The man of Uz. His name signifies, what he himself was, one that weeps. His name is quoted with great honour by the Lord himself. (Ezek. 14. 14.) and his patience recommended very forcibly by an Apostle. (James v. 11.)
a patriarch celebrated for his patience, and the constancy of his piety and virtue. That Job was a real, and not a fictitious, character, may be inferred from the manner in which he is mentioned in the Scriptures. Thus, the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of him: “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God,” Eze 14:14. Now since Noah and Daniel were unquestionably real characters, we must conclude the same of Job. “Behold,” says the Apostle James, “we count them happy which endure: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy,” Jas 5:11. It is scarcely to be believed that a divinely inspired Apostle would refer to an imaginary character as an example of patience, or in proof of the mercy of God. But, beside the authority of the inspired writers, we have the strongest internal evidence, from the book itself, that Job was a real person; for it expressly specifies the names of persons, places, facts, and other circumstances usually related in true histories. Thus, we have the name, country, piety, wealth, &c, of Job described, Job i; the names, number, and acts of his children are mentioned; the conduct of his wife is recorded as a fact, Job ii; his friends, their names, countries, and discourses with him in his afflictions are minutely delineated, Job 2:11, &c.
Farther: no reasonable doubt can be entertained respecting the real existence of Job, when we consider that it is proved by the concurrent testimony of all eastern tradition: he is mentioned by the author of the book of Tobit, who lived during the Assyrian captivity; he is also repeatedly mentioned by Arabian writers as a real character. The whole of his history, with many fabulous additions, was known among the Syrians and Chaldeans; and many of the noblest families among the Arabs are distinguished by his name, and boast of being descended from him.
Since, then, says Horne, the book of Job contains the history of a real character, the next point is the age in which he lived, a question concerning which there is as great a diversity of opinion, as upon any other subject connected with this venerable monument of sacred antiquity. One thing, however, is generally admitted with respect to the age of the book of Job, namely, its remote antiquity. Even those who contend for the later production of the book of Job are compelled to acquiesce in this particular. Grotius thinks the events of the history are such as cannot be placed later than the sojourning of the Israelites in the wilderness. Bishop Warburton, in like manner, admits them to bear the marks of high antiquity; and Michaelis confesses the manners to be perfectly Abrahamic, that is, such as were common to all the seed of Abraham, Israelites, Ishmaelites, and Idumeans. The following are the principal circumstances from which the age of Job may be collected and ascertained:—
1. The Usserian or Bible chronology dates the trial of Job about the year 1520 before the Christian era, twenty-nine years before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt; and that the book was composed before that event, is evident from its total silence respecting the miracles which accompanied the exode; such as the passage of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Egyptians, the manna in the desert, &c; all of which happened in the vicinity of Job’s country, and were so apposite in the debate concerning the ways of Providence that some notice could not but have been taken of them, if they had been coeval with the poem of Job.
2. That it was composed before Abraham’s migration to Canaan, may also be inferred from its silence respecting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain, which were still nearer to Idumea, where the scene is laid.
3. The length of Job’s life places him in the patriarchal times. He survived his trial one hundred and forty years, Job 42:16, and was probably not younger at that time; for we read that his seven sons were all grown up, and had been settled in their own houses for a considerable time, Job 1:4-5. He speaks of the sins of his youth, Job 13:26, and of the prosperity of his youth; and yet Eliphaz addresses him as a novice: “With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men, much elder than thy father,” Job 15:10.
4. That he did not live at an earlier period, may be collected from an incidental observation of Bildad, who refers Job to their forefathers for instruction in wisdom:—
“Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,
And prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:”
assigning as a reason the comparative shortness of human life, and consequent ignorance of the present generation:—
“For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing; Because our days upon earth are a shadow.”
But the fathers of the former age, or grandfathers of the present, were the contemporaries of Peleg and Joktan, in the fifth generation after the deluge; and they might easily have learned wisdom from the fountain head by conversing with Shem, or perhaps with Noah himself; whereas, in the seventh generation, the standard of human life was reduced to about two hundred years, which was a shadow compared with the longevity of Noah and his sons.
5. The general air of antiquity which pervades the manners recorded in the poem, is a farther evidence of its remote date. The manners and customs, indeed, critically correspond with that early period. Thus, Job speaks of the most ancient kinds of writing, by sculpture, Job 19:24; his riches also are reckoned by his cattle, Job 42:12. Farther: Job acted as high priest in his family, according to the patriarchal usage, Gen 8:20; for the institution of an established priesthood does not appear to have taken place any where until the time of Abraham. Melchizedec, king of Salem, was a priest of the primitive order, Gen 14:18; such also was Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, in the vicinity of Idumea, Exo 18:12. The first regular priesthood was probably instituted in Egypt, where Joseph was married to the daughter of the priest of On, Gen 41:45.
6. The slavish homage of prostration to princes and great men, which prevailed in Egypt, Persia, and the east in general, and which still subsists there, was unknown in Arabia at that time. Though Job was one of the greatest men of all the east, we do not find any such adoration paid to him by his contemporaries, in the zenith of his prosperity, among the marks of respect so minutely described in the twenty-ninth chapter: “When the young men saw him, they hid themselves,” (rather, shrunk back, through respect or rustic bashfulness,) “the aged arose and stood up in his presence, (more correctly, ranged themselves about him,) “the princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand upon their mouth; the nobles held their peace,” and were all attention while he spoke. All this was highly respectful, indeed, but still it was manly, and showed no cringing or servile adulation. With this description correspond the manners and conduct of the genuine Arabs of the present day, a majestic race, who were never conquered, and who have retained their primitive customs, features, and character, with scarcely any alteration.
7. The allusion made by Job to that species of idolatry alone, which by general consent is admitted to have been the most ancient, namely, Zabianism, or the worship of the sun and moon, and also to the exertion of the judicial authority against it, Job 31:26-28, is an additional and most complete proof of the high antiquity of the poem, as well as a decisive mark of the patriarchal age. 8. A farther evidence of the remote antiquity of this book is the language of Job and his friends; who, being all Idumeans, or at least Arabians of the adjacent country, yet conversed in Hebrew. This carries us up to an age so early as that in which all the posterity of Abraham, Israelites, Idumeans, and Arabians, yet continued to speak one common language, and had not branched into different dialects.
The country in which the scene of this poem is laid, is stated, Job 1:1, to be the land of Uz, which by some geographers has been placed in Sandy, and by others in Stony, Arabia. Bochart strenuously advocated the former opinion, in which he has been powerfully supported by Spanheim, Calmet, Carpzov, Heidegger, and some later writers; Michaelis and Ilgen place the scene in the valley of Damascus; but Bishops Lowth and Magee, Dr. Hales, Dr. Good, and some later critics and philologers, have shown that the scene is laid in Idumea. In effect, nothing is clearer than that the history of an inhabitant of Idumea is the subject of the poem which bears the name of Job, and that all the persons introduced into it were Idumeans, dwelling in Idumea, in other words, Edomite Arabs. These characters are, Job himself, of the land of Uz; Eliphaz, of Teman, a district of as much repute as Uz, and which, it appears from the joint testimony of Jeremiah. Ezekiel, Amos, and Obadiah, Jer 49:7; Jer 49:20; Eze 25:13; Amo 1:11-12; Oba 1:8-9, formed a principal part of Idumea; Bildad, of Shuah, who is always mentioned in conjunction with Sheba and Dedan, the first of whom was probably named after one of the brothers of Joktan or Kahtan, and the two last from two of his sons, all of them being uniformly placed in the vicinity of Idumea, Gen 25:2-3; Jer 49:8; Zophar of Naama, a city importing pleasantness, which is also stated by Joshua, Jos 15:21; Jos 15:41, to have been situate in Idumea, and to have lain in a southern direction toward its coast, on the shores of the Red Sea; and Elihu, of Buz, which, as the name of a place, occurs only once in Sacred Writ, Jer 25:23, but is there mentioned in conjunction with Temen and Dedan; and hence necessarily, like them, a border city upon Uz or Idumea. Allowing this chirography to be correct, (and such, upon a fair review of facts, we may conclude it to be,) there is no difficulty in conceiving that hordes of nomadic Chaldeans as well as Sabeans, a people addicted to rapine, and roving about at immense distances for the sake of plunder, should have occasionally infested the defenceless country of Idumea, and roved from the Euphrates even to Egypt.
The different parts of the book of Job are so closely connected together, that they cannot be detached from each other. The exordium prepares the reader for what follows, supplies us with the necessary notices concerning Job and his friends, unfolds the scope, and places the calamities full in our view as an object of attention. The epilogue, or conclusion, again, has reference to the exordium, and relates the happy termination of Job’s trials; the dialogues which intervene flow in regular order. Now, if any of these parts were to be taken away, the poem would be extremely defective. Without the prologue the reader would be utterly ignorant who Job was, who were his friends, and the cause of his being so grievously afflicted. Without the discourse of Elihu, Job 32-37, there would be a sudden and abrupt transition from the last words of Job to the address of God, for which Elihu’s discourse prepares the reader. And without the epilogue, or conclusion, we should remain in ignorance of the subsequent condition of Job. Hence it is evident, that the poem is the composition of a single author; but who that was, is a question concerning which the learned are very much divided in their sentiments. Elihu, Job, Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, an anonymous writer in the reign of Manasseh, Ezekiel, and Ezra, have all been contended for. The arguments already adduced respecting the age of Job, prove that it could not be either of the latter persons. Dr. Lightfoot, from an erroneous version of Job 32:16-17, has conjectured that it is the production of Elihu; but the correct rendering of that passage refutes this notion. Ilgen ascribes it probably to a descendant of Elihu. Another and more generally received opinion attributes this book to Moses; this conjecture is founded on some apparent striking coincidences of sentiment, as well as from some marks of later date which are supposed to be discoverable in it. But, independently of the characters of antiquity already referred to, and which place the book of Job very many centuries before the time of Moses, the total absence of even the slightest allusion to the manners, customs, ceremonies, or history of the Israelites, is a direct evidence that the great legislator of the Hebrews was not, and could not have been the author. To which may be added, that the style of Job, as Bishop Lowth has remarked, is materially different from the poetical style of Moses; for it is much more compact, concise, or condensed, more accurate in the poetical conformation of the sentences; as may be observed also in the prophecies of Balaam the Mesopotamian, a foreigner, indeed, with respect to the Israelites, but not unacquainted either with their language, or with the worship of the true God. Upon the whole, then, we have sufficient ground to conclude that this book was not the production of Moses, but of some earlier age. Bishop Lowth favours the opinion of Schultens, Peters, and others, which is adopted by Bishop Tomline and Dr. Hales, who suppose Job himself, or some contemporary, to have been the author of this poem; and there seems to be no good reason for supposing that it was not written by Job himself. It appears, indeed, highly probable that Job was the writer of his own story, of whose inspiration we have the clearest evidence in the forty-second chapter of this book, in which he thus addresses the Almighty: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.” It is plain that in this passage some privilege is intended which he never had enjoyed before, and which he calls the sight of God.
The book of Job contains the history of Job, a man equally distinguished for purity and uprightness of character, and for honours, wealth and domestic felicity, whom God permitted, for the trial of his faith, to be suddenly deprived of all his numerous blessings, and to be at once plunged into the deepest affliction, and most accumulated distress. It gives an account of his eminent piety, patience, and resignation under the pressure of these severe calamities, and of his subsequent elevation to a degree of prosperity and happiness, still greater than that which he had before enjoyed. How long the sufferings of Job continued, we are not informed; but it is said, that after God turned his captivity, and blessed him a second time, he lived one hundred and forty years, Job 42:16. Its style is in many parts peculiarly sublime; and it is not only adorned with poetical embellishments, but most learned men consider it as written in metre. Through the whole work we discover religious instruction shining forth amidst the venerable simplicity of ancient manners. It every where abounds with the noblest sentiments of piety, uttered with the spirit of inspired conviction. It is a work unrivalled for the magnificence of its language and for the beautiful and sublime images which it presents. In the wonderful speech of the Deity, Job 38, 39, every line delineates his attributes, every sentence opens a picture of some grand object in creation, characterized by its most striking features. Add to this, that its prophetic parts reflect much light on the economy of God’s moral government; and every admirer of sacred antiquity, every inquirer after religious instruction, will seriously rejoice that the enraptured sentence of Job, Job 19:23, is realized to a more effectual and unforeseen accomplishment; that while the memorable records of antiquity have mouldered from the rock, the prophetic assurance and sentiments of Job are graven in Scriptures that no time shall alter, no changes shall efface.
A patriarch distinguished for his integrity and piety, his wealth, honors, and domestic happiness, whom God permitted, for the trial of his faith, to be deprived of friends, property, and health, and at once plunged into deep affliction. He lived in the land of Uz, lying, it is generally thought, in Eastern Edom, probably not far from Bozrah.\par THE BOOK OF JOB, has originated much criticism, and on many points a considerable diversity of opinion still exists. Sceptics have denied its inspiration, and called it a mere philosophical romance; but no one who respects revelation can entertain this notion, or doubt that Job was a real person. Inspired writers testify to both. See Eze 14:14 Jas 5:11, and compare 1Co 3:19 with Job 5:13 . The book itself specifies persons, places, and circumstances in the manner of true history. Moreover, the name and history of Job are spread throughout the East; Arabian writers mention him, and many Mohammedan families perpetuate his name. Five different places claim the possession of his tomb.\par The precise period of his life cannot be ascertained, yet no doubt can exist as to its patriarchal antiquity. The book seems to allude to the flood, Job 22:15-17, but not to the destruction of Sodom, to the exodus from Egypt, or the giving of the Law. No reference is made to any order of priesthood, Job himself being the priest of his household, like Noah and Abraham. There is allusion to the most ancient form of idolatry, star-worship, and to the earliest mode of writing, Job 19:24 . The longevity of Job also places him among the patriarchs. He survived his trial one hundred and forty years, and was an old man before his trial began, for his children were established each at the head of his own household, Job 1:4 42:16. The period of long lives had not wholly passed away, Job 15:10 . Hales places the trial of Job before the birth of Abraham, and Usher, about thirty years before the exodus, B. C. 1521.\par As to the authorship of the book, many opinions have been held. It has all the freedom of an original composition, bearing no marks of its being a translation; and if so, it would appear that its author must have been a Hebrew, since it is written in the purest Hebrew. It exhibits, moreover, the most intimate acquaintance with both Egyptian and Arabian scenery, and is in the loftiest style of oriental poetry. All these circumstances are consistent with the views of those who regard Moses as its probable author. It has, however, been ascribed to various other persons. IT presents a beautiful exhibition of patriarchal religion. It teaches the being and perfections of God, his creation of all things, and his universal providence; the apostasy and guilt of evil spirits and of mankind; the mercy of God, on the basis of a sacrifice, and on condition of repentance and faith, Job 33:27-30 42:6,8; the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the body, Job 14:7-15 19:25-27.\par The main problem discussed in Job is the justice of God in suffering the righteous to be afflicted, while the wicked prosper. It is settled, by showing that, while the hand of a just God is manifest in his providential government of human affairs, it is his sovereign right to choose his own time and mode of retribution both to the evil and the good, and to subject the graces of his people to whatever trials he deems best.\par The conference of Job and his friends may be divided into three parts. In the first, Eliphaz addresses Job, and Job replies; then Bildad and Job, and Zophar and Job speak, in turn. In the second part, the same order is observed and in the third also, except that after Job’s reply to Bildad, the three friends have no more to urge, and instead of Zophar, a fourth friend named Elihu takes up the word; and the whole is concluded by the decision of Jehovah himself. The friends of Job argue that his remarkable afflictions must have been sent in punishment of highly aggravated transgressions, and urge him to confession and repentance. The pious patriarch, conscious of his own integrity and love to God cast down and bewildered by his sore chastisements, and pained by the suspicions of his friends, warmly vindicates his innocence, and shows that the best of men are sometimes the most afflicted; but forgets that his inward sins merit far heavier punishment, and though he still maintains faith in God, yet he charges Him foolishly. Afterwards he humbly confesses his wrong, and is cheered by the returning smile of God, while his uncharitable friends are reproved. The whole book is written in the highest style of Hebrew poetry, except the two introductory chapters and part of the last, which are prose. As a poem, it is full of sublime sentiments and bold and striking images.\par The DISEASE of Job is generally supposed to have been the elephantiasis, or black leprosy. The word rendered "boils" does not necessarily mean abscesses, but burning and inflammation; and no known disease better answers to the description given, Job 2:7,8 7:5,13,13 19:17 30:17, than the leprosy referred to above. See LEPER.\par
Job. (persecuted).
1. The third son of Issachar, Gen 46:13, called, in another genealogy, Jashub. 1Ch 7:1.
2. Job, the patriarch, from whom one of the books of the Old Testament is named. His residence in the land of Uz, marks him as belonging to a branch of the Aramean race, which had settled in the lower part of Mesopatamia, (probably to the south or southeast of Palestine, in Idumean Arabia), adjacent to the Sabeans and Chaldeans.
The opinions of Job and his friends are, thus, peculiarly interesting as exhibiting an aspect of the patriarchal religion, outside of the family of Abraham, and as yet, uninfluenced by the legislation of Moses. The form of worship belongs essentially, to the early patriarchal type; with little of ceremonial ritual, without a separate priesthood, it is thoroughly domestic in form and spirit. Job is represented as a chieftain of immense wealth and high rank, blameless in all the relations of life. What we know of his history, is given in the book that bears his name.
Age, and relation to the canon. The book has a unique position in the canon. It is unconnected with Israel, God’s covenant people, with whom all the other scriptures are associated. "The law" (
Job sacrifices as priest for his family according to patriarchal usage, and alludes to no exclusive priesthood, temple, or altar. Lastly, the language is Hebrew with an Arabic and Syriac infusion found in no other sacred book, answering to an age when Hebrew still retained many of the elements of the original common Semitic, from which in time branched off Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic, carrying with them severally fragments of the common stock. The obscurity of several phrases, the obsolete words and forgotten traditions (e.g. that of the bushmen, Job 30:4-7), all mark a remote antiquity. The admission of the book into the Hebrew canon, notwithstanding the absence of reference to Israel, is accounted for if Let’s theory be adopted that Moses became acquainted with it during his stay in Arabia, near Horeb, and added the prologue and epilogue. To the afflicted Israelites Job’s patience and restoration were calculated to be a lesson of special utility.
The restriction of "Jehovah" (the divine name revealed to Moses in its bringing the fulfillment of the promise to God’s covenant people just at that time: Exo 6:3) mostly to the prologue and epilogue favors this view. The Holy Spirit directed him to canonize the oriental patriarch’s inspired book, just as he embodies in the Pentateuch the utterances of Balaam the prophet from the mountains of the East. The grand theme of the book is to reconcile the saint’s afflictions with God’s moral government in this present world. The doctrine of a future life in which the seeming anomalies of the present shall be cleared up would have given the main solution to the problem. But as yet this great truth was kept less prominent until "the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." Job plainly refers to the resurrection, but not with that persistent prominence with which the New Testament saints rest on it as their continual hope; Job does not make it his main solution.
Even still we need something in addition, to clear off the clouds which hang over God’s present government of this fallen earth. The first consideration suggested in this sublime history and poem is, "an enemy hath done this." The veil which hides the world of spirits is drawn aside, and Satan, the accuser of the brethren, appears as the mediate cause of Job’s afflictions. Satan must be let do his worst to show that his sneer is false that religion is but selfishness," doth Job fear God for naught?" (Job 1:9). The patience and the final perseverance of the saints (Job 1:21; Job 2:10; Job 13:15), notwithstanding temporary distrust under Satan’s persecutions which entailed loss of family, friends, possessions, and bodily health, are illustrated in Job’s history.
God’s people serve Him for His own sake, not merely for the temporary reward His service generally brings; they serve Him even in overwhelming trial (Gen 15:1). Herein Job is a type though imperfectly of Him who alone, without once harbouring a distrustful thought, endured all this as well as death in its most agonizing, humiliating form, and, worse than all, the hiding of even God’s countenance from Him. Job’s chief agony was not so much his accumulated losses and sufferings, not even his being misunderstood by friends, but that God hid His face from him, as these calamities too truly seemed to prove (Job 23:9). Yet conscience told him he was no hypocrite, nay though God was slaying him he still trusted in God (Job 23:10-15; Job 13:15; compare Abraham, Genesis 22). Job’s three trials are progressive:
1. His sudden loss of all blessings external to himself, possessions, servants, and sons; he conquers this temptation: "naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord."
2. His loss of bodily health by the most loathsome sickness; still he conquers: "shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"
3. His mental conflict brought on by the three friends’ suspicion of his insincerity, which he felt untrue, but which seemed justified by his trials from God; this was the poignant sting to his soul, for he accepted their premises, that great suffering proved great sin.
Here he failed; yet amidst his impatient groans he still clung desperately to his faith and followed hard after God, and felt sure God would yet vindicate him (Job 23:10; Job 19:25-27). His chief error was his undue self justification before God, which he at last utterly renounces (Job 30:25 to Job 31; Job 32:1; Job 33:9; Job 9:17; Job 10:7; Job 16:17; Job 27:5; Job 29:10-17; Job 40:4-5; Job 42:5-6). After fretfully demanding God’s interposition (23) to vindicate his innocence he had settled down into the sad conviction that God heeds not, and that His ways of providence are as a theory inexplicable to man while practical wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Job 28:31:35). Elihu gives a leading solution of the problem. God not only hereafter shall judge the world, but even now providentially and morally controls all its affairs.
Even the righteous have sin which needs correction. God speaks to them by chastisement; He is not really silent (Job 16:21; Job 23:3; Job 31:35), as Job had complained (Job 33:14, etc.); He teaches them humility, and prepares them for pardon and life through the mediating Angel of the covenant (of whom Elihu is the type: Job 33:6-7; Job 33:23-30). To Job’s charge against God of injustice Elihu answers that God’s omnipotence (Job 34:35-36), upholding man in life when He could destroy him, and His universal government, exclude the idea of injustice in Him. To Job’s charge that God’s providence is unsearchable, Elihu answers that suffering is to teach humility and adorntion of His greatness. Affliction to the saint is justice and mercy in disguise; he is thereby led to feel the heinousness of sin (
Then, justifying God and condemning himself, he is finally delivered from temporal afflictions. Now already the godly are happier amidst afflictions than the ungodly (Mar 10:29-30). Even these considerations do not exhaust the subject; still difficulties remain. To answer these, God Himself (Job 38) appears on the scene, and resolves all that remains uncleared into the one resting thought of faith, the sovereignty of God. We must wait for His solution hereafter of what we know not now (Joh 13:7). Elihu is the preacher appealing to Job’s reason and conscience. God alone, in His appearing, brings home the truth experimentally to Job’s heart: "Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face. Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan God’s work in vain; God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain."
CONSTRUCTION. The artificial construction of the poem appears in the oft recurring sacred numbers three and seven. Job had seven thousand sheep, seven sons, and three daughters, both before and after his trials. His three friends sit with him seven days and nights. "Job" in Arabic means repentance, the name given him in after life from his experiences. His personal reality appears from his being named with "Noah and Daniel," real persons, in Eze 14:14; Eze 14:16-20. James (Jas 5:11) refers to Job as an example of patience, which he would hardly do were Job an imaginary person. Persons and places are specified as they would not be in an allegory. The exact doubling of his possessions after restoration is probably the nearest round number given, as is often the case in books undoubtedly historical. The arguments of the speeches were substantially those given, the studied number and poetic form were given by the sacred writer under the Holy Spirit.
Job lived 140 years after his trials; and nothing is more natural than that he should at leisure mould into form the arguments of the momentous debate for the edification of the church. The debate occupied several sittings with intervals of a day or more between them. The number of speeches assigned to each was arranged by preconcerted agreement, so that none spoke out of his turn. Uz means "a light sandy soil" (Gesenius).
Rawlinson says Uz is the prevailing name of the country at the Euphrates’ mouth, where the Chaldees mentioned in Job 1 resided. The Idumean quarter however, and Arabia, would agree better with Moses’ finding it during his exile in Midian. Moreover, Eliphaz is an Idumean name so is "Temanite" (Gen 36:4; Gen 36:15). "Shuhite" answers to Sycca in Arabia Deserta. Eusebius fixes Job’s time as being two ages before Moses. Besides the arguments for this above, others are the number of oxen and rams sacrificed seven, as in Balaam’s case; this agrees with a time before the law defined God’s will otherwise. Also the writing he speaks of is the most ancient, sculpture (Job 20:23-24); "printed" means engraven, "pen" a graver, Riches were then cattle. The Hebrew "piece of money" is rather a lamb.
THE WRITER. The thought, imagery, and manners accord with what we should expect from an Arab emir. Job in his speeches shows himself more competent to compose the book than Elihu, to whom Lightfoot attributes it. The style is distinct from that of Moses. Its inspiration is attested by Paul under the Spirit quoting it with the formula "it is written" (Job 5:13). Our Lord in Mat 24:28 refers to Job 29:30; compare also Jas 4:10; 1Pe 5:6, with Job 22:29; Rom 11:34-35 with Job 15:8; Jer 20:14-15, endorses Job 3:3; Isa 19:5; Job 14:11; Psalm 37; Psalm 73, discuss the same problem as Job. Proverbs 8 develops Job’s description of wisdom in Job 28. It stands among the hagiographa (
DIVISIONS. To each of the three friends three speeches are assigned; Job is allowed a reply to each of the three. Eliphaz the oldest leads; Zophar at his third turn fails to speak, virtually owning himself defeated (Job 27). Therefore, Job continues his reply which forms three speeches: Job 26; Job 27; Job 28; Job 29-31. Elihu (Job 32-37) is allowed four speeches. Jehovah makes three addresses (Job 38-41). Thus throughout there is a tripartite division. The whole consists of three parts: the prologue, poem, and epilogue. The poem three: (1) Job’s dispute with his three friends; (2) Elihu’s address; (3) Jehovah’s. The epilogue has three parts: Job’ s justification, reconciliation with his friends, and restoration. The speakers regularly advance from less to greater vehemence. The explicitness (Job 14:14; Job 19:25) of Job’s anticipation of the resurrection, as contrasted with the obscurity on the subject in the early books of Old Testament, is due to Job’s enjoyment of the divine vision (Job 38:1; Job 42:5).
The revelations outside of Israel, being few, needed to be the more explicit. Balaam’s prophecy (Num 24:17) was clear enough to lead the wise men of the East by the star (Matthew 2). In the age before the written law God left not Himself without witnesses, e.g. Melchizedek, Job, Jethro. Job only dimly realized the Spirit-designed significancy of his own words (1Pe 1:11-12). Even Asaph, who had in David’s psalms (Psa 16:10; Psa 17:15) plain prophecies of a future retribution in the body to the righteous and to the wicked, still felt the difficulty as regards God’s government here in this present time (Psalm 73). "Prosperity is the blessing of Old Testament, adversity that of N. T. ... Yet even in Old Testament the pencil of the Holy Spirit has laboured more in describing Job’s afflictions than Solomon’s felicities" (Bacon). Elihu showed how God can be just, and yet the righteous be afflicted; Jehovah’s address shows that He must be just, because He is God. God reprimands the three friends, but not Elihu. The simpler and less artificial forms of poetry prevail in Job, a mark of the early age. The Orientals used to preserve their sentiments in a terse, proverbial, poetic form, called mashal; to this form Job’s poetry is related.
Job, Book of. This is an historical poem, as is shown by the narrative prologue and epilogue in prose. Some ascribe its authorship to Moses in Midian, others bring it down to the age of Solomon. It is written in pure Hebrew, and shows intimate acquaintance with both Egyptian and Arabian scenery and usages. Its theme is the problem of evil, why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper in this world. After the outbreak of Job’s despair, chap. 3, there are three series of controversies, in which each of Job’s friends makes an address, to which Job replies—save that in the 32d series Zophar is silent. Chaps 4-26. Then Job makes a closing address to all three, 27, 28, followed by a striking soliloquy, 29-31. Elihu utters four discourses, 32-37, after which Jehovah speaks out of the whirlwind, 38-41, and Job is humbled and yet vindicated. The best critics of every age count this poetical book as one of the immortal master-pieces of genius. Carlyle said that "there is nothing written of equal literary merit." But it is no less estimable for its religious and ethical worth, setting forth as it does the being and perfections of Jehovah, the apostasy and guilt of evil spirits and of mankind, the sovereignty of divine providence, the mercy of God on the basis of sacrifice and penitence, the disciplinary nature of his people’s sorrows, the wisdom of submission to his will, and the assurance, in view of his infinite power and wisdom, that all shall be well with his followers in the end. The Book of Job may be better understood by reading it in the Revised English Version.
1. The ’perfect and upright man’ whose history is given in the book of Job.
2. Son of Issachar. Gen 46:13. See JASHUB.
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By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn, Solomon Schechter, Carl Siegfried
—Biblical Data:
Titular hero of the Book of Job. He was a native of Uz, rich, very pious, and upright, and he had seven sons and three daughters. His sons used to make a feast in their houses, one each day; and at the end of the week Job would bring seven holocausts, according to the number of his sons, thinking perhaps that the latter, while feasting, had committed sins (Job i. 1-5).
One day in the heavenly council, in consequence of a question asked by God, Job's piety was discussed by the accuser Satan, who maintained that if Job should be stricken with calamity he would certainly sin. Satan, having received permission to deal with Job as he pleased, first brought poverty on him by causing all his cattle to be stolen; then he caused the death of all Job's children. But Job did not sin. On the contrary, he declared God's act to be just, saying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away" (ib. i. 6-22).
At a second gathering of the "sons of God" Satan obtained permission to afflict Job's own person. He accordingly smote him with a most painful disease (elephantiasis ?); still Job did not complain. Even when his wife advised him to curse God and die, he replied that he had to accept evil at His hands, just as he had received good (ib. ii. 1-10). Three friends came to condole with him, and stayed with him seven days and seven nights in silence (ib. ii. 11-13), after which began the colloquies between him and his friends that form the text of the Book of Job.
Finally, God restored Job to his former state, giving him twice as much as he had before, even fourteen sons. The daughters, however, born to him after his restoration were only three in number. Job lived 140 years after this and saw four generations (ib. xlii. 10-17). He is mentioned by Ezekiel (Ezek. xiv. 14, 20) with Noah and Daniel as among the three most righteous men. See Job, Book of.
E. G. H. M. Sel.Opinions as to Date. —In Rabbinical Literature:
Owing to the importance of the Book of Job, the Talmudists occupied themselves frequently with its chief character. One of the amoraim expressed his opinion in the presence of Samuel b. Naḥmani that Job never existed and that the whole story was a fable (B. B. 15a). An opinion couched in similar words and pronounced by Simeon ben Laḳish was interpreted to mean that such a person as Job existed, but that the narratives in the drama are inventions (Gen. R. lvii.). Apart from these utterances all of the rabbis took it for granted that Job existed, but they differed widely as to the epoch in which he lived and as to his nationality, two points of discussion closely connected. Every one of the Talmudists inferred Job's epoch and nationality from an analogy between two Biblical words or sentences. According to Bar Ḳappara, Job lived in the time of Abraham; according to Abba b. Kahana, in the time of Jacob, he having married Dinah, Jacob's daughter (ib.; B. B. 15b; comp. additions in Targ. Yer. to Job ii. 9). R. Levi said that Job lived in the time of Jacob's sons; and he also said, in the name of Jose b. Ḥalafta, that Job was born when Jacob and his children entered Egypt and that he died when the Israelites left that country. Job consequently lived 210 years (comp. Rashi on Ex. xii. 40). When Satan came to accuse the Israelites of being idolaters, God set him against Job, whence Job's misfortunes (Gen. R. l.c.). This opinion is supported by the statement that Job with Jethro and Balaam was consulted by Pharaoh as to the means of reducing the number of the children of Israel and that Job was stricken with calamity because he had remained silent (Sanh. 106a; Soṭah 11a). It may be mentioned that this legend is narrated differently in the "Sefer ha-Yashar" (section "Shemot," p. 110a, ed. Leghorn, 1870) as follows: At first Job, who was one of Pharaoh's eunuchs and counselors, advised Pharaoh to have every male child murdered (Ex. i. 16). Afterward Pharaoh, having had a dream which prognosticated the birth of a helper, again consulted Job. The latter answered evasively: "Let the king do as he pleases" ("Sefer ha-Yashar," l.c. p. 111a). Levi b. Laḥma also held that Job lived in the time of Moses, by whom the Book of Job was written. Some of the rabbis even declare that the one servant of Pharaoh who feared the word of God (Ex. ix. 20) was Job (Ex. R. xii. 3). Raba, specifying the time more accurately, said Job lived in the time of the spies who were sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan (B. B. 15a). According to these rabbis, Job was a Gentile—an opinion which is elsewhere expressed more fully, in that Job is said to have been a pious Gentile or one of the prophets of the Gentiles (ib. 15b; Seder 'Olam R. xxi.). Other tannaim place Job variously in the reign of Saba, in that of the Chaldees, and in that of Ahasuerus. R. Johanan and R. Eleazar both declared that Job was one of those who returned from the Captivity and that his bet ha-midrash was at Tiberias (Yer. Soṭah v. 8; B. B. l.c.; Gen. R. l.c.). It is said in B. B. (ib.) that these tannaim necessarily considered Job an Israelite; but R. Hananeel (ad loc.) has in his text, "All the Tannaim and Amoraim, with the exception ofthe one who placed Job in the time of Jacob, were of opinion that Job was an Israelite" (comp. also Gen. R. l.c.).
Job is prominent in haggadic legends. His prosperity is thus described: Samuel b. Isaac said: "He who received a 'peruṭah' from Job prospered in his affairs." Jose b. Ḥanina inferred from Job i. 10 that Job's goats could kill wolves; and R. Johanan inferred from Job i. 14 that God gave Job a foretaste of the bliss of paradise (B. B. 15b). Satan, seeing Job's extraordinary prosperity, was filled with envy and therefore began in the councils of heaven to disparage Job's piety.
According to the Targum Yerushalmi (Job i. 6, ii. 1) the two councils of heaven took place respectively on Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur. When the messenger told Job that the Sabeans had seized his oxen, he armed his men and prepared to make war upon them. But the second messenger came, telling him that a fire from heaven had destroyed his sheep, and he then said: "Now I can do nothing" (Lev. R. xvii. 4). The wind that blew down his house was one of the three great winds whose power was sufficient to destroy the world (Gen. R. xxiv. 4). Job was stricken by Satan with fifty different plagues (Ex. R. xxiii. 10). His house was filled with a bad smell, and Job sat down on a dunghill. His flesh was filled with worms which made holes in his body and began to quarrel with one another. Job thereupon placed every worm in a hole, saying: "It is my flesh, yet you quarrel about it' (Ab. R. N., ed. Schechter, p. 164; comp. Kohler, Testament of Job, v. 6-8, in Kohut Memorial Volume, pp. 264-295). Job's sufferings lasted twelve months ('Eduy. ii. 10; comp. Testament of Job, v. 9, where the number of years is given as seven); then God, yielding to the prayer of the angels, healed him and restored to him twofold what he had before (Ab. R. N. l.c.). Only the number of Job's daughters was not doubled. Nevertheless their beauty was doubled, and therefore their names (Job xlii. 14), indicating their extraordinary charms, are given (B. B. 16b). The legendary accounts of Job extend also to his three friends. These entered his house simultaneously, though they lived 300 miles apart. Each had a crown or, according to another statement, a tree on which the images of the three friends were carved; and when a misfortune befell any one of them his image was altered (ib.; comp. Targ. to Job ii. 11). It has been said that Job lived 210 years; this is inferred from Job xlii. 16, where it is said that he lived 140 years after his recovery (Gen. R. lviii. 3, lxi. 4; comp. Yalḳ., Kings, 243, and Testament of Job, xii. 8). It is said also that the whole world mourned Job's death (Soṭah 35a).
Job's Generosity.
But it was chiefly Job's character and piety that concerned the Talmudists. He is particularly represented as a most generous man. Like Abraham, he built an inn at the cross-roads, with four doors opening respectively to the four cardinal points, in order that wayfarers might have no trouble in finding an entrance, and his name was praised by all who knew him. His time was entirely occupied with works of charity, as visiting the sick and the like (Ab. R. N., ed. Schechter, pp. 33-34, 164; Midrash Ma'yan Gannim, ed. Buber, p. 92; comp. Gen. R. xxx. 9). Still more characteristic is the conclusion of Raba that Job used to take away, ostensibly by force, a field which belonged to orphans, and after making it ready for sowing would return it to the owners (B. B. l.c.). Job was also of exemplary piety. Like Abraham he recognized God by intuition (Num. R. xiv. 7). Nothing in his possession had been acquired by rapacity, and therefore his prayer was pure (Ex. R. xii. 4). He, Melchizedek, and Enoch were as spotless as Abraham (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xxxvii.). He took the greatest care to keep himself aloof from every unseemly deed (Ab. R. N. ch. ii., Recension B, ed. Schechter, p. 8). According to Targ. Sheni to Esth. i. Job's name was one of the seven engraved on the seven branches of the golden candlestick.
But these features of Job's character made the Rabbis apprehend that he might eclipse Abraham; and some of them therefore depreciated Job's piety. Johanan b. Zakkai used to say that Job's piety was only the result of his fear of punishment (Soṭah 27a; Yer. Soṭah v. 5). In Ab. R. N., Recension A, p. 34, where the generosity of Job is so much praised, it is concluded that when he, after having been afflicted, complained that he was inadequately rewarded, God said to him: "Thy generosity has not yet attained to the half of that of Abraham." R. Levi even went as far as to exculpate Satan, declaring that he had the same apprehension that God might forget the piety of Abraham (B. B. 16a). Still even among the Tannaim Job had his defenders, e.g., Joshua b. Hyrcanus, whose opinion was that Job worshiped God out of pure love (Soṭah l.c.). This difference of opinion existed with regard to Job's attitude at the time of his misfortune. R. Eliezer said that Job blasphemed God (the Talmudic expression being "he desired to upset the dish"), but R. Joshua considered that Job spoke harsh words against Satan only (B. B. 16a). This discussion was continued by Abaye and Raba, of whom the former pleaded for Job, while Raba followed R. Eliezer's opinion. Raba's (according to another text, Rab's) expression was "dust into the mouth of Job." He inferred from the passage "and yet Job sinned not with his lips" (Job ii. 10) that Job sinned in his heart (ib.).
In the Talmudic literature it is generally assumed that Job sinned or, as the expression is, "he rebelled" ("ba'aṭ"; Midr. Teh. xxvi.). It is further said that if Job had not sinned people would recite in prayer "and the God of Job," just as they recite "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," but he rebelled (Pesiḳ. R. Aḥare Mot, ed. Friedmann, p. 190a; comp. Ex. R. xxx. 8). Job's chief complaint was, according to Raba, that although man is driven to sin by the seducer ("yeẓer ha-ra'"), whom God Himself has created, yet he is punished (comp. Job x. 7). But Eliphaz answered him: "Thou castest off fear" (ib. xv. 4), meaning, if God created the seducer, He also created the Torah, by which a man can subdue the seducer (B. B. l.c.). Raba concluded also that Job denied resurrection (ib.).
A more picturesque treatment of Job's bitternessagainst God is recorded by Rabbah (according to B. B. 16a), or Raba (according to Niddah 52a): Job blasphemed God by using the term "tempest" when he said, "For he breaketh me with a tempest" (Job ix. 17), which passage is interpreted by the Rabbis to mean, "Perhaps a tempest passed before Thee which caused the confusion between 
[= "Job"] and 
[= "enemy"]" (comp. also Ecclus. [Sirach] xlix. 9, the Hebrew, Greek, and Syriac versions, and the commentaries ad loc.). God therefore answered him out of the tempest (ib. xxxviii.-xxxix., which are interpreted as a refutation of Job's charge). Still, Rabbi's opinion was that Job spoke in praise of God more than Elihu did (Ex. R. xxxiv. 1).
It has already been said that the Book of Job was ascribed by the Rabbis to Moses. Its place in the canon is between Psalms and Proverbs (B. B. 14b). The high priest read the Book of Job for diversion before Yom Kippur (Yoma i. 4 [18b]). According to the Talmudists, he who sees the Book of Job in a dream may anticipate a misfortune (Ber. 57b). There was an ancient Targum to Job which was regarded by the Talmudists as a dangerous work (comp. Tosef., Shab. xiv.).
Bibliography:
Israel Schwarz, Tikwat Enosh, Berlin, 1868;
Wiernikowsky, Das Buch Hiob, Breslau, 1902.
—Critical View:
The hero whose name has furnished the title of the Book of Job appears only as a legendary figure. It is idle to inquire whether the story has any historical basis, since nothing definite relating to Job can be ascertained. The story originated in the land of Edom—a background that has been retained in the Hebrew poem. The names of Job and his three friends have been partly Hebraized. "Iyyob," the Hebrew form of "Job," is either passive, meaning the person attacked [by Satan]" (comp. "yillod" = "the born one"; Ex. i. 22; Josh. v. 5; "shilloaḥ" in Job ix. 7 =
Eliphaz the Temanite (Job ii. 11) appears also in Gen. xxxvi. 4, 11, 15, as Esau's eldest son. Bildad the Shuhite is mentioned only in the Book of Job. According to Nöldeke (in "Z. D. M. G." xlii. 479), the name means "Bel has loved" (comp. "Eldad"). In Gen. xxv. 2 "Shuah" is the name of a tribe, not of a place. "Zophar" also occurs only in the Book of Job. His home, Naamah, is mentioned in Josh. xv. 41 as a city within the Judaic "shefelah." Job's home, Uz (
Composite Nature of Book of Job.
The poem of Job as found in the Old Testament is a combination from two sources. The earlier of these, a folk-book, comprises the prologue (Job i. and ii.) and the epilogue (ib. xlii. 7-17). According to this source Job was a rich Edomite sheik, of irreproachable piety (ib. i. 1, 3, 8), as is shown especially by his punctiliousness in ritual observances (ib. i. 5) according to the customs of the time. The accusing angel Satan (ib. i. 6) in the presence of God casts reflections on the causes of Job's piety (ib. i. 9-11), and, in agreement with the conceit that the evil upon earth is not caused by God directly, but is brought by one or many intermediary angels, receives permission to test Job by misfortune (Gen. xix.; II Sam. xxiv. 16 et seq.; Ezek. ix. 4 et seq.; comp.
The first trial consists in the destruction of Job's possessions (Job i. 12-19), in which he is the victor through his resignation (ib. i. 20-22). Satan declares this trial to have been insufficient, and demands another to consist in personal bodily suffering. This also is granted, and Job is again victorious (ib. ii. 1-10). Job's wife (ib. ii. 9, 10) here shows how great in such cases is the temptation to do wrong. That the friends of Job, who come to comfort him (ib. ii. 11-13), also sin on this occasion is evidenced in Job xlii. 7-10a, where Job, who alone remains guiltless, has to intercede for them when they bring the burnt offerings. The nature of their sin does not appear, since the folk-book is interrupted at this point by the interpolation of the poem of Job (ib. iii. 1-xlii. 6).
The folk-book is further differentiated from the poem by its employment of the name of Yhwh, which it naively puts into the mouth of the Edomites (ib. i. 7, 21b; xlii. 7). Here again Job refrains from sinning with his lips (ib. ii. 10), even in his deepest suffering, and says to Yhwh only what is just ("nekonah"; ib. xlii. 7b, 8b), whereas in the poem he utters the most offensive sentiments against God, beginning by cursing the day of his birth.
In the folk-book the sins consist mainly in unseemly speeches to and about God (ib. i. 10; xlii. 7, 8; comp. ib. i. 22, "natan tiflah"). He who refrains, like Job, is 'sar me-ra'" (="one who escheweth evil") and "yere Elohim" (= "who feareth God") (ib. i. 1). In other respects piety here, as among the Patriarchs (Gen. xxii. 3), is a matter of ritual, consisting in burnt offerings (Job i. 5). Job's dress is that worn by the Patriarchs; his flocks are reminiscent of Gen. xii. 16, xxxii. 5; his servants ("'abuddah"), of Gen. xxvi. 14. According to Duhm ("Das Buch Hiob," 1897, p. viii.) Ezek. xiv. 14 et seq. indicates that the writer of that passage knew the folk-book.
JOB
1. The man Job.—Job is referred to in the OT in the book bearing his name, and in Eze 14:12-20, where he is mentioned as a conspicuous example of righteousness; in the Apocr
This conclusion is supported by the names of God generally employed in the poem. The Tetragrammaton, which is used 31 times by the writer in the prose parts, occurs only once in the poetic portions (Job 12:9), and is ascribed to Job only in one verse in the Prologue (Job 1:21). Adonai is also met with once (Job 28:28). God is usually referred to by Job and his associates by names not distinctively Jewish: Et, 55 times; Etoah, 41 times out of 57 in the whole OT; and Shaddai, 31 times out of 48 in OT; Etohim is comparatively rare in the poem. The entire absence of distinct allusions to Israelitish history points to the same conclusion. The great word torah, ‘law,’ is used only once (Job 22:22), and then in the general sense of ‘instruction.’ According to a lost work, ‘Concerning the Jews,’ by one Aristeas, cited by Euseb. (Ev. Praep. ix. 25), and the appendix in the LXX
2. The Book of Job
(1) Place in the Canon.—Except in the Syriac Bible, which locates it between the Pentateuch and Joshua, on account of its supposed great antiquity, the book is always reckoned as one of the Kethubim or Hagiographa, and is often given the third place. It is usually grouped with Ps. and Prov., with which it is associated by the use of a special system of accentuation (except in the Prologue and Epilogue), but the order of the three books varies.
In a baraitha in the Bab.
(2) Text.—The Heb. text of Job was long regarded as excellent, but has been much questioned in recent years, some critics resorting very largely to emendation with the help of the Versions and free conjecture. The reaction against the earlier view has probably led some scholars too far. When the difficulty of the theme, its bold treatment in many places, and the large number of words, forms, and uses not met with elsewhere (according to Friedrich Delitzsch, 259) are duly taken into account, the condition of the text is seen to be less corrupt than might have been expected. Much discussion has been occasioned by the peculiar character of the LXX
(3) Analysis.—The book, as we have it, is a poem framed in prose, with bits of prose interspersed. The prose portions are as follows: the introduction, often called the Prologue (ch. 1 f.), stating the problem, ‘the undeserved suffering of a good man,’ giving a partial solution, and bringing on the scene the hero’s three friends; short headings (Job 3:1, Job 4:1 etc.); a supplementary note (Job 31:40 c.); a brief introduction to the speeches of Elihu (Job 32:1-6); and the sequel, often called the Epilogue (Job 42:7-17). The poem opens with a monologue in which Job curses the day of his birth (ch. 3). This is followed by a series of three dialogues extending over chs. 4–28: (i.) 4–14; (ii.) 15–21; (iii.) 22–28.
The three friends in succession, probably in order of seniority, reason with Job, all from the generally accepted standpoint that suffering is a sure indication of sin. As the discussion proceeds they become more and more bitter, until the most moderate and dignified of them, Eliphaz, actually taxes Job with flagrant iniquity (Job 22:5-9). In the third dialogue, as we have it, one of the speakers, Zophar, is silent. Job replies at length to each expostulation, sometimes sinking into depression on the verge of despair (Job 14:1-12 etc.), occasionally rising for a moment or two into confidence (Job 16:19, Job 19:25-27), but throughout maintaining his integrity, and, notwithstanding passionate utterances which seem near akin to blasphemy (Job 10:8-17, Job 16:7-17), never wholly losing his faith in God.
The dialogues are followed by a monologue spoken by Job (chs. 29–31), consisting of a vivid retrospect of the happy past (ch. 29), a dismal picture of the wretched present (ch. 30), and what Marshall calls ‘Job’s oath of self-vindication’—an emphatic disavowal of definite forms of transgression, in a series of sentences most of which begin with ‘if,’ sometimes followed by an imprecation (ch.31). The succeeding six chapters (32–37) are ascribed to a new character, a young man, Elihu the Buzite, who is dissatisfied] with both Job and his friends. The distinctive note of his argument is the stress laid on the thought that God teaches by means of affliction; in other words, that the purpose, or at least one main purpose, of trial is discipline (Job 33:19-28, Job 36:10; Job 36:15). Elihu then drops out of the book, and the remainder of the poem (chs. 38–42:6) is devoted to Jahweh’s answer to Job’s complaint, calling attention to the Divine power, wisdom, and tenderness revealed in creation, in the control of natural forces and phenomena, in the life of birds and beasts, and in the working of Providence in human history, and suggesting that He who could do all this might surely he trusted to care for His servant; and Job’s penitent retraction of his ‘presumptuous utterances.’
(4) Integrity.—On the question whether the book, as we have it, is a single whole or a combination of two or more parts, there is a general agreement among scholars in favour of the latter alternative. There are clear indications of at least two hands. The speeches of Elihu (chs. 32–37) are ascribed by most (not by Budde, Cornill, Wildehoer, Briggs, and a few others) to a later writer, who desired to supplement, and to some extent correct, the work of his predecessor.
The chief reasons alleged for this conclusion are: (1) the silence about Elihu in the Epilogue. (2) The fact that the whole section can be removed without any break of continuity, Job 31:40 c. linking on naturally to Job 38:1. (3) The Aramaic character of the diction, and the occurrence of words and phrases not found elsewhere in the poem. (4) Literary inferiority. (5) Theological diversity, the conception of God differing from what is met with in the rest of the book (Marshall, Job and his Friends, p. 82ff.).
The third of these reasons has been shown to be inconclusive. The language of Elihu is not inconsistent with the view that these chapters were written by the author of the dialogues. The fourth reason is not without weight, but it must be allowed that there are some very fine things in these chapters, and it must be remembered that they have probably been handed down less carefully than some other parts of the book, on account of the disfavour with which some of the ancient Jews regarded Elihu (‘inspired by Satan’—Test. of Job, ch. 41). In any case, Friedrich Delitzsch has gone too far in describing the author as ‘a fifth-rate poet.’ The remaining three reasons, however, seem to be nearly decisive.
The fine poem in ch. 28, which contrasts the success of man in finding precious ore with his utter failure to find wisdom, does not fit in with the context, and is therefore regarded by many as an addition. The striking, but rather turgid, descriptions of the hippopotamus and the crocodile in chs. 40, 41 are also held by many to be an interpolation. Some question the verses about the ostrich (Job 39:13-18). The Prologue and Epilogue are considered by some to be the relies of an earlier work in prose.
A few scholars go much further in critical analysis. Bickell, for instance, in his search after the original text, expunges not only the speeches of Elihu and the Prologue and Epilogue, but also the whole of the speeches of Jahweh, and many smaller portions. Cheyne (in EBi
(5) Nature of the Book.—The class of Heb. literature to which the Book of Job belongs is clearly the Chokhmah or Wisdom group, the other representatives of which are Pr., Ec., and Sir.—the group which deals with questions of practical ethics, religious philosophy, and speculation. The book is mainly—not entirely, as one of the Rabbis thought (Baba bathra, 15a)—a work of imagination, but, in the judgment of most, with a traditional nucleus, the extent of which, however, is uncertain, as there are features in both the Prologue and the Epilogue which suggest literary invention: e.g., the recurrence of the words ‘I only am escaped alone to tell thee’ (Job 1:15-17; Job 1:19), the use of the Num 3:1-51 (Job 1:2; JOba 1:17, Job 2:11, Job 42:13) and 7 (Job 1:2 f., Job 42:8; Job 42:13), and the doubling of Job’s possessions (Job 42:12). The poem, as handed down to us, can hardly he described in modern terms. It contains lyrical elements, but could not appropriately he designated lyrical. It has more than one dramatic feature, but is not really a drama. It reminds one of the epos, but is not an epic. It is didactic, but, as Baudissin has observed, soars high above a mere didactic poem. It is emphatically sui generis. It stands absolutely alone, not merely in the literature of Israel, but in the literature of the world.
(6) Poetic Form.—The Austrian scholar Bickell, who has been followed by Duhm, and in England by Dillon, has tried to show that the poem was written throughout in quatrains, but the textual havoc wrought in the attempt seems to prove clearly that he is, in part at least, on the wrong track. Very few critics accept the theory. The only thing that seems to be certain about the poetic method of the writer or writers is the use throughout of the parallelism of members, which has long been known as the leading feature of ancient Oriental poetry. A verse usually consists of two lines or members, but there are many instances where there are three (Job 3:4 ff., Job 3:9), and one at least where there is only one (Job 14:4). More than eight hundred out of about a thousand verses, according to Ley, consist of two lines, each of which has three independent words. But here again there are many exceptions, some no doubt due to textual corruption, but more in all probability to the poet’s mastery of the forms which he employed.
(7) Purpose and teaching.—The chief object of the poet to whom we owe the dialogues, and probably the Prologue and the Epilogue, and the speeches of Jahweh, and we may add, of the compiler or editor of the whole book, is to give a better answer to the question, ‘Why are exceptionally good men heavily afflicted?’ than that generally current in Jewish circles down to the time of Christ. A subsidiary object is the delineation of spiritual experience under the conditions supposed, of the sufferer’s changing moods, and yet indestructible longing for the God whom he cannot understand. The poet’s answer, as stated in the speeches of Jahweh, seems at the first reading no answer at all, but when closely examined is seen to be profoundly suggestive. There is no specific reply to Job’s bitter complaints and passionate outcries. Instead of reasoning with His servant, Jahweh reminds him of a few of the wonders of creation and providence, and leaves him to draw the inference. He draws it, and sees the God whom he seemed to have lost sight of for ever as he never saw Him before, even in the time of his prosperity; sees Him, indeed, in a very real sense for the first time (Job 42:5). The book also contains other partial solutions of the problem. The speeches of Elihu lay stress, as already observed, on the educational value of suffering. God is a peerless teacher (Job 36:22 b), who ‘delivereth the afflicted by his affliction, and openeth (uncovereth) their ear by adversity’ (Job 36:15). The Prologue lifts the curtain of the unseen world, and reveals a mysterious personality who is Divinely permitted to inflict suffering on the righteous, which results in manifestation of the Divine glory. The intellectual range of the book is amazingly wide. Marshall observes that ‘every solution which the mind of man has ever framed [of the problem of the adversity of the righteous, and the prosperity of the wicked] is to be found in the Book of Job.’ On the question of the hereafter the teaching of the book as a whole differs little from that of the OT in general. There is yearning for something better (Num 14:13-16), and perhaps a momentary conviction (Job 19:25-27), but the general conception of the life after death is that common to Hebrews, Assyrians, and Babylonians.
(8) The characters.—The interest of the Book of Job is concentrated mainly on the central figure, the hero. Of the other five leading characters by far the most interesting is the Satan of the Prologue, half-angel half-demon, by no means identical with the devil as usually conceived, and yet with a distinctly diabolical tendency. The friends are not very sharply differentiated in the book as we have it, but it is probable that the parts are wrongly distributed in the third dialogue, which is incomplete, no part being assigned to Zophar. Some ascribe Job 27:7-10; Job 27:13-23 to Zophar, and add to Bildad’s speech (which in the present arrangement consists only of ch. 25) Job 27:5-14 of ch. 26. what is left of Job’s reply being found in Job 26:1-4, Job 27:2-6; Job 27:11 f. Marshall finds Zophar’s third speech in chs. 25 and Job 26:5-14, and Bildad’s in Job 24:18-21. There seems to be considerable confusion in chs. 25–27, so that it is difficult to utilize them for the study of the characters of Bildad and Zophar. Eliphaz seems to be the oldest and most dignified of the three, with something of the seer or prophet about him (Job 4:12-21). Bildad is ‘the traditionalist.’ Zophar, who is probably the youngest, is very differently estimated, one scholar designating him as a rough noisy fellow, another regarding him as a philosopher of the agnostic type. It must be allowed that the three characters are not as sharply distinguished as would be the case in a modern poem, the writer being concerned mainly with Job, and using the others to some extent as foils. Elihu, who has been shown to be almost certainly the creation of another writer, is not by any means a copy of one of the three. He is an ardent young man, not free from conceit, but with noble thoughts about God and insight into God’s ways not attained by them.
(9) Date.—In the Heb. Sirach (Sir 49:8-10) Job is referred to after Ezekiel and before ‘the Twelve.’ which may possibly suggest that the writer regarded the book as comparatively late. The oldest Rabbinic opinion (Baba bathra, 14b) ascribed the book to Moses. Two Rabbis placed Job in the period of the return from the Exile (ib.15a), one as late as the Persian period (ib. 15b). These opinions have no critical value, but the first has exercised considerable influence. Modern students are generally agreed on the following points:—(1) The book in all its parts implies a degree of reflexion on the problems of life which fits in better with a comparatively late than with a very early age. (2) The dialogue, which is unquestionably one of the oldest portions, indicates familiarity with national catastrophes, such as the destruction of the kingdom of Samaria, the overthrow of Damascus, and the leading away of large bodies of captives, including priests and nobles, from Jerusalem to Babylon (Job 12:17-25), which again, on the assumption that the writer is an Israelite, points to an advanced stage of Israelitish history. Many take a further step. ‘The prophet Jeremiah in his persecutions, Job who is called by Jahweh “my servant Job” (Job 42:7), and the suffering Servant of Jahweh in the exilic prophet are figures which seem to stand in the connexion of a definite period’ (Baudissin, Einleitung, 768), and so point at the earliest to the Exile and the decades immediately preceding it. These and other considerations have led most recent critics to date the main poem near, or during, or after the Exile.
Some earlier scholars (Luther, Franz Delitzsch, Cox, and Stanley) recommended the age of Solomon, others (Nöldeke, Hitzig, and Reuss) the age of Isaiah, and others (Ewald, Riehm, and apparently Bleek) the period between Isaiah and Jeremiah. Marshall thinks that the dialogue may have been written as early as the time of Tiglath-pileser iii (b.c. 745–726), but not earlier. Dillmann, König, Davison (in Hastings’ DB
At present the period from c
(10) Authorship.—Besides the Talmudic guess cited above, very few attempts have been made to fix on an author. Calmet suggested Solomon, Bunsen Baruch, and Royer (in 1901) Jeremiah. None of these views needs to be discussed. Whoever was the author of the main poem, he was undoubtedly an Israelite, for a Gentile would not have used the Tetragrammaton so freely. Of familiarity with the Law there are, indeed, very few traces, but that is doubtless owing to the poet’s wonderful skill, which has enabled him to maintain throughout a Gentile and patriarchal colouring. There is no reason for thinking that he wrote either in Babylonia or in Egypt. He must have lived in some region where he could study the life of the desert. It has been remarked that all the creatures he names (except the hippopotamus and the crocodile, which may have been introduced by a later hand) are desert creatures. He was intimately acquainted with the life of caravans (Job 6:15-20). He knew something of the astronomy of his time (Job 9:9, cf. Job 38:31 f.). He had some acquaintance with the myths and superstitions of Western Asia: cf. Job 9:13, Job 25:2, Job 26:12, where there may be allusions to the Babylonian myth about the struggle between the dragon of Chaos and Marduk, the god of light; Job 3:8, Job 26:13, where reference may be made to popular notions about eclipses and to the claims of magicians; and perhaps Job 29:18 b., where some find an allusion to the fabulous phœnix. He was probably familiar with the Wisdom-lore of Israel, and possibly of Edom, and may safely be assumed to have known all that was worth knowing in other departments of Heb. literature (cf. Job 7:17 f. with Psa 8:4 f., and Job 3:3; Job 3:10 with Jer 20:14-18, although the order of dependence is by no means certain in the latter case). The poetic execution reveals the hand of a master. It seems most natural to look for his home in the south or southeast of the Holy Land, not far from Edom, where he would come in frequent contact with Gentile sages, and could glean much from travellers.
(11) Parallels to Job.—Cheyne (in EBi
The Jesuit missionary, Père Bouchet, called attention in 1723 to the story of the ancient Indian king Arichandiren who, in consequence of a dispute in an assembly of gods and goddesses and holy men as to the existence of a perfect prince, was very severely tested by the leader of the sceptical party. He was deprived of his property, his kingdom, his only son, and his wife, but still trod the path of virtue, and received as rewards the restoration of wife and son, and other marks of Divine favour. These parallels, however, interesting as they are, do not in the least interfere with the originality and boldness of the Hebrew poem, which must ever be regarded as the boldest and grandest effort of the ancient world to ‘justify the ways of God to men.’
W. Taylor Smith.
A dweller in Hus, east of Palestine; not an Israelite, but an upright man who is suddenly the victim of weighty affiictions, losing his goods, and his children and becoming a prey to leprosy. For a time he is patience exemplified. Three of his friends come to comfort him, but their conduct and utterances are so maladroit that his patience gives way and he bemoans his lot and longs for death. The comforters, "Job’s comforters," to use the expression they occasioned, insist that he must have provoked God’s punishment by his sins. Job protests his innocence. After eight dialogues between them and Job another appears as arbiter, insisting that no one is sinless in the sight of God, that suffering is not necessarily a visitation on account of sin, that it is permitted by God to preserve man from pride and its consequent sins. God Himself intervenes to warn Job that he has not appreciated God’s providence in ruling men in His own way, and to rebuke the would-be consolers for their lack of judgment and their harshness. The Book, in 42 chapters, is a revelation of the mystery of suffering. Job is a type of all the faithful, and also of the Redeemer. Many of his utterances have become proverbial. His testimony to immortality as the mainstay of his patience is the climax of the prayers of the Church in the services over the departed.
The cry of woe: I will exclaim
One of the books of the Old Testament, and the chief personage in it. In this article it is primarily the book which is treated. As opportunity, however, occurs, and so far as is permissible, Job himself will be considered. The subject will be discussed under the following heads: I. Position of the Book in the Canon; II. Authority; III. The Characters of the Poem; IV. Contents; V. Arrangement of the Main, Poetic Portion of the Book; VI. Design of the Book; VII. Teaching as to the Future Life; VIII. Integrity of the Book; IX. Condition of the Text; X. Technical Skill of the Author and the Metre; XI. Time of its Composition. I. POSITION OF THE BOOK IN THE CANONIn the Hebrew Bible Psalms, Proverbs, and Job are always placed together, the Psalms coming first, while Job is put between the other two or, at times, comes last. The three books form a part of the Hagiographa (Kethubim), having sometimes the first place among the Hagiographa, while again they may be preceded by Ruth, or Paralipomenon, or Paralipomen with, Ruth (cf. lists in Ginsburg, "Introduction to Heb. Bible", London, 1897, 7). In the Greek Bible and the Vulgate Job now stands before Psalms and follows directly after the historical books. The old Greek and the Latin MSS., however, assign it the most varied positions; see, for exemple, the list of Melito of Sardis, and that of Origen as given by Eusebius, "Hist. Eccle.", IV, iv, 26, and vi, 25 (in P.G., XX., 398, 582). In the Syriac Bible Job is placed directly after the Pentateuch and before Josue (cf. the lists in Hodius, "De Bibliorum textibus", Oxford, 1705, 644 sqq.; Samuel Berger, "Hist. de la Vulgate", Paris, 1893, 331-39). II. AUTHORITY(1) Historical AccuracyMany look upon the entire contents of the book as a freely invented parable which is neither historical nor intended to be considered historical; no such man as Job ever lived. Catholic commentators, however, almost without exception, hold Job to have actually existed and his personality to have been preserved by popular tradition. Nothing in the text makes it necessary to doubt his historical existence. The Scriptures seem repeatedly to take this for granted (cf. Ezekiel 14:14; James 5:11; Tobit 2:12-15, according to the Vulgate — in the Greek text of Tobias there is no mention of Job). All the Fathers considered Job an historical person; some of their testimonies may be found in Knabenbauer, "Zu Job" (Paris, 1886), 12-13. The Martyrology of the Latin Church mentions Job on 10 May, that of the Greek Church on 6 May (cf. Acta SS.’ II, May, 494). The Book of Job, therefore, has a kernel of fact, with which have been united many imaginative additions that are not strictly historical. What is related by the poet in the prose prologue and epilogue is in the main historical: the persons of the hero and his friends; the region where be lived; his good fortune and virtues; the great misfortune that overwhelmed him and the patience with which lie bore it; the restoration of his Prosperity. It is also to be accepted that Job and his friends discussed the origin of his sufferings, and that in so doing views were expressed similar to those the poet puts into the mouths of his characters. The details of the execution, the poetic form, and the art shown in the arrangement of the arguments in the dispute are, however, the free creation of the author. The figures expressive of the wealth of Job both before and after his trial are imaginatively rounded. Also in the narrative of the misfortunes it is impossible not to recognize a poetic conception which need not be considered as strictly historical. The scene in heaven (i, 6; ii, 1) is plainly an allegory which shows that the Providence of God guides the destiny of man (cf. St. Thomas, "In Job"). The manifestation of God (xxxviii, 1) generally receives a literal interpretation from commentators. St. Thomas, however, remarks that it may also be taken metaphorically as an inner revelation accorded to Job.(2) Divine Authority of the BookThe Church teaches that the book was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Thus all that its author gives as historical fact or otherwise guarantees possesses unfailing Divine truth. The question, however, arises, what does the book guarantee? (a) Everything in prologue or epilogue that is the comment of the author is Divine truth; nevertheless, what is perhaps poetic ornament must not be confounded with historical verity or objective dogmatic precepts. The same authority is possessed by the utterances assigned by the poet to God. The like is true of the speeches of Eliu. Some think the speeches of Eliu are to be judged just as are those of Job and his friends. (b) The speeches of Job and his three friends have in themselves no Divine authority, but only such human importance as Job and his three friends are Personally entitled to. They have, however, Divine authority when, and in as far as, they are approved by the author expressly or tacitly. In general, such tacit approbation is to be understood for all points concerning which the disputants agree, unless the author, or God, or Eliu, shows disapproval. Thus the words of Job have in large degree Divine authority, because the view be maintains against the three friends is plainly characterized by the author as the one relatively correct. Yet much that the three friends say is of equal importance, because it is at least tacitly approved. St. Paul argues (1 Corinthians 3:19) from a speech of Eliphaz (Job 5:13) as from an inspired writing. (c) In particular places, especially where descriptions of nature are given or other secular matters are referred to, the caution prescribed by the rules of hermeneutics should be observed. III. THE CHARACTERS OF THE POEMApart from the prologue and epilogue, the Book of Job consists of a succession of speeches assigned to distinct persons. There are six speakers: Yahweh, Eliu, Job, and Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Baldad, and Sophar.(1) JobThe chief personage is Job.(a) NameHe is called the "persecuted one", that is, the one tempted by (personified) suffering, the one hard beset, the patient sufferer. It is no longer possible to decide whether the name was originally different and was later changed into the expressive form in folklore on account of Job’s fate. Many commentators do not accept this explanation of the name.(b) Age in which Job livedAccording to the usual and well-founded assumption, Job lived long before Moses. This is shown by the great age he attained. He was no longer young when overtaken by his great misfortune (xii, 12; xxx, 1); after his restoration he lived one hundred and forty years longer (xlii, 16). His wealth like that of the Patriarchs, consisted largely in flocks and herds (i, 3; xlii, 12). The kesitah or piece of money mentioned in xlii, 11, belongs to patriarchal times; the only other places in which the expression occurs are Gen., xxxiii, 19, and Jos., xxiv, 32. The musical instruments referred to (xxi, 12; xxx, 31) are only those mentioned in Genesis (Gen. iv, 21; xxxi, 27): organ, harp, and timbrel. Job himself offers sacrifice as the father of the family (i, 5), as was also the custom of the Patriarchs. An actual offering for sin in the Mosaic sense he was not acquainted with; the holocaust took its place (i, 5; xlii, 8).(c) Religion of JobJob evidently did not belong to the chosen people. He lived, indeed, outside of Palestine. He and the other characters betray no knowledge of the specifically Israelitic institutions. Even the name of God peculiar to the chosen people, Yahweh, is carefully avoided by the speakers in the poetic part of the book, and is only found, as if accidentally, in xii, 9, and according to some MSS. in xxviii, 28. The sacrifice in xlii, 8, recalls the sacrifice of Balaam (Numbers 23:1), consequently a custom outside of Israel. For the solution of the problem of suffering the revelations made to the Patriarchs or even Moses are never referred to. Nevertheless Job and his friends venerated the one true God. They also knew of the Flood (xxii, 16), and the first man (15:7, and Hebrews 31:33).(d) Country in which Job livedJob belonged to the "people of the East" (i, 3). Under this name were included the Arabian (Genesis 25:6) and Aramaean (Numbers 33:7) tribes which lived east of the Jordan basin and in the region of the Euphrates (Genesis 29:1). Job seems to have been an Aramaean, for he lived in the land of Hus (i, I; Ausitis). Hus, a man’s name in Genesis, is always used there in close connection with Aram and the Aramaean (Genesis 10:23; 22:21; 36:28). His home was certainly not far from Edom where Eliphaz lived, and it must be sought in Eastern Palestine, not too far north, although in the region inhabited by the Aramaeans. It was located on the border of the Syro-Arabian desert, for it was exposed to the attacks of the marauding bands which wandered through this desert: the Chaldeans (i, 17) of the lower Euphrates and the Sabeans (i, 15), or Arabs. Many. following an old tradition, place the home of Job in the Hauran, in the district of Naiwa (or Neve), which is situated about 36° East of Greenwich and in almost the same latitude as the northern end of Lake Genesareth. The location is possible, but positive proof is lacking. Some seek the home of Job in Idumea, others in the land of the Ausitai, who, according to Ptolemy (Geogr., V, xix, par. 18, 2), lived in Northern Arabia near the Babylon. The land of Hus is also mentioned in Jer., xxv, 20, and Lam., iv, 21. In the first reference it is used in a general sense for the whole East; in the latter it is said that the Edomites live there.(e) The Standing of JobJob was one of the most important men of the land (i, 3; xxix, 25) and had many bondsmen (xxxi, 39). The same is true of the friends who visited him; in the Book of Tobias these are called "kings" (Tob., ii, 15, in Vulgate). In the Book of Job also Job seems to be described as a king with many vassals under him (xxix). That he had brothers and relations is seen in xix and in the epilogue.(f) Job and JobabAn appendix to the Book of Job in the Septuagint identifies Job with King Jobab of Edom (Gen. xxxvi, 33). Nothing in the book shows that Job was ruler of Edom; in Hebrew the two names have nothing in common.(2) Eliphaz, Baldad and SopharThe most important of Job’s three friends was Eliphaz of Theman. The name shows him to be an Edomite (Genesis 36:11, 15). The Themanites of Edom were famous for their wisdom (Jeremiah 49:7; Obadiah 5; Baruch 3:22 sq.). Eliphaz was one of these sages (xv, 9). He was far advanced in years (xv, 10), and much older than the already elderly Job (xxx, 1). The second of Job’s friends was Baidad the Suhite, who seems to have belonged to Northern Arabia, for Sue was a son of Abraham by Cetura (Genesis 25:2, 6). He may have been of the same age as Job. The third friend, Sophar, was probably also an Arabian. The Hebrew text calls him a Naamathite. Naama was a small town in the territory belonging to Juda (Joshua 15:41), but Sophar hardly lived there. Perhaps the preferable reading is that of the Septuagint which calls Sophar always a Minaean; the Minaeans were an Arabian tribe. Sophar was far younger than Job (cf. Job’s reply to Sophar, 12:11-12; 13:1-2).(3) EliuLike Job, Eliu the Buzite was an Aramean; at least this is indicated by his native country, Buz, for Buz is closely connected (Genesis 22:21) with Hus. Eliu was much younger than Sophar (xxxii, 6).(4) Besides the speakers a large number of listeners were present at the discussion (xxxiv, 2, 34); some maintained a neutral position, as did Eliu at first. IV. CONTENTSThe Book of Job consists of (1) a prologue in prose (i-ii), (2) a poetic, main division (iii-xlii, 6), and (3) an epilogue also in prose (xlii, 7-17).(1) The prologue narrates how, with the permission of God, a holy man Job is tried by Satan with severe afflictions, in order to test his virtue. In succession Job bears six great temptations with heroic patience, and without the slightest murmuring against God or wavering in loyalty to him. Then Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Baldad, and Sophar, come to console him. Their visit is to become the seventh and greatest trial.(2) The poetical, main division of the book presents in a succession of speeches the course of this temptation. The three friends are fully convinced that trouble is always a result of wrongdoing. They consider Job, therefore, a great sinner and stigmatize his assertions of innocence as hypocrisy. Job is hurt by the suspicion of his friends. He protests that he is no evil-doer, that God punishes him against his deserts. In the course of his speech he fails in reverence towards God, Who appears to him not unrighteous, but more as a severe, hard, and somewhat inconsiderate ruler than as a kind Father. Taking into consideration that the language is poetic, it is true that his expressions cannot be pushed too far, but the sharp reproofs of Eliu (xxxiv, 1-9, 36-37; xxxv, 16) and of Yahweh (Xxxviii, 2; xl, 3-9) leave no doubt of his sin. In answering his friends Job emphasizes that God indeed is accustomed to reward virtue and to punish wickedness (xxvii, 7-23; xxxi). He even threatens his friends with the judgment of God on account of their unfriendly suspicion (vi, 14; xiii, 7-12; xvii, 4; xix, 29). He rightly proves, however violently, that in this world the rule has many exceptions. Almost universally, he says, the wicked triumph and the innocent suffer (ix, 22-24, xxi, xxiv). Yet for all this Job, like his friends, regards all suffering as a punishment for personal sins, although he does not, as his friends, consider it a punishment of gross sin. Job looks upon the sufferings of the righteous as an almost unjust severity of God, which he inflicts for the slightest mistakes, and which the most virtuous man cannot escape (vii, 21; ix 30-21; X, 6, 13-14). The expressions of depression and irreverence uttered by Job are, besides, only venial sins, which human beings can never fully avoid. Job himself says that his words are not to be taken too exactly, they are almost the involuntary expression of his pain (vi, 2-10, 26-27). Many of his utterances the character of temptations in thought which force themselves out almost against the will, rather than of voluntary irreverence towards God, although Job’s error was greater than he was willing to acknowledge. Thus Job bore all the tests triumphantly, even those caused by his friends. No matter how terrible the persecutions of God might be, Job held fast to Him (vi, 8-10) and drew ever closer to Him (xvii, 9). In the midst of his sufferings he lauds God’s power (xxvi, 5-14) and wisdom (xxviii). Satan, who had boasted that he could lead Job into sin against God (i, 11; ii, 5), is discredited. The epilogue testifies expressly to Job’s faithfulness (xlii, 7-9). After much discourse (iii-xxii) Job finally succeeds in silencing the three friends, although he is not able to convince them of his innocence. In a series of monologues (xxiii-xxxi), interrupted only by a short speech by Baldad (xxv), he once more renews his cornplaints (xxiii-xxiv), extols the greatness of God (xxvi-xxviii), and closes with a forcible appeal to the Almighty to, examine his case and to recognize his innocence (xxix-xxxi). At this juncture Eliu, a youth who was one of the company of listeners, is filled by God with the spirit of prophecy (xxxii, 18-22; xxxvi, 2-4). In a long discourse he solves the problem of suffering, which Job and his friends had failed to explain. He says that suffering, whether severe or light, is not always a result of sin; it is a means by which God tries and promotes virtue (xxxvi, 1-21), and is thus a proof of God’s love for his friends. The sufferings of Job are also such a testing (xxxvi, 16-21). At the same time Eliu emphasizes the fact that the dispensations of God remain inexplicable and mysterious (xxxvi, 22; xxxvii, 24). Yahweh speaks at the end (xxxviii-xlii, 6). He confirms the statements of Eliu, carrying further Eliu’s last thought of the inexplicability of the Divine decrees and works by a reference to the wonder of animate and inanimate nature. Job is severely rebuked on account of his irreverence; he confesses briefly his guilt and promises amendment in the future.(3) In the epilogue Yahweh bears witness in a striking manner to the innocence of His servant, that is to Job’s freedom from gross transgression. The three friends are commanded to obtain Job’s intercession, otherwise they will be severely punished for their uncharitable complaints against the pious sufferer. Yahweh forgives the three at the entreaty of Job, who is restored to double his former prosperity.In his lectures on "Babel und Bibel" Delitzsch says that the Book of Job expresses doubt, in language that borders on blasphemy, of even the existence of a just the God. These attacks arise from an extreme view of expressions of despondency. Further, the assertions often heard of late that the book contains many mythological ideas prove to be mere imagination. V. ARRANGEMENT OF THE MAIN, POETIC PORTION OF THE BOOK(1)The poetic portion of the book may be divided into two sections: chs. iii-xxii and xxiii-xlii, 6. The first section consists of colloquies: the three friends in turn express their views, while to each speech Job makes a rejoinder. In the second section the three friends are silent, for Baldad’s interposition (xxv) is as little a formal discourse as Job’s brief comments (xxxix, 34-35 and xlii, 2-6). Job, Eliu, and Yahweh speak successively, and each utters a series of monologues. The length of the two sections is exactly, or almost exactly, the same, namely 510 lines each (cf. Hontheim "Das Buch Job", Freiburg im Br., 1904, 44). The second division begins with the words: "Now also my words are in bitterness" (xxiii, 2; A.V.: "Even to-day is my complaint bitter"). This shows not only that with these words a new section opens, but also that the monologues were not uttered on the same day as the colloquies. The first monologue is evidently the opening of a new section, not a rejoinder to the previous speech of Eliphaz (xxii).(2) The colloquies are divided into two series: chs. iii-xiv and xv-xxii. In each series Eliphaz, Baldad, and Sophar speak in turn in the order given (iv-v, viii, xi, and xv, xviii, xx), while Job replies to each of their discourses (vi-vii, ix-x, xii-xiv, xvi-xvii, xix, xxi). The first series, furthermore, is opened by a lament from Job (iii), and the second closes with a speech by Eliphaz in which he weakly reproaches Job (xxii — it is generally held that this chapter begins a new series), who rightly leaves this address unanswered. Each series contains seven speeches. In the first the friends try to convince Job of his guilt and of the necessity and good results of amendment. Eliphaz appeals to Revelation (iv, 12-21), Baldad to the authority of the Fathers 8-10), Sophar to understanding or philosophy (xi, 5-12). Eliphaz lays weight on the goodness of God (v, 9-27), Baldad on His justice (viii, 2-7), Sophar on His all-seeing power and wisdom, to which Job’s most secret sins were plain, even those which Job himself had almost forgotten (xi, 5-12). In the second series of speeches the friends try to terrify Job: one after the other, and in much the same form of address, they point out the terrible punishment which overtakes hidden sin. During the first series of speeches Job’s despondency continually increases, even the thought of the future bringing him no comfort (xiv, 7-22); in the second series the change to improvement has begun, and Job once more feels joy and hope in the thought of God and the future life (xvi, 18-22; xix, 23-28).(3) The monologues may also be divided into two series. The first includes the monologues of Job, seven in number. First Job repeats is complaint to God (xxiii-xxiv), asserts, however, in three speeches his unchangeable devotion to God by lauding in brilliant discourse the power (xxvi), justice (xxvii), and wisdom (xxviii) of the Almighty. Finally in three further speeches be lays his case before God, imploring investigation and recognition of his innocence: How happy was I once (xxix), how unhappy am I now (xxx), and I am not to blame for this change (xxxi). The second series contains the discourses of Eliu and Yahweh, also seven in number. In three speeches Eliu explains the sufferings which befall men. Trouble is often a Divine instruction, a warning to the godless to reform (xxxii-xxxiii, 30), thus revealing the goodness of God; it is often simply a punishment of the wicked who are perhaps in no way bettered by it (xxxiii, 31-xxxv), thus revealing the justice of God.(4) Finally, troubles can also overtake the just as a trial which purifies and increases their virtue (xxxvi-xxxvii), thus revealing God’s unfathomable wisdom. The following four utterances of Yahweh illustrate the inscrutableness, already touched upon by Eliu, of the Divine wisdom by dwelling upon the wonders of inanimate nature (xxxviii, 1-38), of the animal world (xxxviii, 39-xxxix), and especially by referring to the great monsters of the animal world, the hippopotamus and the crocodile (xl, 10-xli). He then closes with a rebuke to Job for expressing himself too despondently and irreverently concerning his sufferings, upon which Job confesses his guilt and promises amendment (xxxix, 31-xl, 9 and xlii, 1-6); it appears that xxxix, 31-xl, 9, should be inserted after xli. VI. DESIGN OF THE BOOKThe Book of Job is intended to give instruction. What it lays special stress on is that God’s wisdom and Providence guide all the events of this world (cf. xxviii, xxxviii-xii). The main subject of investigation is the problem of evil and its relation to the Providence of God; particularly considered is the suffering of the upright in its bearing on the ends intended in the government of the world. The Book of Job is further intended for edification, for Job is to us an example of patience. It is, finally, a book of consolation for all sufferers. They learn from it that misfortune is not a sign of hatred, but often a proof of special Divine love. For the mystical explanation of the book, especially of Job as a type of Christ, cf. Knabenbauer, "In Job", 28-32. VII. TEACHING AS TO THE FUTURE LIFEIn his sufferings Job abandoned all hope for the restoration of health and good fortune in this world (xvii, 11-16; xxi). If he were to continue to hold to the hope of reward here Satan would not be defeated. In the complete failure of all his earthly hopes, Job fastens his gaze upon the future. In the argument of the first series of speeches Job in his depression regards the future world only as the end of the present existence. The soul indeed lives on, but all ties with the present world so dear to us are forever broken. Death is not only the end of all earthly suffering (ii, 13-19), but also of all earthly life (vii, 6-10), and all earthly joys (x, 21-22), with no hope of a return to this world (xiv, 7-22). It is not until the second series that Job’s thoughts on the future life grow more hopeful. However, he expects as little as in the first discussion a renewal of the life here, but hopes for a higher life in the next world. As early as chapter xvi (19-22) his hope in the recognition of his virtue in the next world is strengthened. It is, however, in xix (23-28) that Job’s inspired hope rises to its greatest height and he utters his famous declaration of the resurrection of the body. Notwithstanding this joyous glimpse into the future, the difficult problem of the present life still remained: "Even for this life how can the wisdom and goodness of God be so hard towards His servants?" Of this the complete solution, so far as such was possible and was included in the plan of the book, does not appear until the discourses of Eliu and Yahweh are given. Great efforts have been made by critics to alter the interpretation of ch. xix, and to remove from it the resurrection of the body; the natural meaning of the words, the argument of the book, and the opinion of all early commentators make this attempt of no avail (cf. commentaries, as those of Knabenbauer, Hontheim, etc.; also the article "Eine neue Uebersetzung von Job xix, 25-27" in the "Zeitschrift für kath. Theologie", 1907, 376 sqq.). See the commentaries for the doctrines of the Divine wisdom (xxviii), etc. VIII. INTEGRITY OF THE BOOKPrologue and epilogue (i-ii; xlii, 7 sqq.) are regarded by many as not parts of the original work. The prologue, though, is absolutely essential. Without it the colloquies would be unintelligible, nor would the reader know the end whether to believe the assertion of Job as to his innocence or not. Upon hearing the rebukes of Eliu and Yahweh, he might be exposed to the danger of siding against Job. Without the epilogue the close of the work would be insatisfactory, an evident humiliation of the righteous. For detailed treatment of this and kindred questions see Hontheim, op. cit.(2) Many also regard ch. xxvii, 7-23, as a later addition; in this passage Job maintains that the wicked suffer in this world, while elsewhere he has declared the contrary. The answer is: Job teaches that God is accustomed even in this world to reward the good in some measure and to punish the wicked. In other passages he does not deny this rule, but merely says it has many exceptions. Consequently there is no contradiction. [See above, IV (2).] Besides it may be conceded that Job is not always logical. At the beginning, when his depression is extreme, he lays too much emphasis on the prosperity of the godless; gradually he becomes more composed and corrects earlier extreme statements. Not everything that Job says is the doctrine of the book. [See above, II (2).](3) Many regard ch. xxviii as doubtful, because it has no connection with what goes before or follows and is in no way related to the subject-matter of the book. The answer to this is that the poet has to show how the suffering of Job does not separate him from God, but, against the intent of Satan, drives him into closer dependence on God. Consequently he represents Job, after his complaints (xxiii-xxv), as glorifying God again at once, as in xxvi-xxvii, in which Job lauds God’s power and righteousness. The praise of God is brought to a climax in xxviii, where Job extols God’s power and righteousness. After Job has thus surrendered himself to God, he can with full confidence, in xxix-xxxi, lay his sorrowful condition before God for investigation. Consequently xxviii is in its proper place, connects perfectly with what precedes and follows, and harmonizes with the subject-matter of the book.(4) Many regard the description of hippopotamus and crocodile (xl, 10-xli) as later additions, because they lack connection with xxxix, 31-xl, 9, belonging rather to the description of animals in xxxix. In reply it may be said that this objection is not without force. Who ever agrees with the present writer in this opinion need only hold that xxxix, 31-xl, 9, originally followed xli. The difficulty is then settled, and there is no further reason for considering the splendid description of the two animals as a later insertion.(5) There is much disagreement as to the speeches of Eliu (xxxii-xxxvii). With the exception of Budde, nearly all Protestant commentators regard them as a later insertion, while the great majority of Catholic investigators rightly defend them as belonging to the original work. The details of this discussion cannot be entered upon here, and the reader is referred to the commentaries of Budde and Hontheim. The latter sums up his long investigation in these words: "The section containing the speeches of Eliu has been carefully prepared by the poet and is closely and with artistic correctness connected with the previous and following portions. It is united with the rest of the book by countless allusions and relations. It is dominated by the same ideas as the rest of the poem. It makes use also of the same language and the same method of presentation both in general and in detail. All the peculiarities exhibited by the author of the argumentative speeches are reproduced in the addresses of Eliu. The content of this portion is the saving of the honour of Job and is essential as the solution of the subject of discussion. Consequently there is no reason whatever for assuming that it is an interpolation; everything is clearly against this" (Hontheim, op. cit., 20-39. Cf. also Budde, "Beiträge zur Kritik des Buches Hiob", 1876; Knabenbauer, "In Job"). Anyone who desires to consider the speeches of Eliu as a later addition must hold, by the teaching of the Church, that they are inspired.(6) There is in general no reason whatever for considering any important part of the book either large or small as not belonging to the original text. Equally baseless is the supposition that important portions of the original composition are lost. IX. CONDITION OF THE TEXTThe most important means for judging the Massoretic Text are the old translations made directly from the Hebrew: the Targum, Peshito, Vulgate, Septuagint, and the other Greek translations used by Origen to supplement the Septuagint. with the exception of the Septuagint, the original of all these translations was essentially identical with the Massoretic Text; only unimportant differences can be proved. On the other hand, the Septuagint in the form it had before Origen, was about four hundred lines, that is one-fifth shorter than the Massoretic Text. Origen supplied what was lacking in the Septuagint from the Greek translations and marked the additions by asterisks. Copyists generally omitted these critical signs, and only a remnant of them, mixed with many errors, has been reserved in a few manuscripts. Consequently knowledge of the old form of the Septuagint is very imperfect. The best means now of restoring it is the Copto-Sahidic translation which followed the Septuagint and does not contain Origen’s additions. This translation was published by Ciasca, "Sacrorum Bibliorum fragments Copto-Sahidica" (2 vols., Rome, 1889), and by Amelineau in "Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology", IX (1893), 409-75. Hatch and Bickell claim that the shorter text of the Septuagint is in general the earlier one, consequently that the present Massoretic Text is an expansion of a shorter original. Nearly all other investigators hold the opposite, that the Septuagint was produced by cutting down an original which varied but little from the Massoretic Text. This was also Bickell’s view in earlier years, and is the real state of the case. To avoid repetition and discursive statements, the translators of the Septuagint omitted much, especially where the reading seemed doubtful, translation difficult, the content anthropomorphic, unworthy of Job, or otherwise objectionable. In doing this the translation frequently disregards the fundamental principle of Hebrew poetry, the parallelism of the lines. In brief the critical value of the Septuagint is not great; in almost all instances the Massoretic Text is to be preferred. Taken altogether, the Massoretic has preserved the original form of the consonantal text fairly well, and needs but a moderate amount of critical emendation. The punctuation (vowel signs and accents), it is true, frequently requires correction, for the punctuators did not always lightly understand the often difficult text; at times also words are not properly divided. X. TECHNICAL SKILL OF THE AUTHOR AND THE METREChapters iii-xlii, 6, are poetical in form. This part of the book consists of about 102O lines. The verses, which do not always correspond with the Massoretic verses of our editions, are generally divided into two clauses or lines which are parallel in content. There are also a number of verses, about sixty, of three clauses each, the so-called triplets. It is an unjustifiable violence to the text when a critic by removing one clause changes these triplets into couplets. The verses form the twenty-eight speeches of the book which, as already stated, make four series of seven speeches each. The speeches are divided, not directly into lines, but into strophes. It is most probable that the speeches formed from strophes often, perhaps always follow the law of "choral structure" discovered by Father Zenner. That is, the speeches often or always consist of pairs of strophes, divided by intermediate strophes not in pairs. The two strophes forming a pair are parallel in content and have each the same number of lines. For a further discussion of this subject see Hontheim, op. cit. Investigators are not agreed as to the construction of the line. Some count the syllables, others only the stresses, others again the accented words. It would seem that the last view is the one to be preferred. There are about 2100 lines in the Book of Job, containing generally three, at times two or four, accented words. Besides the commentaries, cf. Gietmann, "Parzival, Faust, Job" (Freiburg im Br., 1887); Baumgartner, "Gesch. d. Weltliteratur", I (Freiburg im Br., 1901), 24 sqq. One peculiarity of the author of Job is his taste for play upon words; for example, ch. xxi contains a continuous double meaning. XI. TIME OF COMPOSITIONThe author of the book is unknown, neither can the period in which it was written be exactly determined. Many considered the book the work of Job himself or Moses. It is now universally and correctly held that the book is not earlier than the reign of Solomon. On the other hand it is earlier than Ezechiel (Ezekiel 14:1-20). For it is the natural supposition that the latter gained his knowledge of Job from the Book of Job, and not from other, vanished, sources. It is claimed that allusions to Job have also been found in Isaias, Amos, Lamentations, some of the Psalms, and especially Jeremias. Many Catholic investigators even at the present time assign the book to the reign of Solomon; the masterly poetic form points to this brilliant period of Hebrew poetry. The proofs, however, are not very convincing. Others, especially Protestant investigators, assign the work to the period after Solomon. They support this position largely upon religious historical considerations which do not appear to have much force.----------------------------------- Full bibliographies are to be found in CORNELY, Introductio in U. T. libros sacros, II (2nd ed., 1897), ii, 71 sqq., and in the commentaries of DILLMANN and BUDDE, cf. also the various Introductions to the Scripture, as GIGOT (1906); TROCHON (1886); KAULEN (4th ed., 1899); CORNELY (2nd ed., Paris, 1897); further the articles on Job in the theological and Biblical encyclopedias. Of the large number of commentaries on Job the following may be mentioned. Catholic: WELTE (1849); KNABENBAUER (Paris, 1886), HONTHEIM (1904). Non-Catholic: DELITZSCH (2nd ed., 1876); DILLMANN (4th ed., 1891); DAVIDSON in Cambridge Bible (1895); BUDDE (1896); DUHM (1897); WIGHT AND HIRSCH, A Commentary on the Book of Job from a Hebrew Manuscript in the University Library, Cambridge (1905). Among special works mention may be made of: BICKELL, De indole ac ratione versionis Alexandrinae in interpretando libro Jobi (1862); IDEM, Carmina Vet. Test. metrice (18S2); GIETMANN, De re Metrica Hebraeorum (1880); VETTER, Die Metrik des Buches Job (1897); BEER, Text des Buches Hiob untersucht (1897); ROGER, Eschatologie des Buches Job (1901); POSSELT, Der Verfasser der Eliureden (1909).JOSEPH HONTHEIM Transcribed by F. Gilles Beaudet, f.s.c. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
(Ἰþâ)
Job is named by Ezekiel (Eze_14:14; Eze_14:20)-in the 6th cent. b.c., probably about two centuries before the writing of the Book of Job-along with Noah and Daniel as a proverbially righteous man. After the publication of the great drama, it was natural that he should be regarded rather as a model of patience in affliction (ὑðüäåéãìá ôῆò êáêïðáèåßáò êáὶ ìáêñïèõìßáò, Jam_5:10-11). While the profound speculations of the book regarding the problems of pain and destiny, as well as the theological doctrine which the poet intended to teach, might be beyond the grasp of the ordinary reader, the moral appeal of the simple opening story came home to all suffering humanity. ‘Ye have heard of the patience (ôὴí ὑðïìïíÞí) of Job’ (Job_5:11). Similarly the conclusion of the tale, which revealed God’s final purpose in regard to His servant (ôὸ ôÝëïò êõñßïõ), proving Him to be full of pity and merciful (ðïëý óðëáã÷íïò êáὶ ïἰêôßñìùí), presented a situation which all readers might be asked to observe. The imperative ἴäåôå, which is as well supported as åἴäåôå, calls their attention to a surprising fact, which they might well mark, learn, and inwardly digest. The Qur’ân repeats the admonition and the lesson. ‘And remember Job; when he cried unto the Lord, saying, Verily evil hath afflicted me: but thou art the most merciful of all those who show mercy. Wherefore we [God] heard him and relieved him from the evil which was upon him, and we restored unto him his family,’ etc. (sûra 21). ‘Verily we found him a patient person: how excellent a servant was he’ (sûra 38).
James Strahan.
The Old Testament book of Job is among the group of writings known as the wisdom books. In ancient Israel people recognized wisdom writings as being different from other writings. Wisdom teachers were a category distinct from other religious guides and leaders.
Wisdom teachers did not teach the law as did the priests, nor bring revelations from God as did the prophets. Rather they looked at the practical affairs of life and, as those who feared God and knew his law, gave advice for living. Sometimes they gave common sense instruction based on their observations of the experiences of life in general. Other times they investigated the puzzles of life when the facts of experience seemed to contradict the generally accepted beliefs. The book of Proverbs gives an example of the former kind of teaching, the book of Job an example of the latter. (See also WISDOM LITERATURE.)
Understanding the book
There is no certainty concerning who wrote the book of Job or when it was written. The book takes its name from the chief person in the story.
Job was a wealthy, intelligent, God-fearing man who lived in Uz, somewhere in the region east of Palestine. When a series of disasters ruined his prosperity, destroyed his family and struck him down with a terrible disease, his friends argued that his troubles must have resulted from his secret sins. Job denied this, even though it was the commonly held traditional belief. Job knew he was not perfect, but he also knew that the traditional belief did not explain everything. The long and bitter argument that followed takes up most of the book.
The reader of the book, however, knows what neither Job nor his friends knew. Satan had made the accusation that people serve God only because of the benefits they can get from him. If, instead, they receive only hardship and suffering, they will curse him (Job 1:9-11; Job 2:4-5). God allowed disasters to fall upon Job to prove the genuineness of Job’s faith and at the same time enrich Job’s experience of God. Job’s sufferings were not a sign of God’s judgment on him, but proof of God’s confidence in him (Job 1:8; Job 2:3).
As the friends persisted with their unjust and cruel accusations, Job increasingly lost patience with them. Job’s frustration drove him to protest to God, whom he saw as his only hope. In making his protests, Job may have been guilty of rash language, but at least he took his protests to the right person (Job 7:11-21; Job 13:13-28; Job 14:13-17; Job 17:3-4). He was finally satisfied, not through having all his questions answered, but through meeting the God to whom he had cried. God is not answerable to Job or any other human being, and he gave Job no explanation of his sufferings. Yet Job was content. He realized now that the unseen God was in control of all events and his wisdom was perfect (Job 42:1-6).
God then declared that the friends, in accusing Job of great sin, were wrong (Job 42:7). He also showed the error of the commonly held belief that suffering was always the result of personal sin. In addition he proved Satan to be wrong in his accusation that people worship God because of what they can get from him. Job had remained true to God even though he had lost everything. God now blessed Job with greater blessings than he had ever had before (Job 42:10).
Outline of contents
The book opens with a narrative section that recounts Satan’s challenge to God and his attack on Job (1:1-2:13). The remainder of the book, except for the closing narrative, is in poetry. It starts with a complaint from Job (3:1-26) and this begins a long debate between Job and his three friends.
Eliphaz, the first of the friends to speak, states that Job’s suffering must be because of his sin. Therefore, if Job repents he will have good health and prosperity again (4:1-5:27). Job rejects Eliphaz’s accusations and complains to God about his unjust suffering (6:1-7:21). Bildad heartlessly reminds Job of his misfortunes, pointing out that they are a fitting punishment. He emphasizes that the traditional teaching is all-important (8:1-22). In his response, Job again complains to God about the injustice he suffers (9:1-10:22). Zophar, the shallowest thinker and most hot tempered of the three friends, then attacks Job (11:1-20), to which Job gives a lengthy and at times sarcastic reply (12:1-14:22).
The second round of argument follows the same sequence as the first. Eliphaz speaks and Job replies (15:1-17:16), Bildad speaks and Job replies (18:1-19:29), then Zophar speaks and Job replies (20:1-21:34). The third round begins in the same fashion, with Eliphaz speaking, followed by Job (22:1-24:25). Bildad speaks only briefly, followed by Job (25:1-26:14), but Zophar does not speak at all. Job therefore proceeds to give a summary of his position (27:1-31:40).
A young man named Elihu, having listened to the debate in silence, now decides to speak. Angry that the friends have not convinced Job of his wrongdoing, Elihu claims he will answer Job with different arguments. But he adds little to what the other three have said (32:1-37:24).
As a fierce storm breaks, God himself now speaks to Job. He reminds Job, through chapter after chapter, of his divine wisdom in controlling all things, and he challenges Job to take the place of the Almighty and govern the moral order of the universe (38:1-41:34). Job cannot accept God challenge; he realizes he has been conquered. At last he submits, and in doing so he finds peace (42:1-6). God then rebukes the friends and expresses his approval of Job (42:7-17).