Job, God, and Self-Respect

Job’s extraordinary piety is asserted from the outset in the Book of Job, but illustrated at first only by his diligent and expensive efforts to pre-empt any divine punishment of his children. When he does much later speak of his good deeds in the community, it is clear that these are closely linked to his expectations of respect from that community. It is not clear that readers are supposed to see him as the model of virtue he considers himself to be, so much as a man who deploys his wealth in service of his family and his social status, but his desire for respect from others finds a parallel in God’s desire for Job’s respect. There is a difference in this regard between the story that the book claims to be telling and the way in which it presents key characters, and this is an aspect of its broader resistance to an over-simplification of the issues addressed.