Job Quotes

“1–2. Job speaks. At the conclusion of the epilogue, we heard that Job sat in silence with his three friends for seven days. The friends responded with silence, demonstrating their empathy toward their suffering friend. It is significant and often forgotten in popular reading that Job was the one who broke the silence. The friends, who become aggressive and angry toward Job in the process of the ensuing debate, did not begin the fight. True, Job does not attack them; he attacks his “day.” The day, as we will learn in the ensuing complaint, is the day of his birth.[177] He curses that day as a dark and evil day, a day that allowed for his present suffering. By so cursing his day, he is implicitly criticizing God, a criticism that grows increasingly explicit as the lament develops.”
― Tremper Longman III, Job

“Everything that he had had was a gift from God, given to him during his life. He came into the world with nothing (naked). He knows that when he dies he can’t take it with him. That Yahweh has taken from him what Yahweh himself had given him is within Yahweh’s rights. Thus he does not rail against God, but rather he blesses his name. The same thought may be found in Eccles. 5:15, when the Teacher (Qohelet) observes, “As he left his mother’s womb, so he will return, going as he came—naked. And he will take nothing with him from his toil that he is able to bring with him into his possession.” This observation, however, leads Qohelet to complain, “This indeed is a sickening evil” (5:16), which provides a contrast with Job.[156]”
― Tremper Longman III, Job

“Attentive readers will also note the significance of the form he uses for much of his teaching—the parable. The parable is the teaching tool of the sage, indicated by the fact that the Greek term for “parable” (parabolē) is used in Greek versions of the OT to translate the Hebrew word “proverb” (māšāl ), a central form of wisdom teaching in the OT. The Jesus of the Gospels is a sage.”
― Tremper Longman III, Job

“as Childs points out, we first need to hear the “discrete voice” of the OT, we must then go on to read the OT from a post-Christ perspective.”
― Tremper Longman III, Job

“that sin is not the only possible cause of suffering has two practical implications. First, it “shatters the myth that our own righteousness can protect us from unjust suffering.”[109] In other words, we cannot control the situations that might lead to our pain. Second, we cannot judge others based on the fact that they are suffering.”
― Tremper Longman III, Job

“Thus one of the important contributions of the book of Job (as well as Ecclesiastes)[108] is to undermine the idea that retribution theology works absolutely and mechanically. Sometimes sin does lead to negative consequences, but not always. Similarly, sometimes proper behavior leads to positive outcomes, but not always. Job serves as an example to warn against judging others on the basis of their situation in life. But Job himself never receives an answer to the question of why he has suffered. At the end of the book, after hearing and seeing God, he submits to God’s greater power and wisdom.”
― Tremper Longman III, Job

“Job is a wisdom book. But not all wisdom books are alike.[42] Proverbs contains instructional literature (discourses and proverbs) that encourage wise behavior by connecting (but not guaranteeing) rewards with such behavior. Ecclesiastes contains the autobiography of a man who has sought for meaning in life “under the sun” but is thwarted in his efforts by, among other things, a sense of injustice. Indeed, the message of both the book of Job and Ecclesiastes should keep people from reading the rewards of Proverbs with undue optimism.[43]”
― Tremper Longman III, Job