Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• Message
  What this book is all about has been the subject of considerable debate. Many people think God gave it to us to provide His answer to the age-old problem of suffering. In particular, many believe it is in the Bible to help us...
• Outline
  I. Prologue chs. 1-2A. Job's character 1:1-5B. Job's calamities 1:6-2:101. The first test 1:6-222. The second test 2:1-10C. Job's comforters 2:11-13II. The dialogue concerning the basis of the divine-human relationship 3:1-42...
• I. PROLOGUE chs. 1--2
  The writer composed the prologue and epilogue of this book in prose narrative and the main body (3:1-42:6) in poetry. The prologue and epilogue form a frame around the main emphasis of the revelation, the poetic section, and ...
• B. The First Cycle of Speeches between Job and His Three Friends chs. 4-14
  The two soliloquies of Job (chs. 3 and 29-31) enclose three cycles of dialogue between Job and his three friends. Each cycle consists of speeches by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar in that order interspersed with Job's reply to e...
• 3. Bildad's first speech ch. 8
  Bildad agreed with Eliphaz that God was paying Job back for some sin he had committed, and he believed God would show Job mercy if he confessed that sin. However, Bildad built his conclusions on a slightly different foundatio...
• The justice of God 8:1-7
  Bildad's initial words contrast with Eliphaz's. Whereas Eliphaz was gentle and indirect, Bildad was impatient and insensitive. He accused Job of being a blow-hard (v. 2)."Bildad is objective and analytical in his speech about...
• Illustrations of Job's godlessness 8:11-19
  The illustration of the water plant (vv. 11-13) emphasized the fact that in Bildad's view Job had abandoned God, the source of his blessing (cf. 1:1, 8). Bildad advised his friend not to forget God. The spider's web analogy (...
• The possibility of blessing 8:20-22
  By reminding Job of God's integrity Bildad hoped to appeal to his friend to repent. Bildad assured him that if he did God would restore him."Bildad's assertion that God will not reject a blameless man(20a) makes him the precu...
• Zophar's appeal to Job 11:13-20
  Three steps would bring Job back to where he should be, said Zophar: repentance (v. 13), prayer (v. 13), and reformation (v. 14). He also painted the fruits of conversion for Job. These benefits were a clear conscience, faith...
• Job's repudiation of his friends 12:1-13:19
  Verse 2 is irony; his companions were not as wise as they thought. Job pointed out that much of what they had said about God was common knowledge (cf. 5:9-10; 8:13-19; 11:7-9). Nonetheless their conclusion, that the basis of ...
• Job's attitude rebuked 15:1-16
  Specifically Eliphaz accused Job of speaking irreverently (vv. 1-6) and of pretending to be wiser and purer than he was (vv. 7-16). For a second time one of his friends said Job was full of hot air (vv. 2-3; cf. 8:2). The eas...
• The fate of the wicked 15:17-35
  Perhaps Eliphaz wanted to scare Job into repenting with these words. As before, Eliphaz's authority was his own observations (v. 17; cf. 4:8). To this he added the wisdom of their ancestors (vv. 18-19; cf. 8:8). Probably vers...
• Job's disgust with his friends 16:1-5
  Job said his visitors had said nothing new to help him (v. 1). He picked up Eliphaz's word (translated "mischief"in 15:35) and used it to describe him and his companions as "sorry"comforters (v. 2). Eliphaz's words had not br...
• The hostility of Job's accusers 19:1-6
  Job began this reply to Bildad as Bildad had begun both of his speeches: "How long . . .?"(v. 2; cf. 8:2; 18:2). How long would his friends torment him? The ten times (v. 3) may have been ten actual occurrences not all of whi...
• Job's confidence in God 19:23-29
  "But it is just here, when everything is blackest, that his faith . . . like the rainbow in the cloud . . . shines with a marvelous splendor."89This short section contains probably the best known verses in the book (vv. 23-27...
• Elihu's reasons for speaking 32:6-22
  Elihu began by voicing his respect for Job's three friends (vv. 6-10). They were older than he, and for this reason he said he had refrained from speaking until now. However he had become convinced that advancing age does not...
• A. An observer's sorrow over Jerusalem's condition 1:1-11
  Jeremiah first viewed Jerusalem's destruction as an outsider looking in. Verses 1-7 describe the extent of the desolation and verses 8-11 its cause.1:1 Jeremiah bewailed the abandoned city of Jerusalem that had once been so g...
• The need for repentance 13:1-5
  13:1 Luke linked this incident chronologically with the preceding one. Apparently messengers from Jerusalem had just arrived with news about Pilate's act. This is the usual force of the Greek verb apaggello, translated "repor...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

• Two Kinds Of Hope
  Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.'--Job 8:14.And hope maketh not ashamed.'--Romans 5:5.THESE TWO texts take opposite sides. Bildad was not the wisest of Job's friends, and he gives utteranc...