You Can Read the Bible

Today we begin a series of readings in the Wisdom section of the Hebrew Bible, starting with the story of Job.

“There was a man in the land of Uz…” The first five verses give us all the background information we’ll receive about the primary character. We learn that he is a man of unusual wealth and unquestionable character. All this is prelude, however, to the real story, which begins on a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them…

Pay close attention to the back and forth of the dialogue in the heavenly court. It is the LORD who asks, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” The Accuser challenges, “Of course, since you have blessed him and protected him, ‘but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’”

The gauntlet is thrown, and the attention, for the next forty chapters, is on the questions that Job’s trials produce. This story is not about the details of Job’s situation but the search for meaning within it. Pay attention to how the author carefully develops Job’s character. However, his wife’s challenge: "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die..." is a possible outcome throughout.

If you’re unfamiliar with Job, I won’t ruin the story for you. As with the law, writings, and prophets, the wisdom genre has its own patterns and tendencies. You’ll notice for yourself repetitions and alliterations, especially in the first chapter. Nor will I attempt to place this story within any historical framework – though you will see clues throughout that hint at historical intersections. You will not find Uz, definitively, on any map. Job is not included in any genealogy or lineage, and appears sparingly elsewhere in the Bible. Even the divine conversation has no analogue in the rest of the Old Testament.

These details are secondary to the primary purpose, and to the primary subject – which is neither Job, nor suffering, but the true nature and character of the LORD.

Our verse for this week is James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Job 1 through 4. Now let’s read it!

Job 1 - 4

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east. His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts." Job did so continually. Now on the day when God's sons came to present themselves before Jehovah, Satan also came among them. Jehovah said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, "From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." Jehovah said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil." Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven't you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face." Jehovah said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don't stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of Jehovah. It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, that a messenger came to Job, and said, "The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you." Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped. He said, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked will I return there. Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away. Blessed be Jehovah's name." In all this, Job didn't sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing. Again, on the day when God's sons came to present themselves before Jehovah, Satan came also among them to present himself before Jehovah. Jehovah said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered Jehovah, and said, "From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." Jehovah said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause." Satan answered Jehovah, and said, "Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face." Jehovah said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life." So Satan went out from the presence of Jehovah, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die." But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job didn't sin with his lips. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn't recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. Job answered: "Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, 'There is a boy conceived.' Let that day be darkness. Don't let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it. Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the day black terrify it. As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months. Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein. Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan. Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning, because it didn't shut up the doors of my mother's womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes. "Why didn't I die from the womb? Why didn't I give up the spirit when my mother bore me? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse? For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest, with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves; or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver; or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light. There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master. "Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it doesn't come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave? Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water. For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me. I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes." Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, "If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking? Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have supported him who was falling, you have made the feeble knees firm. But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled. Isn't your piety your confidence? Isn't the integrity of your ways your hope? "Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off? According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same. By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed. The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad. "Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I couldn't discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying, 'Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth! Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it. Isn't their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.'

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