Editing Book of Job (section)

==Themes==
[[File:Destruction of Leviathan.png|thumb|''The Destruction of Leviathan'' by [[Gustave Doré]] (1865)]]
The Book of Job is an investigation of the problem of divine justice.{{sfn|Bullock|2007|p=82}} This problem, known in theology as the [[problem of evil]] or [[theodicy]], can be rephrased as a question: "Why do the righteous suffer?"{{sfn|Lawson|2004|p=11}} The conventional answer in ancient Israel was that God rewards virtue and punishes sin (the principle known as "[[retributive justice]]").{{sfn|Hooks|2006|p=58}} According to this view the moral status of human choices and actions is consequential, but experience demonstrates that suffering is experienced by those who are good.{{sfn|Brueggemann|2002|p=201}}

The biblical concept of righteousness was rooted in the [[Covenant (religion)|covenant]]-making God who had ordered creation for communal well-being, and the righteous were those who invested in the community, showing special concern for the poor and needy (see Job's description of his life in chapter 31). Their antithesis were the wicked, who were selfish and greedy.{{sfn|Brueggemann|2002|pp=177–78}} The Satan (or the Adversary) raises the question of whether there is such a thing as disinterested righteousness: if God rewards righteousness with prosperity, will men not act righteously from selfish motives? He asks God to test this by removing the prosperity of Job, the most righteous of all God's servants.{{sfn|Walton|2008|pp=336–37}}

The book begins with the frame narrative, giving the reader an omniscient "God's eye perspective" which introduces Job as a man of exemplary faith and piety, "blameless and upright", who "fears God" and "shuns evil".{{sfn|Hooks|2006|p=57}}{{sfn|O'Dowd|2008|pp=242–43}} The contrast between the frame and the poetic dialogues and monologues, in which Job never learns of the opening scenes in heaven or of the reason for his suffering, creates a sense of dramatic irony between the divine view of the Adversary's wager, and the human view of Job's suffering "without any reason" (2:3).{{sfn|O'Dowd|2008|pp=242–43}}

In the poetic dialogues Job's friends see his suffering and assume he must be guilty, since God is just. Job, knowing he is innocent, concludes that God must be unjust.{{sfn|Seow|2013|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOn3ZK2n0UUC&pg=PA97-98 97–98]}} He retains his piety throughout the story (contradicting the Adversary's suspicion that his righteousness is due to the expectation of reward), but makes clear from his first speech that he agrees with his friends that God should and does reward righteousness.{{sfn|Kugler|Hartin|2009|p=194}}

The intruder, Elihu, rejects the arguments of both parties:
* Job is wrong to accuse God of injustice, as God is greater than human beings, and
* the visitors are not correct either; for suffering, far from being a punishment, may "rescue the afflicted from their affliction".
That is, suffering can make those afflicted more amenable to revelation – literally, "open their ears" (Job 36:15).<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|36:15}}</ref>{{sfn|Seow|2013|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOn3ZK2n0UUC&pg=PA97-98 97–98]}}

Chapter&nbsp;28, the Poem (or Hymn) to Wisdom, introduces another theme: Divine wisdom. The hymn does not place any emphasis on retributive justice, stressing instead the inaccessibility of wisdom.{{sfn|Dell|2003|p=356}} Wisdom cannot be invented or purchased, it says; God alone knows the meaning of the world, and he grants it only to those who live in reverence before him.{{sfn|Hooks|2006|pp=329–30}} God possesses wisdom because he grasps the complexities of the world (Job 28:24–26)<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|28:24–26}}</ref> – a theme which anticipates God's speech in chapters&nbsp;38–41, with its repeated refrain "Where were you when&nbsp;...?"{{sfn|Fiddes|1996|p=174}}

When God finally speaks he neither explains the reason for Job's suffering (known to the reader to be unjust, from the prologue set in heaven) nor defends his justice. The first speech focuses on his role in maintaining order in the universe: The list of things that God does and Job cannot do demonstrates divine wisdom because order is the heart of wisdom. Job then confesses his lack of wisdom, meaning his lack of understanding of the workings of the cosmos and of the ability to maintain it. The second speech concerns God's role in controlling the formidable '[[behemoth]]' and '[[leviathan]]'.{{sfn|Walton|2008|p=338}}{{efn|
The [[Biblical Hebrew|Hebrew]] words ''[[behemoth]]'' and ''[[leviathan]]'' are sometimes naturalistically translated as the 'hippopotamus' and 'crocodile', but more probably representing more ominous primeval cosmic monsters or chaotic forces, in either case demonstrating God's wisdom and power.{{sfn|Walton|2008|p=338}}
}}

Job's reply to God's final speech is longer than his first and more complicated. The usual view is that he admits to being wrong to challenge God and now repents "in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6),<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|42:6}}</ref> but the Hebrew is difficult: An alternative reading is that Job says he was wrong to repent and mourn, and does ''not'' retract any of his arguments.{{sfn|Sawyer|2013|p=34}}

In the concluding part of the frame narrative God restores and increases Job's prosperity, indicating that the divine policy on retributive justice remains unchanged.{{sfn|Walton|2008|pp=338–39}}