A guide to Job

Who wrote Job, and when?

Unnamed. Setting is the age of the patriarchs; date of writing is unknown, possibly the time of Solomon or later.

Nobody knows who wrote Job. The book gives no author and no clue about the writer's time or place. The setting is the age of the patriarchs, roughly the world of Abraham: Job's wealth is counted in livestock, he offers sacrifices himself as head of his family, and there is no mention of Israel, the law or the temple. That setting says nothing certain about when the book was written. Jewish tradition sometimes linked it to Moses; others have suggested the time of Solomon, when wisdom writing flourished; many scholars date the finished poem later, during or after the exile. The Hebrew is unusually difficult, full of rare words. What is clear is that the writer was a poet of the first rank wrestling with a question every generation asks.

Who was Job written to?

Anyone who suffers without knowing why, and anyone tempted to explain another person’s suffering too easily.

Job was not written for a single moment in Israel's history but for anyone who suffers without knowing why. Its first readers were probably people trained in the wisdom traditions of the ancient Near East, where the question of the righteous sufferer was already discussed. But the book speaks just as directly to a second audience: the friends. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar stand for everyone tempted to explain another person's pain too quickly and to defend God with tidy formulas. Israel, and later the church, has kept Job in its Scriptures because both audiences are always present. The one in the ashes needs permission to speak honestly; the ones around him need to learn when to stop talking.

What was happening at the time?

Job is not an Israelite and the book never mentions the law, the temple or the covenant. It is set in the land of Uz among ancient wisdom traditions. Satan claims Job serves God only for the benefits; God allows the test. Most of the book is poetry: Job’s laments and his friends’ increasingly harsh insistence that he must have sinned, until God himself speaks from the whirlwind.

Why was Job written?

To face the mystery of innocent suffering honestly and to show that trusting God does not require understanding him.

Job faces the mystery of innocent suffering without flinching and without pretending to solve it. It sets out to overturn the idea that suffering is always punishment and prosperity always reward, an idea the friends hold and God himself rejects in chapter 42. It wants readers to believe that trusting God does not require understanding him, and that honest lament, even angry lament, is a form of faith rather than a failure of it. When God finally speaks, he gives no explanation, only himself, and that turns out to be enough for Job. In the wider story of the Bible, Job prepares the ground for the suffering servant of Isaiah and for Jesus, the truly innocent sufferer, and for the New Testament's promise that God will one day wipe away every tear.

How to read Job today

Read the prose opening in chapters 1 and 2 and the ending in chapter 42 first so you know the frame. Then read the poetry slowly, a speech at a time; do not rush through the middle. Watch the friends' arguments harden across their three rounds of speeches, and notice that they say many true things in the wrong way at the wrong moment. Read Job's own words in chapter 19 and God's speeches in chapters 38 to 41 with special care. Do not force a neat answer out of the book, and do not quote the friends as if they were Scripture's verdict; God says they were wrong. If you are suffering, let Job give you words. As you read, pray honestly about the thing you do not understand, and ask God to meet you in it rather than to explain it.

The key verse in Job

For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;

Passages worth knowing in Job

• Job 1–2

  The test

  The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be his name.

• Job 3

  Job curses his day

  Raw lament is allowed in God’s presence.

• Job 19:23-27

  I know that my Redeemer lives

  Hope breaks through in the middle of despair.

• Job 28

  Where is wisdom found?

  The fear of the LORD, that is wisdom.

• Job 38–41

  God answers from the whirlwind

  Questions, not explanations, and Job is satisfied.

• Job 42

  Job’s restoration

  Job repents in dust and ashes and prays for his friends.

The main themes of Job

• Innocent suffering
• The limits of human wisdom
• Honest lament
• God’s sovereignty
• Faith without answers

An outline of Job