Job

JOB (one persecuted), the famous patriarch of Uz (probably in eastern Edom), whose sorrows and whose words find faithful and immortal record in the book of Job. He lived in very primitive times — at least was unacquainted with the Mosaic law and the Jewish worship. He appears in the book as a holy outsider, who was yet, like Melchizedek, a worshipper of the true God. We have reference to Job as an historical character in Eze 14:14, Eze 14:16, Eze 14:18, Eze 14:20, and Jas 5:11. These references must be accepted as conclusive not only as to his reality, but likewise as to his recovery. They are supported by Arab and Mohammedan traditions. But this view does not compel us to accept all the details, and especially all the speeches (which are too highly poetical to have been extemporized), as strictly historical. The book is a poem on an historical basis. He was a patriarchal prince of great wealth, piety, integrity, and happiness. By God's permission Satan tried him, destroying his property, his children, and his health, and visiting him with the most loathsome form of leprosy (elephantiasis). But as he abode faithful, God grandly vindicated his righteousness, reversed Satan's sentence, gave him back all he had lost and much more. With daughters renowned for their beauty, with sons to perpetuate his name, with fulness of days and abundance of honor did he pass away, 140 years after his great trial. Hales places him before the birth of Abraham, Usher about 30 years before the Exodus, b.c. 1521. Book of. It is the record of Job's experiences. It is a didactic poem with a narrative prologue and a narrative epilogue in prose. The poem itself has a dramatic drapery, several speakers being introduced, who carry on a metaphysical contest on the mysteries of divine government. It has been called a Hebrew tragedy and theodicy. Its poetic merit is of the highest order, and ranks it, with Homer's Iliad, Dante's Divina Commedia, Shakespeare's dramas, and Goethe's Faust, among the immortal masterpieces of genius. Thomas Carlyle calls it "one of the grandest things ever written by man, a noble book — a book for all men. Such living likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliations; oldest choral melody, as of the heart of manhood; so soft and great, as the summer midnight; as the world with its seas and stars, — there is nothing written, I think, of equal literary merit." With the exception of the beginning and end, it is in

poetry. It is uncertain who wrote it, but surely it is very old. Some ascribe it to Moses while in Midian, others carry it down to the age of Solomon. The speeches of Job and his friends discuss the problem of evil and its punishments, and the justice of God in the unequal distribution of happiness and misery. Why do the righteous suffer and why do the wicked prosper in this world? The friends of Job charge him with secret crimes; he in vain protests his innocence. All the speakers are silenced at last by almighty God, who appears as umpire on the scene and overwhelms Job with a sense of his infinite power and wisdom. The practical lessons of the book may be stated as follows: Not all the sufferings are punishments for sin. This is the one-sided view of the three friends of Job, who are for this reason censured by Jehovah and required to make an atonement for the injustice done to Job. Job 42:7. The general principle of the connection of sin and suffering is true enough, but the error and injustice consist in the application of this principle to all individual cases of suffering. Without sin there would have been no suffering; but in a fallen world sufferings are used by God as a school of discipline. The sufferings of the righteous are not punitive, but disciplinary and corrective. They are prompted by God's love rather than his justice. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." Prov 3:12; Heb 12:6. Affliction is the necessary condition for the development of disinterested virtue and the heroism of patience. As a means for such an end it is foreordained by God. The sufferings of the righteous are but temporary and lead to an abundant reward even in this life, or certainly in the life to come. It is wicked presumption in man to murmur against God and to find fault with his dealings or to call him to an account, instead of humbly adoring him and submitting to the mysteries of his almighty power and wisdom. The final solution of all the remaining mysteries of divine government is reserved for the future life. This idea is at least hinted at in that remarkable and most comforting passage which stands right in the middle of the book, as the kernel in the shell, Job 19:23-27, and which teaches, if not the resurrection of the body, at all events the immortality of the soul. We add an analysis of the book of Job, which has suffered much from the traditional division into chapters: Job's character and prosperity, Job 1:1-5. The divine decree to try Job through Satan by taking away his possessions, Job 1:6-22, and his health, Job 2:1-10. The visit of his friends and their mute sympathy, Job 2:11-13. I. The outbreak of Job's despair, ch.3:1-26.