Editing Book of Job (section)

==Contents==
[[File:Blake 1793 Job's Tormentors (cropped).jpg|thumb|''Job's Tormentors'' from [[William Blake]]'s [[William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job|Illustrations for the Book of Job]]]]

===Prologue on Earth and in Heaven===
In [[Job 1|chapter 1]], the prologue on Earth introduces [[Job (biblical figure)|Job]] as a righteous man, blessed with wealth, sons, and daughters, who lives in the [[land of Uz]]. The scene then shifts to Heaven, where God asks [[Satan]] ({{langx|hbo|הַשָּׂטָן|haśśāṭān|the adversary}}) for his opinion of Job's piety. Satan accuses Job of being pious only because he believes God is responsible for his happiness; if God were to take away everything that Job has, then he would surely curse God.<ref>{{Bibleverse|Job|1:21}}</ref>

God gives Satan permission to strip Job of his wealth and kill his children and servants, but Job nonetheless praises God:
: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."<ref>{{Bibleref2|Job|1:21}}</ref>

In [[Job 2|chapter 2]], God further allows Satan to afflict Job's body with disfiguring and painful [[boil]]s. As Job sits in the [[ash]]es of his former estate, his wife prompts him to ''"curse God, and die"'', but Job answers:
: "Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?"<ref>{{Bibleverse|Job|2:9–10|9}}</ref>

=== Job's opening monologue and dialogues between Job and his three friends ===
In [[Job 3|chapter 3]], "instead of cursing God",<ref>{{cite book |author-link=James Crenshaw |last=Crenshaw |first=J.L. |year=2001 |section=17.&nbsp;Job |editor1-last=Barton |editor1-first=J. |editor2-last=Muddiman |editor2-first=J. |title=The Oxford Bible Commentary |page=335 |section-url=https://b-ok.org/dl/946961/8f5f43 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171122193211/http://b-ok.org/dl/946961/8f5f43 |archive-date=22 November 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Job laments the night of his conception and the day of his birth; he longs for death, ''"but it does not come"''.<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|3:21|NKJV}}</ref>

His three friends, [[Eliphaz (Job)|Eliphaz the Temanite]], [[Bildad|Bildad the Shuhite]], and [[Zophar|Zophar the Naamathite]], visit him, accuse him of sinning, and tell him that his suffering was deserved. Job responds with scorn, calling his visitors ''"miserable comforters"''.<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|16:2|NKJV}}</ref> Job asserts that since a ''just'' God would not treat him so harshly, patience in suffering is impossible, and the Creator should not take his creatures so lightly, to come against them with such force.{{sfn|Kugler|Hartin|2009|p=190}}

Job's responses represent one of the most radical restatements of Israelite [[theology]] in the Hebrew Bible.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Clines |first=David J.A. |date=2004 |title=Job's God |journal=Concilium |volume=2004 |issue=4 |pages=39–51}}</ref> He moves away from the pious attitude shown in the prologue and begins to berate God for the disproportionate wrath against him. He sees God as, among others,
{{div col begin|colwidth=15em}}
* intrusive and suffocating<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|7:17–19}}</ref>
* unforgiving and obsessed with destroying a human target<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|7:20–21}}</ref>
* angry<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|9:13}}; {{bibleverse|Job|14:13}}; {{bibleverse|Job|16:9}}; {{bibleverse|Job|19:11}}</ref>
* fixated on punishment<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|10:13–14}}</ref>
* hostile and destructive<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|16:11–14}}</ref>
{{div col end}}
Job then shifts his focus from the injustice that he himself suffers to God's governance of the world. He suggests that God does nothing to punish the wicked, who have taken advantage of the needy and the helpless, who, in turn, have been left to suffer the significant hardships inflicted on them.<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|24:1-12}}</ref>

=== Three monologues: Poem to Wisdom, Job's closing monologue ===
[[File:Job and his friends.jpg|thumbnail|upright=1.3|''Job and His Friends'' by [[Ilya Repin]] (1869)]]
The dialogues of Job and his friends are followed by a poem (the "hymn to wisdom") on the inaccessibility of wisdom: "Where is wisdom to be found?" it asks; it concludes in chapter 28 that wisdom has been hidden from humankind.{{sfn|Seow|2013|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOn3ZK2n0UUC&pg=PA33-34 33–34]}} Job contrasts his previous fortune with his present plight as an outcast, mocked and in pain. He protests his innocence, lists the principles he has lived by, and demands that God answer him.{{sfn|Sawyer|2013|p=27}}

=== Elihu's speeches ===
A character not previously mentioned, [[Elihu (Job)|Elihu]], intrudes into the story and occupies chapters&nbsp;32–37. The narrative describes him as stepping out of a crowd of bystanders irate. He intervenes to state that wisdom comes from God, who reveals it through dreams and visions to those who will then declare their knowledge.{{sfn|Seow|2013|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOn3ZK2n0UUC&pg=PA33-34 33–34]}}

===Two speeches by God===
From chapter&nbsp;[[Job 38|38]], God speaks from a [[whirlwind]].<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|38:1}}</ref> God's speeches do not explain Job's suffering, defend divine justice, enter into the courtroom of confrontation that Job has demanded, or respond to his oath of innocence of which the narrative prologue shows God is well aware.{{sfn|Walton|2008|p=339}}

Instead, God changes the subject to human frailty and contrasts Job's weakness with divine wisdom and [[omnipotence]]: ''"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"'' Job responds briefly, but God's monologue resumes, never addressing Job directly.{{sfn|Sawyer|2013|p=28}}

In [[Job 42]]:1–6, Job makes his final response, confessing God's power and his own [[ignorance|lack of knowledge]] ''"of things beyond me which I did not know"''. Previously, he has only heard God, but now his eyes have seen God, and therefore, he declares, ''"I retract and repent in dust and ashes"''.{{sfn|Habel|1985|p=575}}

===Epilogue===
God tells Eliphaz that he and the two other friends
: "have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has done".

The three are told to make [[Burnt offering (Judaism)|a burnt offering]] with Job as their intercessor, ''"for only to him will I show favour"''. Elihu, the critic of Job and his friends, is notably omitted from this part of the narrative.

The epilogue describes Job's health being restored, his riches and family being remade, and Job living to see the new children born into his family produce grandchildren up to the fourth generation.{{sfn|Kugler|Hartin|2009|p=33}}