AT old times east of Palestine in the land of Uz lived a righteous man named Job. He was the fifth from Abraham. He was a just and kind man who always tried throughout his life to please God.
The Lord rewarded him for his piety with great blessings. He had many hundreds of cattle and thousands of small cattle. He was consoled by a large and friendly family: he had seven sons and three daughters.
But the devil envied Job. He began to slander God against the righteous Job: “Is Job fearing God for nothing? Take everything he has from him, will he bless you?”
God, in order to show everyone how faithful Job is to Him, and to teach people patience in their sufferings, allowed the devil to take everything that he had from Job.
One day, the robbers stole all of Job's livestock, killed the servants, and a terrible whirlwind from the desert destroyed the house in which Job's children had gathered, where they all died. But Job not only did not grumble against God, but said: “God gave, God took away; may the name of the Lord be blessed."
The shamed devil was not satisfied with this. He again began to slander Job: “A man will give everything he has for his life: touch his bones, his body (that is, strike him with a disease), will you see if he will bless you?”
God allowed the devil to deprive Job of his health as well. And then Job fell ill with the most terrible disease - leprosy.
Even Job's wife began to persuade him to say a word of murmuring against God. And his friends, instead of consolation, only upset the innocent sufferer with their unjust suspicions.
They believed that God rewards the good and punishes the evil, and whoever suffers punishment from God is a sinner. Job defended his good name: he assured that he did not suffer for sins, but that God sends a hard fate to one and a happy fate to another according to His unknown will. His friends believed that God deals with people according to the same laws that human justice judges.
But Job remained firm, did not lose hope in God's mercy, and only asked the Lord to bear witness to his innocence.
God appeared to Job in a whirlwind and pointed out to him that for man there is too much incomprehensible in the phenomena and creations of the surrounding nature. And it is impossible to penetrate into the mysteries of God's destiny - why God treats people one way or another.
Job was right when he spoke about God's Providence about man and that God deals with people according to His All-Wise Will.
In a conversation with friends, Job prophesied about the Savior and about the future resurrection: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day He will raise my decaying skin from the dust, and I will see God in my flesh. I will see Him myself; my eyes, and not the eyes of another, will see Him.”
After that, God, showing everyone an example of fidelity and patience in His servant Job, Himself appeared and ordered his friends, who looked at Job as a great sinner, to ask him for prayers for themselves.
God rewarded His faithful servant. Job was restored to health. He again had seven sons and three daughters, and the cattle became twice as large as before, and Job lived another hundred and forty years in honor, calmly, piously and happily.
The story of the long-suffering Job teaches us that God sends misfortunes to the righteous not for sins, but to further strengthen them in goodness, to shame the devil and glorify the truth of God. Then the story of Job's life reveals to us that earthly happiness does not always correspond to the virtuous life of a person, teaches us to be compassionate towards the unfortunate.
Job, by his innocent suffering and patience, represented the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, on the days of remembering the sufferings of Jesus Christ (on Holy Week), the narration from the book of Job is read in the church.
Among his so-called teaching books, he has an interesting work called the Book of Job. The name was given to her by the name of the protagonist, and a devoted servant of God.
book structure
To understand what is the protagonist, you must first understand the work. The story of the misadventures that the biblical character Job undergoes is divided into a prologue, main part and epilogue.
The prologue describes the blessed life of the righteous man, his prosperity in spiritual and material terms. The main part tells about how he suffers grief that fell to his lot as a result of the dispute between Satan and God. By itself, this part is divided into three sections: the conversations of Job with friends, the words of Elius, and the speech of the Most High. The epilogue closes the circle and tells about the restoration of justice and the return of the prophet's well-being.
Narrative canvas of the work
The story begins with the fact that Satan came to the meeting of the sons of God and began to provoke God to withdraw his blessing from the righteous and sinless Job in order to check whether he would remain faithful to the Almighty in sorrow. As a result, God succumbs to provocation and gives his servant into the hands of the devil on one condition - not to kill him. In the future, the biblical character Job experiences a series of upheavals: all his sons and daughters die at the same time, he is deprived of all his wealth and property, and he himself becomes severely ill with leprosy. To comfort and support him, three friends come to him. Most of The book is just their speeches and Job's answers to them, in which they jointly try to establish the reasons why such disasters fell upon the righteous. They believe that Job the long-suffering is guilty of some grave sin, because, in their opinion, God would save the innocent from unnecessary torment. But the prophet stubbornly declares his integrity and, humbled under the power of God, blessing his name, nevertheless calls him to account. In the end, God appears and denounces the wrongness of both Job himself and his friends. The Lord arranges a court and asks questions to the protagonist, to which he is not able to answer. And yet, in conclusion, God praises the faithfulness and patience of his servant, heals him of his illness and multiplies his lost property more than before. He accuses his friends of slandering himself and commands them to ask Job to pray for them in order to avert punishment for saying “not so true” about him. This is where the story ends.
Historicity of the book
Religious figures in Judaism and Christianity until the twentieth century, for the most part, believed that the story of the biblical Job was historically accurate. Those who affirmed the legendary nature of the events described in the book, as well as those who denied the very existence of this prophet, were usually compared with heretics. This happened, for example, with Theodore of Mopsuestia, who was condemned by the fifth. But the development of biblical studies in the twentieth led to the fact that the scales began to tilt to the other side. Today, many serious Bible scholars believe that the story of the biblical Job is a parable, a pedagogical poem, and not a story about the life of a real person.
The time of Job's life and the time of writing the book
It should be said right away that all attempts to establish the time when the biblical character Job lived are doomed to failure. First, he was the head of a tribe of nomads, of which there were many in the Middle East, and is not tied by the narrative of the book to any cities and monarchical dynasties. Secondly, most likely, Job the long-suffering is a collective image. He is probably not even purely Jewish, because in the Bible he is referred to as a man without a pedigree, having neither a father nor a mother. Meanwhile, the Jews always mentioned the genealogical branch when they talked about people (be it living people or biblical characters) who trace their origin to Abraham, the progenitor of the Jews. Therefore, it is most logical to assume that the book is based on a Middle Eastern pagan legend, creatively processed by a Jewish author.
But as for the writing of this poem in the form in which it entered the canon of the Bible, certain assumptions can be made. Based on an internal analysis of the text, language, structure, the presence of Aramaic influence and later doctrinal signs, it can be more or less confidently assumed that the middle of the first millennium BC is the time when the literary hero Job was “born”. The Bible of the Jews at this time was codified and seriously revised. Probably, at the same time, for pedagogical purposes, the story of a suffering righteous man was also added to it.
Book authorship
The question of who the biblical character Job owes his origin to is not easily solved. On the one hand, the book is included in the Jewish canon of the Scriptures, and on the other, all of its characters among people - not Jews. Job's wife is an Arabian, friends are also representatives of various non-Jewish Semitic peoples. Plus, the language of the book is very heavily Arabicized, which allows us to make two assumptions: either the author was an Arab, or a Jew who lived in an Arab environment.
Bible readers periodically have questions about certain strange creatures that inhabit the earth. An example of this is the famous Leviathan. This story of the biblical Job is one of the few that mentions him, putting the mention of a grandiose sea monster into the mouth of God. A certain hippopotamus is mentioned with him. Most likely, we are talking about a mythical huge creature that is not subject to human power. The Lord tells Job that only the one who created him can stick his sword into him. Other interesting place is located at the very beginning of the text, where Satan is spoken of as the son of God, one of his angels.
Conclusion
This book stands apart in the canon in its content and form. And although few people doubted its canonical dignity, it is ambiguous on the most important issue - the issue of evil. This has nothing to do with such strange images as a hippopotamus or a leviathan. This story of the biblical Job teaches believers that the answer to the question of the cause of suffering is beyond the reach of man. After all, God comes to the challenge of Job, but does not want to be responsible and does not give an answer, but simply crushes him with his authority and power, asking questions before which a person is powerless, as a result of which the hero simply “puts his hand on his mouth.” The plot of the dispute itself does not receive development and outcome. Thus, it is not clear what and to whom God was proving, leading his most devoted servant through terrible suffering (including the death of ten innocent children of Job). In addition, the actions of the Lord themselves can hardly be called ethical in the modern sense of the word.
Interpreting the problem of the suffering of the righteous. The book of Job is one of the oldest examples of speculative moral literature in the Middle East.
An analysis of the text of the book of Job shows that it is composed of a prose narrative frame (prologue - chapters 1-2; epilogue - 42:7-17) and poetic chapters that present Job's discussion with friends and God's answer to Job. Prose and poetic chapters are different not only in form, but also in content:
Job, a resident of the eastern land of Uz, the owner of countless herds and numerous servants (like the patriarchs in the book of Genesis), the father of seven sons and three daughters, is a righteous man pleasing to the Lord: “There is no one like him on earth: a blameless, just, God-fearing man from evil" (Job 1:8), says the Lord to Satan. However, Satan declares that Job's piety is not selfish: "But stretch out Your hand, and touch all that he has, will he bless You?" (1:11). In the misfortunes that follow one after another, Job loses all his property and children in one day, but not a single blasphemous word leaves his lips. On the contrary, he declares: “Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, the Lord took; May the name of the Lord be blessed!” (1:21). However, this test does not seem decisive to Satan, and he proposes to test Job with bodily suffering. With the permission of God, Satan sends a leprosy to Job, but Job endures this misfortune too: “Shall we accept good from God, but shall we not accept evil?” (2:10).
In the epilogue, God rewards Job a hundredfold for his perseverance in suffering and reproaches his three friends for "not speaking so well about him as his servant Job" (42:7).
In this prosaic frame, a discussion unfolds (the poetic chapters of the book), in which Job appears not as a pious person who lovingly accepts the misfortunes that fall on him by God, but as a rebel who, contrary to the admonitions of his friends, enters into an argument with God. Job curses the day of his birth (3:3), accuses his friends of insufficient sympathy for his suffering (6:14–30; 16:1–5), asserts his integrity (23; 27; 31), and demands arbitration between him and God (9:29-35; 16:21-22); Job accuses the Lord of the injustice of His punishment (10), crushing the hopes of the righteous (14:18-22), loses faith in the reward for virtue (21) and in the justice of the order of things established by God (24). In response, God asks Job about the extent of his knowledge (38, 39), and the ashamed Job closes his mouth; God asks Job if he wants to accuse Him to justify himself (40:8), and Job "denies and repents in dust and ashes" (42:6).
The prose part of the book of Job (prologue and epilogue) is a literary work independent of the poetic part. The hero of the story is mentioned in the book of the prophet Ezekiel: “If there were ... these three men: Noah, Daniel and Job, then they would save only their souls with their righteousness ... but they would not save either sons or daughters, but they, only they would have been saved…” (14:14 and 16). The name of Job, as well as the name of his residence - Uz (in the Bible also the name of one of the grandsons of Shem; Gen. 10:23), should be considered as anachronisms, and the role played by Satan in the story testifies to the influence of Persian culture. Other anachronisms also speak of an attempt to give the narrative an archaic character (for example, the Chaldeans are mentioned under their ancient name kasdim; 1:17). The action takes place in the land of the "sons of the East" (Job 1:3), that is, on historical homeland patriarchs; as in the stories of the patriarchs, wealth is measured by the number of servants and the number of livestock (Job 1:3; 42:12; Gen. 24:35; 26:14; 30:43); Job's longevity resembles that of the patriarchs (Job 42:16; Gen. 25:7; 35:28; 47:28); Job, like Abraham, is called "the servant of the Lord" (Job 1:8; 2:3; 42:8; Gen. 26:24) and, like Abraham (Gen. 22:1, 12), is tested by God and successfully endures a test of one's faith; finally, the monetary unit mentioned in the book of Job xita(42:11) occurs only in the stories of the patriarchs (Gen. 33:19). The latest philological research proves that in the form that has come down to us, the story was recorded after the return of the exiles from the Babylonian captivity.
Numerous attempts by biblical scholars to establish the period of compilation of the poetic chapters of the book of Job have not led to unambiguous results. In the language of the dialogues, the influence of the Aramaic language is so noticeable that some researchers (for example, N. H. Tur-Sinai) came to the conclusion that the book of Job was either translated from Aramaic or compiled in the northern periphery of Eretz-Israel, subject to the influence of Aramaic literature. On the other hand, the names of Job's friends (Eliphaz from Teiman, Bildad from Shuach, and Zophar from Na'amah) indicate their connection with Edom.
Among modern biblical scholars, the opinion prevails that the poetic part of the book of Job took its final form after the Babylonian captivity. In any case, it was during this period that the poetic-philosophical discussion was included in the theodicy of the narrative frame. The book of Job is the pinnacle of the biblical poetic “wisdom literature” that flourished in the Middle East, but underwent a unique transformation in the ancient culture of Israel and is imbued with a deep religious feeling in the Bible.
The suffering righteous man is a theme familiar to Sumero-Babylonian and ancient Egyptian literature, but there it is not illuminated by the dramatic intensity of the book of Job. The pathos of man's protest against the deeds of God is comparable to some extent only with the pathos of the ancient Greek classical tragedy. However, in the latter, an inexorable fate reigns, beyond the control of even the gods. In the book of Job, the hero calls God himself to judgment and demands an answer from him, and God answers him and reproaches Job’s friends for insincerity for blaming him, based on a formal theodicy that denies doubt. Faith in the mercy of God, which descends to answer to a mortal, testifies to the purely religious nature of the book of Job, despite the presence of an element of skepticism in it. The deep religiosity with which the book is imbued goes far beyond the biblical genre. Job, with his tossings, doubts, challenge to God and, finally, humility before the greatness of the Almighty revealed to him, became in Jewish and world fiction and philosophical literature a symbol of the tragic and at the same time life-affirming heroic confrontation of man with God and the universe created by Him.
Throughout the centuries, the meaning of the book of Job has been interpreted in various ways. In the Talmud and Midrash, Job is considered either as one of the few truly God-fearing characters in the Bible, or as a blasphemer. In the Talmud, the opinion is given that Job is a fictitious person, the hero of an instructive parable (BB. 15a-b). In the same context, however, it is said (BB. 15b) that, according to the biblical characterization, Job surpasses in righteousness even the forefather Abraham.
There lived in the time of Abraham a man named Job. He was rich, but his wealth was not in gold and silver, but in sheep and oxen, donkeys and camels.
Everyone revered Job. He was neither stingy nor selfish. Job loved God and helped everyone in adversity and need. He constantly prayed for his large family - for sons and daughters.
The Lord saw the God-fearing and kindness of Job and rejoiced.
But not only the Lord followed Job. Satan, the enemy of the Lord and the source of all evil, also watched him closely.
Is Job a godly gift? He loves You for what You can give him, Satan said to the Lord. - If misfortunes fall upon him, he will immediately change.
The Lord knew that Job would remain faithful to Him even then.
You can test Job, He told Satan. Take everything he owns from him. But don't harm him.
Shortly thereafter, Job's servant ran to Job with terrible news. The nomads attacked his herds and took away all the oxen and donkeys.
No sooner had the servant finished speaking than another rushed in and told him that the lightning had killed all his sheep and the shepherds who looked after them.
The third messenger came to say that the enemies had stolen all his camels.
But the fourth brought the saddest news. All his sons and daughters perished when a violent wind from the desert swept over the house where they were feasting and destroyed it.
Job was in great sorrow, but he did not blaspheme the Lord for his suffering.
I came out of my mother's womb naked, and I will return naked, he said. The Lord gave, the Lord took. May the name of the Lord be blessed!
My servant Job remained steadfast and passed the test, the Lord said to Satan.
But Satan replied:
It's only because You didn't hurt him himself. If a disease strikes him, he will immediately change.
You can send a disease to Job, but save his life, the Lord said.
The book of Job, a profound work of Jewish thought, one of the greatest creations in all the poetry of all peoples and times, occupies a completely lonely position in Jewish literature in its content. In form, it combines all types of poetry: its beginning and end have an epic character; its main middle part is written in the dramatic form of a conversation, which rises to lyricism in the descriptions of nature, but in general, the Book of Job has a didactic direction.
Job and his friends. Painting by Ilya Repin, 1869
Book's contents.“There was a man in the land of Uz; his name is Job; and this man was blameless, just, and God-fearing, and shunned evil,” thus begins the epic introduction of the Book of Job. The land of Uz is part of southeastern Palestine. Job was the prince of a nomadic tribe. For his justice and fear of God, God rewarded him with all the blessings. Satan told the Lord that Job's piety is not disinterested: Job loves the Lord only because the Lord gives him wealth and happiness; if the Lord takes away his rewards for piety, he will cease to bless the Lord. The Lord gave Satan permission to test whether this was so, to expose Job to disasters.
One after another, severe disasters began to fall on Job. His flocks and servants perished. The house in which his sons and daughters were feasting fell and crushed them with its ruins. But the impoverished, childless Job remained firm in his devotion to the Lord. Satan asked for permission to subject Job's own body to suffering, and "struck Job with a fierce leprosy from the sole of his foot to the very top of his head." But even in this suffering, Job retained his devotion to the Lord. He said to his wife, who stirred him to murmuring: “Shall we accept good things from God, and shall we not receive evil?” And "Job did not sin with his mouth."
Book of Job. audiobook
Word of Job's misfortunes spread far and wide, and three of his friends from different places "came together to go together to mourn with him and console him. And when they lifted up their eyes from afar, they did not recognize him," so he changed from illness; - “and wept, and sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights,” finding no words of consolation. Finally, Job broke the heavy silence, and his grief poured out with complaints, curses of a painful life. His bitter words seemed impious to his friends; they began to prove to Job that God justly rewards and punishes people according to their deserts. One after another, they tried to prove to Job that if he was subjected to disasters, he should consider himself worthy of punishment from God by some sins. Job argues against them, says he feels innocent. He reproaches them for their ruthlessness towards him, and in his grief he sharply says that the wicked remain happy, while the righteous live in misery. His friends, all three, are indignant at such thoughts, call them impious, refute them with examples. Thus, a series of speeches goes on: Job's friends, in accordance with the concepts prevailing in the country, prove that God always treats people as people deserve, and that, consequently, Job's calamities are punishment for him for some sins; Job continues to claim that he suffers innocently and continues to give examples of the wicked going unpunished and the righteous suffering. He says that if not during his lifetime, then after his death, God will show people his innocence. He ends his objections to his friends with touching reminiscences of his former happiness, of his immaculate life, and invokes God as evidence of his innocence.
But before the moment comes for the decision of the question by the voice of the Lord himself, the listener Elihu enters into an argument with Job, who was silent while Job’s three friends had objections to him: “When those three men stopped answering Job, Elihu’s anger was kindled against Job because he He justified himself more than God, and his anger was kindled against those three friends because they did not find what to answer. Elihu was silent while they spoke, "because they were older than him in years"; - when they are silent, he takes upon himself the defense of the thoughts expressed by them. Elihu reproaches Job for not seeing the justice of the Lord in managing the destinies of people: “It is not true that God does not hear” the complaints sent to him by the righteous: “Judgement is before him, and wait for him. He does not support the wicked, and renders justice to the oppressed" (XXXV, 13, 14; XXXVI, 6).
After Elihu's speech, which remains unanswered by Job, the Lord responds to Job's call to bear witness to his innocence. “And the Lord answered Job out of the storm, and said: Gird up your loins like a man: I will ask you, and you will answer me.” The Lord asks Job if he can comprehend the ways of the Lord? The Lord says that Job and his friends too presumptuously considered themselves comprehending the omnipotence and wisdom of the Lord; Job's friends were too narrow in their judgment of the Lord's justice when they accused Job. Job says that neither he nor any other person can comprehend the ways of the Lord.
The Lord rewards Job for his suffering and loss. He healed him of his illness, and "blessed last days Job more than the former,” doubled his wealth, and gave him as many children as he had before. “And there were no such beautiful women in all the earth as the daughters of Job. After that Job lived a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, to the fourth generation. And Job died in old age, filled with days. Thus ends the Book of Job.
Scholars' opinion of when the Book of Job was written. Obviously, the Book of Job was written at a time when the Jewish people had already reached a high degree of education. In all likelihood, the opinion of those researchers who believe that it arose after the fall of the kingdom of Judah is correct. We do not have any actual data to determine the time of its origin; the conclusion which we take to be just is based only on considerations of probability. But it is clear that the Book of Job belongs to such a period when the Jewish people became acquainted with teachings that contradicted their usual concepts. In the Book of Job, there are signs of Jewish familiarity with Persian creed. There is no longer any struggle against Canaanite paganism; the Jewish people no longer fall into idolatry. From all this it seems to follow that the Book of Job was not written before the Babylonian captivity. Was it written during the captivity, or after the return of the Jews from captivity is hardly possible to solve.
Descriptions of nature. The descriptions of nature in the Book of Job are excellent. Alexander Humboldt in the second volume of Cosmos he says: “The Book of Job is justly regarded as an excellent work of Hebrew poetry. The pictures of natural phenomena in it are very picturesque, and their distribution in it is done with the artistic skill of didactics. In all the new languages into which the Book of Job has been translated, its descriptions of oriental nature make a deep impression. "The Lord walks on the backs of the storm-tossed waves of the sea." "The dawn embraces the ends of the earth, and the earth becomes like a multicolored garment." The Book of Job describes the customs of animals: a wild donkey, a horse, a buffalo, a hippopotamus, a crocodile, an eagle, and an ostrich. We see how pure ether spreads like a mirror-like garment over the thirsty earth in the sultry south wind. Where nature sparingly gives its gifts, man's senses are refined, he carefully follows every change in the atmosphere, on the surface of a lifeless desert, on a surging sea; he vigilantly sees the signs of approaching change. In the dry, rocky part of Palestine, the transparency of the air is very favorable for keen observations.
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