Revised by Kathryn M. Schifferdecker (4/24)
1. Prologue (Job 1-2)
The prologue introduces the reader to Job, tells of two conversations between God and the Satan in heaven, and recounts the tragedies that come to Job in two stages. Job’s wife speaks to him and then three friends come to bring Job comfort.
2. Dialogues (Job 3-31)
Job laments and enters into dialogue with three friends.
A. Job’s Lament (Job 3)
After a week of silence, Job opens his mouth and curses the day of his birth. He wishes he had never been born, but since it is too late to change that, he wants God to let him die.
B. The First Cycle of Speeches (Job 4-14)
Job’s three friends – Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar – take turns trying to interpret Job’s suffering to him. After each speaks, Job answers by rejecting their theorizing about him.
C. The Second Cycle of Speeches (Job 15-21)
The tension between Job and his three friends grows as they become more condemning of Job, and he becomes more defensive. The question of whether or not wicked people will ever be punished enters into their disagreements about God’s justice.
D. The Third Cycle of Speeches (Job 22-27)
There is much repetition and even confusion about who is talking as the dialogues wind down. There is no speech by the third counselor, Zophar, in this cycle, and the dialogue breaks down.
E. 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 Poem (Job 28)
This chapter seems to interrupt the flow of the book. It is uncertain who the speaker is–Job or one of his friends or the author or editor of the book. The main point (to be expressed more fully by God later in the book) is that human wisdom, though wonderful, is limited and only God can truly know wisdom. The poem ends, however, with a description of the wise person that echoes what was said about Job himself at the beginning of the book (1:1; 28:28).
F. Job’s Final Defense (Job 29-31)
Job had begun the conversation with his friends by opening with a lament (chapter 3). Now he concludes this section of the book with a closing monologue in which he longs for the “good old days,” defends his innocence, and calls on God to answer him. Job, in other words, wants his day in court, to hear the indictment that God has against him and to defend his own integrity.
3. The Speeches of a Fourth Counselor Named Elihu (Job 32-37)
The dialogues are over and one would expect to move on to the God speeches in chapters 38-41. But the natural flow is broken by the speeches of a new, younger counselor named Elihu. Elihu speaks for six chapters with no response from Job. He refers to points made earlier by Job and the other three friends. There is some argument among scholars whether Elihu brings anything new to the discussion or whether he merely represents a later attempt to deal more helpfully with questions of suffering. Many scholars think that the Elihu speeches were added to the Book of Job after the original book was composed.
4. God Speaks (Job 38-41)
After all these chapters of human effort to make sense out of Job’s suffering, the reader hopes that God will finally clear it all up for Job, his friends, and latter day readers of the book. Is Job guilty or not? Why do innocent people suffer and the wicked escape untouched by calamity? God does not answer those questions but rather, speaking out of a whirlwind, takes Job on a tour of 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. In two speeches, God asks Job questions like “Where were you?” “Can you?” “Do you know?” Though the speeches do not address Job’s suffering directly, they are a beautiful description of creation, and they invite Job to humility and to wonder.
5. Conclusion and Epilogue (Job 42)
In verses 1-6, Job seems to accept his limitations and even to feel sorry that he has overreached in his effort to know what humans can never know. The exact interpretation of these verses is not entirely clear. The book ends with the epilogue (vv. 7-17), written in a narrative style similar to the prologue. Job receives back from God double what he had lost; he also has ten more children. For many readers, this seems too simplistic an answer to the hard questions that have been raised all the way through the book, but the epilogue can also be read as a hopeful narrative. Job chooses to live again even after his great suffering.
