Revised by Kathryn M. Schifferdecker (4/24)
Cause of suffering
After reading the entire Book of Job, the reader may still wonder if the book gives any clear answer about the cause and meaning of suffering. Is the answer in the prologue, in the dialogue between Job and his companions, in the God speeches, in Job’s humble submission at the end of the book, in Job’s reward for staying strong throughout the ordeal? Or is the “answer” in the realization that from the human perspective there is no answer? Conclusions vary greatly among readers of Job.
The comforters
The dialogues between Job and his companions could be used as a manual on “how not to comfort one who is in trouble.” Though their intentions are good, they keep on blundering ahead with their heavy-handed interpretations of why Job is suffering, essentially looking for some sin (possibly unknown) that set these terrible tragedies in motion. Though their pastoral skills are certainly suspect, their theological answers have had lasting power and many similar explanations of suffering are still in prominent use today. Such explanations need to be carefully reconsidered lest they do more harm than good.
Difficult text
The Hebrew text of the Book of Job is very difficult. There are many words that do not appear anywhere else in the Bible. When one reads Job with a study Bible, it is apparent that the translator is often unsure of the exact meaning of the words. One often encounters a footnote that says “the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.” The difficulties also become obvious when different translations are compared.
The Elihu section
Scholars have long wondered about the sudden appearance of Elihu in chapter 32. Up to this point in the book, there were only three friends. They were introduced at the end of chapter 2 and took turns talking to Job about his suffering. Elihu claims to be young and angry about the way the conversation has gone. He is going to step up and speak his mind because he cannot any longer sit back and witness the inability of the others to make good responses to some of Job’s outrageous statements. Those who see Elihu as an original part of the book think that he helps prepare Job for his audience with God (chapters 38-41). The majority opinion is that the Elihu speeches were added to the book at a later time to make one more attempt to deal adequately with the hard questions about suffering and God’s justice.
God’s speeches
The Book of Job leads up to the point at which God will finally speak and clarify the situation to Job and his friends. Is Job guilty and deserving of his fate, as his friends believe, or has he been treated unjustly and is innocent? Unfortunately, God does not answer the questions raised by the dialogues. Job is not declared innocent, nor is he pronounced guilty. That question is ignored.
Rather, God, in the first speech, makes clear that God alone is the one who can know and do everything, in contrast to humanity, with their limitations. In a second speech, God makes clear that only God has power to control the BehemothA behemoth is a large swamp monster. Such a beast, often identified as a hippopotamus, is part of the narrative in the book of Job where the Lord claims to have created both behemoth and Job himself. More and LeviathanLeviathan is a biblical sea monster. Often mistakenly identified as a whale, this creature is perceived as larger and meaner than a whale. Leviathan is mentioned in Job, Psalms, and Isaiah as an example of enormity, who is eclipsed only by the enormity and power… More, two primordial and powerful creatures.
Over the years, there has been much conversation about the full meaning of these speeches. If this is the climactic moment in the book, then what is the meaning that we should take with us when we are confronted by tragedies that have no apparent meaning? Is God with us, even if we cannot understand everything? Most believers who have read Job have concluded that the answer is yes.
Historicity of Job
Most scholars agree that the Book of Job is not meant to be read as a historical account, and the language of the book itself seems to support such a theory. The opening line – “There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job” – has a “long ago and far away” quality to it. There are no historical markers as there are in many of the prophetic books; for instance: “The words of JeremiahProphet who condemned Judah’s infidelity to God, warned of Babylonian conquest, and promised a new covenant. More son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of BenjaminA son of Jacob and tribe of Israel. More, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of King JosiahJudean king noted for his reforms of Israel’s worship in the time of Jeremiah. More son of Amon of JudahJudah was the name of Jacob’s fourth son and one of the 12 tribes. More, in the thirteenth year of his reign” (Jeremiah 1:1-2). The location of the “land of Uz” is unknown; the name “Uz” appears only elsewhere in the Bible in some genealogies in Genesis and 1 Chronicles, and in a passing reference in Lamentations 4:21 that equates “the land of Uz” with Edom. Even the rabbis of the Talmudic period did not know where Uz was, and some of them likened the book of Job to a parableA parable is a brief story with a setting, an action, and a result. A prominent aspect of Jesus’ teaching was telling parables to illustrate something about the kingdom, or reign, of God. More, like the parable that the prophet NathanThe prophet who condemned David for adultery and promised that God would establish a Davidic dynasty. More tells King DavidSecond king of Israel, David united the northern and southern kingdoms. More in 2 SamuelThe judge who anointed the first two kings of Israel. More 12 (Baba Batra 15a). Christian readers might note the similarity to some of Jesus’ parables. The phrase “There was once a man in the land of Uz” sounds something like “There was a man who had two sons” (LukeThe "beloved physician" and companion of Paul. More 15:11), the beginning of the parable of the Prodigal Son.
The story of Job that frames the book seems to have been known in ancient Israel. The prophet EzekielEzekiel was a priest and prophet who was raised in Jerusalem and exiled to Babylon in 597 BCE. More lists Job (along with NoahBuilt the ark in which his family and the animals were saved from a flood. More and DanielAn interpreter of dreams who was delivered from the lions’ den. More) as an example of a very righteousA righteous person is one who is ethical and faithful to God’s covenant. Righteousness in the Old Testament is an attitude of God; in the New Testament it is a gift of God through grace. In the New Testament righteousness is a relationship with God… More person (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). It seems reasonable to assume that the basic story of Job – a righteous man who suffers but remains faithful and is rewarded – was used by the author of Job to provide the framework for his book. The book itself does not spend much time on this story, telling it in prose in chapters 1-2 and 42. Instead, the emphasis in the book is on the poetic dialogue about suffering between Job and his friends (chapters 3-37), and then on God’s response from the whirlwind (chapters 38-41).
This is not to say that a man named Job might not have been a historical figure. It could very well be that the reason the Israelites/Jews knew the story of Job is because there was such a righteous man who suffered terrible losses, and that his story was passed down through the generations. The book as we have it now, however, is better understood as a meditation on suffering or a thought experiment about suffering rather than as a historical account of the suffering of one particular man.
The legitimacy of lament
Job is often remembered as the patient one who endured all kinds of hardships with a stiff upper lip, not complaining about his situation. Indeed, that seems to be the understanding of Job in the only New Testament reference to the book: “You have heard of the endurance of Job” (James 5:11). That description may well fit the Job described in chapters 1 and 2. If one reads the rest of the book, beginning already with his painful lament in chapter 3, it is apparent that Job is no compliant victim who is willing to suffer in silence. On the contrary, Job cries out to God and demands that God answer him. In this way, the Book of Job is an important example of the lament tradition, a tradition that pervades the Bible. When in trouble, people complain and cry out to God for help. That lament tradition is also found in the Book of Psalms, in the prophetic books, and in the Book of Lamentations.
The nature of God
The way God is presented to the reader of Job is problematic for many. In the prologue, God seems to be too willing to turn his faithful servant Job over to the hands of the Satan. For many chapters God remains silent, even though Job begs for some word to clarify his situation. Has God found him guilty or not and, if not, why is he suffering? In the God speeches, God seems to intimidate Job with questions about creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and… More. Various interpreters have written about the nature of God in the Book of Job, so the reader is well-advised to seek out some of those interpretations to inform his or her own reading. It may also be helpful to understand that the Book of Job is not meant to be read as a historical account of how God acts, but as something like a thought experiment about the question of suffering (see “How Do I Read It?”).
The Satan
The figure of “the Satan,” introduced in Job 1-2, is not to be simply equated with Satan, the demonic figure who is referenced several times in the New Testament. For one thing, whenever the word “satan” appears in Job, it has the definite article. Thus, “the Satan” seems to be a title rather than a proper name in Job. The Hebrew verb “satan” means “to accuse.” So the word might better be translated, “the Accuser.” The Accuser in the book of Job seems to have a job in the heavenly court, to go “to and fro on the earth” and then to report back to God on human beings (1:7). The Satan in the Book of Job, in other words, is something more like a prosecuting attorney than the Devil. Nevertheless, he is certainly a negative figure in the story and is the instigator of all of Job’s suffering. Later Old Testament texts where this figure of Satan or the Devil appears, like 1 Chronicles 21:1, have a view of him much closer to that of the New Testament.
The unity of the book
Was the book of Job as we know it written at one time by the same author? Many have questioned the connection between the prologue/epilogue and the rest of the book. The prologue (chapters 1-2) and epilogue (chapter 42) are prose narratives, rather than the poetry of the rest of the book. The figure of Job is more patient and pious in the prologue and epilogue than in the rest of the book. Further, many believe that the Elihu section (chapters 32-37) is a later insertion into an existing book. A logical conclusion could be that there existed an old story about Job (represented by the prologue/epilogue) that was used as a framework by the author of the dialogues and God speeches. A possible third stage was the addition of the Elihu speeches. Whatever the history of its composition, the book as we know it has been edited into a unified whole.
WisdomWisdom encompasses the qualities of experience, knowledge, and good judgment. The Old Testament book of Proverbs, which sometimes invokes a Woman as the personification of Wisdom, is a collection of aphorisms and moral teachings. Along with other biblical passages, it teaches, “The fear of the… More Literature and Job
The Book of Job is one of three Wisdom books in the Old Testament, along with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (and Wisdom of SolomonWisdom of Solomon is one of the two Wisdom books in the Apocrypha, along with Ben Sirach. More and Sirach in the ApocryphaApocrypha refers to a collection of writings that, in the judgment of a particular group, are not to be considered as part of the established, authoritative books of the Bible. Several books that Protestants consider apocryphal, such as Judith and Bel and the Dragon, appear… More). These books rose out of the Wisdom movement in ancient Israel, which was a movement that sought to teach young people how to live “the good life” – that is, a life of integrity, hard work, wisdom, and the fear of the LORD. Wisdom literature is about character formation.
The Book of Job comes out of the Wisdom movement but it is skeptical about the claims of more traditional Wisdom books such as Proverbs, claims like, “The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry, but thwarts the craving of the wicked” (Proverbs 10:3). The author of Job knows that this is not always the case and so he challenges such assertions. At the same time, he utilizes the vocabulary and themes of the Wisdom movement, as in the poem about Wisdom in Job 28, which ends, “Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (28:28; cf. Proverbs 9:10). Wisdom teachers also assert that much wisdom can be learned by observing the natural world (see Proverbs 30:24-28), an argument that Job makes as well (Job 12:7-10 and Job 38-41). Though the Book of Job challenges the claims of traditional Wisdom literature, it comes out of that worldview.
