Old Testament
Job
42 chapters
Start reading: Job 1About this book
Job is a long poem about innocent suffering. It opens in prose with a blameless, wealthy man who loses his children, his property and his health in a single stretch of days, after a heavenly scene in which the accuser questions whether Job serves God for nothing. Three friends come to sit with him, and then to argue: suffering must be deserved, they insist, so Job should repent. Job refuses to confess what he has not done and cries out, again and again, for God to answer him. A younger man, Elihu, speaks next. Then God replies from the whirlwind, not with an explanation but with a tour of creation that puts human understanding in its place. Job yields, and God declares that the friends spoke wrongly while Job spoke rightly. The book does not solve the problem of pain; it offers trust, honest lament and the presence of God. Readers differ over how to read the opening scene and the closing restoration.
- Author
- Unknown; the book names no author, and tradition has offered several guesses without consensus.
- Date
- The story feels patriarchal in setting; scholars date the writing anywhere from the early monarchy to after the exile.
- Audience
- Anyone in Israel, and beyond, who has suffered and wondered whether God is just.
Themes
Innocent sufferingHonest lamentThe limits of human wisdomGod's answer from the whirlwind
Outline
- 1:1–2:13Loss and the heavenly challenge
- 3:1–27:23Job and his three friends
- 28:1–31:40A poem on wisdom and Job's final plea
- 32:1–37:24Elihu speaks
- 38:1–42:6God answers and Job responds
- 42:7–42:17Verdict and restoration
Key verses
Chapters of Job
- 1Job 1Job is introduced as a blameless, upright man in the land of Uz, wealthy and devoted to God, who prays even for his children in case they have sinned.
- 2Job 2Another scene in heaven repeats the challenge: the accuser says that if Job's own body were touched, he would curse God.
- 3Job 3After the silent week, Job breaks it by lamenting the day he was born.
- 4Job 4Eliphaz speaks first, gently at the start, reminding Job that he has comforted others and asking whether the innocent ever perish.
- 5Job 5Eliphaz continues, urging Job to appeal to God, who does marvelous things and lifts the lowly.
- 6Job 6Job answers Eliphaz, saying that his complaint is weighed against the sand of the sea, and his grief is heavy.
- 7Job 7Job continues speaking, now turning to God.
- 8Job 8Bildad responds more sharply, asking whether God perverts justice.
- 9Job 9Job admits that no one can be right before God, who moves mountains, made the constellations, and does wonders beyond understanding.
- 10Job 10Job says he loathes his life and will speak in bitterness of soul.
- 11Job 11Zophar, the third friend, is the bluntest.
- 12Job 12Job answers sarcastically that the friends think wisdom will die with them, but he has understanding too.
- 13Job 13Job says he wants to speak to God directly, calling his friends worthless physicians who smear lies.
- 14Job 14Job reflects on how brief and troubled life is, comparing people to flowers that wither and shadows that disappear.
- 15Job 15In the second round of speeches, Eliphaz is harsher.
- 16Job 16Job calls his friends miserable comforters and says he could speak the same way if roles were reversed.
- 17Job 17Job's spirit is broken, his days are extinguished, and the grave is ready for him.
- 18Job 18Bildad speaks again, offended that Job treats them as stupid.
- 19Job 19Job replies that his friends have tormented him and crushed him with words.
- 20Job 20Zophar responds with a fiery speech about how the triumph of the wicked is short.
- 21Job 21Job challenges the friends' neat theory by pointing to reality: the wicked often live long, prosper, see their children thrive, and die in peace, saying to God, leave us alone.
- 22Job 22Eliphaz, running out of patience, moves from implication to open accusation.
- 23Job 23Job longs to find God and present his case, believing that if he could, God would listen and vindicate him.
- 24Job 24Job asks why God does not set times for judgment and why those who know him do not see such days.
- 25Job 25Bildad's final speech is very short.
- 26Job 26Job answers with irony, asking how the friends have helped the powerless and offered such good advice.
- 27Job 27Job vows that as long as he has breath, he will not speak falsely or abandon his integrity.
- 28Job 28This poem reflects on where wisdom can be found.
- 29Job 29Job looks back longingly on the days when God watched over him, his children were around him, and his path was blessed.
- 30Job 30Now Job's situation has reversed: young men whose fathers he would not have trusted with his sheepdogs mock him, and he has become a byword.
- 31Job 31Job makes a solemn defense of his integrity by listing a series of oaths: he made a covenant with his eyes not to look lustfully; he did not lie, commit adultery, or reject the claims of his servants; he did not withhold help from the poor, widow, or orphan; he did not trust in gold; he did not rejoice at his enemy's ruin; he did not hide sin.
- 32Job 32The three friends stop answering because Job considers himself righteous.
- 33Job 33Elihu addresses Job directly, inviting him to answer if he can.
- 34Job 34Elihu addresses the wise, arguing that Job has said that he is innocent and that God has denied him justice, and that Job has added rebellion to his sin.
- 35Job 35Elihu asks whether Job thinks it right to say his righteousness is greater than God's, or that there is no profit in innocence.
- 36Job 36Elihu says he has more to say on God's behalf.
- 37Job 37Elihu marvels at the thunder and lightning as expressions of God's voice, doing great things beyond our understanding.
- 38Job 38God answers Job out of the whirlwind, asking who darkens counsel with words without knowledge, and telling him to brace himself.
- 39Job 39God continues his questions with the wild animals: the mountain goats, deer, wild donkey, wild ox, ostrich, horse, hawk, and eagle.
- 40Job 40God challenges Job to answer, and Job says he is unworthy, putting his hand over his mouth.
- 41Job 41God describes Leviathan, a fearsome sea creature that no one can capture with a hook, tame, or wrestle.
- 42Job 42Job answers God, saying he knows God can do all things, and confesses that he spoke of things too wonderful for him.