Job /Samuel E. Balentine.

II. The second cycle: The place of the wicked in a moral world (Job. 15:1-21:34) -- Eliphaz's second response to Job: The fate of those who "Bid defiance to the Almighty" (Job 15:1-35) -- Job's response to Eliphaz: Portrait of God as enemy (Job 16:1-17:16) -- Bildad's second response to Job: Should the moral order of the universe be forsaken on your account? (Job 18:1-21) -- Job's response to Bildad: "Know then that God has put me in the wrong" (Job 19:1-29) -- Zophar's second response to Job: The fate of the wicked "Ever since mortals were placed on the earth" (Job 20:1-29) -- Job's response to Zophar: The truth about the fate of the wicked in the moral order of the world (Job 21:1-34).

III. The third cycle: The dialogue breaks down (Job 22:1-27:23) -- Eliphaz's third response to Job: "Can a mortal be of use to God?" (Job 22:1-30 -- Job's response to Eliphaz: God is absent and evil runs amok (Job 23:1-24:25) -- Bildad's third speech and Job's response: Dominion, fear, and a whisper of something more (Job. 25:1-26:14) -- Job again: "May my enemy be like the wicked" (Job 27:1-23) -- A second soliloquy: "Where shall wisdom be found?" (Job 28:1-28) -- IV. Job's summation and decision to move beyond blessing and cursing (Job. 29:1-31:40) -- Past blessings (Job. 29:1-25) -- Present misery (Job 30:1-31) -- Job's declaration of innocence (Job 31:1-40) -- V. The speeches of Elihu (Job 32:1-37:24) -- The introduction of Elihu, the "answerer" (Job 32:1-22) -- The meaning of suffering (Job 33:1-33) -- God's just governance of the world (Job 34:1-37) -- God's detached justice (Job 35:1-16) -- Elihu's world (Job 36:1-37:24) -- VI. God's answer from the whirlwind and Job's response (Job 38:1-42:6) -- God's first answer: Job's first response (Job 38:1-40:5) -- God's second answer, Job's second response (Job 40:6-42:6) -- Epilogue: "As my servant Job has done" (Job 42:7-17).

Prologue: Life in the "Garden of Uz" (Job 1:1-2:13) -- Job's assault on creation (Job 3:1-26) -- I. The first cycle: God's moral governance of the world (Job. 4:1-14:22) -- Eliphaz's first response to Job: "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished" (Job 4:1-5:27) -- Job's response to Eliphaz: "I will speak in the anguish of my spirit" (Job 6:1-7:21) -- Bildad's first response to Job: "Does God pervert justice?" (Job 8:1-22 -- Job's response to Bildad: The imperative and the impossibility of putting God on trial (Job 9:1-10:22) -- Zophar's first response to Job: "Can you find out the deep things of God?" (Job 11:1-20) -- Job's response to Zophar: "I desire to argue my case with God" (Job 12:1-14:22).

"The book of Job is considered by many to be the crown jewel of biblical literature in its claim to speak about God. The word that defines the challenge for every reader of the book is struggle. The struggle results from the fact that whatever Job's truth may be, he was neither the first nor the last to try to articulate it. In the midst of so many words in this world about God from writers within and outside the scriptural witness, this book offers a truly astonishing declaration about what it means to live in a world where order breaks down and chaos runs amok, where the innocent suffer and the wicked thrive, where cries for help go unanswered. This new commentary by biblical scholar Samuel Balentine leads readers on an in-depth and far-reaching look at the nature of the book of Job and the various attempts by the many who have sought to further explore Job's essential struggle ... the primary goal of the Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary series is to make available serious, credible biblical scholarship in an accessible and less intimidating format. A visual generation of believers deserves a commentary series that contains not only the all-important textual commentary on Scripture, but images, photographs, maps, works of fine art, and drawings that bring the text to life. Each volume of the Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary series features a CD-ROM, which expands the uses and capabilities of the Commentary even more"--Publisher description.

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