Job

Job is the eighteenth book of the Bible and the first of the wisdom books. It is also one of the Bible's oldest books and one of its most unusual, written mostly as poetry inside a short narrative frame, and devoted entirely to the question of why good people suffer. The author is unknown and the setting is deliberately vague.

The narrative frame, in chapters 1 and 2, sets up the story. Job is a wealthy, blameless man who fears God. In a scene in heaven, a figure called Satan ("the accuser") argues that Job is faithful only because his life is comfortable. God allows Satan to test Job by destroying his livestock, killing his children, and afflicting his body with painful sores. Job's wife tells him to curse God and die; he refuses.

The bulk of the book, chapters 3 through 37, is a long poetic dialogue between Job and three of his friends who come to comfort him. The friends argue that Job must have sinned to deserve this suffering. Job insists he has not, demands to put his case before God directly, and refuses to accept their explanations. A fourth speaker, Elihu, weighs in late.

In chapters 38 through 41, God himself answers Job out of a whirlwind, not by explaining the suffering, but by asking Job a series of questions about the natural world. Job submits. The narrative frame closes with God restoring Job's fortunes, giving him new children, and a long life.