:narrative
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Job, living in the land of "Uz", was a man of great probity, virtue, and piety. He possessed much riches in cattle and slaves, which at that time constituted the principal wealth even of princes in Arabia and Edom. He had seven sons and three daughters and was in great repute among all people, on both sides of the sons made entertainments for each other; and when they had gone through the circle of their days of feasting, Job sent to them, purified them, and offered burnt-offerings for each one in order that God might pardon any faults unintentionally committed against him during such festivities. He was wholly averse from injustice, idolatry, fraud, and adultery. He avoided evil thoughts, and dangerous looks, was compassionate to the poor, a father to the orphan, a protector to the widow, a guide to the blind, and a supporter to the permitted Satan to put the virtue of Job to the test, at first by giving him power over his property, but forbidding him to touch his person. Satan began by taking away his oxen: a company of Sabeans slew his husbandmen and drove off all the beasts; one servant only escaping to bring the news. While he was reporting this misfortune, a second came, and informed Job that fire from heaven had consumed his sheep, and those who kept them; and that he alone had escaped. A third messenger arrived, who said "The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"He had scarcely concluded, when another came, and said, "While your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking in their eldest brother's house, an impetuous wind suddenly overthrew it, and they were all crushed to death under the ruins; I alone am escaped to bring you this news."Job rent his clothes and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground saying, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord."As Job endured these calamities without reproaching Divine Providence, Satan solicited permission to afflict his person as well, and the Lord said, "Behold he is in your hand, but don’t touch his life." Satan, therefore, smote him with a dreadful disease, probably leprosy, and Job, seated in ashes, scraped off the corruption with a potsherd. His wife incited him to "curse God, and die" but Job answered "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"In meantime, only three of his friends, having been informed of his misfortunes, came to visit him - Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. A fourth was Elihu the Buzite, who from chapter 32 bears a distinguished part in the continued seven days sitting on the ground by him, without speaking, but at last Job broke silence, and complained of his misery. From the fact that no one spoke to him, a Jewish halakha may be derived. When one goes to visit someone in mourning, they should not speak to the person in mourning, until they are spoken of William Blake's illustrations of the Book of Job: Satan afflicts Job with boils. Speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and ZopharJob's three friends do not waver from their belief that God is right, and that anyone who has such poor fortune as Job is necessarily being punished for disobeying God's law. As the poem progresses Job's friends increasingly berate him for refusing to confess his sins, although they themselves are at a loss as to what sort of sins he has committed. The three friends continue to assume that Job was a sinner and therefore deserving of all punishments. They also assume in their simplistic theology that God as a matter of course is a rewarder of good and punisher of evil, with no apparent exceptions allowed. There seems to be no room in their understanding of God for divine discretion and mystery in allowing and arranging suffering for purposes other than retribution. God is angry at them for not speaking of Him what is right "as my servant Job has finally done." By the conclusion, they confess their sin to God and offer atoning sacrifices which God mercifully accepts on behalf of Job's prayers for their forgiveness - just as his regular custom was with his 10 children who "may have cursed God in their hearts". At the end, God is justified, Job vindicated with deepened faith and trust being restored, there is reconciliation between Job and his wife, Job and his friends and Job and his God.Speeches of JobJob, convinced of his own innocence, maintains that his suffering cannot be accounted for by his few sins, and that there is no reason for God to be punishing him thus. However, he refuses to curse God's name.Speech of ElihuElihu, whose name means 'My God is He', takes a mediator's path, maintaining the sovereignty and righteousness and gracious mercy of God. Elihu strongly condemns the approach taken by the three friends, and argues that Job is misrepresenting God's righteousness and discrediting His loving character. Elihu says he spoke last because he is much younger than the other three friends, but says that age makes no difference when it comes to insights and wisdom. In his speech, Elihu prophetically describes God's power, redemptive salvation and absolute rightness in all His conduct. God is mighty, yet just, and quick to warn and to forgive. Apparently, Elihu acts in a prophetic role preparatory to the appearance of Jehovah. At the end of the narrative, God rebukes Job's three friends but does not rebuke Elihu. Job never replies to Elihu's indictments and revelations of God's dealings with him through the ordeal.God's ResponseAfter several rounds of debate between Job and his friends, a divine voice, parenthetically described as coming from a "cloud" or "whirlwind", the Lord describes, in evocative and lyrical language, what the experience of being responsible for the world is like, and asks if Job has ever had the experiences that Yahweh has 's answer underscores that Job shares the world with numerous powerful and remarkable creatures, creatures with lives and needs of their own, whom God must provide for, and the young of some hunger in a way that can only be satisfied by taking the lives of others. Does Job even have any experience of the world he lives in? Does he understand what it means to be responsible for such a world? Job admits that he does not, and asks God for the epilogue, God condemns Job's friends for their insistence on speaking wrongly of God's motives and methods, commands them to make extensive animal sacrifices and instructs Job to pray for their forgiveness. Immediately thereafter God restores Job to health, giving him double the riches he before possessed (including 10 new children added to the 10 who predeceased him). His daughters were the most beautiful in the land, and were given inheritance while they were still alive. Job is crowned with a holy life and with a happy death.Satan in the Book of JobThe name Satan appears in the prose prologue of Job, with his usual connotation of "the adversary," as a distinct being. He is shown as one of the celestial beings or "sons of God" before the Deity, replying to the inquiry of God as to whence he had come, with the words: "from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it" (Job 1:7). Both the question and the answer, as well as the dialogue that ensues, characterize Satan as that member of the divine council who watches over human activity, but with the evil purpose of searching out men's sins and appearing as their accuser. He is, therefore, the celestial prosecutor, who sees only iniquity; for he persists in his evil opinion of Job even after the man of Uz has passed successfully through his first trial by surrendering to the will of God, whereupon Satan demands another test through physical suffering (Job 2:3-5). Satan challenges God by saying that Job's belief is only built upon what material goods he is given, and that his faith will disappear as soon as they are taken from him. And God accepts the introduction of "the adversary" occurs in the (very short) framing story alone: he is never alluded to in the (very long) central poem at all.Job's WifeJob's wife is mentioned only once in the book of Job in Chapter 2. The extra-Biblical Testament of Job adds legendary details about her being named Sitis, who, the legend goes, sold her hair to Satan in exchange for food and money. In the end, she cursed God and course, in the actual Biblical historical account, Job could not have had 10 more children after being restored from his ordeal without his wife.
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