JOB (Book)

I. BOOK.
It is part of the so-called wisdom literature. It is a poetic book that recounts the sufferings of Job and the debate between his friends and him about the causes of his misfortune and the great problem of his suffering.

In prose are the prologue (Jb. 1:1-3:2), the introductions to the various discourses, particularly the introduction to Elihu’s speech (Jb. 32:1-5), and the epilogue that narrates the beatitude received by Job by the blessing of God (Jb. 42:7-17).

If the theme of the book is why the righteous suffer, its essential objective is to refute the theory according to which suffering would be a sign of God’s wrath, and would always have as its cause the sin of the one who suffers. The OT frequently states that righteousness brings prosperity, while wickedness brings misfortune (Ex. 23:20-33; Lev. 26; Deut. 28; Ps. 1; 37; 73; Is. 58:7 -13; Jer. 7:5-7; 17:5-8, 18-27; 31:29, 30; Ez. 18).

The apparent exceptions to this rule of remuneration constituted a cause of profound perplexity. Ancient Hebrew thought tended to think that, since suffering was the consequence of sin, all suffering, including the case of a righteous person, was necessarily due to the commission of a specific transgression.

However, this conclusion is erroneous, even though all men were born in sin and susceptible to fall. On the other hand, people depend on each other, and the innocent can suffer because of the unjust or the guilty; Evil is not always discovered and sometimes triumphs, at least momentarily. Job does not claim to be absolutely faultless, but maintains that his punishment is beyond all proportion to his sin.

At the beginning of the book, Job is very rich. He owns several herds of cattle and small animals, has a multitude of servants and a large family. Satan asks and receives permission to test Job’s faith. All his possessions are taken from him, and then he loses all his children. Satan, who does not relent in his attempt to break Job, then obtains permission to attack his body. Job’s faith triumphs in the midst of all trials; he finally more than regains his former prosperity.

Between the prologue and the epilogue, the book can be divided into three main sections, each having three subdivisions. The prologue describes Job’s riches and happiness.

(A) First part.
In the first subdivision it shows us the beginning of Job’s trials, the loss of his property and his family.
In the second subdivision: the attack on Job’s own person, the second stage of the patriarch’s sufferings.
In the third subdivision: arrival of Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Suh, Zophar from Naama, the three friends who came to “comfort” Job.

(B) Second part.
The second part contains the discussion between Job and his three friends, who each make three speeches, except for Sophar, who only speaks twice. Job responds to each speech. This discussion makes up the bulk of the book. The three friends are based on the idea that suffering is always and necessarily the general consequence.

Since Job accepts this general principle, but refuses to apply it to his own case, a question is raised, although at the end of the discussion between them the question is not at all resolved.

First series of speeches:
Eliphaz speaks at the beginning about human guilt, and alludes to Job’s sin, but indirectly. Job replies that he is innocent.
Later Bildad expresses himself in the same sense; He affirms that God cannot be unjust, and therefore that man must be guilty. Job again makes protests of innocence, and appeals to God, and laments his sufferings.

Zophar, finally, presents the same arguments, and implies more clearly that Job must have committed a specific sin.
The second series of speeches is found in chapters 12-20. The speakers take the floor in the same order, and resume the same argument. Job’s friends become more vehement, impatient with his stubbornness.

In the third series of speeches (Jb. 21-31),
Eliphaz openly accuses Job of a secret sin. After new and lively denials from Job,
Bildad returns to his first argument, while Zophar remains silent. Throughout this discussion, Job, deeply aware of his integrity, cannot comprehend God’s apparent harshness toward him.

The more your external suffering increases, the more acute are your internal struggles; but he is determined, come what may, not to leave his God. Then Job has the sudden intuition that the Lord will vindicate him in the end, if not in this life, then in the next. Job is filled with this certainty, and thus proclaims his faith in immortality: «I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will rise above the dust; And after my skin is undone, in my flesh I will see God.” Job has thereby reached the unbreakable foundation, from which nothing can make him deviate (Jb. 19:25-26).

(C) In the third part of the book (Jb. 32-37), Elihu, until then silent, proposes to debate the issue from a different basis. Instead of considering the suffering of men as punishment for sin, Elihu believes that afflictions strengthen and purify believers.

Thus, they do not constitute the expression of the anger of an implacable God, but the correction that he inflicts in loving discipline. Elihu’s thesis makes him a messenger of the Lord; he prepares divine intervention and provides an argument that Job can consider and ultimately admit (Jb. 32-37).

Then the Lord speaks. He shows Job that human knowledge is too limited to satisfactorily explain the mystery of the divine dispensations. Job humbles himself before the Lord (Jb. 38:1-42:6).

(D) Epilogue: Job more than recovers his prosperity, doubling it, as well as the number of his children (Jb. 42: 7-17).

II. AUTHOR, DATE AND AUTHENTICITY.

Certain critics question important sections of the book:
(A) The prologue and the epilogue.

(B) Chapter 28, poem dedicated to divine wisdom.

(C) Elihu’s speech (Jb. 32:1-37:24).

(D) The description of Leviathan (see LEVIATHAN) and Behemoth (see BEHEMOT; Jb. 40:10-41:25).
To all this we can respond that there is no basis for attributing the prologue and epilogue to a later author. The entire argument between the three friends and Job presupposes the sufferings of the latter and the loss of his children (cf. Jb. 7: 5; 8: 4; 11:16; 13:28; 16: 7; 29: 5; 20:20, etc.).

It is impossible to prove that chapter 28 is an interpolation, even though this beautiful poetic passage can be considered a digression. The elimination of the most beautiful literary passages of the work would diminish the value of the original poem, and it would be a contradiction to pretend that the “interpolators” had more genius than the author himself.

The same thing happens with the description of Leviathan and Behemoth, since the style and vocabulary are similar to the rest of the book (cf. Jb. 40:15; 39:15 with Jb. 5:23; 41:9 with 3: 9, among others). Elihu is rejected on the pretext that he does not appear in the prologue; but it cannot be maintained philologically that his speeches belong to a later date.

On the other hand, his words form a necessary transition, since they “prepare the intervention of the Lord in the midst of the storm, describing the majesty of God” (J. H. Raven). If Elihu is not mentioned in the epilogue, it is because he did not deserve the reproaches directed at Job’s other friends.

The development of the argument clearly testifies to the literary unity of the work. The events reported are real, although they are presented in a poetic form (Grotius).

Job was a historical character, who lived in the country of Uz; he is mentioned in Ez. 14:14 and Jas. 5:11. Uz is usually located in Edom (1 Chron. 1:42; Lam. 4:21). A notable fact is that none of the names that appear in the book are symbolic.

III. The date of writing is highly debated, and critics’ estimates range between the patriarchal era and the 4th and even 3rd century BC. However, the manuscripts of Job found in the Dead Sea in archaic Hebrew script give irrefutable evidence that the work certainly predates the Babylonian exile.

There are scholars who point to Moses, who is well versed in the desert and its history due to his stay in Midian, as the editor. Others point to Solomon, in the golden period of wisdom literature. However, it is also not unlikely that one of the participants in the debate, perhaps Elihu, or even Job himself (cf. Jb. 19:23-24), left a written memory of him.

The extremely archaic way of life presented (wealth measured in number of flocks, sacrifices offered by the head of the family, line independent of the Mosaic covenant, although included by the Noahic) also gives evidence of a very early date. Nothing, therefore, prevents us from thinking that the book was written shortly after the events it reports.

In this inspired book we find a terrible drama (physical, moral and spiritual, an integrally total drama) of a pure consciousness facing a humanly incomprehensible fate. And in the midst of all the perplexities the prophetic light of the passage of new life in resurrection provided by the “Goel” or Redeemer (Jb. 19:25-27) already shines, a light that illuminates the suffering Job in the midst of the blackest of the storm, and which is an anticipatory echo of the proclamations of the Gospel of salvation.