Job

About Job

Job is the story of a good man who loses everything and dares to ask God why. His friends offer tidy answers that turn out to be wrong, and in the end God answers Job Himself — not with explanations, but with His overwhelming presence. In the Bible's big story, this book faces innocent suffering with total honesty and insists that God can be trusted even in the dark.

Written by

The author is unknown; the book never names its writer, and traditions about who wrote it vary widely.

When

The story is set in the early patriarchal era, but the date of writing is genuinely uncertain — estimates range from the days of Moses or Solomon to after the exile.

Themes

• Suffering without easy answers
• Faith that argues and holds on
• God's wisdom beyond ours
• A Redeemer who lives

Key verses

• Job 1:21And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
• Job 19:25For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
• Job 42:5-6I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.