MSB  Book notes:
The book is quoted twice in the NT.  Eze 14:14, 20 and Jas 5:11 show Job was a real person.  The one in Ezekiel is the one that says even if Noah, Daniel, or Job were to repent, it would only save themselves.  If Job isn't real, neither are Noah or Daniel.

It is doubtful that Job wrote the book since he is unaware for so much of it of the events in heaven that predicate the events in the book.  Moses is a possible author as the land of Uz is near Midian, so Moses could have learned of the story.  Solomon is also a possibility as the content of Job is similar to Ecclesiastes, and Solomon wrote all the wisdom books except for Psalms, and he wrote two of the Psalms.  If it was Solomon, he would have been writing long after the actual events.  That's what Moses did with Genesis.  Several other possible authors have been suggested but none have much support.

Based on a long list of considerations, the events in Job are believed to have taken place after the Tower of Babel, and sometime around the time of Abraham.  However, the actual writing down of the events could have been a long time after they actually occurred.  Possibly oral tradition for a long time.  Sure has a lot of details for just an oral tradition though.

Neither Job nor any of his friends in the story ever know that the reason for Jobs suffering is a contest between God and Satan.  In the end, with no explanations available that make any sense - either rational or theological - Job decides just to trust God for his redemption.  God does.

MSB says this:  "In the end, the lesson learned was that one may never know the specific reason for his suffering; but one must trust in Sovereign God.  That is the real answer to suffering."
Also this one:
"The major reality of the book is the inscrutable mystery of innocent suffering."
Sometimes suffering is because of sin, sometimes for chastening, sometimes for strengthening, and sometimes to give opportunity to reveal His comfort and grace.  References are given for each of these cases.  Then it ends with this sentence:
"But there are times when the compelling issue in the suffering of the saints is unknowable because it is for a heavenly purpose that those on earth can't discern."

Chapter 1
Job is a God-fearing man, avoiding evil, and offering sacrifices to God for sin.  This must have followed the example of Noah, who offered sacrifices after the flood.  He was "the greatest of all the people of the east".  His sons and daughters all spend time with each other, and Job sends messages to them, and offers sacrifices for them.  Note Job's role as "priest of his family".  This pushes the dating of the story of Job well back.  Abraham also acted as priest for his family.  This changed later.  But it wouldn't say it this way if the story took place, say, in Solomon's time.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord , and Satan also came among them.
Job 1:6 ESV
"...sons of God..." clearly means angels here.  Also, we know that this is after Satan's fall.  We know that Satan spends a lot of time on/in the earth, walking about, looking for what harm he can do to prevent the advance of the kingdom.  To wipe it out in fact.  We must also wonder how often these days occur "when the sons of god came to present themselves before the Lord"?  Is this an accounting to God of their activities?  MSB says it was an accounting, and Satan, like Judas, shows up also.

Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
Job 1:10 ESV
We should all want that hedge.  Job was enjoying a life without the need of correction, without persecution.  Satan says anyone could be a fine man under such favorable conditions.  A "charmed" life doesn't always mean God no longer chastens because He has given up on us.  Satan has to have permission to attack Job.  Even in the case of one of the most faithful three men who ever lived, God grants this permission.  We should never be surprised when we, much less deserving of God's protection, are attacked.  This should motivate us to be ever more thankful for the good things He allows us.

2021- This verse:
10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. [Job 1:10 ESV]  The comment above, I had forgotten.  Job was living a charmed life.  He was a good and righteous man but we can be very sure that he was not sinless.  His protection extended to his family, their families, to his livestock, lands, and slaves.  All who were associated with Job benefited from that relationship.  Job was not being chastened, punished, or reaping the consequences of the sins that he did have.  He was living a very fine life.  And in this case, that did NOT mean that God had given up on him and walked away and left him to the devices that would eventually bring his downfall...and even if they didn't, hell would await one abandoned by God.  When things are going well with us, which they occasionally do - and how many of us would be wrong to say we are doing better than we deserve - we should be happy about that, and praise God all the more.  And if good times prompt you to thank God, instead of to pat yourself on the back, then it is very unlikely that you are abandoned.
Possible FB post.

2021 - These verses:
11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." 12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. [Job 1:11-12 ESV]  Here is a lesson for those who ask how a good God can bring about horrible events.  Look at what this says.  Satan asked and received permission to do these things.  The calamity that is about to overtake Job from every side is conceived of and orchestrated by Satan - by the Adversary - and not by God.  We should also note that though Job had no idea why these things were happening, God very much did know, and in his sovereignty, judged that the heavenly purpose outweighed the suffering on earth that would be caused.  It is always this way with God.  
Possible FB post.


2021 - Later, I found this verse in Psalms:
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. [Psa 8:5 ESV].  Another corroboration that angels are more nearly perfect than men.  I note also that I made two FB posts from these first few verses of Job.  What ended up posted is quite a bit different than what I marked here.  So I am pasting back in the the two posts that were made, for future reference:
11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." 12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand..." [Job 1:11-12a ESV] Here is a lesson about how it can sometimes happen that horrible things happen to very good people. Look closely at what this says. Satan asked and received permission to torment Job. The calamities that are about to overtake Job are all conceived of and orchestrated by Satan - by the Adversary. God did not do any of this. Satan did it all. So there you have it, God is not to blame in any of this. Does that explanation work for you? Because it doesn't work for me at all. I mean, sure, it was Satan that did the dirty work, but he had God's permission. Just like when a general gives the orders, and the battle is lost. We don't blame the soldiers we blame the general. Argumentative atheists are quick to trot Job out and accuse God of being unfair. Frankly, you can't argue with them. The whole point was to have unfair things happen to Job. How are we to answer them? Where is the "Ohhhh! Now I see!" that explains why Job is even in the Bible? Well maybe placing blame is not really the issue. After all, there's never any dispute about who's in charge. Even Satan is not arguing that point. So what is Job about? Last Monday, we noted that God told Satan Job would remain faithful even if he was treated unfairly. So let's look at Job's reaction in these two verses: "And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord ." In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong, Job 1:21‭-‬22 ESV. Job didn't jump up and call God a liar for not blessing a righteous man. Job didn't revolt - like Satan - and scream that if God treats His best people like this he'd rather worship a pile of rocks. Nope. Those are the things Satan did. Job knew who the general was, and win or lose, the general was and still is the general. As we go through the next 30 or so chapters of Job, we'll see him say again and again that God is behind all that's happening to him. He will blame God for it - so can we. Job will ask for an audience with God, for an explanation from God, for justification from God. So can we. What we cannot do is believe that God is doing the wrong thing. To say that God can be wrong means He is not God anymore. To say He is wrong is sin. In "judging God" we make ourselves God. And that is what Satan did, and it hasn't worked out well for him. There is no "Now I see" kind of epiphany in Job. Job isn't in the Bible to make us feel better when things go wrong. Job is in the Bible so we learn never to fault God even when we are angry with Him about what He does or what He allows. God is never wrong. His reasons are sometimes incomprehensible to us, but He is never wrong. This is a hard thing to deal with when tragedy comes. This is a grown-up concept. Job is in the Bible to show us how grown-ups should behave.
FB 9/6/21
8 And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" [Job 1:8 ESV].  Note first that Job is unique on the planet.  It is only Job who is so nearly righteous that God blesses him, and does not need to correct him.  So I think God is pointing out to Satan that even this lowly human, created a little less than the angels, remains faithful to Him while Satan, one of the most nearly perfect creatures God ever created, was unfaithful and rebelled.  Satan counters that Job is only faithful because there is no injustice in his life.  Satan is saying that he only rebelled because he was being treated unjustly.  He believed - and still believes - himself equal with God.  He thought he should be worshiped as God, and that God's refusal to allow these things was an injustice.  Therefore he rebelled.  Satan predicts that Job will also rebel in such circumstances and challenges God to send some injustice Job's way.  Here is how that went:  11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." 12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. [Job 1:11-12 ESV]  This sets up the dispute in heaven that unravels every aspect of Job's blessed life, and explains why Job could not know the reason behind what was happening.  God made angels a little more like Him and humans a little less, but the ability to make moral choices is equal in both.  God's point is that you don't have to be perfect to choose the right way, and you don't have to be living in luxury, either.  You just have to have faith.  Faith is what Job had more of than any man on the planet, and he would have been crushed by events without it.  So would we!
FB 8/30/21 Monday

2023 - Vs 12...Note that God does not kill Job's children nor bring about any of the terrible things that happen.  God only removes  his own protection, so that Satan may go about his business of hurt and deception and killing.  Perhaps it is always this way.  The verse that says all good things come from God might ought to say ONLY good things come from God.

The first report to reach Job is that Sabeans have taken the oxen and killed those servants attending them.  Sabeans were terrorizing robbers descended from Ham.  These would be intractable, almost impossible to recover goods from after they had been stolen.
The second report says "the fire of God" fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants with them.  Satan here tries to lead Job into believing that all this evil is from God, rather than allowed by God.  This is the closest Satan EVER gets to a sign from heaven.

2021 - This verse:
16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you." [Job 1:16 ESV]
This is one to remember, where, given full leave by God except to the taking of Job's own life, Satan was quite capable of raining down fire from heaven, a sign almost exclusively reserved for God to show his own power. (references - Elisha's altar, the two witnesses, and others that can be found.)  The first thing Satan does is use this exclusive "sign" in an effort to convince Job that it is God who has spurned him and turned against him, and divert Job's attention from the real provocateur.  This is the kind of liar Satan is.  He's often much better at lying than we are at believing!  It is the same with us!  These awful things that can and do occur in the lives of Christians are not coming FROM God though they may be ABOUT God.  
Possible FB post.

Third, the camels are taken by the Chaldeans - nomads, before they came to power later in the Bible.  Again, this makes the story of Job very old.
Fourth, Jobs children, gathered together as family, killed by a wind that takes the house down.  Satan can control wind.

And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord ." In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Job 1:21‭-‬22 ESV
Job did not blame God for this.  How could he not, when he had lost everything in an afternoon.  Implies that blaming God , even under these very trying circumstances, would have been sin, even though God allowed it all.  Also, the deaths of Job's children was not for anything they had done wrong.  They died because of Satan's dispute with God about their father.  Never think that your actions only affect you.  We all jump to the conclusion sometimes that when bad things happen to those we love, it must be about something we have done, or that they have done.  That is sometimes the case, but that is sometimes NOT the case at all.  Those who hate will gladly use your mistakes, or your goodness, as an excuse to harm those you love.
Never think that good or evil must be caused by something prior.  Sometimes there is a bigger picture that we cannot comprehend.
Possible FB post, with a little more work I think...

2022 - This verse:
2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. [Job 1:2-3 ESV].  Here is the inventory of Job's possessions - the most valuable things in his life.  Children, sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys.  Sabeans took the donkeys and the oxen.  Fire took the sheep.  Chaldeans took the camels.  Wind took the children.
These verses:
10 He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." 11 And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. [1Ki 19:10-12 ESV].  Here is Elijah, feeling very put out because he is working hard to turn the people back to God, and for his trouble he is all alone, hiding in a cave, and people are trying to kill him.  So God sends him a message in the wind, the fire, and the earthquake.  Then that last, intriguing phrase.  What message was delivered to Elijah in that whisper?  Perhaps the message was "Here you are, safe in this cave I have provided.  Safe from marauding bands of thieves and murderers like the ones who stole Job's donkeys, oxen and cattle.  And here is wind, like the wind that took all Job's children, and here is fire, like the fire that took Job's sheep.  Job endured tremendous loss from all these things that have passed harmlessly by you, Elijah.  So tell me again why you are so put out?"  Maybe, when we get to feeling sorry for ourselves, we too ought to read that first chapter of Job, and then walk out the door of our safe and comfortable homes, and feel the wind blowing harmlessly by, and count our blessings instead of our problems.  Bet we'd all feel a lot better about things if we did that.
Possible FB post for 8/22/22 Monday

Chapter 2
Another day of accounting comes around in heaven.  We don't know how long after the above events it takes place. This verse:
...He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason."
Job 2:3 ESV
Incited...  A difficult concept.  With Jesus as our advocate, can this even happen  now?  Even with reason?  Hmm... There is always reason now.  Job was  pre-law, free to do according to his own will.  Yet... God was not wrong  to allow this.

Having failed to "break" Job by taking everything he had, even his children, Satan now suggests that it is Job's own health that keeps him faithful.  So God puts that in Satan's hands.  Job is covered with sores, from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.  He scraped himself with a piece of broken pottery - to relieve pain or remove scabs we don't know.  But this was a horrible thing.  There would have been no position where he was not in pain.

But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job 2:10 ESV
We don't like to think of this part.  Is it fair to receive good from God that we do not deserve but unfair to receive evil...that we also do not deserve?
2021 - Evil we always deserve.  If sin makes us infinitely deserving of eternal punishment in hell - just one sin - then what can happen to us on earth in a human lifetime that that would be "worse than we deserve".  The perspective here is the key.
Possible FB post.

Job has only one wife.  We are well back in history - patriarchal times most likely - and monogamy is the choice a good man makes.

The three friends arrive, and commiserate in silence for seven days.  

Chapter 3
2023 - My ESV switches to "prose" format instead of just regular text, as if the speeches of Job and Eliphaz in the next chapter have some kind of meter or rhyme in the original language.  But you'd have to know a lot more Hebrew than I do to pull it out.  I bet it's there though, and I bet if you read Hebrew or see an early Hebrew text of Job, it would be pretty obvious that it is not just random words, but is put together more like an epic poem or some such.

Job speaks first:

"Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man is conceived.'
Job 3:3 ESV
Job considers the beginning of his life to be the night of his conception.  Not the day he was born.  We don't see this verse used as evidence against abortion very often, we just see the "from my mother's womb" stuff.
Possible FB post 2023.

2021 - Not as sure about the meaning as I was last time.  If these mean the same thing, I suspect they both mean birth, not both conception.  More likely he is cursing both times, which still means that he considers his life to have begun at conception.  I think it is also interesting that it is ok - it is not sin - to curse being born at all.  What is not ok is blaming God for your troubles.  MSB note on vs 1 seems to say he's talking about both.  It also says there that Job's feeling is that it would have been better never to live and have the joys of life that he's had than to suffer as he is suffering.  Better never to have had wealth than to have it and lose it, better never to have had children at all than to have them and lose them.

Job wishes he'd never been born, or that he'd died immediately. In 1-10 he curses the night of his conception and the day of his birth.  He wishes that day had been cursed, dark, and awful, so that he would not have been conceived or born.  

Beginning in 11, he turns his attention to himself, from birth on.  Job wishes he'd been born dead, or left to die in some way.  Note what all he tells us about an infant who dies.  They join kings and princes in their rest, where those abused by mankind have some peace at last.  This is not a description of hell and punishment, but a place of quiet and peace and rest in death.  
2021 - In vs. 17 it also says the wicked cease from troubling there.  Interlinear suggests that "raging" might be better than "troubling".  The wicked cease their raging, so they calm down, their evil designs cease.  We know from the rich man and Lazarus that the wicked go straight to hell.  It's not like Sheol was a place of peace for everyone until after Jesus rose.  Hell was always immediate.  So Job must mean here that once you're on fire, at least the cares and motivations or maybe obligations and responsibilities of life are gone.  

This verse:
21 who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, [Job 3:21 ESV]
And this one right after:
Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
Job 3:23 ESV
Surely no one has ever been more miserable than Job.  He longs to die, but he will not bring it about by his own hand.  If this is not "justification" for suicide, then nothing ever can be.  Satan has had a free hand to do his worst to Job, and yet Job waits for God to relieve him of his suffering, rather than to take care of it himself.
God is only mentioned in vs 23.  Seems to imply that despite everything that has happened to his possessions, his family, and his health, Job recognizes that he is still protected from death, there is still some hedge.  Job seems to want it removed so he can die.

Chapter 4
Eliphaz the Temanite speaks:
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? "Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
Job 4:5‭-‬8 ESV
This is how we think when bad things happen.  We think we are living right, so this evil is undeserved, we think bad things are always a punishment for sin...when they happen to others!  When they happen to us they are unfair, though we counseled otherwise when it was other people suffering.
In 7-11 Eliphaz states the principle, apparently universally accepted, beginning with these verses:
7 "Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? 8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. [Job 4:7-8 ESV]
They do not allow for the possibility of things beyond their knowledge being the cause of Job's problems.  They assume that there is sin, and Job's troubles are the result of that sin.  Just as the disciples ask Jesus a thousand years later who's sin made this man blind?  Perhaps the answer Jesus gives then is the answer for Job in his time.  That God might be glorified.  In fact, Job's faithfulness does glorify God over Satan in heaven.  In fact, the relief that God grants Job later also glorifies Him.  But to Job and his friends, reason and logic should be able to root out the sin that has brought this about.
Possible FB post 2023.

These verses, that tell of an encounter Eliphaz had in the night.  Was this Satan again trying to persuade Job to curse God by sending word through his friends?  What a deceitful thing to do:
17 'Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? 18 Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; 19 how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth. 20 Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. 21 Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?' [Job 4:17-21 ESV]
Look at the lies bound up in the truth here!  vs 17, the answer is no.  That is why God had already put a redemptive plan, built on trust and trust alone rather than works, in place.  No man can accomplish his own righteousness.  So Job must have sinned to bring this about, right?
God charged Satan with error because Satan was a usurper, but we can be sure Satan was not using himself as a "good example" here.  No, Satan goes on to say that if even the angels are accused by God, what hope does man have?  Again, Satan says Job deserves what he is getting because of his sin.  And Satan goes on to say that men are too stupid to even figure out what their sin might be.  He wants to undermine Job's faith by saying this IS a punishment from God for sin.  Job is maintaining that he is not being punished, but that God has some other purpose, and Job is willing to suffer as God commands, even though he has no sin.  But if Satan can convince Job that this is God's punishment but for a sin God will not reveal to Job, Job might conclude that God is unfair.  This is rebellion.  Job doesn't know what to confess to remove the curse.  Satan wants to convince him he is too stupid to know.  IS this a fair and just God who would punish for sin we don't even recognize???  We do see examples of such punishment elsewhere.
2021 - MSB note says that the real message Eliphaz delivers is that God judges angels and finds those higher, purer beings at fault, so how much more will he find error in miserable, lowly man?  I don't think, reading this now, that this vision has delivered a pack of lies to Eliphaz, though the application of what the vision said is wrong.  Eliphaz is making the point that Job has done something pretty awful to have brought all this misery on himself - it has to be his own doing, and God is judging him.  Eliphaz wants Job to acknowledge his sin.  Job says he's done nothing wrong.  It is possible that Job had not committed a sin that was held against him in a time when men made their own rules.  I don't believe Job was sinless, but I believe he was a good man, less sinful by far than those around him.


Chapter 5
Eliphaz is still talking - getting to his conclusion in fact - as Chapter 5 opens.  These verses:
6 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, 7 but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. [Job 5:6-7 ESV], restating the principal that bad things are punishments for sin.

2022 - Vss 8-16 are a summary of how we view God and His work.  Maybe the point of this is that what is happening to Job falls outside these boundaries that we put on God's behavior and His ways and His means.  Yes...this is exactly how we "expect" God to behave.  It is almost a caricature.

"Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.
Job 5:17‭-‬18 ESV
This continues what Eliphaz is saying: that bad things are always deserved.  That when bad things happen, to us or to ours, we have done something to bring it on ourselves.  He also says the opposite.  That when we are good, only good will befall us, and we will be kept safe though all around us falls apart.

2022 - I memorized this verse long ago, but  always attributed it to Job himself, not to Eliphaz.  I thought it was Job saying he understood, when it is in fact Eliphaz completely mislabeling what is going on with Job.  Here is the version I memorized:
17 Behold, happy [is] the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole. [Job 5:17-18 KJV]

Chapter 6
Job's reply to Eliphaz begins in this chapter.  Job asks several rhetorical questions with an obvious "no" answer.  The question he's answering is whether or not this punishment is justified?  If not, then Job has grounds to complain.  In the next paragraph, Job wishes for God to let him die - to release him from the pain of this life.  
2021 - It seems that it is ok to wish God would end your life, put you out of your misery, let the pain end.  It is not ok for us to do so ourselves, but we can pray for death.  That is not sin, it seems.
In the next, Job says his friends are not really behaving like friends.  He says that if they have answers for him, they should provide them.  He hasn't asked them to make sacrifices for him or to offer large bribes to anyone for his release.  He only wants kindness from them, and instead they criticize and tell him he must be a sinner to deserve all this pain.  The assumption being that the pain is deserved.  
Job says it is easy to sit there and tell him he's earned this punishment, but why can they not tell him what sin of his earned it?  They accuse him, but they have no grounds.  Chastening as severe as Job's should have an obvious cause, and they know no such cause exists.  Job is therefore justified in protesting his situation.  Least I think that's Job's point.
2021 - Yes, that is Job's point.  They can spout principles to him about how bad things are ALWAYS punishment for sin and commensurate with the magnitude of that sin.  But can they tell him what horror he has committed to earn this punishment?  He tells them to just look at him, at the state he is in.  How could he have possibly earned this and the cause be unknown to them.

Chapter 7
Life is short anyway and full of problems.  Aren't those enough without all that's been heaped on him?  
These verses illustrate the point.  The 'vehicle" Job uses is still to ask questions with obvious answers, leaving his accusers no room to argue.
1 "Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? [Job 7:1 ESV]
7 "Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. [Job 7:7 ESV]
Since life us so short, and because time runs out so quickly, there is no time for subtle words:

11 "Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. [Job 7:11 ESV]
Job says he hasn't the time to suffer in silence, but will speak up about the injustice of his suffering.
2021 - Verse 11 jumps out at me again.  It is ok to complain to God.  He can take it.  Complain, but don't contradict.  Shout your agony to Him, ask for release, but never tell Him He has made a mistake.

This very dark statement:
16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath. [Job 7:16 ESV]
Ahh...these questions are addressed to God, not to Eliphaz and the others.  It is clear when you get to this verse:
20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? [Job 7:20 ESV]
Job says that the life of one man is nothing to God, so why would just one man be put through so much?  What possible purpose can it have?  Why can't God just let him die?


Chapter 8
Bildad, the second friend, speaks.
Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
Job 8:3 ESV

If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.
Job 8:5‭-‬6 ESV

2021-This philosophy, pretty much right in line with Eliphaz, seems to be the "standard that men require of God".  These two believe they understand how God wants the world to work, and then they impose their own understanding on God and require from Him what they believe is right.  That has never changed.  We still expect God to behave our way.  vs 3 says that God never does anything that is unjust, and vvs 5-6 say that if you are righteous, just point that out to God and in His mercy, he will fix  your "injustice".  But this whole book says it doesn't work that way.  We all see every day that this world does not work that way.  In heaven, it never works that way, because there is no sin in heaven to bring about consequences.  This idea we have of how things work is a construct to make us feel like we are wise and understanding about the world, to give us peace when others have it so much worse than us - they are sinners and getting the justice they deserve, and explain why we get so many blessings - we are righteous and getting the blessings that we deserve.  We need to fight this view of things, because it is not correct, and it exists nowhere.  It makes us ungrateful for our blessings because we think we deserve them.  It makes us callous toward the suffering, because they deserve their punishment.  In both of these positions, we are OUT of God's will!
Possible FB post.

I like these verses:
8 "For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. 9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. [Job 8:8-9 ESV]
One life is too short to understand how things work, too short to learn anything "new".  Look to the past, to accumulated wisdom, and stop saying that your situation is unique.

2023 - But...Bildad is wrong here.  The point is that Job believes his situation is unique and unprecedented.  There is no "ancient wisdom" that explains why all these things are happening to him.  And Job is right!  This "contest" between God and Satan over the righteousness of one human being IS unprecedented!  So this verse that I like so well is in fact a big error!  Things can happen to us, still today, that no human philosophy can explain.  Further, depending on human understanding for solace in time of trouble can lead you to a complete dead end.  Never believe that God has run out of ideas.  He knows things, he can do things, he can think things that are absolutely beyond anything that has gone before.
Possible FB post P. S.  Does this make Solomon wrong when he said "There is nothing new under the sun?"  How does that fit?

Bildad says God will restore Job if Job will ask, because God is a God of justice.  
"Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
Job 8:20 ESV

Many verses are stated this way as a sort of sarcasm.  This statement is exactly how we believe God operates. In fact, we try to put Him in this box.  But no box holds God.  We know from the context that in this case God is rejecting the blameless, and those who stole Job's goods have profited.  We are to see that God's purposes and God's justice are not the same as ours.

Bildad believed Job just needed to ask God for relief if he truly hasn't done anything wrong.

Chapter 9
Job's answer refers back to Bildad's statement in 8:20, above:
"Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?
Job 9:2 ESV
2021 - Job understands that God's standard is unachievable.  He hasn't read the verse that says "All have sinned...", but he knows the concept.  Job embraces the same philosophy as Eliphaz and Bildad.  He believes that there is sin in his life, but he doesn't even recognize it as such.  Job's problem with God is that God's punishment in this case is far more severe than deserved.  That's why Job wants to die.  If what he did is so bad it deserves this much punishment, and if he can't even understand what he's done and why it is so bad, then just kill him.  If it's bad enough for this much suffering, then just go ahead and kill him, because that won't be much worse.
I had never noticed before that Job and his friends differ only in degree.  Their foundational beliefs are the same.

Job agrees with the points that Bildad has made.  One should be able to bring a case if one is falsely accused.  However, everybody has done something!
And who can argue with God that He is unjust?  He made all that is, He understands all.  Who can bring a case of injustice against God?
Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.  Job 9:15 ESV
We cannot justify ourselves before God and demand relief on this basis.  He is too far above us to demand anything of Him.  Our ONLY defense is no defense at all, but an appeal for mercy despite our own belief that we are in the right.  How can we EVER reply against God.
2021-This is Job replying to Bildad, and Bildad's advice was to appeal directly to God.  To tell God that no great sin has been committed, that his situation is unfair, and after doing that God will fix it all.  This is what Bildad recommends, and Job's answer is that no one has the standing to confront God like this and essentially tell God that He's wrong.  Job gets it.
Possible FB post...maybe.

Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
Job 9:20 ESV
Job says that though he recognizes no fault in himself, arguing such with God would prove otherwise.  So is Job thinking he must be suffering for an unrecognized fault?  He believes he had done something to deserve this punishment though he does not know what it was?  So he is still putting God in a box, requiring God to behave according to man's standard of justice.

22 It is all one; therefore I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.' [Job 9:22 ESV]
None are blameless before God.  All are wicked before God.  There are not two categories of people before a Holy God.
2021-Here is the rest of this summation:
23 When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. 24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges-- if it is not he, who then is it? [Job 9:23-24 ESV]
Here, Job has it wrong.  God does not mock the innocent.  But sometimes they die.  At this time, Satan was the ruler of this world, and Job doesn't realize that.  Job is placing the blame for his problems in the wrong place.  They are caused by Satan, as all bad things are are.
Possible FB post...also a maybe.
2023 - No...Job is right, it is his vocabulary that rubs us wrong.  What he has said in this passage is that he knows that if he tries to confront God and to accuse God of injustice, God will show him that these things ARE just.  Job is saying that just because he can't figure out what he's done wrong doesn't mean he hasn't done wrong.  BUT, the wrong is beyond his comprehension.  He cannot fix what he does not understand.  Therefore, he want's God to just let him go ahead and die, because the suffering is too much for him, and cannot "repent" of a sin he does not recommend.  So he is doomed to suffer on and on, without end, without hope of remedy - other than through the mercy of his accuser.  Now here's the thing...Again, Job, Eliphaz, and Bildad all see these events the same way, they differ only in degree.  Job agrees that his suffering is due to his sin.  Job too believes that God is good to those who are good, and allows horror to come upon those who are evil.  Eliphaz and Bildad believe Job already knows what he's done and yet refuses to confess it.  Job says he has no sin that HE can discern, so he does not know what to confess to God so that God will ease up on the punishment.  And he would rather die than continue to endure life as it now is for him.  The point that they are ALL missing is that in a fallen world, injustice can and does sometimes prevail.
Possible FB post.
2023 - Look at that question Job asks at the end.  "If it is not he, who then is it".  Again, the same philosophy.  If we sin, God will make bad things happen.  Bad things are happening.  Therefore, Job has sinned.  There is only God in charge, and this is how "we know" God operates always.  Therefore it HAS to be God that is doing this thing for which Job cannot discern any reason.  God is doing this.  No one else could.  Job is right in that all that ever happens to anyone anywhere is - and must be - within God's will.  Otherwise, he would not be God.  But Job is completely wrong in this case about God's reasons.  Sometimes, we cannot know God's reasons.  For those times, faith is all we have.
Second possible FB post on these verses.


For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
Job 9:32 ESV
God is not a man.  Mormonism says that he really is, and that we too can be gods.

2022 - Here is the thing about Chapter 9.  Job is saying that no matter how sure he is that he has not brought all this catastrophe upon himself by being unfaithful, he still knows that if he confronts God, that God will find him dirty, unclean, impure, imperfect...in all ways inadequate.  This idea starts in vs 2:
2 "Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? [Job 9:2 ESV].  Doesn't this verse just say right out front that EVERYONE deserves whatever they get, because we are ALL unrighteous in the eyes of God?  And did that change  when Christ "incorporated" us into himself?  Does God now see us as righteous?  That can't be so, because if we are righteous, and bad things happen, then that is truly unjust.  Or maybe God doesn't send any curses our way, but still lets us endure the natural consequences - as opposed to punishment and/or correction - of our sin?  
12 ...Who will say to him, 'What are you doing?' [Job 9:12b ESV].
15 Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. [Job 9:15 ESV]
20 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. [Job 9:20 ESV]
22 It is all one; therefore I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.' [Job 9:22 ESV].  This verse, though, says that his purposes are inscrutable.  Though this verse may well be true from our perspective, it is never true from God's.  All that happens does so for a reason, and God knows and approves the reason, and the reason is that the greatest good is served by the things that happen.

Chapter 10
Job openly complains to God about his situation, and prefaces it with these verses:
1 "I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. [Job 10:1 ESV]
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. [Job 10:2 ESV]
Job wants to understand what this is about.  He is sticking with his belief that he has committed no sin worthy of this kind of oppression.

2023 - NO!  Job believes he HAS sinned in a way that deserves this punishment, but he maintains that he has no idea what it is he did wrong.  THIS is Job's position!  Bildad and Eliphaz can't believe Job doesn't know because this much punishment comes from a really big sin.  How could one have a sin that big in their life and not know what it was they did?  This is the point of contention between Job and his three friends.

In verse 7, Job pleads not guilty, and he says the judge knows he isn't guilty, yet the sentence continues:
1 "I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. [Job 10:1 ESV]

2023 - 8 Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. [Job 10:8 ESV].  As I read this, I saw in it the Bill Burr argument.  Is Job really saying here, in the oldest book of the Bible, that he wouldn't be sinning if God had not made him this way.  Is he really saying the sin is on God, because God in fact created the man and the situation that caused him to sin, and the flaw that results in man's sin.  The flaw in the argument is always the same.  God made us perfectly.  And he gave us free will to act as we choose.  And Adam chose poorly.  We all suffer for our earthly Father's sin.  It must be that way, because then, our heavenly Father's righteousness can repeal ALL that sin.

18 "Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me 19 and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. 20 Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer 21 before I go--and I shall not return-- to the land of darkness and deep shadow, 22 the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness." [Job 10:18-22 ESV]
These verses are about as deep in the pit of depression as a person can get.  But note, Job does not take matters into his own hands.  Life and death are for God to decide, and earthly misery and punishment though no offense has been committed are also for God to decide.  Jesus certainly suffered more, and never did a wrong thing anywhere.

2021 - I noticed this time through that one of Job's friends speaks in a chapter, and then Job gets two chapters to answer.  In the first, he answers his friend directly.  In the second, Job addresses God directly.  Job asks God to "leave him alone".  Job does not see his suffering as arising from natural occurrences.  Job doesn't think he has a skin condition because he wasn't getting enough vitamin D.  Job sees his situation as the will of, and caused by, God.  He is only  half right.  Job knows he is powerless against God.  Job knows there is no "authority" that can call God into court as defendant, so that Job can plead for mercy and win the suit, and have God stop this.  There is no one who can bring this about.  God has the last word, whether we agree with it or not.  Job and his friends  - since they do not have a copy of the book of Job to read - do not "allow" for the possibility of God giving Satan leave to do his worst so that God can establish as true some larger thesis.  In this case, even mortal man can be more faithful, more loyal, more submissive to God - as per design! - than the mighty angel Lucifer.  Lucifer's real point is that he (Lucifer) was not being given justice in heaven because he was so very nearly perfect, and therefore he had a right to rebel and attack, because even the most faithful of all God's creations would have done the same thing if treated unfairly.  THIS was the point.  And God allows all these things to happen to Job to say no, even a human, created much lower than the angels, can remain faithful in the face of all the calamity that can be heaped on him - far more injustice than Lucifer ever had to bear.  
Oh my goodness.  A worthy point is being made here, surely worth all that happened.
Can I make a FB post of this, the true reason for Job's sufferings?

Chapter 11
Job's friend Zophar is the last to speak:
5 But oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you, 6 and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. [Job 11:5-6 ESV]
What an awesome friend.  He tells Job that if he thinks this is bad, imagine if you were getting what you really deserve!  And I suppose in most cases this is true.  There is no pain or suffering in this world that can compare or prepare anyone for the torture of eternity in hell.  That is truly what we all deserve, but are delivered out of by Jesus' blood.
Perhaps Zophar is tired of Job's whining, and so convinced of Job's guilt that he is out of patience with Job's insistence that he has not brought this upon himself.  Zophar seems unsympathetic, but maybe he is just playing "bad cop" to the other two friends persuasion.  Zophar says to "shape up and do so now".
2021- This Zophar is the kind of person unbelievers think church people are.  Mean, really, and   believing that sinners are still getting less hardship than they should.   That they should just deal with it since they're getting off so easy.
2023 - Now there would be an interesting study...If we think of Zophar as a caricature of a certain type of Christian, I wonder if the other two friends are also?  Wouldn't it be nice to go back and pull out their positions and see just how common they are!  That might even be fun!

THIS FACEBOOK POST of 9/11/23, for me, finally answers the Bill Burr Argument.  There is NO FLAW.  WE ARE RESPONSIBLE, and JOB proved it!!!  A MAN proved it!
Job's friend Zophar is the last to speak:  5 But oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you, 6 and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. [Job 11:5-6 ESV]  What an awesome friend!  Here sits Job in a pile of ashes with dirt on his head, wearing sackcloth, covered in sores, grieving the loss of sons, daughters, and worldly goods...and his friend says "Imagine if you were getting what you really deserve!"    I suppose this is true at the fundamental level but to bring it up at such a time calls Zophar's bedside manner into question!  But there's a lot more going on here.  We see here that Job and Zothar agree that it is God imposing this suffering on Job.  They disagree about whether it is just.  Job believes the punishment is far too severe so it is unjust.  Zothar says it is less severe than God's undiluted justice demands for any sin, so it is just.  Neither allows for the possibility that Job's suffering is not about punishment at all, but is about injustice itself.  They do not "allow" for the possibility that this is about God giving Satan leave to do his worst so that God can establish some larger thesis.  Perhaps that thesis is that if mortal man can be faithful, loyal, and submissive to God in the face of injustice than so can angels, who are a little nearer perfect than man.  Remember that it was Lucifer who started all this.  Why did Lucifer want to treat Job this way?  Perhaps Lucifer's real point is to show that even though he (Lucifer) was the greatest, most nearly perfect, and most beautiful angel created, he was not given the position he deserved.  Such an angel should surely be worshiped, not just admired by all the other angels and certainly by man.  Therefore, because he was treated unjustly, Lucifer rebelled and believes he had a right to do so.  Lucifer thinks Job, a special favorite of God and a nearly perfect man, will also rebel if treated unjustly.  Satan believes rebellion is "built in" to men and angels.  If so, then Lucifer thinks it is wrong of God to hold rebellion against him since the overwhelming need for justice was built into ALL God's creation by God himself.  Lucifer thinks that if this nearly perfect man rebels when faced with injustice from God AND knowing that he, a nearly perfect angel also rebelled at God's injustice, it will prove that God's creation has a built in flaw, that rebellion is therefore God's fault, and that neither angels nor men ought to be held responsible for their own sins. That is, how can God condemn us for sin if he created us in such a way that we would want to sin?  Because of God's design flaw - making our sense of justice too strong to resist - even the most faithful of God's creations will rebel if treated unfairly.  THIS was Lucifer's argument and it is compelling to this day.  So God allows all these things to happen to Job  - these truly unfair, truly unjust things - so God can say "No, Lucifer, there is no design flaw.  Rebellion is NOT inevitable, as Job's faithfulness clearly shows.  Furthermore, men are less perfect than angels, and certainly less perfect than you Lucifer, the greatest of all the angels.  But this man Job continues to trust Me despite the profound injustice YOU have heaped on him, and for which he blames Me. Therefore, Lucifer, though your built in capacity to remain faithful is greater than Job's, he, with less, has done more than you.  Your rebellion is sin, Lucifer, your rebellion is on you, man's rebellions are on him, and the day of justice is coming for all who CHOOSE rebellion."
2023 - A little later....This idea is reinforced by God's answer to Job, finally, in the last few chapters of the book.  And what does God say?  Were you there?  Do you know how I hung the earth, do you know why the seas come no further...many many questions about creation are asked.  The real point is, Lucifer, and Job, who do you think you are to imply that I do not know what I am doing?  Who are you to think you can discover a flaw in anything that I have done.  It just fits perfectly!!!

Zophar does follow on up with this verse:
7 "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? [Job 11:7 ESV]
Maybe Zophar is suggesting that though Job does not recognize sin in his life, it is there, and though he doesn't know what it is exactly, he should still repent before God for whatever it might be.

14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not injustice dwell in your tents. 15 Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear. [Job 11:14-15 ESV]
Zophar's advice.  Job has sin in his life, and the sin has brought this on.  He needs to stop denying the sin, repent of it, and then all will be well.

20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last." [Job 11:20 ESV]
When I read this I thought that maybe this was the last thought of the unsaved.  I hope it is not.  If it is, then they do not have any inkling of what awaits them after that breath.  I would think the wicked, far more than the righteous, would be desperate for one more breath...
MSB implies that it is Job that Zophar is referring to indirectly now, contrasted with the frontal assault at the beginning of the chapter.  It is Job who is hoping for death, had told them all that this is his hope.  He says it is wicked of Job not to confess the great sin that they all are certain he has committed to bring about such calamity.

Chapter 12
Job replies to Zophar, first with sarcasm, and then as an equal.  Job says he is as able to discern sin as they are, and there is no sin that warrants his suffering:
3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? [Job 12:3 ESV]
"Tell me something I don't already know."

In vs 4, Job calls himself "blameless".  We have to remember that this is before the law.  We are under the Noahic covenant, which is unconditional.  Under that covenant, Job could truly claim to be blameless.

This phrase:
5 In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip. [Job 12:5 ESV]

Job goes on with a description of God's sovereignty over all that is. I liked these verses in particular:
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. ...
12 Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days. ...
16 With him are strength and sound wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. ...
20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment of the elders. ...
23 He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away. [Job 12:3, 10, 12, 16, 20, 23 ESV]
All these things he says about the greatness of God, pointing out that with great age, with time, comes wisdom, and so God has more wisdom than any can attain to since he has been there from the beginning.  The sovereignty of God in all matters is the thrust of what Job says.  This would all seem to show that Job has not lost his faith at all, nor is it even diminished.  He knows that God's ways are right, whether he can discern them or not.  We can watch a physicists write equations on the board, know that he understands them, but try as we might, we never can.  We don't resent the physicist.  Should we resent God when we don't understand his ways?
Possible FB post here.

Chapter 13
Job continues:
12:3 and 13:2 repeat the same phrase - I am not inferior to you.  Job is still directing his comments to his friends.

3 But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. [Job 13:3 ESV]
I was thinking in an earlier chapter Job said bringing a case before God was a bad idea.  Who can accuse him?

4 As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all. [Job 13:4 ESV]
Hmm.  Job is lashing out at his friends for just making his condition worse, for their accusations in spite of his assurance to them that he has no hidden sin.  They do not trust their friend's self-examination, but assume that he is either in denial about his sin, or he is a liar.

9 Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man? [Job 13:9 ESV]
Job says that God will agree with him that he has not sinned.  Job implies that his accusers have more sin in them than he does.

Or...Job is saying that their continued accusations against him are not taking facts into account, but are instead showing partiality in judgement.  They won't believe Job's claim that he is innocent.  Though God has not presented any arguments, they still believe Job has sinned.  They are taking God's side that Job's punishment is deserved, and doing so without evidence.  In vs 10 Job says that God will rebuke them for this unfairness on their part.

15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face. [Job 13:15 ESV]
A good verse to memorize.  Job must surely have been a better man than anyone I know to be able to say this last part.

What does this verse mean?
16 This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him. [Job 13:16 ESV]  MSB completely ignores this.  
Maybe he means that his own desire to stand before God and argue is in itself the proof that Job is innocent.  No guilty man would would want to face the ultimate judge.

Job makes two requests of God:
20 Only grant me two things, then I will not hide myself from your face: 21 withdraw your hand far from me, and let not dread of you terrify me. [Job 13:20-21 ESV]  
This sounds a lot like Solomon in Proverbs, when he says "don't let me be full lest I take God for granted, nor let me starve such that I steal and dishonor God".  Could just be a literary device, but Solomon is far distant in time from these events.  It seems to have been more a device of Solomon's time.

2023 - This verse:  23 How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. [Job 13:23 ESV].  Again, Job is not denying that he has sinned, but his own knowledge of what is sin and what is right has failed him.  He has examined himself and found no fault.  If there is fault, why will God not tell him what it is?  To Job, God is holding him accountable for something he does not recognize as sin, and God is not informing him of what the problem is so that he can correct it.  Isn't this the Bill Burr thing yet again.  God, you made me like this, and since I don't find fault in myself, and you won't tell me what is wrong, and you made me so that I cannot discern this awful terrible sin that has brought all this upon me, how can you continue to count me guilty, and continually exact punishment from me?  How is this fair!?!?!  Same as Bill Burr alright.

Interesting that the day's reading ends here, when Chapter 14 seems to continue the same speech.  MSB says this is the end of the first set of speeches.  Perhaps Job will open the second set in 14 as he opened the first set.

​Chapter 14
1 "Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. [Job 14:1 ESV]
Oft-quoted verse.  Some versions include "a" before woman, some do not.  Some I looked at - NLT for example - are just completely out there.  Why did they think they had to improve a verse like this?  Much of it is scrambling to make it gender inclusive.  The scrambling is obvious in some of the translations, but I will not include them here.

5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, 6 look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day. [Job 14:5-6 ESV]
This seems kind a common attitude.  People don't want to deal with things, just to enjoy their days like a hired hand.  If it is the same attitude Job had, can it be all bad?  Is Job wrong to wish this?
Seems that Job has decided he would rather live without God's intervention than to continue being punished.  His assumption is that God's attention to him brings only trouble, so feel free to look after other people.  Sure doesn't seem like the right attitude...but this is Job.  God was pretty proud of him, and God tells Satan that Job is doing well.  As long as he does not lose his faith in God, this suggests that it is ok to...what....prefer no intervention from God at all?  Maybe...Job isn't saying God has no right to treat him this way, just that he doesn't understand it, and would prefer a different, and also inexplicable state to this one.  A life without any notice from God is no more natural that what Job is going through here.
2023 - Oh my...here it is again.  Still the Bill Burr argument.  Job is saying that God has already determined everything that is going to happen to him, from beginning to end.  So instead of punishing him for some random, indiscernible sin, why not just leave him alone to do what it has been determined that he will do?  Why put this whole load of stress on him to "do what God wants", if God has already determined what he will do?  It is the same.  "You made me this way, how can you now blame me for being this way?"  I have never seen all these things in here before.  And look at the answer...because God somehow still gives us a choice, we are still moral agents with moral decisions to make, and he still expects his creation to make the right moral choices.  We train dogs to do as we want them to do.  We constrain them in various ways.  Yet we expect them to CHOOSE the right way, we expect them to comply with our standards!  They cannot, because they are dogs.  We cannot do according to God's pleasure because we are "fallen man", not perfect man.  Adam has brought it al down on us, not God. But what is life without ambition?  What is life without trying?  What is life without meaning and to what end would it lead?  
This would be a telling post, with the video clip of Burr's position as the "picture" below.  Start the post with "watch the video first" and then show that this is the oldest argument there is, and that it is silly now as it has always been.

Man's existence contrasted with a tree.  A tree can be cut down and the stump rot in the ground, but when water comes, it will put out new branches just like a young tree.  Not so with man.  When we die, we are gone for good until the resurrection.  

2023 - This verse:  12 so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep. [Job 14:12 ESV].  Look how this verse from the Bible's oldest book is consistent with what we know of the GWT judgment.  The old heaven and the old earth will be no more.  Verse 13 is about wrath poured out, and vs 14 is about either the rapture for the saved or the GWT for the lost...or for all the OT saints as I see it.

He would be hidden away in Sheol alive, only to come forth when his days are up, and it is time for him to die.  He'd rather know nothing of the world for the rest of his days, and then be "awakened" to die.

Interesting verses for the geologists:
18 "But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place; 19 the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man. [Job 14:18-19 ESV]
These constant changes had already been noted in Job's time.  He sees these changes - this inevitability that the works of man will not be permanent - as a proof of God's continuity and man's brevity.
Possible short FB post

Chapter 15
Eliphaz speaks again:
4 But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God. [Job 15:4 ESV]
Eliphaz seems to think that Job is a bit too sure that he has not sinned, and that he deserves none of what he is receiving.  Eliphaz thinks Job should remember that other people are pretty smart too, and that these other smart people agree that Job must have done something wrong.  And I think Eliphaz also has the same question I did above.  Is it really ok to say such things about God?  Isn't Job afraid that God will still make things worse because if Job hadn't sinned before, isn't his current attitude sin enough?

I like this verse:
9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? [Job 15:9 ESV]
I think it is going to turn out that Job does indeed know things that these others don't, but at this point, it is hard not to side with Eliphaz.  

Here is another good turn of phrase from Eliphaz:
11 Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? [Job 15:9, 11 ESV]
Here again, I tend to agree with Eliphaz.  It could always be worse.  Be content even with the pain you have and be glad it isn't much worse.  

12 Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, 13 that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? [Job 15:12-13 ESV]
This is how Job's words seem to me also.  Such words addressed to the Most High God.  Are you nuts, Job???

Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!
Job 15:15‭-‬16 ESV
Here is a verse that nearly states Satan's position in the heavenly argument.  Man is even less capable of faithfulness than angels.  God is saying Job is more faithful than Lucifer.

Eliphaz describes the life of the unrighteous.  He knows his end is coming, he doesn't believe he will return from darkness.  He sees no real future for himself.  Eliphaz goes on and on about the unrighteous.  Apparently so that Job will see himself in the descriptions, and realize that he has been unrighteous in some regard.
No...I think this verse is the point Eliphaz is getting at:
31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment. [Job 15:31 ESV]
Job wants to go live in Sheol - to hide from God, to be isolated from God - rather than live this life of apparent punishment.  Eliphaz is addressing Job's last speech directly.  Eliphaz is re-stating that Job's punishment is for a reason, that there is some sin in his life that he will not admit, and that wishing to be "released" into Sheol instead of suffering the just punishment for that sin, is a ridiculous - and improper - wish for the wicked.  This is much more int tune with the context I think.

Chapter 16
Job replies:
2 "I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. [Job 16:2 ESV]
Job once again tells his comforters what a lousy job they are all doing.  He tells them he could easily say the same things if they were the ones being punished and he was giving comfort.  They've told him nothing that he does not know, imparted no wisdom, opened his eyes to no sin.  They ignore Job when he says there is no sin.

2023 - Look how Job starts:  3 Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? [Job 16:3 ESV], compared to what Eliphaz started with:  2 "Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? [Job 15:2 ESV].  These guys are smart.  They are cutting in their remarks and their discussion seems to be getting ever more personal, ever more aggressive.

6 "If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? [Job 16:6 ESV]
Wow...Job says that he can complain and gripe and wish for death and wish to hide in Sheol - and it doesn't make the pain (or the punishment) any less than it already is.  And if he just sits in silence and endures...that doesn't stop the pain either.  So what difference does it make?

10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. 11 God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. [Job 16:10-11 ESV]
Messianic prophecy?  Don't think I've ever seen it interpreted as such.  MSB doesn't comment on these two verses at all.

Job is truly low in 6-17.  He cannot appeal to God really, because it seems to him that God has become his enemy - relentless and unmerciful and implacable.  Job's comforter had become his enemy, his friends are "miserable comforters all", his wife is perhaps the worst of all for him, so he is left desolate in his suffering.  A truly lonesome condition.

19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. 20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, 21 that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. [Job 16:19-21 ESV]

This looks for all the world like a reference to Jesus as our advocate with God.  Certainly Job is referring to some kind of intercessor who will appeal to God on his behalf.  MSB does not really address these specific verses, but he does say that God anticipated the need of an advocate, and He has provided One in Jesus.  So while Job may not have had clear knowledge of the coming Savior, he foretells the need for one here.  The NKJV translation doesn't give quite the same sense:
19 Surely even now my witness [is] in heaven, And my evidence [is] on high. 20 My friends scorn me; My eyes pour out [tears] to God. 21 Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, As a man [pleads] for his neighbor! [Job 16:19-21 NKJV]  

21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. [Pro 5:21 ESV]
We have no secrets.  We cannot feint in one direction and make God look for us where we are not going.  He knows where our deeds will take us, and He knows the plans we are making.

Chapter 17
Job continues:
In 16, Job has been particularly, diagnosably depressed about his condition, as anyone in his circumstances would be.  He has spoken of how God seems to have become his enemy, his closest friends are of no help at all, and previously, we saw how his wife urged him to suicide.  He is truly alone in his pain.

In vs 1-3, Job is still speaking of an advocate, praying for an advocate in heaven, someone there to plead his case before God.  Someone to tell God that Job is being punished severely but without cause, and to pray for relief from the suffering - even if the relief is death.

In 4, 5, Job notes that God has made it impossible for Job's friends to see the truth of situation.  Job can't really see it either.  But Job realizes that his friends are not able to comfort him, but only to increase his misery as they accuse him of sin he didn't commit.  How can they possibly comfort him while they accuse him falsely?

Job laments his fall in the eyes of those around him.  He laments the sad state of his body.  He is very down, as would be normal for his situation, but still does not blame God, which is pretty abnormal for his situation.  At this point he is hoping for death:
13 If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness, 14 if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,' 15 where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? [Job 17:13-15 ESV]

Chapter 18
Bildad speaks a second time:
He seems a little miffed that Job despises the advice of his friends.
5 "Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. [Job 18:5 ESV]
Bildad continues as before, that those who suffer like Job have some problem.  Bildad is referring back to Jobs statement in 17:12 I think, where he said:
12 They make night into day: 'The light,' they say, 'is near to the darkness.' [Job 17:12 ESV]
Bildad's speech this time is less kindly, and includes a long list of the consequences that evil men suffer.  Many of the things he talks about are the things that Job has just complained of.  He concludes with this:
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God." [Job 18:21 ESV]
He refers here to the fact that most of the well known consequences he has just listed apply to Job's current condition.  He is saying outright that Job has no knowledge or understanding of God at all.  How can Job be suffering precisely the fate - the well known and universally recognized punishments that visit the ungodly - and sit there denying that he has sinned?  Bildad is not mincing words here.  He is trying to "slap Job into reality".

Chapter 19
Job answers Bildad:
He says that even if there is some evil, that he will repent of it if he knows what it is.  Indeed there is indication that he  has prayed to God that he will repent, if God will let him know what this punishment is for.  But what troubles Job is that God won't remove the punishment.  He won't reveal the sin, won't reveal the reason for the punishment, and won't remove it despite Job's earnest prayers.  It as though God has declared Job an enemy and no quarter is to be given.  And Job just does not understand why.

2023 - Bill Burr again, but I stated it better above.  Job himself wants his friends to be right.  He too believes as they do - that his situation MUST be caused by sin, yet he has no idea what the sin might be.  He has offered to repent of the sin, but God won't accept repentance "in general" but only specifically.  Job has prayed for God to specifically reveal his sin to him, but God will not.  Job says it as though God wants to see Job in this horrible condition, as he would an enemy (really as man would an enemy) and is deliberately keeping him down, keeping him condemned without remedy.  Job says there is nothing he can do here.  That is what Bill Burr said!  He said that if God made him like this, how can he punish him for being like this.  Job is saying that his discernment of sin is inadequate to recognize what he has done wrong, and yet he is being punished unendingly for that sin.  Job says that if God is going to hold him responsible for sin, then surely God must at least tell him what that sin is!  Here's the answer to Bill Burr and his dilemma.  You are not Job.  You are not a uniquely, truly righteous person.  There is this book, the Bible, that tells  you what God wants of you.  It tells you how to live, it tells you what is right and what is wrong.  No matter the state of your original creation, this book tells you what is required.  Further, this book tells you how to eternally escape the justice due you for your bad choices.  For Bill Burr, the sins committed, and of which he ought to repent, are laid out without mystery.  The way to achieve ultimate forgiveness and mercy for those sins is laid out plainly.  Bill Burr is not Job.  Bill Burr has no argument.  Bill is not locked up without a key, as was Job.  How arrogant to think that everyone is Job.  
Possible FB post.  How can I get all this in?  I need to put all the Bill Burr references in Job together and do a series on this whole "If he makes it impossible for me to do it right, how can he hold getting it wrong against me?"  It is a huge deal.  I need to gather these all up and see what I have and try to find a way to lay it out.

11 He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary. [Job 19:11 ESV]
Job lists several groups that have distanced themselves from him now that he is in such pitiful shape.
His brothers.
His relatives.
Close friends.
Guests in his house.
His maidservants.
His servant.
His wife.
The children of his mother (brothers and sisters)
Young children.
He appeals to his three friends for some kind of human compassion, for someone to truly commiserate with his condition:
21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! [Job 19:21 ESV]
Yet Job still has this hope:
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! [Job 19:25-27 ESV]
Oldest book in the Bible, and those who know God look forward to a coming redeemer who will stand upon the earth.  This is pretty amazing, and one has to wonder how it was revealed to them.

2023 - Look more closely at 25-27.  My Redeemer lives.- Jesus rose from the dead.  He will stand upon the earth - he will have an earthly kingdom at the end of earth.  My flesh shall see God - I will be resurrected in a new body, and stand before him.  My heart faints - How wonderful are  his promises.  Just look at the theology in this book.  The chronological Bible puts this book right after Gen 11, which is after the flood, after the Tower of Babel.  It is believed to have been written - or to have been an oral tradition - long before Moses wrote Genesis.  It is perhaps the oldest story there is.  Wonder if Peterson knows that?
Possible FB Post.

Chapter 20
Zophar speaks:
Zothar also takes issue with Job's censure of his friends.
And then he launches right back into the same position as before.  The wicked may be happy for a time, as Job was before, but it doesn't last long, and then punishment, recompense, will come down on them.  As it has on Job...Zophar's kindness, what little there was in his previous speech, is gone in the face of Job's disparagement of him.  Zophar also takes the muffler off of what he thinks the problem is.  He tells Job all the nasty things that happen to the wicked, how they leave nothing behind for prosperity, they leave no name, no one to remember them, their children turn to the poor for mercy.  As if Job doesn't feel bad enough already!

2023 - It occurs to me today that Job's friends are just walking talking storehouses of cliches.  The evil rich will soon be thrown down.  A righteous man lives in splendor and glory.  These sorts of things are stated over and over by Jobs friends.  Like this:   4 Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, 5 that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment? [Job 20:4-5 ESV].  Spoken as if it is ancient truth, when even back then they knew this was at best a generality.  Sometimes the wicked are wealthy all their lives and their children inherit the wealth for generations to come.  These things are what WE WANT to be true, but many times, they just aren't.
Possible FB post.

This verse about the wealth of the wicked:
22 In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him. [Job 20:22 ESV]
Like the old saying "Yeah, he's rich, but he ain't happy".  This is why.  He has nothing but enemies, those who want to take his ill-gotten wealth.  It is never "safe" in the hands of the wicked.

2021- Zophar pronounces the "known" ends of the evil.  He says nothing good is in store for any of them.  So he has gone from comforting Job to forecasting the additional gloom and doom in store for Job.  He has changed over from empathetic to judgmental.  Perhaps Job saw this judgement underlying the initial speeches but it is just now occurring to me...

Chapter 21
Job replies to Zothar:
3 Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on. [Job 21:3 ESV]
Wow.  Just dripping with sarcasm.  Job is not very happy with his guests.

Job asks why it is that the wicked do so well, enjoy their lives, sing, and dance, and watch their children rise to positions they are proud of, and when they get old, they die peacefully.
7 Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? [Job 21:7 ESV]

13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. [Job 21:13 ESV]
14 They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. 15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?' [Job 21:14-15 ESV]

2023 - As noted in the last chapter, the three friends are full of "rules" that in fact do not apply.  It is just not true that the evil are brought down and the good always rise.  It was never true.  Job now has first hand experience that this way of looking at things is so far off of reality that it is just nonsense.  Look at 13 above.  These are so evil they knowingly jeer at God.  Justice is not something that happens without fail in this world.  One might make the case that if we cast the net wide enough looking at specifics, it is probably stomped on more than being the rule.  And Job now knows this is the case.  He is re-evaluation his data.  Just look at this verse and following:
17 "How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger? [Job 21:17 ESV].  Job wants to see the numbers.  He wants a statistical analysis of just how often this accepted axiom of the way reality works is really what happens.  Job knows first hand.  And rather than God demonstrating that it is not always true by having a bunch of evil people that Job knows suddenly start doing very well - such that the axiom will be "They're rich, but they ain't happy, and they won't be rich all that long", so they could continue in their complacency, God does just the opposite.  He shows that the rule isn't worth the paper it's written on by letting absolutely horrendous things happen to Job - a good man.  If God had done it the other way, the point would have been missed entirely.

Job wants to know how they ignore God for their whole lives and are not punished.  He anticipates his friends' answers that God stores up vengeance to be visited on the children of the wicked.  Job says he wants them punished themselves, let those who do wickedness receive the punishment that they deserve.  I cannot help but agree with Job.  Especially with vs 13.  How can they have happy lives, have successful children, and then get state funerals when they die, when they are not at all beholden to God in their lives, nor do they credit their success to him.  It should be the wicked themselves that die, not the third or fourth generation after them.  God also deals with Israel in this way.  It was Manasseh who received the curse that would end the southern kingdom, but it wasn't carried out for what, five generations?  I think Job sees this the same way - has the same understanding of it.  Maybe he's suggesting that he is being punished for some ancestor's sin, because he knows he's done nothing.  And when the rest of us come upon hard times, is it because of something done long ago by someone else?  When it comes to salvation, there is Ez 18 I think it is.  We go to heaven or hell based on what we do here.  But our physical lives are not rationally lived and died.  The world is not subject to cause and effect.  Bad things happen to good people, and it rains on both the evil and the good.   This verse really sums up the randomness of life in this world:
26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them. [Job 21:26 ESV]

2021 - I am not sure Job is so much wondering how the evil can prosper as he is laying waste to Zothar's chapter.  According to Zothar, the evil always get their "just desserts", and their good fortunes don't last.  Job points out that the evil do indeed have pleasant lives sometime, then die in peace, leaving their children very well off, thank you.  So I think now that Job is pointing out the obvious, observable contradictions in Zothar's philosophy of good and evil.  This verse sort of confirms that I'm on the right track now:
17 "How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger? [Job 21:17 ESV]  It's like Job is asking Zothar to produce his statistics showing that evil get what they deserve.  They must all have known it wasn't so.

34 How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood." [Job 21:34 ESV].  Job considers Zothar's position destroyed.  I agree with Job.  It does not work as Zothar says.

Chapter 22
2021-The pattern breaks here.  It has been friend speaks, Job answers friend, Job addresses God up to now.  Three chapters at a time.  But here, Zothar spoke, Job answered and now Eliphaz speaks.
Eliphaz speaks again:
5 Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities. [Job 22:5 ESV]
No mincing words from Eliphaz.  He still believes that Job has done wrong and he lists a lot of things.  Turning widows away, not giving drink to the thirsty, and not accepting God's punishment of him.  MSB says that this time, Eliphaz is frustrated with Job's stubbornness in maintaining his innocence, and goes so far as to say it doesn't even matter.  That no man is profitable to God, no one really matters to God, so Job's troubles are of no interest to God in the first place.  Will Job sit and whine though he makes no difference in the big scheme of things anyway? Then he launches into a list of the crimes of humanity in general.  All of them are really about putting ourselves before those more needy.
The advice is good though, always good:
21 "Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. 22 Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. [Job 22:21-22 ESV]
For the rest of this chapter, Eliphaz again urges Job to agree with God that he has sinned, to repent, and to pray.  If he will just admit his wrong, Eliphaz says that God will restore him.  They will not disconnect Job's suffering from some cause - some evil - in Job.  And they are not blaming Job's ancestors either.  They think it is cause and effect in full swing with Job.

Chapter 23
Job's reply to Eliphaz:
5 I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. [Job 23:5 ESV]  Job says that if he could just get an audience with God - instead of being punished without explanation, without cause, without knowledge of what is behind it all - that he would be vindicated by God, and restored.  Job denies that he has done any wrong leading to this situation.
Is it ok to ask these things of God?  I suppose so as long as it is asked respectfully.  However, we have no right to expect an answer...

2021 - Though a righteous man, in this chapter Job seems to be very prideful.  He pictures himself demanding an explanation from God for all his suffering.  He thinks his life of righteousness and faithfulness entitles him to an audience, and he thinks he will win in a dispute with God.  Surely this is pride, and the sinful kind.

In vvs 8-27 - the rest of the chapter - Job tells us that he has never wavered in his faith.  He is asking God for explanation, for reasons, for the comfort we get when we understand the cause and effect of the things that are happening in our lives.  We more "inappropriate" the state of our lives might be, the more we desire that explanation, and the more we can and do and should call upon God for answers.  BUT, we are to do so with continuing faith in God, with full assurance that whatever is happening, it is God's right to let it be so or to make it so.  We can question why, but we cannot question the motives or the justice or the love of the one who does it.  Wanting answers is ok.  Wanting justification is not ok.

8 "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; [Job 23:8 ESV]
Job has made this statement several times.  He cannot get an answer from God, he cannot plead his case, he cannot find out what has caused this his calamity.  He sees that as the injustice in his situation.  No wonder he is suffering.  God has left him alone, refused to answer his prayers.  God's presence has been withdrawn, so that Job feels completely alone.  His friends are certainly not helping that situation.  Like Jesus on the cross, the felt presence of God has gone.  2021 - Like David after Bathsheba.  So many Psalms asking how long God will remain withdrawn from him.  

Yet still, Job maintains that in the end, he will emerge tested and found true.  He knows in his heart that he is a righteous man despite the appearance of punishment.  Wasn't it the same for Jesus in the scourging and the crucifixion?  Jesus looked to all external appearances as the two thieves crucified with him must have looked.  He was counted among the transgressors to those who did not know him.  Yet he was sinless.  We need to be more than careful about assuming that those who have problems are getting what they deserve.  We believe it about others, but we never believe it about ourselves.

Reading Proverbs after the Job section today I came across these verses:
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, 13 winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, 14 with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; 15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. [Pro 6:12-15 ESV]
This is why Job's friends continue to argue that their must be some great sin in Job's life.  Though Solomon was not yet born, this principle was already considered correct and causal.  (2023 - Or perhaps it was Solomon that wrote down the story of Job, and so his own notions are included.)

2023 - So Job's friends have this inaccurate idea of how justice works in the world.  They know how they want it to work, they know how it "should" work, and they are not allowing for the fact that sometimes God does what he wants and when he does, it is no more questionable than when it doesn't.  The friends have God in a box as to how he can and cannot behave.  Never a good idea.  But Job....Job believes this principle just as strongly as his friends, and it is the principle they hold to that is wrong!  The difference is that, being the subject of this perceived great injustice, Job knows firsthand that the kind of sin for which the principle dictates this much punishment simply does not exist in his life...so far as anything he has ever been taught!  So Job wants to know what it is that caused this.  The friends insist that Job has sinned, Job's reply is that if he has, what did he do?  Because his learned friends are no more able to discern his sin than he himself is.  They are poor comforters.  Job thinks he has a right to know.  He wants an audience with God to show that he has not sinned.  Job does not accept, fatalistically or otherwise, what God has ordained for his life.  Aren't we the same?  We see a poor person and we think they must be quite lazy, addicted, or evil to be in the state they're in.  We tend to think all beggars are lazy or faking their problems to  guilt people into giving them something for nothing.  But like Job's friends, we have no clue what brought these people to where they are, whether it is real or fake, whether their state is their own fault or some test God is running.  We don't know!  So we ought to stop being "Job's friends"!
Two possible FB posts. (Summary position...perhaps a verse in 22 or 22.)

Chapter 24
Job continues his response to Eliphaz.
12 From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong. [Job 24:12 ESV]
Job spends many verses talking about how the poor are downtrodden by wicked men, yet the wicked men never seem to get what they deserve.  So his argument is first, that he has done nothing to be punished for by God, and that those who actually do deserve punishment don't ever seem to be punished.

2023 - So unfair!  Everyone else was speeding even worse than I am, but the cop stopped me!  I got the ticket and they were all doing worse than me.  How typical is this attitude!
Possible FB post here also...so many in Job.

2021 - This is also a direct refutation of what Eliphaz said.  Eliphaz accused Job of taking advantage of the poor and lots of other horrible things, and implied it was these actions for which Job was being punished.  Job says evil men do such things every day, and never get punished.  Even if there is some truth in what Eliphaz said, it isn't all true, because Job is not an evil man.  His lifestyle is not to oppress the poor.  "Why would God punish me instead of the truly and habitually evil?" seems to be the point Job is making.

2023 - Here:
12 From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong. [Job 24:12 ESV].
Life was never fair, and we seem never to learn that fact, especially in this country.  America is built on pride.  America was built to make it fair.  As if man could ever pull that off.  We were faced with failure from the very start.

This is again the speech of a very discouraged man.  And he asks the questions that we all ask.  How is it that we can look all around and see that the wicked, the evil, the nasty, the downright mean people of the world are often successful.  They abuse the poor and the believing, take advantage of them, steal from them  - legally through the courts and with abusive loans and such - and yet they never seem to get caught or to fall.  Didn't Lenin, Stalin, and Mao die of old age?  After all the horror they brought to millions, they died natural deaths.  How is this right and fair?  If Job can ask the question are we surprised that the question is still being asked today?  And people who ask think they are original thinkers asking the question for the first time.
And it is almost impossible to answer the question.  Because the answer is, "You have no right to ask the question".  That's the real and only true answer.

In 18-20 Job "quotes" the words of his friends who have said over and over that Job's problems are because he has sinned, and that his calamity is the swift and sure justice and retribution of God.  But Job says their "cause and effect" is invalid.  His example is that he himself - without sin in his life - is made to suffer these things, while the evil can be observed in all directions living in the lap of luxury.  The principle DOES NOT bear scrutiny.  I think this is because cause and effect died with the first sin, and will not return until the Millennial reign.

25 If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?" [Job 24:25 ESV]

Chapter 25
Bildad speaks again:
4 How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? [Job 25:4 ESV]
This is where I would come down.  Job has not been perfect.  Job has some sin in his life from sometime.  He has not "earned" health and happiness from God, and in fact has sinned against God and will suffer death, and has no right to complain if he suffers other things.  What Job could argue is that the punishment is too severe for his crimes.  But I remember that John MacArthur argument that we need to forgive others because we are less offended by their sin than God is.  Any sin against God deserves eternal punishment...yet He forgives it.
Only 6 verses in this chapter.

Chapter 26
Job answers Bildad:
7 He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing. [Job 26:7 ESV]
How could Job know this?  How does he know the world is floating in empty space?

9 He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it his cloud. [Job 26:9 ESV]
Is this a reference to a lunar eclipse?

10 He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. [Job 26:10 ESV]
You have to be airborne and quite high up to see this.  How could he know it? How is this possible that he knows this!

Job seems to be elaborating on the majesty of God, his ways, his knowledge.  This does not seem to be a direct answer to Bildad.

Chapter 27
Job continues:
Job vows to continue in righteousness despite his suffering.  He refuses to compromise just because he is being punished anyway.  He won't say "I might as well drink all night, God is punishing me anyway".  
Last night, I was feeling very keyed up, bored, unable to settle on anything.  I decided on some "medicine" to calm my mind, though I had sworn off that medicine.  And...if I'd stopped with one, I might have been fine, and not feel guilty today.  But I didn't stop, I never stop once I start.  Unlike Job, I compromised my principles. (This was written in March 2019.  Things got worse before I finally changed my ways.  As I write this in March of 2020, I have been alcohol free more than 16 months.)
The point of the first 6 verses here are that Job still doggedly, stubbornly, and certainly maintains that he has done nothing to bring on this kind of rebuke from God, and says he will not under any circumstances let the apparent unfairness that now characterizes his life provoke him to rebel against God.  This is the attitude that ranks Job with Noah and Daniel.  Job does not react to God's will with rebellion, though all around him become his accusers.  Just like Noah when the whole world laughed at him, and like Daniel - a slave in a victorious nation of the worst sort of sinners.
Possible FB post, need a key verse from Job 27:1-6

In 13-23 Job describes how God operates.  He seems to be saying that it isn't always the evil person himself that God punishes, but his heritage - his offspring and descendants.  It is like the "patriarch" who decides to be an evil man and amass riches and gather to himself sort of "curses" his own house for generations yet to come.  This flies in the face of "the soul that sins, it shall die".  Unless we are to understand from this that God's ultimate justice is in the hereafter.  At that point the saved are always rich, and the unsaved will burn forever.  But on this earth, this corrupt and sinful earth laboring under the consequences of God's curse, it works a bit differently.  Physical consequences are not immediate but they are still certain, even on this physical ball of dirt created exclusively as an environment for physical man as opposed to the spiritual realm - the third heaven if you will, which was all that existed before creation.  In eternity - when all has been made perfect again - this underlying principle of good rewarded and evil punished will reign once again.

Chapter 28
More from Job:
The science and intellect of man have discovered much that is hidden - gold, silver, iron ore that must be smelted, sapphires and so on.  Man goes into the most remote and out of the way  places and digs holes into the darkness that no one and nothing has ever explored, and there he finds things of great and enduring value - in earthly terms.  Man can discover all these highly unlikely and valuable things....BUT,

Where is wisdom?

13 Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. 14 The deep says, 'It is not in me,' and the sea says, 'It is not with me.' 15 It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. [Job 28:13-15 ESV]
Job names off some places wisdom is not.  It is elusive.  It is intangible.  It cannot be bought at any price.

21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. 22 Abaddon and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.' [Job 28:21-22 ESV]
2023 - I believe this is the second use of "Abaddon" in this book.  I know he is the King of those in the abyss.  IS that where he was at the time Job was written, or was he still free to roam?
He is mentioned 3 times in Job, once in Psalms, twice in Proverbs, once in Revelation.  Still...that is a lot of times for one we know so very little about.  And the name is ancient.  Hmm...BLB, looking at the Strong's definition, uses abaddon as a place within Sheol for for lost or ruined dead.  as development of earlier distinction of condition in Sheol.  So...I think sometimes abaddon is a place - this place for the ruined dead - we might interpret this as for the lost dead - and sometimes Abaddon is that King from the pit.  Perhaps those he leads in Revelation are the ones from the "abaddon" of Sheol, perhaps they are the ruined, lost, hopeless dead who are confined to the pit until the end, and then thrown forever into fire.  Perhaps they are burning even now, but the current punishment is minor compared to what they know is coming.  Perhaps these too can see hell from where they are now.   However, I do note that in every place the ESV uses "abaddon", it is capitalized.  We know that the usage in Revelation is as the name of King.  Here are the OT occurrences of the word:
6 Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering. [Job 26:6 ESV].  If we use context, Abaddon is equated with Sheol, which is surely a place in this verse.  As Sheol is a specific case, and so capitalized, so Abaddon is a place, a specific place, in this verse.
22 Abaddon and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.' [Job 28:22 ESV].  In this verse, Abaddon and Death are both personified.  They are spoken of as "individuals".  I don't think we'd say "as people", but "as angels" seems very possible.
12 for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon, and it would burn to the root all my increase. [Job 31:12 ESV].  Abaddon as a place here.
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? [Psa 88:11 ESV].  Surely Abaddon in this usage is a place, not an angel, not an entity.
11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man! [Pro 15:11 ESV].  A place here also.  
Except for the personification in Job 26:6, and the verse in Revelation, Abaddon is always a place.  Pretty much have to throw in the verse from Revelation:
11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. [Rev 9:11 ESV].  John clearly saw Abaddon as an angel.  The angel of destruction who pillages the earth.

So wisdom is not in the land of the living, and vs 22 says it is not in the land of the dead.  It is not in either place.

23 "God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. [Job 28:23 ESV]
God alone has access to wisdom, and it is only obtained through God.

Vss 25-28 are very powerful.  This ties, I believe, with what is written in Proverbs about wisdom being there from the beginning, as God created all that is, wisdom was there also.  God created according to wisdom - to order, to cause and effect, to predictability.  The earth was not created with randomness as a foundational rule.  Nothing falls "up", but always down.  There are rules, as dictated by wisdom.  So in physical terms, in a corrupt physical world inhabited by physical beings, where do we look for wisdom?

28 And he said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'" [Job 28:28 ESV]  In a righteous, God-fearing life, shunning evil of all kinds.  This is how you bring yourself into step with the way of the world.  You sync up with the mind of the creator, and live according to His ways.  This is harmony - with God first, then with all that God created.  

Wow.  This principle has been so abused by the devil over time to tell us that we are one with nature and the spirits and the heavens and so on.  He says that if we are one with them we should worship them.  This is "The Force", this is "The Great Spirit", this is "Enlightenment".  All these religions, these world views, are just a corrupted version of the connection God built into the universe.  We ARE one with the creation because we are part and parcel of it, created with it, to function in it.  It was created to "work" for us.  We are part of it.  We are created from what was created!  In this way we are one with the universe.  But when you try to leave God out of that chain back to the beginning - when you try to stop at dirt instead of going back that one more step to God creating that dirt - you miss the whole point.  And this is why the fear of the Lord is wisdom.  You have to understand, you have to go back that one last step that makes God the initiator of all that is instead of making science the initiator of all that is.  God is the unified field, and science will not admit that.  
2023 - I finally see a FB post here, using Job 28:28.

There are at least two places where the language of Job is very reminiscent of the language of Solomon.  As if perhaps Solomon wrote Job, and later wrote all the proverbs.
Found this in Proverbs on 3/9/20:
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. [Pro 9:10 ESV]

2021-The phrase "the fear of the Lord" is used 13 times in Proverbs.  This first thought - that fear = wisdom - is stated four times.  In one place, 16:6, it is connected with turning away from evil.  This seems to me a strong connection between Proverbs and Job, and as such, a strong indicator that Job was written down by Solomon, though it was likely a much older story.

Compare this to:
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. [Ecc 12:13 ESV]

28 ended with Job speaking, and with the question "where is wisdom" that reminded me so much of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.  
Chapter 29
Chapter title in my Bible app is "Job's Summary Defense"
Job wishes for the old days, when God was his friend, when his kids were around him, when things were going well.
Job describes the things he used to do, giving advice, helping the poor, the widows, and strangers.  He was a good man, he was very respected by even the highest ranking officials of the town, and he had previously been doing a lot of good in his community.  This too stopped when Satan was given free reign.  God didn't just give Job over, God had used Job to provide for many others, and God let all that stop also to make his point with Satan.  So it was a big deal.  
These verses are part of Job's statement:
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. [Job 29:14 ESV]
16 I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. [Job 29:16 ESV]
21 "Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel. [Job 29:21 ESV]

It is important to note that though Job took it all personally, many others were suffering with him, though it was not his rich friends.  It was those who were dependent on him previously, who may well have been praying for his recovery.  He was not alone, though he felt as though he was.
And also, God's purposes are bigger than ours.  Sometimes we can understand, or at least there is some aspect of the situation that we can settle on that convinces us we see both the cause and the effect.  But when we cannot, God does have a purpose.  Even if that purpose is that some disease unleashed at the fall found it's way into our circle, the fall was a consequence.  Though we were not there, we are born into that consequence, and like Job, we are all far enough from sinless to deserve death.

Chapter 30
Job continues:
Job laments that the young men, who's father's were not worth Job's time of old, now laugh at him, and scorn him.  These verses describe the contrast:
1 "But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. [Job 30:1 ESV]
Job goes on to describe the fathers of those who are laughing at him now.  They are pretty low:
3 Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation; [Job 30:3 ESV]
6 In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks. 7 Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together. [Job 30:6-7 ESV]
9 "And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them. [Job 30:3, 9 ESV]

Besides the change in his public reputation, from a place of honor to being spit at by lesser men, Job is still also suffering physically.  His current state is pitiable in all its aspects:
17 The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. [Job 30:17 ESV]

19 God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. 21 You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. [Job 30:19-21 ESV]

Job says it is right to pray for relief, as anyone in his situation would do.  And this is the answer he got:
26 But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. [Job 30:26 ESV]
30 My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. [Job 30:30 ESV]
The physical distress that Job is in boggles the mind.  This is Satan's worst, to convince Job to give up his faith.  It is relentless pain, day and night, constant fever, disease that gives no quarter.  Enough to kill, but Satan is prevented from that.  So the disease that would kill anyone else just continues to ravage Job.  The life that God commanded Satan to leave alone turns out to be the thing Job values least.  He wants to die so that his grief and suffering will end.  But God prevents that.  We know where it is going - we know that life will turn out to be worth living for Job, but he can't see that light at the end of the tunnel and certainly his friends can't see it and encourage him to persevere through this.  

This would be an awful place to come to.  Losing hope that God will help.  Feeling that God's back is turned and that nothing but judgement can be expected until death.  But still, Job leaves the length of his days in God's own hands.

Chapter 31
In this chapter, Job asks to be weighed in the balance.  He asks God to look at his heart, to see that his mind, his intentions, have been just and righteous and good towards others.  To see that he does not plot or deceive, covet or lust.
The principle that we all want to be true is stated in vs 3:
3 Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity? [Job 31:3 ESV]
This is how we want it to be, expect it to be, and indeed insist that it should be.  But Job is an object lesson in exceptions to the rule.  He made a whole speech about how the wicked prosper all around him and die at peace in their beds.  And in 30, we see where for no apparent reason, a truly righteous man - as righteous as man can be - receives the most brutal and heinous treatment that a man can endure.  Just the opposite of the principle.  

There is this sequence of "if...let" statements, described in the MSB notes on the chapter.  Job goes over a list of sins that are worthy of punishment, according the principle of verse 3. In each case, he says "If I have committed such a sin, then let me be punished for it".  At the end, he will say that he is not guilty of any of these charges, and yet he is punished, and he will ask emphatically for God to answer him and tell him what sin has brought this on.

At the end of this chapter, it says "Jobs words are ended".  I'm guessing in 32 we will move on to God's reply.

Chapter 32
Elihu, a young man, is incensed that Job maintains his position that he has not sinned, and that the three friends cannot come up with an answer for what has happened.  He decides to stop being respectful and letting the old men talk, and makes a statement himself.  However, he only does this when the three friends have nothing further to say.
His reason is given here:
2 ...He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. [Job 32:2 ESV]
He goes on to say that he is pretty much bursting with things he wants to say, and just cannot hold back anymore.  He also says this:
8 But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. 9 It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right. [Job 32:8-9 ESV]
By this he proves that he is not wise enough to speak.  It most definitely is the old who are wise.  ...3/9/20...or maybe not.  This statement goes right along with the Rummage sermon yesterday on 1 Cor 2 where it says that because we have the Spirit within us, we can understand what God is thinking, though we cannot understand another person's thinking.  Our spirit and His Spirit communicated.  So Elihu is right...up to a point.  I do not believe vs 9 is a universal principle, but might be right in this case.
Elihu now turns to disparaging the three friends lack of answers.
He says that he is fair to busting with the answer he has at the ready, and that he has bitten his lip for as long as he can.  He prepares to say what is on his mind, without flattery - because he doesn't even know how to flatter.
2021 -

Chapter 33
Elihu says that Job's questions about why God is letting this happen to him are answered by the fact that God is punishing him.  This means that Job is doing something that needs correcting and God is therefore correcting, but will release him at some point.  He may also be saying that God will/has revealed the answer in a dream to Job, or in other ways.
In vvs 8-11 Elihu summarizes Job's position to this point.  Job maintains that he has not sinned, that he is a righteous man, and that for unknown and unjustified reasons, God has chosen to make Job his enemy.
Then this verse:
12 "Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. 13 Why do you contend against him, saying, 'He will answer none of man's words'? [Job 33:12-13 ESV]
Elihu, in vvs 14-18 says that God does answer.  He does so in dreams and visions, or other ways that perhaps man does not perceive.  In doing so, God saves men from the pit.  He says this is one way that God "answers".  Another way God answers, in vs 19-33, is summarized in 19:
19 "Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, [Job 33:19 ESV]
Elihu seems to be saying that the answer to why God is causing this is that God is causing this.  But the purpose is to "rebuke" Job.  It is to bring Job to the very edge of the pit, and to see then if there is a mediator, one to plead his cause, and if so - if there is one to "offer a ransom" to God for the life is this pathetic man, then that man can pray, and God will accept the man because of the ransom that is paid, and God will restore the man.  This verse:
27 He sings before men and says: 'I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me. 28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.' [Job 33:27-28 ESV]
Surely this is the gospel in the book of Job.  Jesus is our mediator, our redeemer, our ransom-payer.  All men deserve what Job is getting, and will a mediator step forward?  Elihu says this is one of the things that the suffering could be about.  It is something going on in heaven - the identification of some mediator that might speak on Job's behalf in heaven - and turn aside the wrath that God is pouring out on him for his sin.  After all, even Job is but a man.
The chapter ends with Elihu saying:
33 If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom." [Job 33:33 ESV]
I really don't care much for this Elihu.  He seems to be in over his head. (This is the conclusion I reached the first year.  The next year, after talking to Dwight Dickey in class one day, I conclude that Elihu is preaching NT gospel.)
2021 - Nope.  I still don't like Elihu despite what Dwight said.  We know from 1:8 what God's opinion was of Joel.  Unique in all the earth for his righteousness.  Blameless before God.  This is NOT the case that Elihu is making.  In vvs 10,11, Elihu quotes Job's position that for some unknown reason, God has declared Job his enemy, and then Elihu, beginning in 12, disputes this.  Elihu's point is that there is a reason, and that God is telling Job what it is, but perhaps not in the way Job expects.  Elihu says the reason may have been revealed in a dream or vision, and that Job just didn't  understand the connection.  Or that: 19 "Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, [Job 33:19 ESV], so that perhaps an angel, one of "the thousand", will appeal to God on this man's behalf and offer a ransom for the suffering he endures, so that God will heal him.  Where does Elihu get this kind of information?  I am unaware of anything like this.  Who are these "thousand"?  MSB says these verses are Elihu saying that God never acts "whimsically", but allows suffering as chastening.  Well...isn't this exactly what Job's friends have been saying all along, and Elihu says they were wrong to say it?  And hasn't Job said all along that it is NOT this, because he, Job, has no sin in his life to be chastened for?  Is Elihu really as "unconventional" as he thinks he is, or like most young people, does he just think what he's saying is new, when it is really just the same philosophy rephrased?  MSB totally ignores the reference to "one of the thousand".  This looks to me like Elihu is spouting heresy here.  Dreams and visions or special angels should be consulted to understand God's reasons.  But he still thinks there is a problem in Job's life that explains all this.  He is offering "mystery religion" instead of the spiritually based - but wrong in this case - logic of Eliphaz, Bildad, and that other guy.  No.  Elihu is in Job to show that neither the old and wise nor the young and confident could offer any consolation to Job.  The reason they could not is because Job was correct.  Nothing that was happening to him was deserved.  It was purposefully unjust in every way.  And that was the point!
2022 - Elihu is into some kind of special mediation.  If God won't talk to you, though he has something against you, then that means God's message to you was not understood.  He won't tell you again, so you have to find an "angel/mediator", who DOES understand because angels are higher than men, to speak with God on your behalf.  That angel has to "take you under his wing", though he is not required to do so.  The angel can "pay your ransom", which surely indicates his position as your mediator, and so satisfy God to let you off the hook you are squirming on.  This is what Elihu is preaching.  No.  Elihu is a young fool in my opinion, who has no more understanding of what is going on than the three older friends have.  I suggest that this procedure of Elihu's is akin to today's "name it claim it" theology.  All that is lacking is for Elihu to offer to place Job in touch with one of the thousand, since he (Elihu) is linked right up with them.

Chapter 34
Elihu is not done yet, and continues into this chapter.  This verse:
5 For Job has said, 'I am in the right, and God has taken away my right; 6 in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.' [Job 34:5-6 ESV]
This is indeed what Job has been saying, and what his friends have been unsuccessfully trying to refute.

10 "Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. [Job 34:10 ESV]
Elihu is on target here, like him or not.  God can do what he wants, and is not subject to our attempted judgements.  If Job is right, and in his own eyes sinless, then Job is counted a scoffer (vs. 7), and his friends, in agreeing that there is a "vettable" justification - there just has to be, else God is in the wrong - are evil men.  They have all elevated themselves to God's level by thinking that they can discern right and wrong and that they can comprehend always and every way that God works.  Job takes his place as God's judge by saying God is being unfair to him.  The friends take the place of God by saying that God wouldn't be doing this is there wasn't sin in Job's life because they know God wouldn't do this  unless there was sin.  They all presume upon God's position as sovereign in all things - and always right whether we understand it or not.

2021 - The whole point is that Satan's excuse for his rebellion against God is that God treated him unjustly.  Job is being treated unjustly, by Satan, with God's leave.  Despite the injustice, Job has not rebelled against God.  He is questioning him, he wants an explanation and so on, but Job has not rebelled and opposed God in any way.  

But he persists in saying the same thing, although more aggressively, that the three friends were saying(last year...):
11 For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him. 12 Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. [Job 34:11-12 ESV]
(This year, 2020, Elihu says that whatever is happening is just.  Whether they  understand it or not, it is just.  Whether it is about sin or not, it is just.  Whether it is about earth or heaven, it is just.)  The paragraph ends with this correct conclusion:
14 If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, 15 all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust. [Job 34:14-15 ESV]
God can justifiably wipe the planet clean, and be just and wise in doing so - because a just and wise God can do only what is just and wise.  Vs 13 set this up when it points out that no one gave the planet and its people to God.  God created.  It is all His to do with as he likes.
(I have read Job four times before, and missed this every time.  I would have missed it this time but for Dwight's five minutes after Sunday School class that day.)
In 16-20 Elihu talks about God's position relative to man's - far above.  He makes and breaks kings.  He is just to both the rich and the poor.  And all are His to do with as He wills.
2020 - No...I think I'm off here.  The point was injustice.  Satan was in charge of Job's life, and was dishing out injustice right and left.  God was not doing it at all.  God was making an important point, for all men, for all eternity - a point important enough to allow injustice toward a single human being for a short period of time.  Even in the face of injustice, He is still God, and He does what He thinks best.  In this case, He allowed complete and utter injustice.  Elihu is hitting all around it, but Elihu also misses the point.  
2023 - Isn't Elihu saying here the very same things the three old men have been saying, and isn't he expressing the same "understanding" of how God works that Job is expressing?  Elihu's difference seems, this year anyway, to be a matter of degree.  Elihu is only saying that even a tiny sin is justification for the things Job is suffering, and yet here is Job unwilling to admit any sin at all.  Everyone in the story is saying the same thing.  vs. 12 repeats the position for emphasis.  They have ALL put God in similar boxes.  They all believe in justice on earth...and all this young man is saying is that it doesn't take much of a sin to deserve severe retribution from God.

And then this jewel from Elihu:
23 For God has no need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment. [Job 34:23 ESV]
There isn't going to be a trial with any evidence presented.  God has seen everything that has taken place, and even knows the heart of men.  Job will not get his day in court, because God already knows.

(2020 - For all have sinned...The point Elihu is making is that all deserve what Job is getting.  But God is merciful and does not require this of us all, else what a miserable place, a miserable life, a miserable creation we would have had after the fall.  Anything "better" than what Job is suffering is pure mercy from God.  And as Elihu said earlier, there will have to be a mediator, a better creature than man can claim to be, that pleads our case with God, else we all will suffer as Job and even worse.  This very young man figured all this out while his pompous elders sat around claiming to be wise enough to know everything there was to know about how the world worked.  Job and his friends weren't really inquiring of God, they "already knew" all about him.  Now this young man comes and says they cannot possibly know, and are arrogant all in their inquiries.)

(This from last year is all wrong.  I misunderstood entirely.  Perhaps I too am too wise in my own eyes...Elihu goes on and is very accusatory, not speaking with tact or wisdom at all.  He accuses Job of lying as a wicked man lies about whether he has sinned.  Elihu still thinks there is sin that Job refuses to acknowledge or confess.  He says that though Job won't admit it, God still sees it because neither Job, nor anyone else, can have a sin that is secret from God.  Elihu believes it is this sin that Job is being chastened for.)

36 Would that Job were tried to the end, because he answers like wicked men. [Job 34:36 ESV]
Sort of a summary statement for the chapter.  Elihu says Job should suffer until he dies because he is lying to everyone about his righteousness.
NO!  That is not what Elihu is saying.  He is saying that Job is looking for an instance of sin that has brought all this suffering on him.  Elihu is saying that there is much sin in Job's life - from beginning to now - and that any one single sin, any impurity, any misstep - is enough to justify the punishment he is receiving from a Holy God.  And remember the initial point - God tells Satan that even if Job does receive what he deserves on earth, whether from God directly or through the "allowance" God gives to Satan to cause suffering - that Job will remain faithful.  Looking at this now, Job is on the very edge of faithful here in his questioning of God.  That's why so many of Jobs previous statements seemed "dangerous" to me to be asking.  Elihu says it this way:
37 For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God." [Job 34:37 ESV]
If there was no sin before, there most certainly is now.  And perhaps it was to root out this sin - rebellion - that all this has happened.  Sometimes God works this way.

Oh my...this is a principle that we don't often hear.  Perhaps our suffering is to make us question God, and show us that arrogance toward Him is hidden deep in our souls, and only through this kind of suffering can it be rooted out.  God had a purpose for Job in the suffering he allowed Satan to impose on him.

Chapter 35
And still, Elihu continues to speak.  Once he got done waiting on the old guys, he made up for lost time.
He turns now to Job's contention that he might as well have sinned and sinned again if he was gong to be punished like this anyway.  Elihu asks him what difference it would have made to God, no matter which way he did thing?  Do Job's sins - or lack of them - make God's day or upset Him greatly?  No.  Such sins affect only Job.  And what if Job was super righteous?  How does that affect God?  Again, it won't change things.  God already knew, and God's plans would continue undeterred no matter how awesome Job's life.

Hmm...The note in MSB on 35:1-16 ends with this:  "Again, all this theoretical talk missed Job's predicament completely because he was righteous.  Elihu was no more help than the other counselors."
I am not so sure of this...Just as some of the things Job asked God make me cringe at the thought of how God might reply, I think Elihu saw Job's questions and request for "trial" as disrespectful and not very mindful of who it was that he was addressing.  My thought is that there was some sin in Job's life - his pride in how righteous he was - and that God is getting at that through this unearned punishment.  Job thinks that he is righteous enough all on his own to be treated well and only well by God.  I think this is a sinful, prideful attitude, and I think Job is going to come out the other side of this with an attitude that has been adjusted.  BUT, MSB position is that Job truly had not sinned, and therefore has a right to ask pointed questions of God.  

2022 - No.  Job had a problem.  Job was sorely tempted because he did not see that he was in fact a sinner before a Holy God.  There was no law to transgress, but sin was still there.  Man is born corrupt, born deserving of death, and born sentenced to death.  A sentence we cannot overcome on our own.  Elihu also negates Job's argument that he might as well be bad instead of good because the bad are better off than him.  And Elihu says that God is no more offended by the evil that men do than he is impressed by the good that men do.  It seems that what is in view here is the truly diminutive position of man in relation to God.  To assume that God acts BECAUSE of, and in response to either our good or our evil is to make ourselves far greater than we really are.  We are fleas on dogs on our best days.
Possible FB post, following up the one from 34.

2023 - These two verses:
2 "Do you think this to be just? Do you say, 'It is my right before God,' 3 that you ask, 'What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?' [Job 35:2-3 ESV].  I have to go strongly with Elihu here.  He is on the right track.  Is Elihu's speech written purposely to have "nuggets" of incite, yet still come across as the rambling of a young man, with much still to learn?  Is it on purpose that he gets some things right, but still rolls up some really immature ideas with them?  This would mean the book of Job, and Elihu's speech in particular, needs a lot of thought, a lot of distilling to get down to the parts that are indeed wisdom instead of just youthful misunderstanding.
What is "right" in this verse is that it is in tune with Jeremiah's "Will the thing formed say to the one how formed it "Why have you made me thus?".   No matter what, God as our creator has the right to treat us any way he wishes.  It is for him to just "stop the world and kick everyone off" if he chooses.  It is so dangerous to thing we have a right to question God - that even a good man can question God.  
2023 - And this verse:
6 If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? 7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand? [Job 35:6-7 ESV].  This too seems like really good insight to me.  If you are the world's worst sinner does that harm God?  If you are the world's best man, is that a gift that obligates God?  Nothing we do can hurt God or help him.  In this sense, all are the same.  This ought to be expandable into a good post, at least if the previous 2023 is also included...
Possible FB post.

Chapter 36
Elihu goes on...and on...and on...
This verse:
2 "Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God's behalf. [Job 36:2 ESV]
Really?  This young man now presumes to speak for God?  Perhaps it is not Job's pride but Elihu's that we should note?
And he follows this up with personal pride:
4 For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you. [Job 36:4 ESV]
He thinks he is perfect in knowledge???  At his age?
2021 - The first "millennial", perhaps?

Elihu says this:
9 then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. [Job 36:9 ESV]
This seems to me to be the crux of what Elihu is saying.  He thinks Job has too much pride, and that Job's questioning of God is the evidence of that pride.  I can see this point...unless Job was without sin.  But he could not have been because he was a man!  (Job 1:8 though.  Calls him blameless.)
As he goes on, though, Elihu does state the same principle they've been arguing for the whole book.  Elihu says repentance will bring relief, and that stubborn refusal to admit one's wrong will lead to further punishment.  But we know that what is happening to Job is not punishment.  It is at the very least a test of his faith - hmm, or a proof of the faith that God already knew he had.  I don't think that the ONLY thing God is doing here is proving a point to Satan.  I think Job also gains from all this in the end.  God uses it for good.  Job's faith will be even stronger, his pride far less, as a result of this "proving".

MSB says this about chapter 36:
"Elihu had agreed with his 3 co-counselors that Job had sinned, if nowhere else, in the way he questioned God, by seeing his suffering as indicating God is unjust, and by feeling that righteousness had no reward."  This I agree with.  Where I think I would disagree with MSB is that I think Elihu was right about Job's sin.  He hadn't sinned to bring on the punishment, but his reaction to that punishment seems to have exposed some underlying problems - mostly Job's pride in his own righteousness.  But if I am right, why is Job mentioned with Daniel and Noah as the best examples of faith the Bible has to offer?

Yeah...my guess is that I am wrong...but...We'll see in the rest of the book.

2021 - The whole point, I see now, this year, is that the things happening to Job are unjust.  The whole point is that we are to have faith, even when we are treated unjustly, even when God allows us to be treated unjustly.   In vss 1-12, Elihu basically espouses the same "way things work" as the three friends did.  Good people get blessings, bad people get punished.  But Job demonstrated previously that if you look around at the world, this is NOT the rule.  It happens sometimes.  Sometimes it is just the opposite of this.  Faith is the only constant.

Chapter 37
Elihu still speaks...
He extols the power of God in the world and the universe.  He lifts God up, and tries to describe how far beyond the ways and understanding of man God really is.  And this verse:
13 Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. [Job 37:13 ESV]
What a fine summary of the ways of God. If he controls nature itself to accomplish His purposes, and we don't have a clue as to the why of those, how can we expect to understand all that He does with us?

2021 - Elihu calls the lightning portents of God's judgment, and the thunder that follows is the voice of God.  So Elihu is all about interpreting dreams, about the 1000 guardian angels, and now hears God's voice in the thunder.  He is young, and I think he has a lot to learn.  But like the first three, he has some things right.  God is above all, unquestionable by mankind, maker of wind and rain and storm, beyond our reach.  It is not, and is never for us to question Him.

I see that tomorrow, God will answer Job.  Job does not answer Elihu, as we might expect, but instead, God speaks next.  Surely this says something about the "insightful words" of Elihu?
2021 - Elihu certainly goes on and on once he decides to explain to his elders, and to Job, what is really going on.  He gets lots of chapters all to himself.  But it is interesting that Job doesn't even answer him directly, as he has his three friends previously.
2021 - Read these verses from Prov 2 today, on 9/2:
21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. [Pro 2:21-22 ESV]  Surely this is exactly the philosophy of Bildad and Eliphaz and Zophar.  The good do well, the evil suffer.  Interesting that Solomon is a possible author of Job - and I have seen many lines that are reminiscent of Proverbs, but here is the whole philosophy of the three friends in one place.  Perhaps Solomon was intrigued by the story of Job because he knew that things do not always work out like these two verses say they do.  Perhaps the whole book of Job is Solomon's exploration of this discrepancy between how a perfect world ruled by a perfect God over perfect men would work as opposed to the demonstrable exceptions to this rule.  The three friends were on the mark with how it ought to be.  Job, though, is about how it is not always that way, because there is something more important than justice in the earth.  Faith in God in all circumstances is the most fundamental fact.

Chapter 38
Elihu has finished speaking, finally, after about four chapters.  He said a lot of things that I thought were right on target.  I agreed with him that Job's words - Job's challenge to God to let him stand before him and make his case - bordered on impertinent.  I agreed that Job was not sinless.  I agreed that whether Job chose right or wrong for his life would have no effect at all on what God does, plans, or allows.  And now, in 38, it is not Job who answers Elihu, but in a sense, God picks up where Elihu left off.  God is finally going to respond to Job.

2023 - God answers Job out of the whirlwind...but he did not answer Elijah out of it.  Was that part of God's message to Elijah...that he wasn't Job despite his high opinion of himself?  Look at this collection:  6 you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. [Isa 29:6 ESV].  Didn't Elijah see all of these, and the Lord was in none of them?  I'm off on a tangent...but maybe it's not a tangent at all...Here is the relevant story from Elijah.  
11 And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. [1Ki 19:11-12 ESV].  Looks like the root word is different.  All these uses of "wind" in 1Ki are from "ru-ah".  Strong's 7307.  The whirlwind in Job is "sa-ar", Strong's 5591.  Sa-ar is used in 2Kgs of the "wind" that took Elijah up to heaven.  Stands to reason that the same writer who chose ru-ah for the wind on the mountain chose sa-ar for the wind that took Elijah up.  There is a really interesting word study here...for another day.  I did note that the wind on the mountain - ru-ah - is often referencing the moving of a spirit where sa-ar is of a storm, a tempest, that sort of thing.  So in 1Ki, the ru-ah, though rending the mountain in pieces, is not called a storm...it even says there that the Lord was passing by.  We might see then that the mountain was broken up not by the wind but by the power of God as he passed by, though he said nothing as he passed.  I think the wind in Job was a bona fide storm, as in everyone was cowering before it as God spoke from it.

Here is what is coming:
3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. [Job 38:3 ESV]
"Gird up your loins..."
So.  God is NOT going to answer Job's charges, but instead, God has some questions to put to Job.
Several verses here that I really like:
5 Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? [Job 38:5 ESV]  The earth's measurements are in view.  It's size and density put it in the sweet spot of the sun, keep it orbiting there, make eclipses work as they do, and tides as they do.  Everything about how the earth is put together is so far unique in our knowledge of the universe.

2023 - This verse:
7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? [Job 38:7 ESV].  Here is that phrase "sons of God" again.  They were already present when God laid the cornerstone of the earth.  This says they were immortal.  So the sons of God just about have to be angels.  We do not know whether at the time the earth was founded these angels had already rebelled with Satan...but I think it is a pretty good bet.  So all that stuff about the giants would be best understood, in my opinion, as some kind of demonic breeding program to manipulate God's creation to an extreme end.  Angels would have had such knowledge.

11 and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'? [Job 38:11 ESV]
Why is it that the most continuous erosive force on the planet - the ocean's waves - don't gradually reduce the amount of land available until the whole planet is water?  There is enough volume in the deep oceans to hold all the sediment so produced, and the water would still be above.  If it takes billions of years to evolve men, then why did the water not flood the planet in that amount of time.  You can't have it both ways.  Has a study ever been done on this?

17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? [Job 38:17 ESV]
Spoken of as true physical gates.  One way gates.  There in Job's time, still there in ours, and to this day we have no inkling of them.

2023 - Here is God's point, and this is the first of several times that we will see it repeated:
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this. [Job 38:18 ESV].  
This is really the whole point of Job.  You cannot question God because you are NOT in his league!  What man knows, as creature created, is a trifle compared to God.  Where then do we find the right to question anything that he does or allows and condones?  We have no standing to question God.  But how amazing that we are allowed to ASK Him for anything that we want!

21 You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! [Job 38:21 ESV]
Is it sarcasm still when it is God who says it?  

The whole point of all this is to remind Job - and all of us - just how piddling tiny small nothings we are in the whole scheme of things.  This is the creator of all things talking.  He is the One who made it all work the way it does, in harmony and not chaos, with metes and bounds to everything.  He made the world with cause and effect in place so that it would be the only "perpetual motion" machine ever created.  And it will only stop when the original inventor decides to stop it.  

2023 - Vss 22,23...snow and hail reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle.  Does this say God "invented" these as tools of correction in his relationship with man?  Does it say that's always what we ought to understand from them?
2023 - And these!
28 "Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? 29 From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? 30 The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. [Job 38:28-30 ESV].  Look at the point made here!!!  There are countless things in the universe that not only are not invented by man, but are in fact beyond his comprehension.  And yet man questions the one who invented them and made them work in harmony with all these other things.  Man is tiny.  That is the point.

31 "Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? 32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? [Job 38:31-32 ESV]
The heavens work as the do because created them that way.  He understands how it all works.  Do you?
2023 - Are the "chains" made of gravity so the constellations hold their relationships as viewed from the earth?  Look at one of those star computers that can show you what the sky looked like in Job's time.  This says Orion and the Pleiades were known and recognized in Job's time, and they had been named long before then.  

2021-
These verses from Proverbs surely go right along with this chapter:
19 The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; 20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew. [Pro 3:19-20 ESV]
I find it harder and harder to think anyone but Solomon wrote the book of Job.  
Vs 19 above goes with Job 38:4-7.  8-11 go with the first part of 20.  vs 28 goes with the last part of 20.  The whole of chapter 38 could be an expansion of these two verses in Proverbs.  It is interesting to see that Solomon considered these things about the natural world incomprehensible in his time, but worthy of study.  There are great questions in Job 38, many avenues for study.  And Solomon says knowledge like this is a worthy pursuit, not so one will be smarter and wiser, but so that one will understand the nature of the God who created it all, so we will appreciate just how truly beyond our comprehension God is.  How can we ever question him if we don't understand his creation.  Study, knowledge and wisdom help us to appreciate all the more just how infinite is God's knowledge.

Chapter 39
The questions continue.
First 4 verses are about the natural world that exists without man's help or knowledge.  Wild animals live and die, breed and give birth, all with the exacting knowledge of God, and with his provision for them, though man does not know them as individuals.

Verses 13-18 are about ostriches - specifically it seems - and give a detailed understanding of them that likely was far beyond what those in Job's time appreciated.  This verse:
16 She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear, 17 because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding. [Job 39:16-17 ESV]
Not just "what" she does, but "why" she is that way.  Because God made her that way.

Chapter 40
God is still talking in verses 1,2, Job answers in 3-5.
Job answers that he won't answer.
God talks again, out of the whirlwind.  It said that the first time He spoke also.  Out of the whirlwind.  I note that both times God has spoken he has spoken out of the whirlwind.  Not sure if this is literal or symbolic, but there is a location the voice comes from.  Job is not "hearing voices".
Also, for the second time, God tells Job to gird up his loins, like a man.  To get ready for action.

God challenges Job to "adorn himself with majesty".  Also to abase the proud in his anger, and to tread down the wicked.  God is saying that it is He who is judge and jury and executioner in the world, and that unless Job sets himself up as an equal in these matters, then on what basis does he question the Almighty.

Next God describes Behemoth, created by God as was Job.  This is some large herbivore but we don't know exactly which one.  In vs 19 God says this:
19 "He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword! [Job 40:19 ESV]  Interesting that this giant land animal is called the first of the works of God.  The mightiest land animal that ever was in all of creation is how I would read this phrase.  Yet as impressive as this beast is, God provides food, water, and shade for it.  It depends on God alone for its life.  This beast is beyond any power of man, yet God feeds and waters it like a pet.  Can Job claim such ability?

Chapter 41
End of 40, beginning of 41 God describes two animals he has created, both awe-inspiring, both untameable, uncatchable, uncontrollable my man.  They are both huge, and man dare not stir them up.  The second is called Leviathan - a creature of the sea.  So God is pointing out the largest and most impressive land animal and the most spectacular sea animal.  Leviathan could be a whale.  Or a Pleisiosaur, and it could also be that Behemoth is an apatosaurus.  Or it could just be a big buffalo and a big fish.  After the long description of these two giant beasts, God ends with:
10 ...Who then is he who can stand before me? [Job 41:10b ESV]

Dad showed me these descriptions once, in the days when we argued about evolution.  The land beast sounds like an apatosaurus.  It is a huge plant eating animal.  The other sounds like a swimming reptile or scaled fish of great size.  The description says it's scales are so tight that air cannot get between them.  He seems to be able to breathe fire, and smoke comes from his nostrils.  A dragon?  Some more info about this swimming beast:

31 He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired. 33 On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. [Job 41:31-33 ESV]

2022 - Sounds like a dragon that swims, instead of flies.  Or maybe it does both, but the idea of dragons in the water, causing it to boil, is unlike any dragon legend I've ever heard about.  Ought to do some research on that.  Ancient depictions of them ever show them standing in water?

Chapter 42
Job answers:
3 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. [Job 42:3 ESV]
Job only speaks for 6 verses, and repents that he offered to debate with God about these things that have happened to him.
2022 - So there was some pride in Job.  He spoke rashly to the living God and was wrong to question anything that God did or that God allowed.  Maybe the trial was in fact, as I guessed earlier, to reveal the pride deeply rooted in Job's heart.  That's my post for tomorrow, and this is the verse that goes with it.

God speaks again, this time to Job's friends.  He rebukes them for speaking wrongly about Him and requires that they sacrifice 7 bulls.  He tells them that if Job will pray for them, He won't do to them what they deserve for their error.  God says they did not speak what was right, as Job did, making it very clear to them all that Job was right in all that he said about God, and they were wrong to accuse him.  

2022 - Was Job right, and the three of them wrong?  Or is the problem their misunderstanding of how God operates?  Weren't they wrong to put God in a box and think they could judge His actions as fair or unfair?  Job said he'd done nothing to bring this on.  Job was correct...but Job was not sinless, and perhaps in vs 3 we see the purpose for Job in all this that seemed completely unjust.  Hardship, especially unearned, can be about refinement, about purification.  It roots out sin no matter how deeply it was buried.  This was not about sin per se, but about attitude.

Elihu is not mentioned here.  What is the contrast between how Job has answered God, how he has approached God, and the approach of the three friends?  Job seems to have completely humbled himself - which is where Elihu indicated the purpose of all this could be found - and the friends continued to clam they knew God's ways, rather than admit that God's ways were beyond them.  

After Job has prayed for his friends - which he did not have to do - God restores to him twice what he previously had, including 7 sons and 3 daughters, and he lives 140 MORE years after all this happens, and sees four generations born after him.  It is like God gave him another lifetime entirely.  The daughters names were Jemimah, meaning day light, Keziah means sweet smelling, and Keren-happuch describes a beautiful color women used to paint their eyelids.  

2022 - Isn't it interesting that we are given so much information about these daughters, and none about the sons, as if Job took more pride in the girls, and this in the day when girls didn't seem to have much value.  It is a strange thing.

Such a lifespan would go back to Abraham's time or before...or it was a supernatural thing that God gave Job as restoration.  I note that Job's wife is not mentioned in this.  Was she also the mother of the 10 later children?  And Elihu is nowhere mentioned.

This is a long book, and I think that means it is important to understand the lessons it has.  One lesson is that we are not to question God, no matter how certain we are that we are being punished without cause.  No matter how faithful we are.  Because even if we were sinless, which we can never be, it is still an act of arrogant pride to "debate" with God.

LATER...2021....Found this while reading the Psalms:
22 For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. 23 I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt. 24 So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. 25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; 26 with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. 27 For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. [Psa 18:22-27 ESV]
David considers himself blameless before God.  Hmm...He sees his deliverance as a reward for his blamelessness...
Then he gives some "principals" that I do not believe are universal.  How much doctrine is there here?  There is certainly a lot that is not easily understood in one quick reading.
I believe I used these verses for a post about how we can know what kind of person we are by the way God deals with us.
Also, here we see from David the very same philosophy of how God works on earth that Job and his friends had.  Yet this would seem to be wrong.  Just the opposite of these principles also occurs.  Both happen.  But here is a good example of how prevalent the belief that life is fair can be.