Analytical Essay: The Book Of Job

The Book of Job is undoubtedly a great literary work of art. It is poetry bracketed by a prologue and an epilogue written in prose. Its structure is relatively straightforward. The prologue introduces Job as being a righteous and worthy man of God whom Satan seeks to test. Job’s test includes a number of trials that include the massacre of his flock and cattle and the death of his children. He then mourns with three of his friends for nearly a week before entering poetic dialogue with the three in which they discuss his plight and seek to understand why such an outstanding man should be allowed to suffer so much. The general conclusion of his friends is that Job must have sinned and is receiving due punishment from a just and disciplinary God. What follows the dialogue, in which Job affirms his devotion to God despite claiming to be denied justice by Him, is strange. First, there is an interlude with what is commonly referred to as a

52). The issue of dialogue is of particular concern to Freedman and the authenticity of the text. This after all is the most basic structure of the poem, but Elihu is the only participant in the work that is not spoken to directly. There is no one to refute him, and perhaps the only way the text is able to preserve a dialogue, according to Freedman, is that Elihu recalls and refutes specific bits of speech from Job (pg. 52-3). Freedman, however, stakes a further claim that the four divisions in the speech were all meant to have taken different positions within the poem rather than in a combined monologue at the end (pg.