Concise Bible Dictionary:
All that is known of the history of Job is found in the book bearing his name. He lived in the land of Uz, which was probably named after Uz, or Huz (the Hebrew is the same), the son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Another link with that family is also found in that Elihu was the son of Barachel the Buzite, for Buz was the brother of Huz (Gen. 22:21). The land of Uz is supposed to be in the S.E. of Palestine toward Arabia Deserta. Job is called “the greatest of all the men of the east.” No date is given to the book, but there being no reference in it to the law, or to Israel, makes it probable that Job lived in patriarchal times, as the name Almighty, which was revealed to Abraham, was known to Job, his three friends, and Elihu. He is described as “perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil”; yet he suffered the loss of all his property; his children were killed; and his body was grievously afflicted. The great problem of the book is, the government of God, not directly as with Israel, but providentially in a world into which sin and death had entered, and where Satan, if permitted of God, can exercise his antagonistic power. God’s dealings with men in government and chastening are for good; but this brings out another question, How can man be just with God?—a question answered only in the gospel.
Job’s three friends entirely misunderstood this government of God, asserting that he must have been doing evil or he would not have been thus dealt with. Job resented their judgment of him, and in justifying himself blamed God in His ways with him. The key to this part of the book is that Job was being tested: his heart was being searched that his true state might be brought out, and that he might learn to know God in His wisdom and power, and that His ways are in view of blessing to man.
The testing all came from God: it was He who introduced Job to the notice of Satan, in the wonderful vision of the unseen, where the “sons of God” presented themselves before God. Satan was ever ready to afflict man and to impute motives; but he was foiled. When all Job’s property and his sons and daughters were swept away, still he worshipped, saying the Lord who gave was the Lord who had taken away; and he blessed the name of the Lord. Then, when his body was full of sores, his wife was used of Satan to try and induce him to curse God; but he replied, “What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” “In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” Satan was defeated, and he is not again mentioned in the book.
Then come Job’s three friends, and though thus far he had not sinned with his lips, yet his friends bring out what was in his heart. Though they did not understand God’s government with him, and falsely accused him, they said many right things as to that government in other cases. In short, Eliphaz went upon personal experience. He said “I have seen they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8). Bildad is the voice of tradition and the authority of antiquity. He said, “Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers” (Job 8:8). Zophar exhibited law and religiousness. He said, “If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away....then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot” (Job 11:14-15).
All this led Job to assert his integrity as among men. He said to God, “Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand. Thine hands have made me, and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me” (Job 10:7-8). “I will maintain mine own ways before him.... behold now, I have ordered my cause: I know that I shall be justified” (Job 13:15, 18). Then, provoked by the suspicions and misjudgment of his friends, he falsely judged God, saying, “God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.” “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.” “Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity” (Job 16:11; Job 19:7; Job 31:6). Yet, as before God, he owned, “If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me”; and again, “If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me” (Job 9:20-31). But the unsolved question in Job’s mind was, Why should God set his heart upon man? He so great, and man so fleeting and wretched: why would not God let him alone to fill out his day? For Job had the sense that it was God who was dealing with him, and that he was not suffering from ordinary providential causes. His friends could not explain it.
Elihu then came forward: he is a type of Christ as mediator, and spoke on God’s behalf. He said, “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life I am according to thy wish in God’s stead” (Job 33:4-6). He showed that Job was not just in justifying himself rather than God. He spoke of God’s dealings with mankind; how He speaks to man, even in dreams, to give him instruction; and if there be an interpreter, one among a thousand, who can show him how his soul can stand in truth before God, he may be delivered from going down to the pit; for God has found a ransom. God chastises man to bring him into subjection, so that He may be favorable to him.
In Job 36 Elihu ascribes righteousness to his Maker, and assures Job that “He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.” God despiseth not any, and He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous; and if they are afflicted it is for their blessing. He closes with dwelling on the incomprehensible power of God.
God Himself then takes up the case of Job, and, by speaking of the acts of His own divine wisdom and power in nature, shows by contrast the utter insignificance of Job. As to the wisdom of God’s ways, would Job pretend to instruct Him? Job replied “I am vile,” and is silent. God continues to argue with him, “Wilt thou disannul My judgment? wilt thou condemn Me, that thou mayest be righteous?” And He again points to His power in nature. Job confesses that he had uttered what he understood not: things too wonderful for him, which he knew not. He said, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job had now learned the lesson God intended to teach him: he is in his proper place of nothingness before God. There God can take him up. In 1 Corinthians 1 Christ is seen to be the wisdom and power of God when man is brought to nothing by the cross. Job had seen God, and all was changed. God reproved Job’s friends: they had not spoken of Him what was right as Job had. They must take a sacrifice, and Job must pray for them: Job was God’s servant, and him God would accept. God blessed his latter end more than the beginning: he had great possessions, and seven sons and three daughters. He lived after his restoration 140 years.
Twice Job is mentioned along with Noah and Daniel in connection with “righteousness” when the state of Israel had become so iniquitous that if these three men had been there, even their righteousness would have delivered their own souls only, but would not have saved so much as a son or a daughter (Ezek. 14:14,20). Job is also held up as an example of endurance, and as showing what the end of the Lord is, that He is very pitiful, and of tender mercy (James 5:11).
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God, Satan, and Job
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Chapters 1-3
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THE ARGUMENT STATED
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The address of Eliphaz
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Chapters 4-5
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The answer of Job
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Chapters 6-7
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The address of Bildad
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Chapter 8
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The answer of Job
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Chapters 9-10
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The address of Zophar
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Chapter 11
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The answer of Job
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Chapters 12-14
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THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED
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The address of Eliphaz
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Chapter 15
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The answer of Job
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Chapters 16-17
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The address of Bildad
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Chapter 18
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The answer of Job
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Chapter 19
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The address of Zophar
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Chapter 20
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The answer of Job
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Chapter 21
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THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED
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The address of Eliphaz
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Chapter 22
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The answer of Job
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Chapters 23-24
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The address of Bildad
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Chapter 25
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The answer of Job
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Chapters 26-31
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THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED
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The Speeches of Elihu
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Chapters 32-37
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Jehovah addressing His servant
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Chapters 38-41
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Job’s brokenness of spirit, and happy conclusion
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Chapter 42
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Bible Handbook:
1520 B.C. – 44 Chapters – 1070 Verses
The scenes in this book are laid in the far distant east, in the ancient country of Arabia, “the only land in all antiquity that never bowed to the yoke of a foreign conqueror.” Its customs, manners, and people, are almost identical with the earliest ages of mankind; thousands of years have passed away, and yet the charming simplicity of patriarchal life, as exhibited in Abraham and Job, may be witnessed still in that ancient and interesting country, which has maintained its primitive character, while empires and kingdoms have flourished and fallen.
In Job, we have man put to the test. We might say, with our present knowledge, man renewed by grace, an upright man, and righteous in his ways, in order to show whether he can stand before God in presence of the power of evil, whether he can be righteous in his own person before God. On the other hand, we find the dealings of God, by which He searches the heart, and gives it the consciousness of its true state before Him. It is a book written upon the moral government of God in this world, not with a nation such as Israel, but with a God-fearing, prosperous man, yet one whose conscience had not been searched in the presence of God and in the light of His holiness. It carefully details the process by which a man learns the utter worthlessness of the flesh in its best estate. Will human righteousness avail for God? In the details of the book, Satan is used as the servant of the divine purpose for breaking the will of man, hence his power is permitted, limited, and directly controlled (chs. 1-2); it is in principle what we find in Christianity (1 Cor. 5:5). Job is also a book without dates, hence is neither characteristically dispensational nor historical. The book is also cast in the early patriarchal times between Abram and Moses — the latter being regarded by many as the writer of the book. The age of Job (ch. 42:16) and other considerations point to this ancient and inspired document as being, probably, as old as the Pentateuch. Job was no mythical personage, nor were the circumstances merely imaginary as some have strangely and unbelievingly supposed; the testimony of the prophet Ezekiel (ch. 14:14) and the apostle James (ch. 5:11), should effectually silence all such unbelieving thoughts, which are simply the product of the dark and wicked heart of man.
Job’s friends, Eliphaz and Bildad, each addressed him three times, Zophar twice, and Elihu once. Eliphaz was calm, dignified, and temperate, and, as the eldest, commenced the discussion. Bildad was more heated, more direct and personal too in his attacks upon Job. Zophar distinctly held Job responsible for the trouble which had come upon him, and speaks in a hasty, impulsive mood. Elihu, the youngest of the group, speaks, when all are silent. He vindicates God in His dealings and ways with man, and reproves both Job and his friends. Here we have the utterances of one who is standing for God — a true witness for Jehovah, and the interpreter of His character and ways as displayed in His moral government in this world.
Those speeches and Job’s answers, form a deeply interesting discussion upon the principles of the divine and moral government of this world. The reasonings of Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, were to the effect that the earthly government of God in the temporal prosperity of some and in the deep afflictions of others, were according to God’s approval or disapproval of their conduct, and thus the measure of His dealings towards men, a principle both false and dangerous, and one which Job thoroughly exposes both by argument and fact. Job’s nothingness is exposed in light of God’s power (chs. 38-39), and his vileness in light of God’s presence (ch. 40). Satan retires from the scene after chapter 2. This use of Satan to accomplish the divine purposes — God using his artillery against himself — is a truth of much comfort to the saint (1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Tim. 1:20). “All power is of God” — divine, satanic, human. God is the source of all power, as He is of all goodness. Hence He limits and controls its exercise as it pleaseth Him and for the blessing of His own.
General Divisions
Chapters 1-2 — God Himself raising the question with Satan as to His servant — Job’s integrity.
Chapters 3-31 — Job’s mournful complaint and the eight speeches of his three friends with Job’s replies — the subject being the earthly government of God.
Chapters 32-37 — Elihu justifies God in all His dealings and ways, and silences Job as before Job had silenced his three friends.
Chapters 38-42:6 — Job owns his nothingness and vileness before God; the divine object being thereby gained, self-judgment, confession, and utter loathing of self are the precious points of God’s controversy with His saint and servant.
Chapter 42:7-17 — God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends and the blessed conclusion and happy issue of all.
Division by Argument
Besides those General Divisions, the contents of the book may be thus divided and arranged: —
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