Composition and Main Idea of the Book of Job. The book of Job, consisting of 42 chapters, is divided into five parts: the prologue — chapters I–II; Job's conversations with friends — III–XXXI; Elihu's speeches — XXXII–XXXVII; the Lord's discourses — XXXVIII–XLII:6; Epilogue — XLII:7–36. Of these, the prologue contains, as in any drama, the beginning of the action, the three-time renewed dispute between Job and his friends. Not leading to the resolution of the cause of his sufferings, since the disputants remained in their views, it is nearing its end, thanks to the speeches of Elihu's younger friend: they caused the intervention of the Lord, accompanied by the denouement of the action in the epilogue. In such a framework is inserted the content of the book. Job, revealing the main idea that the sufferings of the righteous, constituting a manifestation of the struggle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (prologue), are at the same time indicators of its results, the final triumph of truth, the victory of good over evil. Stricken by Satan's slander with all kinds of disasters, Job remains faithful to God in the face of material deprivations (I:21-22; II:10), does not betray Him even when he is subjected to temptations of a spiritual nature. They consist in the possibility of losing faith in God as a just being, in renouncing Him. And indeed, Job is close to a similar state. In moments of the greatest excitement, the highest despair, he presents God as an arbitrary being, destroying the equally right and the guilty (IX:22-24), supporting the evildoers and the wicked (XII:6-10; XXI:1–16). The Almighty, Who does not tolerate and does not accept objections, the Lord (IX:4-12) violates the truth in relation to individuals and entire nations. The divine wisdom that governs their destinies is manifested and manifested in various kinds of catastrophes that lead to the destruction of entire nations (XII:16-25). For Job, such a view of the divine rule of the world is tantamount to a rejection of the previous religious worldview, one of the main points of which was the idea of God as a just being (XXIX:1-5). But it is impossible to renounce what the soul has become related to, what made up its life, its cherished convictions, without a struggle. The mind and heart of the sufferer do not reconcile themselves to the new idea of God, which has been formed under the influence of suffering and especially conversations with friends. The latter longs to see in God a merciful, just Judge (XIV:13-15; XXIII:3–7); reason comes to his aid, inventing a whole series of considerations with the help of which Job tries to justify God's attitude towards him, to present Him as a just being (X:2-12). As a result of such a struggle, faith overcomes doubt (XVI:19; XIX:25–27). Job justifies his own words that "the righteous will hold fast to his way, and the pure with his hands will be strengthened more and more" (XVII:9). By virtue of the age-old struggle between good and evil, the sufferings of the righteous, the representatives of truth, are inevitable. As a fact of their personal, subjective life, they find justification, reparation in their results, in the strengthening of the righteous in goodness: "I would be strengthened in my merciless sickness, for I have not rejected the sayings of the Holy One" (VI:10).

Authenticity of the Book of Job. Biblical isagogic literature does not know an example of denying the authenticity of the entire book of Job. Only certain parts are questioned: the prologue (I, II), the epilogue (XLII:7-17), Job's discourse on divine wisdom with a preceding discourse on the punishment of the wicked (XXVII:7 and d. XXVIII), the description of the hippopotamus and the leviathan (XL:10-XLI), and, finally, the discourses of Elihu (XXXII-XXVII).

The authenticity of the prologue and epilogue are rejected primarily on the main ground that, unlike the rest of the book, they are written in prose. But if, as Keil justly remarked, the middle of the book without a historical introduction and conclusion would be a torso without head and legs, then, on the other hand, the prologue and epilogue written in prose have an unmistakably poetic character. This is vouched for by the proportionality in the calculation of animals (I:3), the description of the heavenly council (I:6), and the poetic parallelism in Job's speech (I:21). Another given for the negation of the prologue and epilogue is the supposed contradiction of their idea to the book. While she expresses her own special, profound view of suffering, the author of the introduction, especially the conclusion, adheres to the usual Old Testament (Moses) theory of retribution. But as for the prologue, the teaching contained in it about the mysteriousness of Job's sufferings (the heavenly council is unknown to him and his friends) is an indisputable indication that when compiling it, the author took into account the views of the book on this subject. The epilogue, indeed, carries out the Mosaic theory of retribution and applies it to Job. But this is explained by the fact that Job's verbal justification alone without the return of earthly well-being is not able to satisfy the Old Testament man. Finally, as signs of the inauthenticity of the prologue and epilogue, the use of the divine name Jehovah in them is pointed out, which is not found in the poetic part, but is replaced by the names Elohim, Shaddai, the contradiction between I:18-19 and XIX:17, and the doctrine of Satan, a product of Persian influence. The first objection is based on a simple misunderstanding. The name Jehovah occurs twice in the poetic section (XII:9; XXVIII:28) and at least five times in the Lord's utterances (XXXVIII:1; XL:1, 3, 6; XIII:1). The more frequent use of the names Elohim and Shaddai in the speeches of Job and his friends is explained by the author's desire to convey to the whole action the flavor of the patriarchal, pre-Mosaic period, in view of which he avoids the name of the God of the covenant — Jehovah (cf. Exodus VI:3. I vol., p. 291). For the second objection, see the explanation of XIX:17 and the third, the end of the section of the Introduction, "On the time of the writing of Book II. Job."

The reason for denying the authenticity of XXVII:7 and so on and XXVIII is the apparent contradiction of their teaching with Job's basic views. In XXVII:7, etc., the sufferer himself expounds the very theory of retribution, the punishment of sinners, which he strenuously and persistently refutes in many speeches (see, e.g., XXI:7, etc.; XXIV). Ch. With the depiction of divine wisdom, incomprehensible to man, he seeks to arouse a feeling of humility before God, which does not correspond to Job's proud confidence in his rightness and the resulting unwillingness to repent (see, e.g., IX:21). But by acknowledging in XXVII:7 &c the fact of the divine punishment of sinners, Job wants to correct his former one-sided view, which amounts to the denial of Divine justice (see also the interpretation of these verses). It cannot be completely rejected, and at the same time it is impossible to deny the cases of impunity of sinners (XXI:7, etc.). In order to emphasize this idea, Job describes in Chapter XXVIII the divine wisdom that is incomprehensible to man: its activity in the distribution of happiness and misfortune in people's lives presents many mysterious things.

As interpolations, chapters XL:10 and d. and XLI constitute, according to Ewald, Meyer, Dielmann, and Fürst, the work of a sixth-century Jew who visited Egypt and described the two Nile animals. The following considerations serve as the basis for considering them a later insertion. (1) The meaning and purpose of Jehovah's utterances do not permit a description of animals in this passage. The visual through his depiction of divine omnipotence is appropriate in the first discourse, but not in the second, which reveals the idea of Divine Justice. 2) The very method of proving divine omnipotence does not achieve its goal. If all animals, including the hippopotamus and the crocodile, are subject to man (Genesis I:26), is it any wonder that they obey God? Secondly, the hippopotamus and the crocodile are Egyptian animals, unknown to the inhabitants of Palestine, and therefore the description of their power cannot produce a special impression, necessary in this case. (3) A lengthy description of animals is quite superfluous for the purposes of the second discourse, which is fully completed in XL:1-9. Conversely, XLI:26 does not constitute a conclusion, does not contain an indication of what Job must now answer (XLII:1&c).

As for the first objection, it overlooks the fact that the author is alien to the separation of divine omnipotence from justice. From the very first speech it is evident that the Almighty, Who by His power brings order and harmony into visible nature, is at the same time the Just. In the same way, the description of the two gigantic animals, the symbols of the evil one who rebels against the God of power, makes it clear that the almighty and all-righteous Lord humbles the manifestations of evil. The inappropriateness and weakness of the second objection is shown by the fact that, on the same grounds, we must suspect the authenticity of the description of earthquakes, eclipses of the sun (IX:5-6), the remarks about Orion (XXXVIII:31), etc.: not all the inhabitants of Palestine were witnesses of the first appearances, not everyone knows the location of the stars in the constellation of Orion (see commentary). The third objection is also invalid. If the Lord's second discourse had embraced the first nine verses of chapter XL, it would have been too brief in comparison with the first, and could not have aroused in Job a consciousness of his own insignificance and divine omnipotence (XLII:2). On the other hand, with the present composition of the book, it is perfectly prepared both by the remark of verses 2-3 of Chapter XL and by the final touches in the description of the crocodile (XLI:26).

The reasons on which the scholars, Eichhorn, De Wette, Schrader, Meyer, Ewald, Dielman, Davidson, Renan, and others, of the latest Leys, suspect the authenticity of Elihu's speeches are as follows. (1) Not a word is said about Elihu in the prologue or epilogue, and only three friends are mentioned in both cases. He speaks quite unexpectedly. In fact, the omission of Elihu in the prologue and epilogue does not constitute a proof that he was not with his friends, that this person was invented afterwards and inserted into the book by another writer. Elihu was young compared to his three friends, and he had come, in his own words, not to speak, but to listen to the speeches of his elders (XXXII:3–7). In view of this, the writer is silent about it until it becomes necessary to introduce it into the circle of actions. There is no mention of Elihu in the epilogue: he was not guilty for his speeches before God and Job. Divine wrath extends only to the three elder friends (XLII:7). (2) Elihu's utterances seem to forcibly break the connection between Job's last discourse and Jehovah's utterances. The introduction to these latter necessarily presupposes that Job spoke directly before the Lord, and the fragmentary end of his last speech (XXXI:33-40) is explained only by the fact that he was suddenly interrupted by Jehovah. But if the Lord's speech is directly related to the last speech of Job, and not to the words of Elihu, this does not mean that the latter are inserted later. God enters into a conversation with Job of his own free will (XXXI:35), and therefore His words must refer directly to the last speech of the sufferer. Moreover, Job was silent in the continuation of Elihu's speeches, according to which they stand quite apart, not like the speeches of the first three friends, of whom Job gave an answer to each. It is God who summons Job, who has fallen silent, to answer (XXXVIII:1). If he does not give an answer to his equal (XXXIII:4-7), can he contradict the Lord? The transition from Elihu's speeches to Jehovah's speeches is quite natural and clear. Externally, it is prepared by the fact that Elihu's last speech is delivered before the storm (XXXVII:2-4), and then the Lord appears in the storm. Finally, it is in vain to declare that Job's discourses are not finished, so that the Lord interrupts them. On the contrary, his last defense refers to everything he had previously said about his innocence, as a signature that seals the letter; It is the same as "tav," the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, used to testify to something (see Commentary. XXXI:35). (3) There is a sharp contrast between the lengthy introduction to Elihu's discourse (XXXII:2-6) and the brief remark about the arrival of the friends. The introduction to Elihu's speech is necessary to determine the personality of the new interlocutor, to clarify his attitude to the previous speakers. In them, he acts as an arbitrator between the disputants. Elihu tries to find out the mistakes that Job made in his speeches, and does not touch on the question of his sinfulness. And from this point of view he prepares the Lord's speeches, pointing out to the sufferer new errors in his judgments, which Elihu did not note. For this reason, in the introduction to Elihu's speeches, his wisdom is noted. (4) In accordance with Job's answer to the speeches of his friends, it is natural to expect that he will not leave Elihu's speech without objection, which, however, is not noticed. Job's silence is nothing special, given the contrast between the friends arguing with Job and Elihu, who stands above the party scores. His reasoning prepares the denouement of the action: in the denunciation of Job's wrong judgments, they indicate the way in which his faith can be supported. And if the author's purpose is to indicate how Job's doubts are resolved, how faith in God triumphs in him over doubt, and to this Elihu's speeches are directed, then it is strange to demand that he involve Job in a dispute with a new friend. This would mean delaying the resolution of the issue. 5) The inauthenticity of Elihu's speeches is proved, finally, by their Aramaic coloring and peculiarities in the syllable, the use of words and phrases unknown to the speeches of the rest of the friends. But the Aramaisms in Elihu's speeches are explained by his Aramaic origin from the generation of Buz (XXXII:2). A representative of a different tribe than his friends, Elihu speaks differently. That the author intentionally gave Elihu's speeches an Aramaic tinge is evident from the fact that it is noticeable only on two occasions (XXXII:6ff.; XXXVI:2&c).

THE BOOK OF JOB

Chapter I

1–5. Job's piety and complete prosperity as a reward for him. 6–12. The causes of Job's suffering. 13–19. The calamities that befell the righteous man. 20–22. The patience of the sufferer. 1. There was a man in the land of Uz, his name was Job; and this man was blameless, just, and God-fearing, and shunned evil.

1. Revealed in the first five verses with the help of a specific example, the life of Job, the general idea of the correspondence of piety to earthly well-being begins with a description of the religious and moral life of the main person of the book. "Blameless," i.e., devoted with all his heart to God and goodness (II:3; cf. I:21; XXIII:11–12; XXXI), Job was irreproachable in this respect, as is proved by his "justice" and "truthfulness" (Slav.), the correspondence of thought to deeds. More specifically, at the heart of Job's religiosity, his relationship to God, lay "fear," a reverent idea of God, aroused by the consciousness of His greatness and perfections (XV:4; XXVII:23-24), and turning into awe when it was joined by the thought of God as the righteous Judge and Rewarder, who tolerates no evil (Genesis III:10; XVIII:15; Psalm LXlV:9). The idea of a God who does not tolerate evil determined Job's morality: it boiled down, as with all Old Testament people, to shunning evil (Psalm XXXIII:15; XXXVI:27; Proverbs XIV:16). For the place of Job's residence, see the Introduction.

2. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3. He had estates: seven thousand flocks, three thousand camels, five hundred pairs of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and a very large number of servants; and this man was more famous than all the sons of the East.