SOME CONTEXT:
THE BOOK OF JOB is one of the most widely quoted stories in the TORAH,
the history of the Hebrew
people and their god. A version of the TORAH,
including the BOOK OF JOB, was later translated and edited into the
first five books of the Christian BIBLE, referred to as the THE OLD
TESTAMENT. The stories of the TORAH, stemming from a long oral
tradition in the ancient world, were probably first written down
between the eighth and second centuries B.C.E.
The BOOK OF JOB relates the suffering and resolve of Job, a godly man
and possible candidate for 'World’s Earliest Intellectual' since he
dares to question his existence. As a spiritual lesson, the story of
Job poses a number of questions on the nature of God and the
unnecessary pain inflicted on the righteous in what often seems a
pointlessly cruel world.
The BOOK OF JOB is also notable for its use of an informed
prologue in
which the audience is privy to a secret knowledge that the protagonist
in the story is not. This use of dramatic irony is most commonly seen
in Greek tragedies and adds an element of suspense to the telling of
Job’s tribulations.
PLOT:
In the first two chapters, or prologue, of the BOOK OF JOB, God decides
to use Job as a demonstration to his skeptical subordinate, Satan, who
doubts Job's unflappable faith in God. God tells Satan that he may take
away everything from Job. Satan wastes no time and plagues the old man
in short thrift; Job soon loses his family, his farm and riches, and is
finally covered in hideous boils. Job has no knowledge of God and
Satan’s conversations in the prologue nor of the resultant bet on his
spiritual faith. Meanwhile, back on the earthly plane, Job’s wife tells
Job to turn away from God, while his three friends tell him to repent,
assuming that Job has committed an egregious sin to be punished by God
so completely. Job keeps his faith but he neither curses God nor openly
repents for any mysterious sins. Instead, he sits quietly and waits for
God to explain himself. The answer finally comes in the form of a
divine whirlwind. From the heart of the raging storm, God speaks to the
frightened Job, telling him that God's reasons are incomprehensible to
the human mind. Job’s health, family and riches are restored at the end
of the book -- a reward for his faithfulness.