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Job 8:1-22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Does God Pervert Justice?: 8:1–2 The second friend, Bildad, begins without the slightest indication of compassion for Job’s suffering. He immediately condemns Job’s speech, calling it a blustering wind. His goal from the first is to defend the traditional wisdom understanding of retribution. Unlike Eliphaz before him, Bildad seems willing to acknowledge Job’s essential righteousness and encourages...

2. Bildad's Second Speech to Job

Job 18:1-21

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Opening Criticism Bildad’s speech clearly falls into two major segments: the opening response caustically directed to Job (18:1–4); and a longer wisdom rumination or admonition concerning the ultimate destruction of the wicked (18:5–21). The commentators variously divide the latter section into subsections, but in my opinion no particular division is more persuasive than another. The discussions o...

3. Elihu

Job 32:1--37:24

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

The Friends Conclude and Elihu Begins Excurses: Had the third cycle of dialogue between Job and his three friends been complete, we would expect to find Zophar’s concluding speech in response to Job at this point. However, at least in the canonical form of the book, Bildad’s truncated final speech (25:1–6), Job’s expanded concluding speech (chs. 26–31), the complete absence of any final speech by...

4. Eliphaz

Job 4:1-5:27

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Trust in Your Piety: Here what is commonly known as the “first dialogue cycle” begins, taking the reader through Job 14:22. Having been unable to find words to respond to the extremity of Job’s physical suffering earlier, the friends are much less reticent in replying to Job’s angry monologue. Job’s words, and not his situation, spark the dialogue and debate. The first to speak is Eliphaz, who app...

5. Eliphaz's Second Speech to Job

Job 15:1-35

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Sin Prompts Your Mouth The “second dialogue cycle” begins here as we return to the argument of Eliphaz, from whom we last heard in chapters 4 and 5. There Eliphaz operated from the assumption that humans are “born to trouble” (5:7) and therefore “reap” what they “sow” (4:8). It is impossible for “a mortal to be righteous before God.” Since even God’s servants, the angels, are untrustworthy, “how m...

6. Eliphaz's Third Speech to Job

Job 22:1-30

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

No Gain for God The “third dialogue cycle” begins again with Eliphaz and his response to Job. He begins with a series of rhetorical questions that recall the tactics of his earlier two speeches (4:1–5:27; 15:1–35). In those utterances Eliphaz sought to undermine Job’s claims of innocence by arguing that no human can be declared innocent before God (4:7–9, 17–19; 15:14–16). Since even the angels—wh...

7. Epilogue

Job 42:7-17

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Intercession for the Three Friends 42:7 After the LORD had said these things to Job. This phrase connects back to the formula that introduced the theophany in 38:1. As there, this phrase makes clear to the reader that the divine interrogation in chapters 38–41 addresses Job—and not Elihu, whose speeches immediately precede God’s appearance. This editorial comment also links the prose epilogue to t...

8. God Is in Control, Humans Are Unrighteous Maggots

Job 25:1-6

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Here, in his final speaking appearance, Bildad makes but a weak and truncated response to Job’s long, impassioned plea. Some commentators restore a longer speech here by transposing verses from the extended speech of Job that follows (chs. 26–31). In what follows, however, we take Bildad’s brief speech as an intentional indication of the faltering of the friends’ arguments in their failure to pers...

9. Introducing Job

Job 1:1-5

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

1:1 The first chapter serves as a prose prologue to the dialogue sections that form the core of the book. The focus from the very first word is on the main character. Hebrew word order (lit., “a man there was in the land of Uz”) intentionally emphasizes the man, Job. This word order signals that the reader should pay particularly close attention here to the introduction of this man and his circums...

10. Job Speaks

Job 3:1-26

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Job’s Protest out of Pain: Opening Curse: At last, Job himself breaks the protracted silence with an explosive speech. This passionate monologue, which stretches from 3:3–26, is divided into two sections: an opening curse (3:3–10); and a questioning lament (3:11–26). 3:1–2 An introduction that summarizes the coming monologue prefaces Job’s speech: After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the da...

11. Job's Final Concession

Job 42:1-6

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Job’s final words provide a more satisfying response to the theophany than his earlier non-speech in 40:3–5. There Job essentially refused to say anything more than he had uttered in the dialogue section. We were left with no clue as to how the appearance of God had affected or changed him. Job is now apparently ready to say his piece in response to God, suggesting that the poetic discourses are r...

12. Job's First Test

Job 1:6-22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

In the Presence of Yahweh: 1:6 Having established the character of Job on the basis of social reputation (1:1), evidence of divine blessing (1:2–3), and demonstrable piety (1:4–5), the narrative takes a darker turn to reveal hidden circumstances affecting Job. One day is not just any day or a day selected at random, but actually the day in Hebrew. It probably indicates a particular day set in adva...

13. Job's Reply to Bildad

Job 9:1–10:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

How Can a Mortal Be Righteous before God?: Job’s response to Bildad’s speech moves the discussion in a new direction. Up to this point in the book Job has largely been addressing the extremity of his suffering and raising the agonizing question as to how a righteous person can be allowed to suffer so horrendously. Now, however, in response to Bildad’s suggestion that the resolution of Job’s suffer...

14. Job's Reply to Eliphaz

Job 6:1–7:21

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Impatience Justified: The first chapter of Job’s response to Eliphaz divides into three parts. Initially (vv. 1–13), he defends the sense of growing impatience with his circumstance that Eliphaz has attacked (4:1–6). Job then turns to a counterattack on the fickleness of some friendship (vv. 14–23). He concludes chapter 6 with a pointed demand to know where sin resides within him that is commensur...

15. Job’s Reply to Zophar

Job 12:1--14:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Job’s Equal Wisdom 12:1 Undeterred by Zophar’s stringent warnings, Job answers Zophar’s harshness with equal venom. 12:2 Doubtless. Job begins his reply to Zophar with the same word with which he began his response to Bildad (ʾomnam, “surely, certainly, without a doubt,” 9:2), but here the word drips with intentional sarcasm. Job clearly has his doubts about the wisdom of the three friends—especia...

16. Job's Second Reply to Bildad

Job 19:1-29

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

God Has Wronged Me Job’s response to Bildad’s second speech alternates between recrimination against his friends’ lack of compassion and lament over the divine attack he is experiencing. The friends attack and torment Job because they are convinced he is at fault (19:4, 28). Job continues to claim his innocence and to call the friends to compassion and mutual support (19:21–22). He concludes with ...

17. Job's Second Reply to Eliphaz

Job 16:1-17:16

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Miserable Comforters Job returns to the discussion even more hopeless than before. Whereas he had expressed a determination to carry his case before God when he last responded to Zophar (chs. 12–14), he now seems almost resigned to defeat and rejection by human beings and by God. By the end of this response to Eliphaz, Job declares his hopelessness and prepares to go down to Sheol unrequited (17:1...

18. Job's Second Reply to Zophar

Job 21:1-34

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

The Inexplicable Prosperity of the Wicked In chapter 21, Job responds to Zophar’s accusations by thoroughly deconstructing the foundation on which they rest. Zophar has claimed that the wicked perish both in an ultimate sense and in their relentless quest for that which does not satisfy—the gnawing greed that consumes the wicked from the inside out. Job assesses Zophar’s claims as so much “nonsens...

19. Job's Second Test

Job 2:1-10

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Return to the Presence of Yahweh: 2:1–3 With only a few variations—and only one of real significance—these verses exactly repeat 1:6–8. Repetition and variation are part of the literary toolbox of ancient narrators and storytellers and may owe much to the oral tradition of telling and retelling these stories over the centuries. The similarity of language carries the hearer into the second conversa...

20. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Sarcastic Introduction Job’s response to Bildad’s third speech is extended (six chapters long)—even for the usually loquacious Job! Many commentators divide up the chapters attributed to Job to supply an extension to Bildad’s brief speech, as well as to wholly reconstruct a missing third speech for Zophar. Such reconstruction, however, can only proceed on a presumptive assumption of what each spea...

21. Job's Third Reply to Eliphaz

Job 23:1--24:25

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Taking God to Court 23:1 One can hardly call Job’s words in chapters 23 and 24 a response to Eliphaz’s third speech. Job takes no notice of his friend or his argument, but he begins instead to consider the feasibility and benefit of bringing God to court so he might hope to find just resolution to his complaint. In chapter 23 Job reflects, at first confidently but ultimately with increasing terror...

22. Silent Comfort: Job’s Three Friends

Job 2:11-13

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Silent Comfort: Job’s Three Friends: 2:11 The appearance of Job’s three friends after the apparently successful completion of the double test marks a new departure in the narrative. Having witnessed the second exoneration of Job’s righteousness, the reader anticipates some resolution to his suffering. The immediate question that arises is what role these friends will play in that resolution. There...

23. The Lord Speaks

Job 38:1--41:34

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

God’s Appearance and Examination of Job Excursus: It should be clear from the outset that the fact God that appears in response to Job’s plea for a meeting immediately puts the lie to any claims to the contrary that Elihu and the other friends have made. God does appear in response to Job. His very appearance, therefore, proves Elihu’s earlier claim false—that God will not respond to Job because ...

24. Zophar

Job 11:1-20

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

11:1 The last of Job’s three friends makes his debut with rather breathtaking harshness. Zophar rejects Job’s claim to righteousness and even undermines his integrity by classifying Job’s claims as idle mockery which cannot go uncontested. The key to Zophar’s viewpoint is found in 11:6, where he clearly states that Job’s suffering is the result of his sin and is even less severe than deserved. Whi...

25. Zophar's Second Speech to Job

Job 20:1-29

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Rejection of Discipline 20:1–3 Zophar, in his second (and final!) speech, makes little attempt to respond to the words Job has just spoken. After an initial angry reaction to what he perceives as Job’s attempts to “discipline” (NIV rebuke, at the beginning of v. 3) an already established group of sages, he launches into a traditional wisdom discourse on the fate of the wicked. His obvious assumpti...

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