The Big Picture
Events in the Old-Testament book of Job take place in two realms. Amid Job’s suffering, we can see a conflict occurring between Job and Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. The “friends” of Job assert that righteous people enjoy earthly blessings and prosperity, but the wicked suffer. In their worldview, Job must then be an unrepentant sinner.
But in Job’s life, a parallel conflict is also taking place: In the unseen realm between God and Satan. Contrary to Satan’s assertions, God is confident that Job serves Him freely as a response to His grace (Job 1:8, 2:3). But Satan bristles against God—he claims that Job only serves God because of the earthly blessings he has!
It’s in this setting that we see God respond to a “wager” that Satan throws His way. If Job loves his material goods and then loses them, will he renounce his trust in God?
What We Know of Job
The man, Job, was a real, flesh-and-blood person (Ezekiel 14:14-20, James 5:11). The first verse of Job introduces him as someone who lived in Uz, which was also part of the Kingdom of Edom, roughly around current-day southwestern Jordan and southern Israel. Lamentations 4:21 reads: “Rejoice and be glad, Daughter of Edom, who lives in the land of Uz.”
That makes the time when Job lived harder to decipher. Job 2:11 says that Job’s friend, Eliphaz, was a Temanite, a descendant of Teman. Scripture mentions Teman as the grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:10-11, 1 Chronicles 1:32). That means that Job most likely lived during Israel’s exile in Egypt, which would then mean our understanding of Uz’s location is mistaken or too narrow.
We know that Job lived before God had set up His Levitical Priesthood. Job acted as the priest for his family, which fits with the patriarchal pattern for God’s people (Job 1:5). That means that Job was also the firstborn son.
The firstborn sons of the Israelites belonged (consecrated) to the Lord. God has set them apart for sacred service. For instance, in Numbers 3:12 and 8:14-18, God later chose the Levites to serve as substitutes for every firstborn son dedicated to the Lord. Job’s priestly role shows that he was the firstborn son in his family before the time of the Levitical priesthood. (Could Job’s later “double portion” in 42:10 be, in part, because he was the firstborn son?)
Job lived to be over 140 years old, a long life that is characteristic of patriarchal times (Job 42:16). Job and his friends also address God using a term that was common in the patriarchal era before Moses (Exodus 6:3): El Shaddai, “God, All-Sufficient One.” Job uses El Shaddai 31 times; the rest of the Old Testament uses it 16 times, six of which are in Genesis.
The Literary Genres in Job and Outline
The book of Job is one of the “Wisdom” books of the Old Testament. Unlike Proverbs, which is a collection of the short, wisdom sayings, Job examines the link between suffering and divine justice through dramatic poetry. Exquisite Hebrew poetry forms most of the book of Job. Its artistic presentation and elegant style, but also its striking figures of speech and bold imagery, make it one of the literary masterpieces of the ancient world. Did you know that Job is the longest ancient Hebrew poem that has ever been known to be composed?
Other than the prologue (Job 1:1-2:13) and epilogue (Job 42:7-17), the rest of Job is a series of poetic speeches (Job 3:1-42:6). The poetic form of these talks reveals that they are not word-for-word quotations, but carefully crafted pieces of poetry. They are not literal renderings from spontaneous conversations. Instead, what we are to learn from them come to us in poetic form.
So, don’t read Job as if it’s a textbook. Read it like poetry, with all the license that poetry takes to deliver its message to us. Since a translation principally aims to translate content more than form, we miss much of what the Hebrew text would have communicated to its Hebrew hearers. Think of Job as if it were a piece of music, with textured images, compressed speech, and allusive words to create an emotional sense in the hearer, not just the transfer of information or data.
So, to be faithful readers, we must accept Job as a historical figure AND the conversations in the book of Job as poetry. If we fail on either account, we will fail to be good readers and miss what God has for us to drink in from this book.
The Hebrew Itself
In Scripture, the book of Job is known for the complexity of its Hebrew. The Hebrew is archaic and challenging, often cryptic, written with unusual grammatical constructions, using many uncommon words. The Septuagint translation (3rd-2nd century BC) is 400 lines shorter than today’s accepted Hebrew text. That could be because its translators didn’t put into Greek the parts they didn’t understand well. The ancient Syriac (Peshitta), Aramaic (Targum), and Latin (Vulgate) translations had similar difficulties.
The Christian Approach to the Book of Job
St. James, the step-brother of Jesus and first Bishop of Jerusalem, wrote: “Think of how we regard those who have endured as blessed. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the Lord’s purpose: The Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11).
James is the only New-Testament writer who mentions Job. But more than that, he gives us a lens through which we can view Job in a good way: As a righteous man whose faith endures testing.
In chapter 5 of his epistle, James resumes a theme he introduced earlier—the blessedness of the person who presses on during, and despite, his trials. “Blessed is the one who endures testing. Having stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). Job, then, is the person who endured in suffering, whom God had blessed.
In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul quotes Job 5:13, speaking of God’s ability to confound those who base their thinking on the wisdom of the world instead of His wisdom (1 Corinthians 3:19). Quoting Job 41:11, Paul also says that we don’t have the ability to repay God, for what He gives to us (Romans 11:35). Here, Paul quotes the Hebrew text; the Septuagint has “resist” or “oppose,” not “pay back” or “repay.”
In the question of suffering, we find God’s answer in Christ Jesus, whom we cannot “repay.” Through His suffering and death, we learn that God is not indifferent to the suffering we endure. For He has lowered Himself into our world and tasted the bitterness of suffering, rejection, and pain. In doing so, God, in the Person of Jesus, has revealed that suffering, His suffering, is our means of redemption.
From the New Testament, we learn both the Law and Gospel in the book of Job:
Law Themes:
- We suffer in a sinful, fallen world
- No one can earn God’s eternal approval by what he does
- Satan can tempt and inflict suffering
Gospel Themes:
- God carries out His holy purposes even in, and through, suffering
- The Lord is our Redeemer
- The body’s resurrection on the Last Day
Backdrop for the Sufferings of Job
Read Job 1:1-12
Prayer: Psalm 13
P: How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
C: How long will You hide Your face from me?
P: How long must I bear pain in my soul and sorrow in my heart during the day?
C: How long will my enemy gloat over me?
P: Consider me and answer, O Lord, my God.
C: Give light to my eyes; otherwise, I will sleep the sleep of death.
P Otherwise, my enemy will say, “I have triumphed over him,”
C: and my foes will rejoice because I am upended.
P: As for me, I have trusted in Your unfailing love.
C: My heart rejoices in Your salvation.
P I will sing to the Lord,
C: for He has dealt bountifully with me.
