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The Bible · Old Testament · 42 chapters

Job

A righteous man loses his wealth, his children and his health. His friends insist he must be being punished; Job protests his innocence and demands an answer from God. God finally speaks from the storm, not with an explanation, but with himself.

Author
Unknown
Written
Date uncertain

Chapters

  1. 1Job 1Job is blameless and blessed. In a heavenly scene, Satan claims Job only fears God because of what he gets. Job loses his wealth and children in one day, yet worships: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.”
  2. 2Job 2Satan strikes Job’s body with painful sores. His wife tells him to curse God, but Job refuses. Three friends come and sit with him in silence for seven days.
  3. 3Job 3Job breaks his silence and curses the day he was born, wishing he had never lived.
  4. 4Job 4Eliphaz, the first friend, gently suggests that the innocent do not perish, so Job must have sinned.
  5. 5Job 5Eliphaz urges Job to seek God and accept his discipline.
  6. 6Job 6Job says his friends have failed him like a dried-up stream. He longs for death and asks what he has done wrong.
  7. 7Job 7Job describes the misery of his life and complains directly to God: why won’t you leave me alone?
  8. 8Job 8Bildad insists that God is just and would restore Job if he were pure.
  9. 9Job 9Job agrees God is just, but asks how anyone can argue with him. He wishes for someone to mediate between him and God.
  10. 10Job 10Job speaks to God in bitterness: why did you make me, only to destroy me?
  11. 11Job 11Zophar rebukes Job sharply and says God is punishing him less than he deserves.
  12. 12Job 12Job mocks his friends’ wisdom and says God is sovereign over everything, good and bad.
  13. 13Job 13Job wants to argue his case before God and says, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.”
  14. 14Job 14Job reflects on how short and troubled human life is, and wonders if the dead will live again.
  15. 15Job 15Eliphaz accuses Job of undermining faith and describes the fate of the wicked.
  16. 16Job 16Job calls his friends “miserable comforters” and says his witness is in heaven.
  17. 17Job 17Job feels his spirit is broken and his hope gone.
  18. 18Job 18Bildad describes the terrible end of the wicked, implying Job is one of them.
  19. 19Job 19Job feels abandoned by God, family and friends, yet declares, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and in my flesh I will see God.”
  20. 20Job 20Zophar insists the joy of the wicked is brief.
  21. 21Job 21Job answers that in reality the wicked often prosper and die in peace.
  22. 22Job 22Eliphaz accuses Job of specific sins and urges him to return to God.
  23. 23Job 23Job longs to find God and present his case, and trusts that God knows the way he takes.
  24. 24Job 24Job asks why God doesn’t set times of judgment, when the wicked oppress the poor.
  25. 25Job 25Bildad’s short final speech: how can a human be righteous before God?
  26. 26Job 26Job describes the vast power of God, of which we hear only a whisper.
  27. 27Job 27Job maintains his integrity and describes the fate of the wicked.
  28. 28Job 28A poem on wisdom: people dig deep for precious metals, but wisdom is found only with God. “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.”
  29. 29Job 29Job remembers his past life of honour and blessing, when he helped the poor and needy.
  30. 30Job 30Job laments his present humiliation and suffering.
  31. 31Job 31Job makes a final oath of innocence, listing sins he has not committed, and demands that God answer him.
  32. 32Job 32Elihu, a younger man, speaks up, angry with both Job and his friends.
  33. 33Job 33Elihu says God speaks through dreams and suffering to turn people back from the pit.
  34. 34Job 34Elihu defends God’s justice.
  35. 35Job 35Elihu says human righteousness or sin does not affect God himself.
  36. 36Job 36Elihu says God uses affliction to teach and describes his greatness in the storm.
  37. 37Job 37Elihu describes God’s majesty in thunder, snow and rain, and tells Job to stop and consider God’s wonders.
  38. 38Job 38God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” He points to creation, the sea and the stars.
  39. 39Job 39God asks Job about wild animals: the lion, the mountain goat, the wild donkey, the ostrich, the horse and the hawk.
  40. 40Job 40Job realises he cannot answer God and puts his hand over his mouth. God describes the mighty Behemoth.
  41. 41Job 41God describes Leviathan, a fearsome sea creature only he can master.
  42. 42Job 42Job repents: “I had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” God rebukes the friends, and Job prays for them. God restores Job twice as much as before.