Job was a man from the land of Uz, blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil, who endured overwhelming loss yet held fast to faith, passing from hearing of God by the ear to seeing Him with his own eyes.
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Life & Story
Job's story begins in the land of Uz (עוּץ, H5780), where there lived a man described as perfect and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil (אִיּוֹב, H0347). His name is bound up with a trial initiated by a member of the heavenly court known as "the Adversary," the accuser. This servant, repeatedly affirmed before God, was stripped in a brief span of all his possessions, his children, and his health, losing every external support. In the depths of his anguish, Job entered into extended discourse with three friends, their speeches ranging over the mystery of divine justice to the meaning of suffering and faith. From the darkest place, Job cried out, "I know that my Redeemer (גֹּאֲלִי, H1350) liveth, and that at last he will stand up upon the earth," a declaration anchored by the word "lives" (חָי, H2421), fixing hope in a vindicator beyond the grave. In the end, God answered Job out of the whirlwind, and Job answered the whole of his struggle with a single line: "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear (שְׁמַעְתִּי, H8085), but now mine eye seeth thee." What had once been reported he now encountered in person. Job was restored with double the blessings of his former days, and his latter end was greater than his beginning.