(BA) Job

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22 July 2022

The Book of Job tells the story of a good man to whom bad things happen. It is a deeply strange book to have in the Hebrew Bible given how sharply it cuts against the grain of the Bible's primary moral framework.

To put it briefly, the main framework says that obedience is rewarded and disobedience is punished. But Job, a righteous man and exemplary character, is horribly punished at great length as part of a sort of bet between Yahweh and the Satan. Job complains at great length about how unfair God is being, and Job's friends repeatedly tell him that he must have done something wrong to deserve God's just wrath. God shows up at the end and says that Job was right and his friends were wrong. Great oceans have ink have been spilled by commentators on what this all means, and my short summary certainly does not due justice to the complexity of the book.

The book of Job is hard not only morally but linguistically. Its Hebrew is very, very difficult.

As to its authorship and composition, a straight reading of the book is not very helpful. The book does not identify its author, and it says nothing explicit that could even narrow down when it is set. It does not reference any helpful points in Judah's history by addressing the existing of any kings or political situations. For all the questions about the exact historicity of events in Isaiah, or Ezekiel, or Jeremiah, at least these characters are set in identifiable places and periods. Job is not: his "land of Uz" is mysterious, and we are not even told whether Job is an Israelite.

Job is a riddle.