A Handbook on the Book of Job (UBS Handbook Series)

by William David Reyburn

Publisher:

United Bible Societies

, 1992

Overview

The Book of Job is a story told in the form of a poem. It begins with a prose introduction describing Job as a good man who is faithful to God, wealthy, and concerned for the right relation between God and his family. In a meeting between God and Satan, God permits Satan to test Job’s loyalty. These tests result in the destruction of Job’s family and wealth. He is reduced to sitting in agony on a pile of ashes, where three friends find him when they arrive to bring him comfort. In his despair Job regrets that he was born and curses his origins. The friends enter into three rounds of lengthy arguments with Job, in which they maintain that Job’s suffering is the result of his sin. Job argues against them, insisting stubbornly that he is innocent, and demands that God appear in court with him. These speeches make up the main body of the poem.

After the three rounds of speech arguments, there is a poem on wisdom, and then Job gives his final speech, in which he recalls his former happy days and compares them to his present suffering and shame. When Job becomes silent, a young man who has overheard the arguments, and who is unhappy with the way the three friends have confronted Job, delivers lengthy opinions about Job’s tragedy. His remarks are essentially a repetition of the traditional wisdom expressed already by the friends. Finally the LORD speaks out of the storm and confronts Job with many unanswerable questions concerning creation and nature. Job confesses his ignorance, and the poem ends in prose, as it began. Job and his friends are reconciled with each other and with God, and Job is restored to even more than his former glory. In his old age Job dies.

The Book of Job is considered by many to be the most expressive poem ever written. The heart of the poem is a dispute between Job and his three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and a late-comer, Elihu. Fundamental to their arguments is the question of God’s fairness in dealing with his creatures. Stemming from this is the question “Why do the righteous suffer?” The friends marshal a host of arguments to support the traditional view that righteousness always brings prosperity and good fortune, whereas wickedness gives rise to suffering. There is no reason to doubt that Job subscribes to this same principle; however, Job’s integrity will not allow him to apply it to his own situation, because he knows in his heart that he is innocent of wrongdoing. Therefore he stubbornly resists every effort by the friends to get him to admit to being wicked and be restored to God’s favor.

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Key Features

• Exegetical, historical, cultural, and linguistic information on the original text
• Verse-by-verse guides
• An essential tool for Bible translators

Contents

Top Highlights

“Some scholars believe the last letter of the Hebrew for ‘men’ was lost when the text was copied because it is the same as the first letter of the next word. In that case the text would say ‘that all men may know of his work.’” (Page 680)

“Job’s character is described by the use of two pairs of qualities: blameless and upright, and one who feared God and turned away from evil. The first pair depicts Job as a morally good man, and the second pair as a religious person. The first word is translated in the King James Version (kjv) as ‘perfect,’ which suggests a state of sinlessness. The idea is more exactly one of ‘moral integrity.’ Upright translates a word having to do with ‘straightness’ and again focuses upon Job’s honesty in his dealings. This first pair of terms in Hebrew is found in Psalm 25:21, translated by rsv as ‘integrity and uprightness,’ and by tev as ‘goodness and honesty’; in Psalm 37:37 they occur in parallel.” (Page 31)

“The Book of Job is a story told in the form of a poem.” (Pages x–1)

“ By accusing God of being unjust, Job is said to be ‘obscuring, doubting, clouding’ the ‘purposes, wisdom’ of God.” (Page 694)

“This description of Job is repeated by God in 1:8 and makes it clear that Job did not bring his troubles on himself. Feared God may sometimes be translated ‘was faithful to God’ or ‘showed respect for God.’” (Page 31)

About the UBS Handbooks

What if you were responsible for translating God's Word into a language that never had a Bible before? Can you imagine the burden you would feel to do a good job?

God takes His Word pretty seriously, and you would certainly do everything in your power to make sure that you were not putting words into God's mouth, but that you were providing a text that clearly communicated God's Word as closely to the original as possible.

This challenge to understand the heart of the original Scriptures, in order to put the original text into a new language, was the impetus for the United Bible Societies to create handbooks for Bible translators working on this very thing. The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series is a comprehensive verse-by-verse guide to understanding exactly what is being communicated by the author in the original Scriptures.

Product Details

• Title: A Handbook on the Book of Job
• Author: William David Reyburn
• Series: United Bible Societies’ Handbooks
• Publisher: United Bible Societies
• Print Publication Date: 1992
• Logos Release Date: 2004
• Pages: 798
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. O.T. Job › Translating; Bible. O.T. Job › Commentaries
• Resource ID: LLS:34.0.157
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-06-06T19:57:51Z