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1 There was a person within the land of Uz whose title was Job, and that man was innocent and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There have been born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 feminine donkeys, and really many servants, in order that this man was the best of all of the individuals of the east. 4 His sons used to go and maintain a feast in the home of every one on his day, and they’d ship and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the times of the feast had run their course, Job would ship and consecrate them, and he would rise early within the morning and supply burnt choices in line with the quantity of all of them. For Job mentioned, “It might be that my kids have sinned, and cursed God of their hearts.” Thus Job did frequently.
—Job 1:1–5
Three Previous Testomony students supply passage-by-passage commentary by the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Job, explaining troublesome doctrines, shedding gentle on missed sections, and making use of them to life and ministry right this moment. A part of the ESV Expository Commentary collection.
An Exemplary Man from the Land of Uz
The prologue to Job (Job 1:1–5) introduces us to an uncommon world. In verse 1, we meet a person with an unprecedented title (Hb. ʼiyyob, “Job”) from an unsure place (“the land of Uz”) who worships (as of but) an undefined “God” (Hb. ʼelohim).1 Nevertheless, it’s this man in that place and his relationship with that God that units the scene for the unfolding of one of many OT’s most spectacular dramas. Verses 2–5 construct upon this uncommon opening with an sudden description of the “excellent” man. Job is “excellent” in a numerological sense in that he has ten kids (“seven sons and three daughters”; Job 1:2) and ten thousand animals (Job 1:3).2 Furthermore, he’s “excellent,” or as close to to excellent as is any character within the OT, in a non secular sense. He good points the distinct designation of being “the best of all of the individuals of the east” (Job 1:3) each as a result of he’s wealthy and since he’s righteous. He fears God. He turns away from evil. He supplies for his kids bodily and spiritually.
Was there actually a person named Job? Did he dwell in a land referred to as Uz? Was he completely righteous with a superbly blessed life? Did he in at some point lose every little thing however his troublesome, unnamed spouse? Did he have pals who sat silently for seven days? Did he then endure the accusations of Eliphaz, the blame of Bildad, the zings of Zophar, and the admonishments of Elihu? Did God maintain a heavenly chamber room convention with Devil at which he granted permission to afflict Job? Did God actually communicate audibly to Job? Are Leviathan and Behemoth actual creatures? Put merely, did the creator of Job create the entire drama out of complete fabric, very similar to Shakespeare did together with his characters from overseas nations who communicate in poetry?
The reply isn’t simple, and certainly not ought to we be dogmatic. Who can know for sure? Whereas Uz seems to be an historic area, the names of Job’s daughters present a tinge of historic realism (Job 42:14), and Ezekiel mentions Job alongside Noah and Daniel (Ezek. 14:14, 20; cf. James 5:11), such clues don’t remedy the riddle. Authors usually set fictional works in actual locations (e.g., the Canterbury of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales), and Ezekiel and James could possibly be referencing Job as a literary determine (just like our saying, “We must always not emulate the Spouse of Bathtub’s lusts”).3 Tremper Longman affords a useful steadiness:
The reality could also be between the view that Job was a historic character, with the e book describing occasions of his life intimately, and the view that Job is a purely literary determine. Job might have been often known as a very righteous one who suffered. His story would then lend itself to additional elaboration for the needs of discussing the problem of an harmless sufferer and knowledge. Certainly, the extremely literary nature of the prose and poetry . . . would counsel that this at the least is true. The style indicators assist us to see that the e book of Job is actually not a exact historic report. It’s both the elaborated story of an precise historic determine or of a literary determine.4
My view is that Job was a historic individual, not a fictional character, somebody whose legendary sufferings had been the historic floor on which the creator of Job constructed with magnificent literary aptitude. Thus, whereas I give poetic license to how the creator retells the narrative (e.g., I don’t take the speeches as verbatim stories of the interchange between Job and his pals), I take the entire characters named (together with Devil) and the small print of the story informed (together with the wonderful catastrophes) to be traditionally correct.
Assembly the Historic Job
In Job 1:1 we’re informed that Job is “innocent and upright,” or, in a extra spatial translation, “complete and straight.” We’d say, within the language of our Lord Jesus, that as Job walks the straight and slender method that results in life, he treats others the identical method he needs to be handled; his wholehearted submission, reverence, respect, and love for God present themselves in his complete (or “excellent”; Matt. 5:48) love for others. And due to this, his neighbors—and even his enemies—don’t have anything in opposition to him. He has handled them with equity and fairness and charity. He’s a “man of peace [Hb. shalom],” specifically, a “innocent” and “upright” man (Ps. 37:37). On this method, Christians ought to imitate Job.
We also needs to imitate Job in the best way he cares for his kids. Assume afresh about Job 1:4–5. Why does Job supply sacrifices for his kids? They’re introduced in a constructive method. The sons are impartial; every of the seven has his personal home. All of them get alongside. Everybody attends the entire festivals, which is perhaps one thing like birthday events (“his day,” Job 1:4, maybe equals “his birthday”) or, extra seemingly, seven spiritual feasts all year long.5 Job’s family is harmonious. They’re all additionally blissful—based mostly on the truth that they eat and drink collectively on a regular basis. Consuming and ingesting are sometimes symbolic within the Bible for pleasure (e.g., Eccles. 9:7). However inside all of this wholesomeness, concord, and happiness, one thing is amiss. God’s will in heaven isn’t but executed completely on earth. Devil is but to look within the e book, however sin is already current.
As preferrred because the introduction to the e book of Job is, we’re not in Eden—we’re east of it. Job thinks it essential to sanctify and sacrifice as a result of he fears his kids may need sinned. We’re not certain if he thinks their cursing God can be because of the deceitfulness of riches (they’re fairly rich), the lure of pagan idols (they dwell in “the east”), or just some unintentional perspective or motion (cf. Num. 15:28). Regardless of the case, the outline of Job’s scrupulousness is meant to not appear neurotic or in any method detrimental, however reasonably as sin-sensitive and God-honoring. He cleanses his kids and sacrifices for his or her sins as a result of he cares for his or her souls. As Christians, and in a Christian method (because of Jesus’ atoning loss of life, there isn’t a want for animal sacrifices), we also needs to pray for our youngsters and do all we are able to to “consecrate” them, that’s, set them other than the world.
Nevertheless, with all of that famous, the apt response to Job 1:4–5 isn’t merely imitation. The textual content additionally foreshadows two different sacrifice scenes. The primary is Job 42:8–9. Job affords blood sacrifices solely initially (Job 1:5) and finish (Job 42:8–9) of the narrative. That remaining scene is the lens by which we’re to learn the entire narrative. However it’s greater than a lens that helps us look backward; it additionally—just like the lens on a telescope—helps us sit up for the last word scene of sacrifice. In Job we see a righteous sufferer vindicated, sinners atoned for by a pricey blood sacrifice, and the sovereign freedom and justice of God upheld. Likewise, in Jesus, we see a sacrificial loss of life that demonstrates how harmless struggling can each present forth the justice of God and in addition save sinners.
Notes:
- Job was written in Hebrew for Israelites to learn. Thus, certainly the “God” referenced in 1:1 is Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. That is made plain by how God is spoken about all through the e book, particularly in chapters 38–41, the place God speaks for himself about himself. Additionally, to settle the matter, “Yahweh” is used thirty-two occasions within the e book, together with in 1:21 and 12:9, the place Job addresses God as such.
- On the spherical numbers representing perfection, see David J. A. Clines, “False Naivety within the Prologue of Job,”
HAR 9 (1985): 127–136. - But, to the purpose, John H. Walton offers just a few useful insights: “Although there could also be purely literary characters within the literature of the traditional world, historic authors had been extra more likely to assemble their literature round epic figures of the distant previous than to manufacture ‘fiction’ as we perceive it right this moment. . . . [Moreover,] we lose nothing by accepting Job’s story as historic, and we acquire nothing by concluding that he’s a fabricated, fictional character.” Job, NIVAC (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 25.
- Tremper Longman, Job, BCOTWP (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Tutorial, 2012), 33.
- That final studying matches the thought of their “blessing” God of their hearts at these occasions. Seow supplies three frequent interpretations of “his day,” the second being that some commentators “think about a weeklong celebration throughout some annual holidays . . . , just like the ‘annual sacrifice’ that concerned the entire household (1 Sam 20:6, 29), or the Feast of Ingathering (Exod 34:22), or the Feast of Cubicles, which entailed seven days of choices, adopted by a day of holy convocation (Lev 23:36; Num 29:35; 2 Chr 7:9)” (Job 1–21, 269).
This text is by Douglas Sean O’Donnell and is customized from the ESV Expository Commentary: Ezra–Job (Quantity 4) edited by Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar.
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