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REL 101 - Old Testament Survey
Job - Although the Book of Job recounts the sufferings of Job, and his eventual vindication, the Book is not classed as History, but as one of the Books of Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament.
Job 1:1 - It is not known for certain where the land of Uz
was situated, but it was probably east of Israel. Lamentations 4:21
says that the "daughter of Edom" lived in Uz; the Edomites,
descendents of Esau settled to the East of the Dead Sea. This region
would also fit with the accounts in Job 1:15 and 1:17 which describe
attacks by the Sabeans (who lived in Arabia, to the south), and the
Chaldeans (from Mesopotamia, to the east).
Job 1:6 - the "sons of God" here probably refers to the heavenly court of angels.
Job 1:6 - "Satan" in Hebrew means the "Accuser"
Job 2:9 - "Curse God, and die" Job's wife believed
that if Job cursed God, God would strike him dead. She thought it
would be better to be dead than to be suffering so much.
Job 2:10 - the Hebrews knew that God was ultimatley in control
of everything. They did not necessarily think that God sent or caused
bad things for them, but that He permitted such things to happen.
Job 2:11 - Eliphaz the Temanite was probably a descendent of
Esau, whose eldest son had also been named Eliphaz, and who founded
the clan of Teman (Gen 36:10-11 & 15). Bildad may also have
been an Edomite ("dad" was the name of an Edomite god);
the Shuhites may have been descended from Shuah, one of the sons
Keturah bore Abraham (Gen. 25:1-2). Little is known about the family
or the homeland of Zophar the Naamathite; the Septuagint (early Greek
translation, dating from ca. 255 BC) refers to him as "Sophar the
Minaean" - the Minaeans were a people who lived in Arabia and
traded throught the Middle East (NB - NOT the same people as the Minoans of early Hellenic culture).
Job, chapters 3-11 - the first cycle of speeches - Eliphaz,
Bildad, and Zophar all reply in turn to Job's struggle with his circumstances.
Job, chapters 4 & 5 - the gist of Eliphaz' speech seems to
be that Job needs to take some of the advice he has given to others in
adversity (4:3-6); that Job must have sinned, because if he were
innocent he would not be in trouble (4:7-9); that Job has probably
not been seeking God (5:8), and that God is sending the troubles as a form of correction (5:17)
Job, chapters 6 & 7 - Job wishes that he were already
dead (6:8-9), and tells Eliphaz that he doen't need correction but
sympathy (6:14), that he isn't lying when he says he has not spoken
iniquity (6:28-30), and that he wishes God would pardon whatever he may have done wrong (7:19-21)
Job, chapter 8 - Bildad tells Job that his children must have
sinned, and that was why they were killed (Bildad thinks that God
destroyed them) (8:4); he also says that if Job were to get
right with God, then God would look after him (8:5-6)
Job, chapters 9 & 10 - Job tells Bildad that man by himself
cannot get himself right with God (10:2), and then leads into a
meditation on the mighty power of God and the great gulf between God's standards and man's estate.
Job, chapter 11 - Zophar calls Job a liar (11:3) who is
claiming to be without sin (11:4), and tells him that he deserves even
worse troubles than he already has (11:6). He tells Job that if he would
only repent (11:13-14) and pray to God then everything would come out all right (11:16-19)
Job, chapters 12-20 - the second cycle of speeches, in which
Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar repeat the mechanical view that trouble
happens to people who are wicked, so therefore anyone in trouble must have done something bad.
Job, chapters 12, 13, & 14 - Job tells his friends that
he knows as well as they do that good things should happen to good
people and bad things to bad people, but points out that in practice
sometimes bad people have a soft life, and good people a hard one.
Job tells his friends that they would be wise just to stop arguing (13:5),
and reproves them for saying that God automatically gives
good for good and bad for bad (13:7-8). Then he declares that he will
trust God no matter what befalls him (13:15), and that he wants to
know what he did wrong (13:23). He reminds God how frail is mankind
(14:1-5) and asks God to let him die (14:13)
Job, chapter 15 - Eliphaz says that Job's own words have
condemned him (15:5-6), and that if people are in trouble then
obviously they must be sinners getting their just deserts (15:20-35)
Job, chapter 16 & 17 - Job says that he's heard all their
arguments before, and they are no comfort to anyone in trouble (16:2).
He does not understand why bad things have happened to him, and
wishes that he could plead with God as easily as he could plead with another man (16:21)
Job, chapter 18 - Bildad can only reiterate that the wicked
will be punished, and so implies that anyone in trouble must automatically be counted as wicked.
Job, chapter 19 - Job asks if it isn't bad enough that God
is allowing these things to happen to him, so why do his friends
have to come and make things worse with their arguments and (false)
accusations. Then he has an insight into God's provision of a Redeemer
for mankind (19:25-27)
Job, chapter 20 - Zophar claims that the wicked will
always come to a bad end, and implies that therefore those in trouble must be wicked.
Job, chapters 21-26 - the third cycle of speeches follows the
general pattern of the previous two cycles as far as a reply by
Eliphaz, but then only records a short reply by Bildad, and does not
record any speech by Zophar. None of the Hebrew texts which we have,
nor the early Greek translation (the Septuagint) shows any trace of
a full third cycle of speeches. It may be that there had once been
such a cycle but that it was dropped for some reason, or it may be
that there never was a full third cycle because Job led into his
long soliloquy and Zophar was unable to answer him.
Job, chapter 21 - Job replies that sometimes the wicked prosper
up until the day they die, but even so, he will not take part in their
schemes (21:16). He also says that his friends are making a wrong
assumption when they claim that he must have done something wicked (21:27-34).
Job, chapter 22 - Eliphaz now starts to imagine what sort of
wicked things he thinks Job must have done, to be in such trouble
as he is. He claims that he must be righteous, because things are
going well for him (22:18-20), and then he tells Job to repent and
get back into a right repationship with God (22:21-28).
Job, chapters 23 & 24 - Job expresses his desire to
come before God, although he is afraid of God's great majesty and
power. He describes more of the bad things that the wicked seem to
get away with, but then concludes that everyone is eventually going to die.
Job, chapter 25 - This short chapter may be all that remains
of an original long speech by Bildad. There may also have been a
speech for Zophar if there were three cycles of three speeches.
Job, chapters 27-31 - Job's soliloquy in which he maintains
that he has done right, not wickedness (27:5-6), and declares that
he knows that the wicked will eventually be dealt with by God (27:8-23);
then he describes the wisdom of God, as shown in Creation (chapater 28).
He wishes that he were once again under God's protection (chapter 29),
and describes his present wretchedness (chapter 30), and then declares
that he is innocent and not lying when he claims not to have done wicked things.
Job, chapters 32-37 - Elihu's debate with Job - Elihu's name is
Hebrew ("El is my God"). As a younger man, Elihu had waited
politely while his seniors debated with Job; when they were unable to
answer Job satisfactorily Elihu lost patience and joined the debate.
He even claimed to be speaking for God (36:2), but did not have much more to say than Job's friends.
Job, chapter3 38-41 - God speaks out of a whirlwind.
Job, chapter 42 - The concluding chapter. Job is restored and blessed by God.
The Septuagint version has some extra verses at the end of the Book of Job, said to be from a Syriac version (which no longer exists), which identify Job as being also called Jobab, a grandson of Esau, and say that he lived in the land of "Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia"
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
Department of Religion
ENMU
Portales, NM 88130
Last Updated: January 1, 2007
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