The Purpose of the Book

The Purpose of the Book

The Book of Job has one central purpose, though there are additional benefits that accrue from its study. The main reason for the entire book is to answer one simple question, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” It is a companion query to that mystery which plagued Solomon throughout his life, and in search of which he wrote three books—Song of Solomon, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. It is in the final words of this last book that he summarizes his answer, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Eccl. 12:13, 14).

These questions are all embodied in a larger question for which virtually all people have searched for an answer: “Why does a loving God permit evil?” To phrase it in the words of a popular book title of today, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

En route to the answer, the book also provides valuable insights into both the history and the customs of patriarchal times.

Patriarchal Economics

Job was a wealthy man. His goods included some eleven to twelve thousand animals (Job 1:3). In addition, he maintained some land in grain or vegetable crops, as is indicated by the fact that his oxen were used for plowing (Job 1:14). He is not spoken of as owning land, for the people of that time considered the land available to any for temporary pasturage. However, figuring one acre per animal, his restored possessions would require 24,000 acres. The maintenance of such a large number of animals would require a considerable number of servants (Job 1:15). It is worth noting that of his animals only the sheep were used for food, except perhaps some of the oxen. Camels were rarely eaten and asses never. Nothing is said about his owning cattle (unless oxen included cattle).

Jewish tradition says that he had seven thousand sheep, one thousand for each of his seven sons; three thousand camels, a thousand for each of his daughters; five hundred yoke of oxen for himself; and five hundred she-asses for his wife.

Since, except for the sheep, Job’s livestock were not for eating, they must have been for trade. The following quote from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia gives an idea of the location of the main trade routes of the time: “There was no exit to the West from the great caravan center Damascus, there was virtually no exit landward from the great maritime centers Tyre and Sidon, and there was no exit to the North and Northeast from Egypt without crossing Palestine In particular, the only good road connecting Tyre (and Sidon) with Damascus lay directly across Northern Palestine, skirting the Sea of Galilee.”

Damascus was thus the center of the trade traffic. Josephus mentions that “Uz founded Trachonitis and Damascus.” Therefore it is likely that the holdings of Job may have been near that city, and the trade routes between India and Egypt would purchase his goods for resale in the two great lands of the East and the West.