The name Job is Iyob in the Hebrew (H347), and it is derived from the Hebrew word ayab (H340), meaning hated or persecuted (hostile or hostilely treated). So, considering the content of the book, the name may have been given him in later life, like Peter was given to Simon, one of the Twelve, and Paul was given to Saul, the Apostle to the gentiles. If this is so, not only couldn’t this person be the son of Issachar (Genesis 46:13), as is often supposed, but we couldn’t possibly identify him from scripture. There is a possibility that he may be someone who lived in Abraham’s day or sometime prior to him. We do know that he lived before the time of Moses, because, as the father and head of his family, Job was a priest and offered up sacrifices to God on their behalf (Job 1:5). Whatever the case may be, concerning his identity, this man was righteous, and his integrity was unique among his peers (Job 1:8; 2:3).
The Book of Job is unique in the Old Covenant text. It begins like an historical text, albeit, at first, we are privy to the “divine court” and what occurs there before we actually meet the main characters of the book. Yet, instead of going on to tell us about the life and experiences of the hero, we are told early about great tragedies that occurred to him, the loss of his family, his great wealth and social position. For the rest of the book, we are like bystanders witnessing how Job dealt with those horrendous developments. Instead of being brought into a storyline, we witness the terrible effects tragedy has had on one man, and the text draws us into his tragic circumstances and speaks to us about the terrible things that occur in our own lives, be it the loss of loved ones, our wealth and security or our health. How do we face those things, and how do they affect our relationship with God? Do we blame him? Do we blame ourselves? How do we react to the bad things that occur in our own lives? Perhaps we’ve been unjustly treated by life’s circumstances, or perhaps we’ve been abused by evil men, or we’ve lost loved ones before their time, and we can hardly bear the pain. How do we face life on these terms?
As we begin our study, we are introduced to the main character of the book, a man the text calls Job. As I said above, it may not be his given name, because it could have more to do with what struck him down than his true identity. We are told Job lived in the land of Uz, whose location is uncertain, but some scholars believe it to have been near the borders of Arabia and Chaldea, south and west of the Euphrates River. According to the text, Job was a righteous man and feared (meaning he revered) God (Job 1:1).
We understand from the text that the Lord had blessed Job, so that he was the greatest of all men in the East. He had a large family, seven sons and three daughters, and he was given great wealth, thousands of sheep and camels and hundreds of oxen and donkeys. Additionally, as we would expect of a man of great wealth, he had a great household of servants to care for all his goods (Job 1:2-3; cp. Genesis 14:14).[1]
The text mentions that whenever one of Job’s sons had a birthday, he invited his other brothers and his three sisters to feast with him (Job 1:4), and it is implied that the feasting lasted several days. Some scholars believe they feasted continually, meaning each brother’s day was a day of the week, but this is not only impractical, it is also wrong, because the same word for his day is used by Job later in the book to curse the day of his birth (Job 3:1).
After the feasting was done, it was Job’s custom, as the family priest, to call his sons and daughters together and sanctify them, according to the traditions of that land at that time, something like the Jews’ ceremonial purification rites (cp. Numbers 19:18-19). Then, early in the morning, on the day following their sanctification, Job would rise and offer burnt offerings to the Lord on behalf of his sons and daughters, thinking they may have foolishly cursed God in their hearts, while they were feasting (Job 1:5). The meaning of cursing God has been interpreted many ways, but what seems best to me is that Job wondered, while they were feasting, did they really give God his due honor, having bestowed upon them so many blessings? Did they forget him, and consider their great wealth was due to theirs and their father’s shrewd business deals? Thus, it was Job’s custom to look to God as his great Provider and not to man or to his own wisdom. Moreover, it seems from the text, he sought to instill this respect for God in the hearts of his sons and daughters. This was how Job walked in life. He was religious, like many men at that time, but his religious life had unusual depth, in that he had a great personal respect for the Lord his God.
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[1] Job seems to have been an emir or sheikh of great wealth. An Egyptian lord of the time of the fourth dynasty relates that he possessed above 1000 oxen and cows, 974 sheep, 2,235 goats, and 760 asses (see Rawlinson’s Egypt, vol. 2. p. 88).
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