The Book of Job
The Book of Job Job was a righteous man who lived in Uz. He had seven sons and three daughters. He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yokes of oxen, five hundred donkeys and many slaves. Each year, he held a banquet where Job would have each of his children purified. He did this for fear that they might have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. On the day that the angels came to attest before God, God pointed out to the accusing angel (Satan) Job's character. He pointed out how righteous and respectful he was toward Him. Satan claims that Job's character originates with evil and self-serving motives. He claims that Job is so righteous and respectful because he has no reason to act otherwise,
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Satan then challenges God to test Job. Reluctantly, God accepts the challenge. On Earth, Job is stricken with misfortune. All of his animals are either stolen or struck by lightning. All his children died of one tragedy or another. Yet, Job did not curse God. He figured that the same way God gave to him, he took away. Again, God took pride in Job. He bragged to Satan about how faithful and righteous his servant, Job was. Still, Satan doubted him. He claimed that Job was still faithful and righteous because he had not been affected directly by God's test. He persuades God to test Job once more. This time, Job's health is destroyed in a most horrifying form. Job is covered in boils from head to toe so badly, that he uses a piece of broken pottery to scratch himself with. At this point, Job's integrity is tested by his wife. She wonders why he is still so faithful to God. She thinks that it is about time that he begins cursing God for what He has done to him. Still, Job rebukes his …show more content…
If he tried to change reality, he would still end up suffering and being treated as guilty. Anything that he might do to prove himself innocent would be of no value. He cannot approach God in a court as he would do a man. It would take some type of arbitrator to restrain God's actions against him. Only then could Job defend himself. Then, Job says to God that he hates his life. He is going to protest to Him to stop condemning him until He has shown him his sin. He asks if somehow, God gets enjoyment from attacking him while at the same time favoring the wicked. He knows that Job is innocent and that he is helpless against Him. It appears that He has evil motives toward Job. God would be eager to find even the most minuscule sin that Job might commit so that He could punish him. If that were the case, why did He let Job be born and instead continuously attack him? The next person to speak to Job is Zophar. He asks Job if it is possible that such a wordy person could be in the right. Could such an impious speech reduce others to silence so that he appears to have won the argument? Zophar wishes that God Himself would show him how wrong Job was. If he were wise, he would gratefully realize the other side of his case. He asks Job to repent and turn back to God and forsake his sins. Only then will the past be totally forgotten. Job replies by saying that what Zophar has just said, anyone can know. God destroys
The Book of Job is a book about a wealthy man Job who lived in a land called Uz with his large family and extensive flocks. He was “blameless” and “upright,” and was always careful to avoid doing evil. One day, Satan (“the Adversary”) ap...
Genesis, Job, and Antigone all discuss matters regarding the laws of god and law of man, punishments for disobedience, and the role of knowledge.
The Book of Job is one of the three books in the Hebrew bible whose genre is described as wisdom literature.1 Certainly the Book of Job satisfies the literary conventions that qualify a biblical book for such status. 2 Yet Job may be associated with wisdom in a much more literal sense. The Book of Job attempts to deal with a problematic question that confronts suffering humanity: why do bad things happen to good people? The variety and vehemence of commentators' contemporary responses to this chapter of the Bible is testament to the continued relevance of the Book of Job's wisdom thousands of years after it was written. Although the commentators examined herein arrive at differing and sometimes conflicting conclusions after reading the story of "the holy Arab"3, none are left indifferent.
God blessed him greatly and this made satan jealous. So the enemy began to attack Job with fearful thoughts. Job's fear and worry of losing his family and possessions began to blind him of God's goodness and opened the door to trouble. The enemy then attacked his children, his possessions, and his health. And to top it off, the enemy had him convinced the Lord was to blame.
(Job 1: 9 - 12). “Does Job fear God for nothing?” shows how satan is asking about if Job fears nothing that god does, or if God is just a gift giver. “Very well, all that he has is in your power” Shows how God for being almighty kind deity is letting the suffering of one of his servants into Satan. We see this test show us religious tendencies between two almighty gods, and how later on in the book he will learn about the blessing god gives.
In the story of Job, Job is a pious man, devoted to his faith, who is also wealthy and blessed. “That man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil…his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen… and a very large household” (Kethuvim 1.10 Lines 1-4). Job had everything he could ever need, and was extremely faithful to God. One day God and Ha-Satan were talking and God began to boast about Job. “There is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil” (Kethuvim 1.10 Line 8). Ha-Satan says to God that Job has no reason to complain or fear God because God has given him everything he will ever need. Ha-Satan then makes a bet with God, in which God accepts the bet, that if everything is taken away from Job he will curse God in blasphemy. This paper will answer two questions, why does Job never curse God’s name after everything he has been through and why does God accept the bet with Ha-Satan?
After reading Stephen Mitchell’s translation and introduction of the Book of Job, I found that as I read the actual poem from the Bible, that I came to understand more of what the writer was trying to get across to the reader. Having grown up in a Christian household, I have heard the story of Job multiple times, but this book made me take a deeper look into the story and as I read the translation it was as if I was reading this story for the very first time. What really interested me was the way that Job and his friends interacted and how it perfectly illustrated the irony of his situation. We as readers know that Job is only being punished because of this disagreement between God and Satan, but throughout the entire book Job’s friends are
The Catholic religion, the most common practiced religion in the world, can be seen as a common setting for the origin of the Bible that is the oldest known book to this day. The Bible tells of many great stories of old that have been somewhat forgotten; In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's ,A Chronicle of a Death Foretold, biblical allusion are used throughout the novel which compares symbolisms and imagery to the Bible and Roman Catholic religion. The main focus of interest in the novel is the murder of Santiago Nasar which can be compared to the murder and acts against Jesus Christ. Acts and imagery of other actions taking place in the novel can be referred to the Bible of the Roman Catholic religion.
As the book opens, Job is God's "pride and joy", so to speak. Job was free of sin, he "feared God and shunned evil"(1:1). God apparently thinks higher of Job than any other mortal. This is evidenced when he tells Satan that "There is no one on Earth like him; he is blameless and upright . . ."(1:8). When Satan questions Job's faith God allows him to test Job, as if to show off his favorite servant. This is an almost human quality in God--pride. Satan's test involves the total destruction of everything Job owns and lived for: his children his animals, and his estate. Everything was destroyed but his wife, and of course the Four Messengers of Misfortune. "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing"(1:22).
The Epic of Gilgamesh and the book of job both have similar and different characters. They both have important gods although in the book of job there is only one god. In the book of job the only god is Yahweh. He is the all knowing and the creator of the universe. In the Epic of Gilgamesh there are many gods and goddesses including the most mentioned one; Ishtar. Ishtar is the goddess of love, fertility, and war. Job is the main character in the book of job, he questions god, and he creates the plot by obeying and then disobeying god. The friend of job come to show sympathy for job and Enkidu is the reason for the change of man in Gilgamesh. Both stories have a villain, in the book of Job it is Satan and in the Epic of Gilgamesh, it is Ishtar in the beginning for killing Enkidu and then it is the serpent for taking the plants away from Gilgamesh.
The Book of Job allocates a strong emphases on the series of questions Job ponders about God in his state of existential despair, and through these questions, although he does not receive a concrete answer, he attains a new insight. Job goes through a progressive chain from acceptance of God’s actions to questioning it and finally achieving understanding. Wisdom, in a general sense, is one’s ability to understand, through the process of gaining exceptional insight and judgment, uncertain and perplexing matters. In particular then, The Book of Job undertakes matters of existence that oppose the very fundamental principle of retributivism which consequently baffles Job. Through recognizing his lack of knowledge and questioning his friends’ assumptions concerning God instead of blindly accepting a simple retributive view of Him, Job manages to, paradoxically, gain a sense of wisdom by just realizing what he does not know.
Job was a man of the purest faith. When the world shunned God, Job's faith never declined. Job was a wealthy, handsome man with a beautiful wife and a vast amount of property. At some point in time, Satan made a bet with God that if Job situation was changed, his faith would quickly falter. On this note, God took Job's wealth, his property, his family, and his wife. When times were at their worst, God gave Job pus welts on Job's face, taking his looks. Job's faith, however, did not falter, instead it becamestronger. Job passed the test. God then healed Job, gave him more land, greater wealth , and a better wife. Job was baffled, he wondered the purpose behind his fall and rise. When he asked God this, God replied: "...Because I'm God." That was answer enough.
Why does God allow Satan to cause such tragedy in Job’s life, a man whom God has already acknowledged as “my servant Job, that there is none like on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”(1.8) From the beginning, it is known that Job is in no way deserving of his injustices, so a reason must be given. God gives Job an opportunity to prove that under any circumstances Job will still have faith. This simply a test for Job. The whole Book is a “double” journey for Job -- he shows God his faith and realizes the faith God has that Job will not stray from his path. Job knows deep down that God has not forsaken him.
Joel is the second of the twelve Minor Prophets. The book of Joel is set in the early eighth century BC in a time of great prosperity for Judah.2 Joel uses three easily identifiable formulas to convey his message to the people. What struck me about the book of Joel is his vivid writing style that includes the vivid use of simile and metaphor and the use of repetition and summary to reiterate his message. The main message of Joel is God’s offer of hope despite the present locust situation and if Israel repented there would be a coming day of God’s blessing.3
In The Book of Job, one of the main themes is desire, more specifically the desire to know the actuality. Job is a wealthy man living in a land of Uz with his family minding his own business. He is a very religious man and usually strives to do what he believes is morally right. Satan one day challenges God that Job will lose his faith in him if he allows Satan to torture Job. God accepts the challenge and Job greatly suffers. Job at the beginning of the story had no desires or intentions at all, but as his condition gets worse and worse. Job mindset about God and his belief begins to shift. At this point in the story desire starts to play a key role in Job’s life. Desire is shown in Job when he demands answers from God and why God is putting him through all of this. The idea of questioning God terrifies Job but his desire for an answer ultimately overshadows his fear of questioning God, “Here is my desire...