One of the books of the third section of the Bible, the Hagiographa (Writings). Controversy surrounds the date of its composition but it is usually ascribed to the early Second Temple period (fifth to fourth centuries BCE). The theme of the book is reward and punishment, and principally the problem of the suffering of the good man.
Job was a good and honest man and revered the Lord. He had a large family and was a man of wealth. Satan belittled him before God and claimed that Job would give up his righteousness if he were not so prosperous. With God's agreement, sufferings were inflicted on Job. His friends told him that this was because of the sins he had committed. Job angrily protested his innocence. Job and his friends argued repeatedly, and Job's bitterness led him to call God to be judged. God replied by pointing to the wonders of nature that were beyond the power of man to understand, and said that so, too, man cannot understand the problem of His justice. God appears in the story as the Creator of the world, the Omnipotent whose wisdom is beyond reckoning.
There is no indication of a special relation to the people of Israel, and scholars differ on the historical period of the story of Job. One leading opinion is that Job never existed and the whole story is a parable. The important theological contribution of the Book of Job is that it breaks the nexus between sin and suffering, that is, that man can suffer even without prior sin.
