Job (; Īyyōv; Iṓb) is the central figure of the Book of Job in the Bible. In Islam, Job () is also considered a prophet.
The Book of Job presents him as a family man who is beset with disasters that take away his family and possessions; this scenario is intended to test his faith in God. Job struggles to understand while reflecting on his despair. Despite this, he consistently remains devout.
The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonian Hebrew and Aramaic influences, indicates it was composed during the Persian period (540–330 BCE), with the poet using Hebrew in a learned, literary manner.
In the Hebrew Book of Job
The Hebrew Book of Job is part of Ketuvim ("Writings") of the Hebrew Bible. Not much is known about Job based on the Masoretic Text.
The characters in the Book of Job consist of Job, his wife, his three friends (Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar), a man named Elihu, God, and angels.
It begins with an introduction to Job's character—he is described as a blessed man who lives righteously in the Land of Uz. The Lord's praise of Job prompts an angel with the title of "satan" ("Adversary") to suggest that Job served God simply because God protected him. God removes Job's protection and gives permission to the angel to take his wealth, his children, and his physical health (but not his life). Despite his difficult circumstances, he does not curse God, but rather curses the day of his birth. And although he anguishes over his plight, he stops short of accusing God of injustice. Job's miserable earthly condition is simply God's will.
In the following, Job debates with three friends concerning his condition. They argue whether it was justified, and they debate solutions to his problems. Job ultimately condemns all their counsel, beliefs, and critiques of him as false. God then appears to Job and his friends out of a whirlwind. God rebukes the three friends and gives them instruction for the remission of sin, followed by Job being restored to an even better condition than his former wealthy state (). Job is blessed to have seven sons, as well as three daughters, named Jemimah (which means "dove"), Keziah ("cinnamon"), and Keren-happuch ("horn of eye-makeup"). His daughters were said to be the most beautiful women in the land.Coogan, Michael B. (2009). Job's Wife and Daughters. Oxford University Press. p. 388.
In the Greek Old Testament Book of Job
The Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, has a revised and updated final verse that claims Job's genealogy, asserting him to be a grandson of Esau and a ruler of Edom.
In other religious texts
Judaism He is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel. He is cited as someone "who held fast to all the ways of justice" in the deuterocanonical Book of Sirach.
Christianity He is praised for his perseverance in the Christian Epistle of James. He is the protagonist of a pseudepigraphal book called the Testament of Job.
Mormonism He is mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants, one of the four sacred texts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Islam He is discussed as a prophet in the Quran by the name of Ayūb. The Quran describes Job as a righteous servant of Allah, who was afflicted by suffering for a lengthy period of time. However, it clearly states that Job never lost faith in God and forever called to God in prayer, asking Him to remove his affliction:
And [mention] Job, when he called to his Lord, "Indeed, adversity has touched me, and you are the Most Merciful of the merciful."
— Quran, sura 21 (The Prophets), ayah 83 The Quran, sura 21, verse 83
Baháʼí In the writings of the Baháʼí Faith: A lengthy tablet was written by Bahá'u'lláh, the first part of which is focused on Job. The Tablet is often referred to as the Tablet of Patience or the Tablet of Job.
Job in Judaism
A clear majority of rabbis saw Job as having in fact existed as a historically factual figure.
According to a minority view, Job never existed.Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 15a In this view, Job was a literary creation by a prophet who used this form of writing to convey a divine message. On the other hand, the Talmud (in Tractate Baba Batra 15a–16b) goes to great lengths trying to ascertain when Job actually lived, citing many opinions and interpretations by the leading sages.
Job is further mentioned in the Talmud as follows:
Job's resignation to his fate.Pesachim 2b When Job was prosperous, anyone who associated with him even to buy from him or sell to him, was blessed.Pesachim 112a Job's reward for being generous.Megillah 28a David, Job and Ezekiel described the Torah's length without putting a number to it.Eruvin 21a Job was in fact one of three advisors that Pharaoh consulted, prior to taking action against the increasingly multiplying Israelites in the Book of Exodus. As described in the Talmud:Sotah 11a Balaam urged Pharaoh to kill the Hebrew new-born boys; Jethro opposed this decree; and Job, though personally opposed to the decree, kept silent and did not protest it. It is for Job's silence that God subsequently punishes him with his bitter afflictions. However, the Book of Job itself contains no indication of this, and to the prophet Ezekiel, Yahweh refers to Job as a righteous man of the same calibre as Noah and Daniel.Ezekiel 14:14
Christian views
Christianity accepts the Book of Job as canon in its Old Testament. In addition, Job is mentioned in the New Testament of the Christian Bible: the Epistle of James () paraphrases Job as an example of patience in suffering.
Job's declaration, "I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth" (, Heb. wa'ănî yāḏa'tî gō'ălî ḥāy; wə-'aḥărōn, 'al-'āp̄ār yāqūm), is considered by some Christians to be a proto-Christian reference to Christ as the Redeemer, and is the basis of several Christian hymns, as well as the opening scene of Part III of Handel's Messiah. Jewish biblical commentators and scholars contest this by stating that Job "insists on a divine hearing in his lifetime" (cf. Job 16:19–22).Cf. "But I know that my Vindicator lives; In the end He will testify on earth – this, after my skin will have been peeled off." (Job, 19:25 – Vindicator, Hebrew "go'el", a person, usually a relative, who stood up for his kinsman's rights; also used of God in his relationship with Israel.
Feast Days He is commemorated by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod in their Calendar of Saints on May 9, by the Roman Catholic Church on May 10, and by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches on May 6.
He is also commemorated by the Armenian Apostolic Church on May 6 and December 26, and by the Coptic Orthodox Church on April 27 and August 29. The Armenian Apostolic Church commemorates Job along with John the Baptist on the Thursday after the third Sunday of the Feast of the Assumption.
Islamic views and Quranic account
In the Qur'an, Job () is considered a prophet in Islam.Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary, note 2739: "Job (Ayub) was a prosperous man, with faith in Allah, living somewhere in the north-east corner of Arabia. He suffers from a number of calamities: his cattle are destroyed, his servants slain by the sword, and his family crushed under his roof. But he holds fast to his faith in Allah. As a further calamity he is covered with loathsome sores from head to foot. He loses his peace of mind, and he curses the day he was born. His false friends come and attribute his afflictions to sin. These "Job's comforters" are no comforters at all, and he further loses his balance of mind, but Allah recalls to him all His mercies, and he resumes his humility and gives up self-justification. He is restored to prosperity, with twice as much as he had before; his brethren and friends come back to him; he had a new family of seven sons and three fair daughters. He lived to a good old age, and saw four generations of descendants.
All this is recorded in the Book of Job in the Christian Jewish Old Testament. Of all the Hebrew writings, the Hebrew of this Book comes nearest to Arabic." The narrative frame of Job's story in Islam is similar to the Hebrew Bible story but, in Islam, the emphasis is paid to Job remaining steadfast to God and there is no record of his despair, or mention of discussions with friends. Some Muslim commentators also spoke of Job as being the ancestor of the Romans.Brannon M. Wheeler, Historical Dictionary of Prophets in Islam and Judaism, Job, p. 171 Muslim literature also comments on Job's time and place of prophecy, saying that he came after Joseph in the prophetic series and that he preached to his own people rather than being sent to a specified community. Tradition further recounts that Job will be the leader of the group of "those who patiently endured" in Heaven.
Local traditions regarding Job
There are at least two locations that claim to be the place of Job's ordeal, and at least three that claim to have his tomb.
The Eyüp Sultan Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, holds the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, a companion of Muhammad, not the biblical/Qur'anic Job (Ayyub in Arabic, Eyüp in Turkish). The covered cave in the southeastern Turkish province of Urfa is one of the claimants.
Palestine In Palestinian folk tradition, Job's place of trial is Al-Jura, or Al-Joura, a village outside the town of Al-Majdal (today's Ashkelon, Israel). It was there God rewarded him with a fountain of youth that removed whatever illnesses he had, and gave him back his youth.
To the northwest of the depopulated Palestinian village of Dayr Ayyub is an area which, according to the village belief, contained the tomb of the prophet Ayyub, the biblical Job.W. Khalidi, 1992, "All that remains", p. 376
In the area of Tabgha (Greek: Heptapegon), on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a few sites are associated by local tradition with the life of Ayyub. A small grotto near the base of what is known to Christians as the Mount of Beatitudes, or Mount Eremos, is known as Mghraret Ayub ("Job's Cave"). Two of the towers built in the Byzantine period to collect the water of the Heptapegon springs are named in Arabic Tannur Ayub ("Job's Kiln") and Hammam Ayyub ("Job's Bath").[Stefano De Luca, Capernaum, paragraph on Tabgha, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology, vol. 1, p. 179, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2013] Hammam Ayyub was initially called "the Leper's Bath", but the leper was later identified with Job; the nearby spring, now a waterfall, is known as Ain Ayub, "Job's Spring".Bargil Pixner OSB, Archäologie: Das Bad des Aussätzigen in Tabgha (Archaeology: the Leper's Bath in Tabgha), Dormition Abbey, 21st newsletter, January 2002 (in German)Eretz Magazine, Sermon Valley, accessed 10 December 2018
Hauran, Syria The town of al-Shaykh Saad in the Hauran region in Syria has been associated with Job since at least the 4th-century AD. Karnein was mentioned in Eusebius' Onomasticon as a town of Bashan that was said to be the location of the house of Job. Egeria the pilgrim relates that a church was built over the place in March or February 384 AD, and that the place was known as the "town of Job", or "civitas Job". According to Egeria's account the body of Job was laid in a stone coffin below the altar.Pringle, 1998, p. 239. According to tradition, Hammam Ayyub is a fountain in the town where Job washed himself when he was sick, and is reputed to have healing powers.Schumacher; Oliphant; le Strange, 1886, p. 194. Another holy artifact in the town is the "Rock of Job", known in local folklore as the place where he sat when he was afflicted with the disease.Schumacher; Oliphant; le Strange, 1886, p. 191.
Urfa, Turkey