes the lives of all ten of his children, we learn how terrible Satan can be. But Job says, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord ." And the writer says that Job did not sin in this statement. What we learn is that Satan can kill his kids, and yet Job can fall down, worship God, and say that God took his child. It's both/and not either/or.

Then Satan comes and strikes Job with a disease: boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. And his wife says, "Curse God and die." And even though it says explicitly that Satan did this, Job responds to his wife, "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not receive evil?" And again the writer says that Job did not sin with his lips.

Some people say that Job was wrong to say these things. They think he shouldn't have attributed to God those boils or the death of his children. I respond that, no, Job did speak the truth. I know this because if you go to the very last verse (42:11) it says, "Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him."

Now that is the inspired writer talking, not Job in one of his funks. Therefore, it is really clear that Job was right to say, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away," and "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not receive evil?" because the writer, at the end, says that he was comforted for all the calamity (evil) that the Lord had brought upon him.

So even though Satan is real and can do horrible things, he has to get permission. God is the governer of the universe. Satan does not have a parallel role to play with God. He has a subordinate role to play under God.

How important is it for us to note that Job's calamities had absolutely no connection with his character?

I dont' think that's exactly right to say. I think "absolutely" is an overstatement, because when you get to the end, it says,

Then Job answered the LORD and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak... (Job 42:1-4)

And then Job repents in dust and ashes, verse 6:

"Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

In other words, here's the way I would say it: He was called an upright and blameless man, and yet that doesn't mean that he was a sinlessly perfect man.

I picture Job as a beaker of water. Job had been so worked upon by the grace of God that his life was pure. You could see right through the water. People looked at him and they saw a pure man. But there was a sediment of self-reliance and pride at the bottom. It wasn't huge and it wasn't damning, but it was there.

When God shook Job, the sediment colored the water, and you find Job saying some terrible things about God in this book. God knew that it was there, and he knew that in shaking this godly, blameless man there would arise some imperfection into his life, and that it would need to be purged. So the last thing is, therefore, "I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

God is so pleased with Job that he makes the three friends go and ask Job to pray for them instead of them praying for themselves. God loves this man Job.

So, we may rephrase the question, "How important is it that we see that Job's suffering was not directly connected to any evil deed?" That is true.

We should be able to say to people, "I'm not looking for a specific sin in your life that God is punishing you for or chastising you for. God may be permitting this calamity to come into your life just to refine very beautiful faith. Your faith is like gold, but it does have straw in it, and God loves you so much that he is now going to burn out a little more straw."

Any suffering person I've ever talked to bears witness to the fact that they have seen more of God and have come to know and trust God more deeply than if their suffering hadn't come.

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The Book of Job: Structure & Message

Summary: In the present note, I discuss the relationship between Job’s structure and message. The book of Job, I submit, has a highly unified and tightly integrated structure, which: a] illuminates a number of important aspects of Job’s message, and b] makes it difficult to view the book of Job as the product of multiple authors. Key words: Job, structure, literary analysis, redaction, unity, coherence. Date: Jan. 2020.

Related Papers

David Ariel Anota

In this paper, i traced the development of the three themes in the book of Job, namely, (1) retributive justice, (2) divine prerogative, and piety.

Andrew M Mbuvi

The book of Job is here read through the ancient Near Eastern values of honour and shame and also in relationship to its placing within Wisdom literature. This article points out the fact that the book of Job goes beyond focus of wisdom whose primary concern is navigating life successfully. For Job, it is the concern of what Gustavo Guttiérez calls disinterested faith that puts God's honour at the centre of his struggles.

Daniel Walter

While literary categories do exist for conceiving of a figure such as Job's mediator in the Bible and its context, the range of scholarly proposals for his identity shows that there is great intrigue but little consensus. I will review some of the categories of mediator figures from ancient near eastern theodicy literature as well as biblical literature. I will also review scholarly arguments discussing the advocate’s identity will lead to a conclusion that asking “Who is Job’s advocate?” is not as fruitful a question as asking “What function does Job’s advocate serve?” My thesis is that Job’s advocate is a vehicle of hope: an hors catégorie, powerful being, conceived in moment of extreme anguish, having characteristics both of God and not of God, who helps him to articulate a basis for hope despite his experience of anguish and grief. Rather than an identifiable character in the book that can be described with precedent from the Bible or ancient near eastern literature, Job’s advocate is an imaginative faith-step in his quest for justice, that propels him toward his goal of meeting God face to face.

Davis Hankins

Michael Cernucan

This dissertation investigates the tension between the two portrayals of Job in the current form of the biblical book of Job in light of narrative literary theory (ch. 1). It supports the current consensus that the two portraits of Job are best understood as belonging to two separate accounts about Job—one written primarily in prose and serving as a literary frame and the other written primarily in poetry—and confirms that the appropriate division between the two accounts is between 2:10 and 11 and between 42:9 and 10, thereby giving each account a complete literary plot structure (ch. 2). This dissertation then advances current scholarship by examining each account in isolation in order to identify its unique characterization and plot elements and by showing how many texts that appear to conflict with each other are actually consistent within their own accounts (chs. 3, 4). A close reading of texts that appear near the seams between the two accounts highlights the thematic, verbal, and characterization links that connect 2:8 with the beginning of the poetic account and 2:10 with the end of the poetic account. This dissertation then applies the insights and terminology of the Russian Formalist school of literary criticism to the book of Job in order to propose that the most coherent reading of Job emerges when the two accounts are read non-sequentially—that is, when entire poetic account is understood to overlap with 2:8-10 in the prose account (ch. 5). The proposed, overlapping reading of Job succeeds both in accounting for conflicts between the prose account—where Job responds to his calamities with instant and extraordinary piety—and the poetic account—where Job’s eventual pious response comes only after prolonged bitterness, accusations, and discontentment—and in explaining the overarching coherence of the combined accounts, which may now be understood to provide a unified perspective on the Principle of Retribution, on the Satan, on God, and on Job. Together, the two accounts reveal all that transpired to bring about Job’s transformation from bitter sorrow in 2:8 to remarkable submission to God in 2:10.

Old Testament Essays

ellen van wolde

The famous verse in the prologue of the book of Job, which is commonly translated with "Job took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes," is the object of study here. In this analysis of Job 2:8, three components are extensively discussed; (1) The syntactic structure that shows that the subject of the action of "taking" is the satan and not Job; (2) The semantic analysis of the occurrences of the noun ‫,חרש‬ which demonstrates that this word does not designate "potsherd," but "pot"; and (3) The semantic analysis of the infinitive hitpael ‫,התגרד‬ which explains the satan's goal in bringing Job a pot, namely to squeeze out his inflamed boils that cover him from head to toe.

Stephen D Cook

This article argues that the use of terminology and allusions in Job to themes which are abundant in the book of Deuteronomy suggest that the work was primarily intended as a polemic against a retributive worldview or a Deuteronomistic theodicy. Abounding irony, satire and parody provide evidence that it contained comic elements which were not intended simply to entertain, but were intended to ridicule particular targets. These literary devices further suggest that the book of Job should be read as a dramatic or theatrical work. The frequent use of legal terminology suggests that it had a forensic setting and is best viewed as a courtroom drama that put the Deuteronomic views of providence on trial. The work was intended to appeal to an initial audience that was wrestling with the issues of free will and determinism against a background of exile and the prospect of extinction.

James E Patrick

There are a variety of views on 'chance' to be found in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. In this chapter we will discuss the Book of Job and the opening chapter in the Book of Genesis, i.e. Genesis 1, both as narratives and as poetic texts and explore the philosophical and theological consequences for a better understanding of the concept of chance. In the prologue of the Book of Job, chance is referred to as the result of a wager between God and the satan, who is described as one of the sons of God. In the dialogue between Job and his friends, bad luck is viewed as a consequence of bad behaviour while good luck is the result of good behaviour. In this sense, chance clearly functions within a moral framework of retribution. At the end of the Book of Job, in God's speech out of the whirlwind, chance is linked to a multifocal view of the universe and understood in terms of position, perspective, and scale. Also the opening chapter of the Book of Genesis offers a non-deterministic view on chance. Chance is not the exception in a causal or necessary chain of events, but it stands out in a framework of non-linear thinking in which totality and instantaneity alternate. With regard to both biblical texts, God's speech in the Book of Job and Genesis1, chance can be conceived as a disqualifier of this chain of events, and even as an ultimate denial of the existence of necessity.

David Beldman

Biblical Studies is said to be in a time of crisis. This context requires a clearer understanding of the relationship between philosophical hermeneutics and biblical hermeneutics. Paul Ricoeur is a Christian philosopher who has intelligently articulated this relationship. This thesis offers a description, an evaluation and an application of his textual theory. Ricoeur identified four dimensions of textuality: (1) the text as a written communication; (2) the text as a structured work; (3) the text as a projection of a world; and (4) the text as a mediation of self-understanding. These dimensions are examined as they related to general hermeneutics (chapter 1), and to biblical hermeneutics (chapter 2). After an evaluation of Ricoeur’s theory (chapter 3) each of these dimensions of textual interpretation are applied to the book of Job (chapters 4-7). Although Ricoeur’s hermeneutics is not above criticism it does provide a creative way forward in a time of crisis.

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The theology of the book of Job and its use by some modern thinkers

Baiden, E. K. (1978) The theology of the book of Job and its use by some modern thinkers. Masters thesis, Durham University.

The thesis is written in contrast to the conventional idea that the righteous is always rewarded and the wicked is always punished. It begins with an introduction about the development of the religious life of the Israelites in relation to the justice of God. God's justice appeared to be challenged when it was realized that the wicked triumphed in undeserved prosperity. The Psalmists lamented over the undeserved prosperity of the wicked. Isaiah 55, the vicarious sufferer and the book of Wisdom Chapter 5 are introduced to throw more light on the whole problem of suffering. The authorship of the book of Job, and the theology of sin and suffering follow. The prologue is introduced to provide a discussion about the prosperity of the righteous. Satan enters into a wager with Yahweh whether Job earns his prosperity by means of his righteousness. Job is stripped of his prosperity and of his honour to see what consequence this might bring. Job at first accepts the challenge calmly without argument, but his three friends who come to console him, turn against him and accuse him of committing sin that is why he is suffering. Job replies that he has not sinned. He even brings charges against God as a Judge. Job establishes his firm faith in God; since God is a righteous Judge, He will in the end pronounce the right judgement. At the last God vindicates Job of his innocence and justifies him by his faith. The wisdom poem shows that wisdom belongs to God. The Elihu speeches show among other truths that suffering is educative, for it humbles pride and draws man nearer God. The Yahweh speeches show that there are mighty things in creation compared with, which man is infinitesimal in God's providential care, and that though there are mysteries in the world, including suffering. it is enough for man in his suffering to have God. The epilogue describes the restoration of the prosperity of Job and shows that God rewards man by grace and not by righteousness. Barth discusses Job as a faithful witness and emphasizes that God was not under obligation to Job and Job acted as a free agent; he did not know the argument between God and Satan. Jung describes the book of Job as a myth or an image and presents God as capricious in breaking his covenant for not protecting Job. Fortes introduces West African Religion with emphasis on fortune as not of one's making, but as one's destiny and this is equated with the doctrine of grace. The conclusion deals with suffering as a test of faith and as vicarious, with reference to life after death in Wisdom Chapter 5. It indicates how Jesus gives a better understanding of suffering on earth and in life hereafter.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Award:	Master of Arts
Thesis Date:	1978
Copyright:	Copyright of this thesis is held by the author
Deposited On:	14 Mar 2014 16:42

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Where is wisdom privileging perspectives in the book of job.

Israel McGrew , Marquette University

Date of Award

Summer 2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

First Advisor

Burns, Joshua

Second Advisor

Dempsey, Deirdre

Third Advisor

Orlov, Andrei

Job is one of the most difficult books in Hebrew Scripture: in language, poetic rhetoric, subject matter, and literary form. Many scholars understand the book as skeptical literature, as the poetry, the bulk of the book, refutes any justification of God’s activity in history. The matter is acute, as these scholars recognize the poetry’s parodic allusions to Hebrew Scripture and mythological traditions. The poet’s protagonist charges God with immoral conduct, judges the human experience morally incoherent, and despairs of vindication in an afterlife. The whirlwind rebukes Job, Job seems to repent, and the epilogue indicates that God in fact does reward Job; but none of these features give a satisfactory answer to Job’s problems, and neither is their significance obvious.In this dissertation, I analyze the juxtaposition of mythological structures in the book’s chief perspectives: the friends, Job, the whirlwind, and the prose. The author derives these mythological structures from key source texts in Hebrew Scripture, and his characters thereby represent various, mutually exclusive Hebrew religious traditions in a parable. The friends allude to Deuteronomy and convenient mythological structures, including their refutation of the storm-god motif as inadequate to divine transcendence. Job uses the motif to negate their sanguine cosmology and to reveal the dark implications of equating history with God’s perfect will. Job tries to salvage the cosmos’s moral coherence by speculating about a celestial arbiter figure or a post-mortem reward for the righteous. These themes unite in Job’s climactic confession of 19:25. Dramatically, Job indicates it must be one or the other. Literarily, the poet alludes to Hebrew Scripture’s portrayal of God as creator and redeemer and thereby makes post-mortem reward the necessary condition of affirming those traditions. The Whirlwind affirms creation’s goodness and freedom. Divine power respects this freedom, as part of God’s creative process: humans’ proper use of freedom participates in realizing their potential. The insight adapts Second Isaiah’s reflections on divine power. Against Isaiah, the Whirlwind’s Leviathan and the prologue’s ‘the Satan’ adapt the divine antagonism theme. Job thus presents proto-apocalyptic cosmology and anthropology as the answer to the riddle of Hebrew Scripture.

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The Book of Job

This thesis seeks to illustrate that the classic biblical work on the problem of the innocent sufferer, the Book of Job, is still relevant in twentieth century, Western culture. The exegetical complexity of the Book of Job is outlined in order to show that the work lends itself to diverse interpretations and uses by readers outside the academic community.

This thesis then focuses on the writings of Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian Catholic priest, who uses the Book of Job to empower t...

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How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

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The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .

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What they’ll learn from your essay
The key points of your argument or narrative

The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.

These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.

Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:

In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

It gives your writing direction and focus.
It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

Ask a question about your topic .
Write your initial answer.
Develop your answer by including reasons.
Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

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45 Perfect Thesis Statement Templates (+ Examples) ᐅ TemplateLab
45 Perfect Thesis Statement Templates (+ Examples) ᐅ TemplateLab
45 Perfect Thesis Statement Templates (+ Examples) ᐅ TemplateLab
45 Perfect Thesis Statement Templates (+ Examples) ᐅ TemplateLab
45 Perfect Thesis Statement Templates (+ Examples) ᐅ TemplateLab
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The Book of Job in the Bible
Job is one of the Old Testament books in the Bible. It utilizes a combination of poetry and prose to explore themes of individual suffering and God' justice. The main character in the book is Job, a staunch believer who loses wealth, friends, and succumbs to severe pain and suffering. He undergoes a dramatic transformation from wealth to poverty.
God & Suffering: My Undergrad Thesis on the Book of Job
Thesis Cover: "Job" acryllic by Jenna Thomas // Inspiration: Job 36:24 - 37:24. The book of Job is about the immense, God-ordained suffering of the most righteous man of his time: Job. Probably written in the patriarchal age by an anonymous writer, the book of Job is a well-recognized literary masterpiece and is considered one of the ...
A Deeper Look at the Book of Job
Even more precisely, its subject matter is the problem of "bad things happening to good people.". Job is righteous, more righteous than anyone, or even more precisely "blameless.". According to conventional Biblical wisdom, God will reward a person like Job with prosperity and safety. All this is a given.
The Polyphonic Voices of Suffering in The Book of Job: a Dialogue on
experience is exemplified in the narrative of Job. It is the argument of this thesis that the dialogue in Job ultimately reveals God's character as good even in the midst of one's suffering. This argument is supported through an examination of the polyphonic voices of the book of Job. The voice of Job demonstrates the tension of the ...
Five Truths for Sufferers from the Book of Job
This article interprets Job's teaching on suffering from five broad perspectives: (1) God's purpose in allowing suffering; (2) how Job "diversifies" our interpretations of suffering; (3) what God requires of us when we suffer; (4) what promises God makes about the end of suffering; and (5) how Job-like suffering grants us a new vision ...
The Book of Job
It is found in the third section of the biblical canon known as the Ketuvim ("Writings"). The book's theme is the eternal problem of unmerited suffering, and it is named after its central character, Job, who attempts to understand the sufferings that engulf him. The Book of Job may be divided into two sections of prose narrative ...
PDF Have You Really Read Job? Read Him, Read Him Again and Again
inspires later interpreters to enter into the book as well, perhaps hoping for more definitive results. The following thesis, rather than making another definitive stab at the "meaning" of the book of Job, intends to examine the interpretations themselves—specifically the interpretations of Søren Kierkegaard, Wilhelm Vischer, and Karl Barth.
Book of Job
Job. Key Information and Helpful Resources. The book of Job opens with a curious courtroom scene where the satan, or the accuser, challenges God's way of rewarding righteous people like Job. The satan says that Job is only acting righteous because of God's generous provision. But if God were to let him truly suffer, then Job 's true ...
Book of Job
Summary. The book of Job is the longest and most thematically and linguistically challenging of the "wisdom books" in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. In the book's prologue (Job 1-2) the narrator introduces readers to a man named Job (Hebrew 'iyyōb; etymology unclear). Job's prosperity extends into all areas of his life, and seems ...
PDF Durham E-Theses The theology of the book of Job and its use by some
THE THEOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF JOB AND ITS USE BY SOME MODERN THINKERS A Thesis presented for the Degree of Master of Arts in the University of Durham. July 1978 E. K. Baiden, .S.T.B., St. John's College, Durham. The copjrright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without
Best Resources on the Book of Job
Job 28 is thus an important transitional chapter in the book, but the resolution to Job's struggle still lies ahead. All in all, this is a very insightful treatment of a key section of the book. Robert V. McCabe, "Elihu's Contribution to the Thought of the Book of Job," Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal Volume 2 2 (1997): 47-80.
Book of Job Thesis Statement
The document discusses the challenges of crafting an effective thesis statement for the Book of Job. It notes that the Book of Job presents unique difficulties due to its complex themes, nuanced characters, and profound philosophical questions. Developing a thesis that captures the essence of the text and reflects the breadth of scholarly interpretations, while presenting a compelling original ...
"Have you really read Job? Read him, read him again and again
This thesis explores the reception history of the book of Job, particularly in Søren Kierkegaard's Three Upbuilding Discourses and Repetition, Wilhelm Vischer's "Hiob, ein Zeuge Jesu Christi," and Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics. ... Chapter two examines the afterlife of the book of Job in the hands of Christian exegetes, focusing on ...
The Book of Job and the Mission of God: An application of a missional
This thesis is a work in biblical interpretation and Christian theology, which seeks to develop and apply a missional hermeneutic to the book of Job; that is, to offer a reading of Job in the light of what I see as the missional nature of the Bible. Part one concerns the development of a missional approach to Job.
How Should I Read the Book of Job?
The lesson from the big book of Job is 1) that God is sovereign over all our suffering; 2) he permits Satan to come into our lives and do horrible things to us; 3) he means to prove our faith and purify our lives through it; 4) in the end he will make it good, either in this life or in the life to come; and 5) Satan does not have the last word ...
(PDF) The Book of Job: Structure & Message
The book of Job, I submit, has a highly unified and tightly integrated structure, which: a] illuminates a number of important aspects of its message, and b] makes it hard to view the book of Job as the product of multiple authorship. Key words: the book of Job, structure, literary analysis, redaction, unity, coherence. Date: Jan. 2020.
The theology of the book of Job and its use by some modern thinkers
The thesis is written in contrast to the conventional idea that the righteous is always rewarded and the wicked is always punished. It begins with an introduction about the development of the religious life of the Israelites in relation to the justice of God. God's justice appeared to be challenged when it was realized that the wicked triumphed in undeserved prosperity.
Where is Wisdom? Privileging Perspectives in the Book of Job
Job is one of the most difficult books in Hebrew Scripture: in language, poetic rhetoric, subject matter, and literary form. Many scholars understand the book as skeptical literature, as the poetry, the bulk of the book, refutes any justification of God's activity in history. The matter is acute, as these scholars recognize the poetry's parodic allusions to Hebrew Scripture and ...
The Book of Job
This thesis seeks to illustrate that the classic biblical work on the problem of the innocent sufferer, the Book of Job, is still relevant in twentieth century, Western culture. The exegetical complexity of the Book of Job is outlined in order to show that the work lends itself to diverse interpretations and uses by readers outside the academic ...
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works
This thesis explores the connection between theodicy and tragedy in . The Book of Job, Oedipus Rex . and . Oedipus at Colonus, King Lear, Paradise Lost, and . Moby-Dick. This thesis argues that Job begins a tradition in literature of the suffering male who gains potential wisdom in his suffering.
How to Write a Thesis Statement
Step 2: Write your initial answer. After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process. The internet has had more of a positive than a negative effect on education.
Book Of Job Essays (Examples)
Job The religious texts of the ancient Near East share core themes in common related to the theme of personal piety. Personal piety becomes a powerful, poignant theme in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the Book of Job. The story of Job is laden with lessons related to the nature of human suffering and the role it plays in the development of personal piety.

The Book of Job in the Bible Essay

Introduction

God & Suffering: My Undergrad Thesis on the Book of Job

Quina Aragon

Previous Post Journal Prayer: True Prosperity (7/7/12)

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Matters of Interpretation

A Deeper Look at the Book of Job

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Volume 40 - Issue 2

1. Loving God “for Nothing”

2. Three Kinds of Suffering

3. God’s Requirement for us in Job-like Suffering

4. God’s Present Delight in Creation and His Final Defeat of all Evil

5. “Now My Eyes See You:” A New Vision of God

6. Conclusion

Eric Ortlund

Other Articles in this Issue

Can Antigone Work in a Secularist Society?

God, Freedom and Human Dignity: Embracing a God-Centered Identity in a Me-Centered Culture

Faith and Reason: Three Views

Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion and Authorship

Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine

Reconsidering the Relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology in the New Testament: Essays by Theologians and New Testament Scholars

The Book of Job

Guide to the Book of Job

Who Wrote the Book of Job?

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The Story of Job

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God’s Response to Job

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