Job איוב
The book of the suffering of a righteous man—the Tanakh's hardest text and its most honest argument about justice.
Iyov is a blameless, wealthy and happy man who in a single day loses his property and all his children, and then his health. Three friends come, sit with him silently for seven days—and then begin to explain. Their explanation is simple: if you suffer, you sinned. Iyov refuses it and demands a trial; he will not confess to guilt he does not have.
Most of the book is poetry of extraordinary power. The Talmud debates whether Iyov was a historical figure or a parable, and when he lived—from the age of the patriarchs to the return from Babylon. The answer he receives from the whirlwind is not an explanation but a question: "where were you when I founded the earth?"
At the end the friends are rebuked for not speaking rightly, as Iyov did—the one who argued is vindicated.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Iyov 1–42 — the book itself: the argument over the suffering of the righteous
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bava Batra 14b–16b — who wrote Iyov; the view that “Iyov is a parable”
- Sotah 11a — Iyov as Pharaoh’s counsellor
Rishonim
- Rashi on Iyov 1:1 — the opening of the classic commentary
Basis: tradition.