Another Bible Commentary: Job

Job is mentioned as a historical person in Ezekiel 14:14,20. This is a book of wisdom that teaches that God alone is wise (Job 28:12-28). People say a lot of things in Job, some of which mirror sentiments from Proverbs, etc. The book records what was said, but that doesn’t mean that much of it was used correctly.. See Job 38:2 and Job 42:3-6. The “do right, get blessed” mentality of Proverbs doesn’t mean that we can assume that people “deserve” every mishap that befalls them (Luke 13:1-4). Deciding that would be playing God. God’s not sending calamities at you to improve you. The fallen world, demonic opposition, misguided other people, etc., are coming at you, but in the midst of all of that God is making believers Christlike (Romans 8:28-29). Setbacks can be setups for future greatness. God is known for paying double for trouble (Isaiah 61:7 and the ending of Job).

While internal details suggest an early setting (Job offering sacrifices outside the Levitical system, Job living to age 140, etc.), the exiles had much to mine from it. Consider the defeated audience of Lamentations 5 and the people down on their luck in Psalm 44. Don’t blame God for the devil doing what the devil’s been doing since humanity gave him license to do it in the reality that God gave us dominion over. Why pray for Father’s will to be done if it’s already being done consistently? Many things He doesn’t like will happen until the final judgment. Old Testament believers had such a high regard for God’s sovereignty that they saw even the devil’s activities (2 Samuel 24:1, 1 Chronicles 21:1) as being on behalf of God, but the New Testament is clear that the devil is an enemy (Hebrews 2:14, 1 John 3:8). See John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus passed my tests for me (1 John 5:18). This early book about Job even includes hints at the Cross and the Resurrection. The Book of Job asks big questions like “Why do bad things happen to good people?” and “Is there such a thing as righteousness devoid of self-interest, or are we all chasing a carrot of God’s/our own approval?” Job, who was attacked by Satan, people, and by (Job assumes) God, has similarities to Christ. Job’s “friends” never offer food, shelter, medicine, etc. Job’s “friends” insist that the righteous never suffer and side with the Accuser in the face of Job’s misery. Jesus’ friends failed Him, too.

1:1-3 “Uz” Job lived in the land of Edom (Lamentations 4:21). Don’t confuse “blameless” and “upright” with sinless; he tried his best, and he stayed caught up on his sacrifices. This isn’t about sinlessness like Christ, but more “he doesn’t have anything bad enough hanging over him to warrant this level of suffering”. Also, again, not all rich people are bad (Deuteronomy 8:18).

1:5 The Law doesn’t work like that. Job was a fan of the fence. He was a hero to the Pharisees, who similarly invented more laws as a barrier to breaking God’s Law.

1:8 The more literal translations render this phrase: “Have you set your heart against my servant Job, because there is no one on Earth like him…” To accuse Job is to disagree with God.

1:9-10 Our hedge is even better than Job’s thanks to Jesus; the evil one cannot touch us (1 John 5:18) for this sort of testing, he can only lie to us about what we want to do and then accuse us afterwards. Notice that the do-good-to-get-good-from-God approach is first articulated explicitly in this book by Satan; the underlying assumption is that we’re dirty rotten sinners who’d love nothing more than to be good for nothing if not for the carrot of blessing God dangles. He has somewhat of a point in that we do good for self-interested reasons, but it’s because we’re saints now. If you feel good about doing something good, isn't it rewarding? If you can’t help but feel good for doing good because you’ve been made that way (Philippians 2:13), then is it really altruistic or even commendable? Only God is good (Mark 10:18).

1:11 That didn’t happen, so Satan cannot read minds or see the future.

1:12 Based on how verse 8 is translated, the more literal renderings are more an acknowledgement that Satan was capable of doing what he proposed than permission to do so. God gave the world to humans (Psalm 115:16), and humans gave the world to Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 John 5:19).

1:15 The “Sabeans” of Genesis 10:28 and Genesis 25:3 places this story after Abraham.

1:16 Sacrificing has stopped being an option.

1:19 Wind from all directions at once? That’s odd. The prince of the air (Ephesians 2:2) starts the match with four curses and four winds.

1:20 Deuteronomy 14:1 is not for Edomites.

1:21-22 Job at least praised God instead of cursing Him. He thought God took from him (See Job 42:3; Job’s mistaken here. God’s more of a make-you-whole type. See Joel 2:25), but he didn’t say God wasn’t entitled to do so. In a similar less-dire scenario (1 Samuel 30:6), David found strength in God to go make things right; he didn’t say “God wills it”.

2:3 See Job 1:8 note.

2:4-5 Satan said Job only refrained from cursing God in order to avoid death.

2:6 See Job 1:12 note.

2:9 Job’s wife was like another Eve offering death through bad advice.

2:10 If it matters to you, it matters to God (Matthew 10:30-31). Pray about it (Philippians 4:6-7). Job didn’t have a James 4:2 mindset; as an Edomite, his relationship with God was more like Esau’s (Hebrews 12:17) than Abraham’s. Job’s concept of God so far was the God who cast humanity out of the Garden, drowned the world, burned Sodom, and made Abe almost sacrifice Isaac. Job knew that the Edomites were not expecting much blessing from Him. He lived in a state of fear-based performance familiar to many legalistic believers.

2:11 “Temanite” is another hint that this is set in Edom (Jeremiah 49:7).

2:12 Jesus was beaten beyond recognition; see Isaiah 52:14.

2:13 This, them being there for him and not running their mouths, willing to just be present or to listen, this is good. This is how to help most grieving people. Then, if they’d just kept this up or offered some unconditional positive regard and practical assistance, I wouldn’t put quotation marks around “friends” as often in this commentary. If I forget to do that, my position on them has not changed. They frequently say true things in the wrong context (like Satan in Matthew 4), which is hurtful; this can give our faith a black eye.

Job 3 – Hebrew poetry like this and the Psalms help us get ready for the use of language/metaphor in the prophets.

3:1 Job sidestepped Leviticus 20:9 (and honoring parents is part of the Noahide respect for authority) by cursing the day instead of his parents.

3:25 This fear has been suggested to be a lack of faith and a reason that Job’s hedge of protection was removed by the “word of faith” crowd. They may even cite Proverbs 10:24, but that’s still about righteous vs wicked, so they’re arguing with God (Job 1:1, Job 1:8, Job 2:3).

4:12-21 Only God is good (Mark 10:18). However, Eliphaz heard from a creepy, accusing spirit that is correct about humanity’s sinfulness and brings up verse 18? Sounds like Satan, maybe.

5:1 sounds like Matthew 27:43.

5:3 “fool” An accusation that Job is godless; Eliphaz was arguing with God (Job 1:1, Job 1:8, Job 2:3).

5:6 See Genesis 3:17 and Romans 8:20-21.

5:8 When Job eventually does press his case, God doesn’t seem happy about it.

5:9 Remember, these speakers are right about many things and still know nothing in God’s final analysis.

5:11 like the Beatitudes.

5:13 Paul quoting verse 13 in 1 Corinthians 3:19 is not an endorsement of everything Eliphaz said, much like when Paul quoted a pagan poet (Acts 17:28) or when Jude referenced the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

5:17 like Proverbs 3:11-12.

5:18 like Isaiah 45:7.

5:19-27 Everything will be made more than right in the world to come. God does miracles and makes ways where we don’t see a way forward; let your request be made known, but have faith that even if things don’t go according to your plan right now that God is going to sort all of this out. However, even though Eliphaz said many things in line with the Psalms and Proverbs worldview, his argument is predicated on the false premise that Job had this coming.

6:12 “bronze” like Jesus in Revelation 1:15.

6:13 He didn’t have the power to help himself even before it happened. Trust Jesus.

6:14 like 1 Timothy 5:8.

7:7 “my eyes will never see happiness again” If you always look for the negative, you will find it. If you look for things to make you chuckle, you may find that too. Someone once said, “Seek and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7).

7:17 like Psalm 8:4.

7:18 God trains us for the future; He doesn’t punish us for the past. Christ bought all sin at the Cross (John 1:29); He took all the punishment, He passed our tests when He finished His work. God is trustworthy, and He promised to remember our sins no more (Hebrews 8:12). The wages of sin (Romans 6:23) aren’t stubbed toes or accountability group visits, but death; “Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.” We live in a fallen world, and some of our fellow humans are presently misguided; He didn’t say there wouldn’t be bumps in the road (John 15:18-25).

7:21 Pardon our offenses and forgive our sins? Yes, that’s exactly what He planned to do all along.

8:4 Bildad was too comfortable on God’s throne.

8:7 He got that right.

8:9 He got that right, too.

8:13 Bildad got close to accusing Job of being a godless fool and therefore arguing with God (Job 1:1, Job 1:8, Job 2:3).

9:2 We have an Advocate (1 John 2:1). There are court references throughout the Book of Job because Job was a judge (Job 29:7).

9:8 Asherah was known as “she who walks on the sea”, but God is given the glory here. Jesus proved this true in Mark 6, Matthew 14, and John 6. I guess in theory an Asherah pole could float, but that’s any piece of wood.

9:10 This is emphasized twice in the Gospel of John (John 21:25, John 20:30-31).

9:11 like when Moses watched Him.

9:12 like Isaiah 43:13. No one can snatch us out of His hand (John 10:28).

9:13 Here and in Job 26:12, “Rahab” is not the woman from Jericho but the primordial sea monster for which she was named. “Tiamat” or a sea serpent might be more familiar images. The Babylonian god Marduk was said to have slain Tiamat (water/chaos) at Creation; God gets the honor here.

9:15 Amen.

9:33 Jesus is our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5).

9:34 Jesus took care of all of that for us (1 John 4:18).

9:35 “without fear” We’ve got that, too (Ephesians 3:12).

10:9 Job is familiar with Genesis 2:7. Psalm 103:14 says the same thing. The rest of Psalm 103 is full of total forgiveness, healing, love, good things, and more; go read that if you need a break from Job.

10:11 like Psalm 139:13.

11:6 Zophar also argues with God (Job 1:1, Job 1:8, Job 2:3). While he means that Job is lucky that God’s not going after him for a fraction of what he alleges Job did, we are blessed that God has forgotten all of our sins (Hebrews 8:12). By the way, all of our sins were in the future when Jesus finished His work. Life does not get worse under grace. He made us perfect forever (Hebrews 10:14), which wouldn’t be true if we could mess it up. Forgiveness isn’t some halfway deal where your “old” stuff is gone, but you have to keep short accounts and work off new stuff as if specific prayers or donations were substitutes for the blood of Christ; see Galatians 3:1-3 and stick with faith in Christ all the way. God looked down your whole timeline to things you haven’t even thought of doing yet and destroyed the record book (Colossians 2:14). Jesus made you the very righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus died once to buy your total forgiveness; He isn’t dying over and over, and you aren’t being forgiven little by little, either (Hebrews 9:25-28). You can mature in your attitudes and actions, but believers are saints through it all.

11:13-19 is not something we can do for ourselves; the New Covenant is a gift that He gives. Because of what Jesus did for us, we are saints with new hearts, new spirits, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is guiding us into all truth and leading us into the good things God intended for us to do when He made us.

12:4 a subversion of Psalm 34:15.

13:8 like Leviticus 19:15

13:24 like Psalm 22, which Jesus quoted during the Crucifixion.

14:4 When lepers touch Jesus, He doesn’t get sick; they get whole.

14:14-17 Job, who only knows of Sheol/the grave (which is actually a temporary holding place until the final judgment), somehow predicts what we have under the New Covenant…

14:18-22…and immediately veers off course again. Job’s tale is like a baseline or control group for man’s experiment in knowing good and evil. Even if the fallen world does its worst to the undeserving, God uses all things for our good. We don’t know what tomorrow holds, but He holds tomorrow, double for our trouble, and eternal life.

15:1-4 is informed by Proverbs 1:7.

15:15-16 Eliphaz was really affected by that maybe-Satan dream (Job 4:12-21).

16:10-11 like Jesus.

16:18 See Genesis 4:10-11. Christ’s blood speaks for us instead.

16:19 We’ve got that (1 Timothy 2:5, 1 John 2:1-2, Hebrews 7:25).

17:11 We have it so much better under the New Covenant. God upgraded us from Psalm 37:4 to Romans 8:32.

Job 18 – These notions are very much in the Psalms and Proverbs worldview, but are not the way to comfort a grieving friend and imply that Job was the kind of wrongdoer that God did not think he was.

19:9 Job’s been through a lot. We can say Psalm 103:4 instead.

19:25-27 Out of nowhere, this inspired utterance came from Job’s mouth. Jesus lives, He will stand on Earth again, we will get new bodies, etc.

Job 20 – These notions are very much in the Psalms and Proverbs worldview, but are not the way to comfort a grieving friend and imply that Job was the kind of wrongdoer that God did not think he was.

21:17 Several explanations have been offered concerning God allowing the wicked to thrive. True blessings are everlasting (Romans 11:29). Nothing here, good or bad, matters compared to eternity. The small blessings here (and they’re all small here, comparatively) are a carrot to encourage good behavior or the lingering fingerprints of our good Creator (James 1:17); most blessings await us in the world to come. Grace is for the undeserving. Instant and full reward and punishment would diminish the exercise of “free will”. Actual free will is an illusion; since the Fall everyone was a slave to sin until Jesus made being a slave to righteousness possible for us (Romans 6). I use the familiar terminology of the philosophers to signify the exercise of the dominion God gave humanity; our actions aren’t free of influence, but He wants a relationship with beings that can choose Him. He would have made automatons if that was what He wanted. Moreover, perfect reward and punishment requires everyone to know God perfectly (and we will in the world to come, where there will be no need for punishment); otherwise, just/fair punishment of a loved one can feel like harm to an innocent. Primarily, God stays His hand because He’s giving people time to change their minds about Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:9).

21:23-26 Compare this to the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.

22:5-9 Jesus had people testify falsely against Him, too.

22:10-11 It’s one thing to apply the “friends” do-good-and-avoid-evil stuff to yourself, but you don’t know anyone else's story (or even your own, really). There is New Testament discernment about what activities are permitted in a congregation for the good of the rest of its members, but properly judging a person belongs to God. Mind your own business (1 Peter 4:15), and don’t be unkind (1 Peter 4:8).

22:14 One of the tenets of Epicureanism.

22:30 Thank you, Jesus.

23:12 like Deuteronomy 8:3.

23:13 His omnipotence is constrained by His character. He doesn’t lie to us, for instance.

24:2-11 Job may have been an Edomite (or resided in Edom), but the Israelites reading his words would have thought of Genesis 13:15 and Genesis 17:8 in which God assigned them land, which also came with expectations to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, etc., in Leviticus 25 and Exodus 22, for example, connecting the thoughts in this section.

24:11 like Deuteronomy 25:4.

24:12 God is not unjust but merciful (1000:4) to even the worst of sinners (Exodus 20:5-6, Jonah 4:2); He will make whatever happened to you right in the end.

24:14-16 Murder, theft, and adultery are all from Exodus 20 but are also Noahide violations.

24:22 If anyone offers this verse out of context, remember that these “mighty” are the people who did verse 9 and verse 21.

25:4 Jesus is the answer. Here, the issue isn’t whether Job was sinless, but whether he was blameless beyond deserving what happened, which God says he was.

26:12-13 See Job 9:13 note. Genesis 1:6, Exodus 14:16, Psalm 89:9-11, and Isaiah 51:9 are of interest as well.

Job 27 – See Job 42:1-6.

28:2-11 For those that point out the relative recency of iron metallurgy, mining techniques, etc., the Bible you’re reading in English is in many ways an updated language translation or paraphrase; Job’s inspired written story could be a retelling of an older story. Editors can be inspired.

28:12-28 This is the point. Humans don’t understand human suffering. Job gets new stuff to replace what was lost, but doesn’t get a complete answer to his question. When in doubt, remember John 10:10.

28:23-27 Job already comprehended nature examples like the ones God used to silence him.

28:28 See Proverbs 1:7 and Proverbs 9:10. True wisdom is from God, so who’s to say which human said it first?

29:19 like Psalm 1.

30:1 foreshadows Elihu (Job 32).

30:3-8 Apparently lacking God’s approval/blessing. “Wow, tell us how you really feel about the poor, Job!”

30:30 Possibly necrosis. See Lamentations 4:8.

Job 31:1 gets lifted onto a pedestal out of context, so please forgive the forthcoming wall of exposition. People that accept the current plain English translation of Matthew 5:28 in which they’re not even permitted to like their own wives also point to this verse (where no other parallel exists in the Torah–righteous David with his 18 wives/concubines would scratch his head at modern Christians), but should we take Job’s word as Law when he’s been mistaken about so much? See Job 38:2 and Job 42:3-6; God called out Job for speaking ignorantly, and Job admitted he should have kept his mouth shut.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus added nothing to the Law because it would have been a sin to do so; see Deuteronomy 4:2 and Deuteronomy 12:32. Everything He told them that day has a clear parallel in the Old Testament (many in Leviticus 19) except for Matthew 5:28 in English. The Septuagint is an inspired Greek translation of the Old Testament; New Testament authors such as the author of Hebrews quote from it repeatedly. Jesus preferred the Septuagint’s rendition of Psalm 8:2 in Matthew 21:16. Pastors in the early Church quoted from it just like your pastor reads Bible verses now in a language you understand. Since the Law is consistent, compare the Old Testament and the New Testament texts. The Greek Exodus 20:17 says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife...” and without changing a word in the New Testament Greek manuscripts we can read in Matthew 5:28 "But I say to you that if you look at a married woman to covet her, you have committed adultery in your heart." This makes sense given the Old Testament's consistent treatment of adultery as involving another man's wife. The Greek word for “woman” in Matthew 5:28 is also used to translate “wife” and the word for “lust” was the closest approximation to “covet” Greeks could comprehend. According to the Jewish scholars Jesus said to listen to in Matthew 23:2-3, to covet is “to want to the point of seeking to take away and own something that belongs to another person”. Jesus used the “thoughtcrime” the audience was familiar with from the Ten Commandments to show the connection between other thoughts and actions, namely murder (Exodus 20:13) and extreme out-of-bounds anger (Leviticus 19:17-18). Jesus did not introduce a new “lust = adultery” to the already impossible standard of Sinai. Remember, He couldn't raise the bar without violating at least 2 of the 613 rules.

Just because Job was blameless doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t have been without the Pharisee fence. Offering sacrifices on others’ behalf without their involvement wasn’t from the Law, either. Just because Job can seem to think it’s a rule doesn’t make it so (If Job did believe that, then why did he bring up the adultery discussion in Job 31:9-11? If the modern blanket conception of “your genitalia are bad and want bad things” were accurate, the Bible scribes could have saved much ink and hand cramps). Job, who later admits to speaking wrongly, said all manner of incorrect things like (including but not limited to) Job 9:22-24, Job 13:15, Job 13:21, Job 16:9, Job 24:12, etc.

Archbishop Stephen Langton divided the Old Testament into chapters in the 1200s AD. Job 31:1 could easily be more woe-is-me stuff to tack onto Chapter 30. See Job 7:7-8,21, Job 10:20, Job 16:22, Job 17:1, and Job 17:11; comparing those ideas to Ecclesiastes 4:3, Job might have stopped looking for someone fertile because he thought he’d die too soon to provide for a younger wife and/or didn’t want to make more kids for Satan to kill. Job could also have meant avoiding step one of Exodus 22:16-17, or have been so ungreedy that he refused to shop for 2 Samuel 12:8 blessings.

The Enemy has Christians thinking mere desire is sinful, resulting in lots of wasted time and effort and making most of us look like huge hypocrites. In conclusion, focus on the promises of John 10:28-30 instead of fleeing the supermarket because a woman left the house wearing yoga pants.

31:5-40 is Job’s final defense and a summary of many of the ethical demands of the Torah.

31:9-10 “enticed by a woman” denies adultery initiated by a neighbor’s wife and “lurked at my neighbor’s door” denies adultery initiated by Job because verse 10 is the payment for verse 9.

31:11 “that” refers to the adultery of verses 9 and 10.

31:30 “curse against their life” Remember that David (1 Kings 15:5), a man after God’s own heart, wrote many imprecatory Psalms (including such feel-good hits as “Break the Teeth of the Wicked” and “May His Children Be Fatherless and His Wife a Widow”). There is a difference between praying for justice (which may be expressed any number of ways in the heat of the moment; God knows the heart he installed in you) and yelling “Drop dead!” at someone as if you had the final say.

Job 32 – Out of nowhere, Elihu (who may be one of the impertinent youths of Job 30) emerges. Some see him (and perhaps he saw himself) as an Elijah/John the Baptist/forerunner/hype man before God’s arrival later in the book. Elihu’s speech was longer than twelve Old Testament books and seventeen New Testament books are, and he did not even merit a response from God at all. Like most of the speakers in Job, Elihu got some things right and some things wrong. Like the rest of them, he thought he comprehended what was going on. Like the three “friends”, Elihu endorses the do-good-to-get-good-from-God argument offered by Satan in Job 1:9.

32:2 Elihu is another man that disagrees with God about Job (Job 1:1, Job 1:8, Job 2:3). Note the frequent uses of the word “angry” with regard to Elihu.

33:9 God agrees with Job on this one.

33:23-28 sounds like redemption and new birth.

34:8 So does Jesus.

34:9 Pleasing God from a profit motive was suggested by Satan in Job 1:9. Job more or less said what Elihu accuses him of saying in Job 9:22, 29. Eliphaz said the same thing in a different way in Job 22:3.

34:14-15 The Greeks spoke of the Logos, the wisdom and reason by whom all things were made and are sustained. We know him as the Word of God, Jesus (John 1).

35:3 like Job 34:9.

35:7 like Job 22:3.

35:16 See Job 42:3-6.

36:18 because Job is a judge (Job 29:7).

36:23 Elihu attempts to provide a defense for God’s actions that He does not provide for Himself (Job 2:3) as if He needed human defenders.

37:23 Again, even though Elihu has used some of the same nature arguments God will use, God said Job 2:3 regarding His involvement in this mess.

38:1 “spoke to Job” God does not acknowledge Elihu here or in the ending. Job already spoke the gist of God’s speech (See Isaiah 55:9 as well) back in Job 28:12-18, but he’s about to get a refresher course. Job requested this rebuke (Job 31:35-37), and God is more than a mere “ruler”.

38:2 Verse 1 says God “spoke to Job” but Elihu was just talking.

38:4 These words might as well be red (Colossians 1:16). Also, just because God kindly stoops to ask Job questions in line with Job’s poetic concept of reality, it doesn’t mean that the world works that way. We would likely find the unvarnished truth incomprehensible.

38:5 God set the values of the physical constants (like the strength of gravity “just right” for us to be able to live in this universe). You may hear this expressed as “Goldilocks conditions” or the “anthropic principle”.

38:7 “morning stars sang together” would be a fine way to express "the primordial gravitational waves or 'cosmic background radiation' left over from the beginning of our observable universe" poetically.

38:8-11 We mentioned the dark, chaotic waters just outside the current configuration of our cosmic Etch-A-Sketch in the stories of the Creation and of Noah’s Flood. The bubble that constitutes our observable universe is said to be defined by the limits imposed by gravity and dark energy. While these dark waters seem to be the “proud waves” of verse 11 concealed by the “thick darkness” of space in verse 9, our own feeble attempts to comprehend this reality are hampered by constraints like the inability of light to reach the edge of the observable universe due to the rate of its expansion.

38:16 We haven’t even explored the depth of the oceans that cover our planet.

38:19 Photons are massless and therefore move at the speed of light c by default relative to all observers. God is awesome enough to ask if Job has seen where they sleep.

38:22-23 Beyond an understanding of thermodynamics, crystallography, nucleation, and the process of phase transition, God asks Job about special storage places (out of space and time?) for snow and hail that God knows He’ll use for specific miracles.

38:24 Knowing this would require knowing how solar heat and Earth’s rotation move air, which results in static electricity and electromagnetic discharge.

38:25-26 God invented the water cycle and is yet seen making exceptions for miracles (for Moses, etc.) several times so far in the Bible. Also, about the “winds”, remember the winds that killed Job’s family (Job 1:19).

38:28-30 God may as well have asked this man thousands of years ago if he understood the hydrogen bonding between water molecules and the physics of phase transitions.

38:31-32 Understanding Earth’s orbit, Earth’s tilt, and Newtonian mechanics well enough to explain the position and movement of the stars is one thing, and changing them is another.

38:39-41 As far as I know, there is not a human micromanager for the ecosystem that Job could have filled in for.

39:1-2 This flows from the themes of chapter 38, as all seasons are attuned to Earth’s tilt and Earth’s orbit.

39:9 The King James Version says “unicorn”.

39:11 Strength greater than man’s.

39:16 To the zoologists that protest this “inaccuracy”, this was a folk idea at the time. God’s pushing Job to a specific truth in verse 18 and onward.

39:18 Speed greater than man’s.

39:27 Man can’t fly or order around birds he has dominion over.

40:5 Job’s got the right idea.

40:8 To the extent people think God is behind Job’s suffering He does this very thing (Job 1:8, Job 2:3), but that’s His prerogative.

40:9 We’re not even on par with the animals in some regards as we’ll see later in this chapter, let alone the Creator.

40:14 Only Jesus saves.

40:15 We have options. Is this the earth elemental version of a primordial chaos monster, like the aquatic Leviathan/Tiamat/Rahab? Perhaps a preview of the Beast from the Sea from Revelation? A dinosaur? The medieval Tarasque? Just a hippo (the most common theory, despite the lack of a cedar-like tail)?

40:16-19 “loins” The roid-raging, bug-eyed, coked-up 1980s wrestling villain version of this argument goes: “Look at this hippo’s junk! I made that! You can’t fight it, and you can’t fight me! I win! Whether you like it or not, learn to love it, because I’m the best thing going. WOOOOOO!” I’m just making sure you’re awake since the next entry is very important.

41:1-34 “Leviathan” See Psalm 104:26 and Psalm 74:14. We have options. A primordial sea serpent like Tiamat/Rahab? A dragon? A crocodile (a common theory despite the lack of fire breathing)? The Old Dragon from Revelation aka Satan? Here is the point: Man has dominion over animals (that he cannot even fight or control), but God has dominion over Satan. They’re not allied, but there’s a hierarchy; Satan’s disobedience will lead to punishment. God repeats some things that Job’s accusers said earlier, but the accusers saying true but incomplete things is the devil’s modus operandi in Genesis 3 and in Matthew 4. Old Testament believers couldn’t fight the Snake; Jesus already beat him for us, the armor of God in Ephesians 6 is for defense while we wait out the final cleanup. God gives cool attributes to various creatures with various features at His whim, and everything we have comes from Him (Exodus 4:11, 1 Corinthians 4:7). It is a simple matter for God to give back what the Snake took and much more, in this world or the next. He counts your tears (Psalm 56:8), and someone will pay. We can’t even fight the aforementioned hippo. If humanity cannot beat Satan unaided, why would you ever fight God? Trust Him.

42:1-6 This is the thing Job gets right per verse 7. Telling someone to suffer in silence and to be okay with not knowing why could sound cruel if not for the fact that God is absolutely worthy of our trust, and He will indubitably fix everything at the end.

42:7 Job got Job 42:1-6 right and everything else in the book about God from any speaker is questionable. God needs no human defense.

42:8 Job interceded for his friends like Christ.

42:10 Twofold restoration, double for trouble, like what Exodus 22:4 mandates criminals to pay back. God loves victims. We have a Father who will make it right (Zechariah 9:12, Joel 2:25). Job’s conception of reality in Job 13:15 is flawed, but that “even now” trust in Him is admirable (John 11:21-26). We don’t appeal to a higher standard of “fairness” as if that existed and try to hold God to it. We appeal to God Himself. Justice is part of His character, and He defines what that means.

42:11 “trouble the LORD had brought on him” Not that He sent it, but riding with Him can be bumpy (John 15:18). The patience Job is praised for in James 5:11 was staying faithful to God; Job ranted, complained, and expressed his authentic feelings to God like a psalmist. God’s tough; He can take what you give Him. Job’s honest groaning was a manifestation of his patience, because he stayed in the relationship with God even though it hurt.

42:13 Double stuff, but not double kids? There have been enough hints at the afterlife in this old book to surmise the first batch still lives where we don’t see them yet.

42:15 Very progressive of Job in the days when women had no natural property rights; doing so kept them close by to hang out with everyone in verse 16.

42:16 Psalm 90’s seventy year lifespan was doubled after Job’s trouble.

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