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Book Overview: Job

Only Christ can make sense of our suffering!

Health, Death, abuse, neglect, relationships, financial ruin… In the book of Job we get a glimpse of the spiritual realm.


Quick Facts:

  • The book of Job is one of five books in the Old Testament that we call the “Wisdom books”: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs

  • Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs are full of beautiful and expressive poetry. Trees clap their hands. Hills sing for joy. God’s enemies melt like wax. And God himself rides upon the clouds. The Psalms are filled with the love and liveliness of an individual relationship with God, while Song of Songs celebrates these things between husband and wife. Proverbs guides us with its practical advice. And Ecclesiastes draws us into humility and awe as it considers some of life’s most difficult mysteries.

  • Job was called a righteous man by Ezekiel (14:14), along with Noah and Daniel.

  • One of the most personal books of the old testament.

  • Many believe the Book of Job to be the earliest book of the Bible.

  • Job lived about 140 years after the events of this book took place (42:14). Therefore, his life span must have been around 200 years. Abraham lives 175 years.

  • Like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Job is the priest of his family and offers sacrifices.

  • There is no reference to- Israel

  • Job mentions Adam, which is evidence that the story of Adam and Eve was recognized long before Moses’ birth and the book of Genesis was written (Job 31:33).

Science in Job:

  • Light waves and radio waves are mentioned in Job. This wasn’t discovered by science until 1864 (Job 38:35).

  • The book mentions that air has weight, however science did not discover this until the 1600’s (Job 28:25).

  • At a time when it was believed the earth sat on a large animal or on a giant 1500 years before Christ, the Bible spoke of the earth’s free-floating space (Job 26:7). Science didn’t discover that the earth hangs on nothing until 1650.

  • The book speaks of dinosaurs. This also affirms that dinosaurs were still in existence after the flood (Job 40:15-24; 41:1-34).


Overview of Job

  1. Chapters 1-2 Give the foundational story. They tell us who Job is and the trials he endures.

  2. Chapter 2 (end), three of Job’s friends come to “comfort him”, and they sit with him silently for a week.

  3. Chapter 3 Job pours out his complaint.

  4. Chapters 4–41—all but the last chapter—are a series of dialogues. (Most of the book)

  5. Chapter 4–31 contain three cycles of dialogues between Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

  6. chapters 4–14 Cycle 1 - In cycles one and two, Eliphaz speaks and Job responds. Then Bildad speaks and Job responds. Then Zophar speaks and Job responds.

  7. chapters 15–21 Cycle 2

  8. chapters 22–31 Cycle 3 - The same thing happens in the third cycle, except the last guy, Zophar, doesn’t talk anymore, because the debate i