5. The Prologue: Job 12

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5. The Prologue Job 1-2
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Introduction

• 1. "The prologue begins (1.3) and ends (2.13) on
  the theme of Job's greatness. Whereas his earlier
  greatness is one of moral stature and material
  prosperity, his latter greatness is measured in
  terms of physical and existential anguish."
  Janzen, 31
• 2. "The prologue itself is emblematic of the
  structure of the book as a whole. An almost
  completely narrative introduction (1.1-5) is
  followed by several largely dialogical scenes
  (1.6-2.10), and these dialogues are followed by
  a narrative conclusion (2.11-13). The dialogical
  scenes in the prologue, however, transpire on two
  levels, heaven and earth." Janzen, 32

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Introduction

• 3. . . . the design of the prologue narrative
  introduces major issues of the book of Job as a
  whole the doctrine of reward and retribution,
  the arbitrary nature of God's ways, the innocent
  suffering of a man of integrity, the nature of
  evil and the human condition, the purpose of life
  and the dilemma of death. Habel, The Book of
  Job, 85

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• A 11 Summary statement of Jobs life
• B 12 Children seven sons and three daughters
• C 13 Livestock
• D 14 Feast with family
• E 15 Sacrificed for family
• F 18 My servant Job (2x)
• F' 427 My servant Job (4x)
• E' 428-9 Sacrificed and prayed for friends
• D' 4211 Feast with family and neighbors
• C' 4212 Livestock doubled
• B' 4213-15 Children seven sons and three
  daughters
• A' 4217 Summary statement of Jobs life

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Earthly Stage 1.1-5 1.1

• There was a man in the land of Uz
• First verse as caption, or title statement
  without narrative markings.
• A vague land in the distant East is more
  intriguing as the abode of an ancient hero than a
  familiar town just across the river Jordan in
  Edom. Habel, The Book of Job, 86
• The name Job
• A-ya-ah Where is my father?
• )yb to display enmity

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Earthly Stage 1.1-5 1.1

• That man was blameless and upright, one who
  feared God and turned away from evil.
• Blameless and upright focuses on moral integrity
• Who feared God religious
• Turned from evil perfect devotion to God by
  means of moral fortitude

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Earthly Stage 1.1-5 1.2-3

• Seven sons and three daughters were born to him
• . . . his possessions were seven thousand sheep,
  three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen
  and five hundred she-asses, and a very large
  household.
• That man was wealthier than anyone in the East.

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Earthly Stage 1.1-5 1.4-5

• It was the custom of his sons to hold feasts,
  each on his set day in his own home. . . .
• When a round of feast days was over, Job would
  send word to them to sanctify themselves, and,
  rising early in the morning, he would make burnt
  offerings, one for each of them for Job thought,
  "Perhaps my children have sinned and blasphemed
  God in their thoughts." This is what Job always
  used to do.

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Heavenly Stage 1.6-12 1.6

• heavenly beings sons of God
• Pss 82 29.1 29.7
• Gen 6.1-4
• Deut 32.43 LXX
• Mesopotamia Ugarit
• the Adversary the satan (hassatan)
• Zech 3.1-2
• 1 Chron 21.1
• Num 22.22, 32

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Heavenly Stage 1.6-12 1.7-8

• Yahweh says . . .
• "Where have you been?" The Adversary answered the
  LORD, "I have been roaming all over the earth.
• "Have you noticed My servant Job? There is no one
  like him on earth, a blameless and upright man
  who fears God and shuns evil!
• mark set your mind upon
• My servant language

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Heavenly Stage 1.6-12 1.9-11

• The Adversary answered the LORD, "Does Job not
  have good reason to fear God? Why, it is You who
  have fenced him round, him and his household and
  all that he has. You have blessed his efforts so
  that his possessions spread out in the land. But
  lay Your hand upon all that he has and he will
  surely blaspheme You to Your face.
• The Satan thereby not only signals doubt about
  Jobs piety as an individual but also questions a
  basic tenet of a wisdom theology which assumes an
  inevitable nexus between reward and
  righteousness. Righteousness is the result of
  divine blessings, not vice versa. Habel, The
  Book of Job, 90

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Heavenly Stage 1.6-12 1.9-11

• The disturbing question was not primarily that
  of undeserved suffering, but that of genuine
  piety and authentic devotion. They did not ask,
  with Habakkuk and the psalmists, "Why do the
  righteous suffer?" but rather, "Is there on earth
  a man faithful to God for the sake of God?" In
  spite of the traditional statements to the
  contrary, the primary and essential question of
  the book of Job is not theodicy, but true
  worship. Terrien, IB, CD-Rom Edition

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Heavenly Stage 1.6-12 1.9-11

• "Using imperatives as though he were ordering
  Yahweh, he sought to force Yahweh to test Job. He
  argued that if Yahweh would stretch out his hand
  and strike all that Job had, Job would surely
  curse Yahweh to his face. The self-serving basis
  of Job's loyalty would be revealed." Hartley,
  The Book of Job, 73

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Heavenly Stage 1.6-12 1.12

• See, all that he has is in your power only do
  not lay a hand on him.
• God does not put forth his own hand against Job,
  as Satan has suggested, since he does not need to
  be convinced. But he permits Satan to satisfy
  himself of the reality and disinterestedness of
  Jobs piety. Rowley, The Book of Job, 31
• The single issue at stake was the motivation for
  Job's upright behavior and his fear of God. The
  Satan functions as God's servant, solely an
  instrument in the testing. The author holds to a
  pure monotheism where in God is ultimately
  responsible for all that happens." Hartley, The
  Book of Job, 74

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Earthly Stage 1.13-21

• 1.131.18-19 The sons and daughters introduced,
  but narratologically their deaths are delayed.
• Sabeans
• Fire of God fell from heaven
• Chaldeans
• Great wind came across the desert

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Earthly Stage 1.13-211.20-21

• Then Job arose, tore his robe, cut off his hair,
  and threw himself on the ground and worshiped.
• He said, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
  and naked shall I return there the LORD has
  given, and the LORD has taken away blessed be
  the name of the LORD."

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Earthly Stage 1.13-211.22

• For all that, Job did not sin nor did he cast
  reproach on God.
• Tipla4h - tastelessness

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Heavenly Stage 2.1-62.1-3

• The LORD said to the Adversary, "Have you
  noticed My servant Job? There is no one like him
  on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears
  God and shuns evil.
• He still keeps his integrity so you have
  incited Me against him to destroy him for no good
  reason.
• without cause God picks up the very word that
  Satan had used in 1.9, but in a different sense.
  Satan had said Job did not serve God hinna4m
  God now says that Satan incited him against Job
  hinna4m. Rowley, The Book of Job, 34

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Heavenly Stage 2.1-62.4-5

• Skin for skin -- all that a man has he will give
  up for his life.
• But lay a hand on his bones and his flesh, and
  he will surely blaspheme You to Your face.
• Since the bones were considered the seat of
  illness (e.g., Lam 1.13), the Satan had in mind a
  debilitating disease, one that would threaten
  Job's very life. He believed that if Job's body
  became sorely afflicted, he would surely curse
  God to his face. Job would exchange his fear of
  God for a healthy life." Hartley, The Book of
  Job, 81

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Heavenly Stage 2.1-62.6

• So the LORD said to the Adversary, "See, he is
  in your power only spare his life.
• Ironically, Job later asserts that Gods
  watching activities are a sinister search for
  wrongs that prove Job has violated his integrity
  (10.13-14 13.27 33.11). Without knowing, Job
  accuses God of playing the spying role of Satan,
  while the Satan is expected to play the role of
  God by protection Job. Habel, The Book of Job,
  95

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Earthly Stage 2.7-102.7-8

• The Adversary departed from the presence of the
  LORD and inflicted a severe inflammation on Job
  from the sole of his foot to the crown of his
  head.
• Elephantiasis, foul pox, scurvy and pellagra,
  boils?
• He took a potsherd to scratch himself as he sat
  in ashes.

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Earthly Stage 2.7-102.9

• His wife said to him, "You still keep your
  integrity! Blaspheme God and die!
• "Trag. names Job's wife Dinah, based on the
  connection that Dinah also acted foolishly (Gen
  34.1-10). In the Testament of Job, Job's wife is
  named Sitis." Hartley, The Book of Job, 83
• LXX Job 29 And when much time had passed, his
  wife said to him, How long wilt thou hold out,
  saying, Behold, I wait yet a little while,
  expecting the hope of my deliverance? for,
  behold, thy memorial is abolished from the earth,
  even thy sons and daughters, the pangs and pains
  of my womb which I bore in vain with sorrows and
  thou thyself sittest down to spend the nights in
  the open air among the corruption of worms, and I
  am a wanderer and a servant from place to place
  and house to house, waiting for the setting of
  the sun, that I may rest from my labours and my
  pangs which now beset me but say some word
  against the Lord, and die.

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Earthly Stage 2.7-102.10

• But he said to her, "You talk as any shameless
  woman might talk! Should we accept only good from
  God and not accept evil?" For all that, Job said
  nothing sinful.
• foolish
• "The lips express a person's deepest thoughts
  (cf. Prov 18.4). Consequently when one strives
  for moral purity they are the hardest member to
  bring under control. They are obstinate to
  discipline. That is why the Wisdom tradition
  taught that the one who controls his speech has
  his whole life in focus (Prov 13.3 21.23 cf.
  Jas 3.2). Therefore to say that Job did not sin
  with his lips is to state unequivocally that Job
  did not commit the slightest error." Hartley,
  The Book of Job, 84

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Conclusion 2.11-13

• Jobs Three friends Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad
  the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite
• The term for friends has a wide range of
  meanings, including an intimate counselor (1 Chr.
  27.33), a close friend (Deut 13.7), a party in a
  legal dispute (Exod 22.8). Hartley, 85
• They met together to go and console and comfort
  him.
• They sat with him on the ground seven days and
  seven nights. None spoke a word to him for they
  saw how very great was his suffering.

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