The Book of Job is the most remarkable Book in the whole Bible. It is perfectly distinct from all the other books – having no thread of connection with any of them, either historical or political. It is not a Hebrew book, in the sense that there is nothing in it bearing on Hebrew history or manners; there is no reference in it to any of the patriarchs or leaders of the race; there is no allusion to any of the rites of Hebrew worship, or to any of the recognised landmarks in the national history.
And yet, from the references made to Job both in the Old Testament and in the New, and the profuse quotations made from it, more particularly in the Psalms and in the Book of Proverbs, the people seem to have been well-acquainted with his history, and have adopted him as one of their ancient examples.
Who was the author of the Book of Job, and what is its object are questions which have been matters of dispute both amongst the Jews and in the Christian church, as well as fruitful subjects of critical investigation among the learned. By many expositors it has been held as a true history, by others as a parable, and by others again as a mixture of both. Yet all agree in esteeming it as the most wonderful production of human genius, lofty in its conception, far reaching in its grasp of the eternal truths and sublime in its teachings of faith and trust in the wisdom and goodness of God.
The atmosphere of the Book breaths of a primitive state of society such as we read of in the early chapters of Genesis, and points to an antique origin – as early as the times of Moses, and probably still earlier. The supposition that the great Hebrew Lawgiver met with it when gathering materials for his history or during his residence in Midian, and preserved it, may possibly be the correct one. But at any rate we may assume, from the entire absence of any allusion to the striking events of early Jewish history, that it was written at a period prior to the Exodus.
The subject of the book may be thus briefly sketched. Job, who is described as the greatest of the men of the East, a man of vast wealth and large possessions, and happy in the midst of a numerous family, who feared God and eschewed evil, is delivered into the power of Satan for the trial of his faith. By a succession of apparently natural misfortunes he is stripped first of his wealth, and then of his family, and is afterwards stricken with a loathsome disease, the most terrible known in the East – so that he dreads life and longs for death, and yet, is resigned to the will of God. "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" His three friends, hearing of his misfortunes, arrive to comfort him, and manifest their sympathy and grief by sitting down with him for seven days and nights in utter silence, which is at length broken by Job bewailing his wretched condition. Thence follow discussions or arguments as to the causes which have brought him into his ruined and helpless state – they asserting that it must be as punishment for sins which he has committed, whilst he asserts his innocence and integrity. In the end the word of God is heard out of the storm, putting all arguments and debatings into a right perspective.
The Book, as has been said, is frequently quoted in the Book of Proverbs; both Ezekiel in the Old Testament and James in the New refer to Job – the one for his uprightness the other for his patience.
Author Anonymous.