The Book of Job: Suffering, Pain and Patience - Job’s Discussions With His Three Friends

So then, any general thoughts before we start looking at the comments in detail,

Mike? Yeah, I suppose there's one important point.

I think...

I think we have to bear in mind what is said in the final chapter, in Job chapter 42.

This was after God had intervened in the discussions.

God turns to Eliphaz and says to him in verse 7, I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has done.

And the Lord requires these guys to sacrifice bulls and rams and he asks Job to pray for them.

Anyway, they do the sacrifices and they are forgiven.

But it means that their arguments are not all in line with the Lord's will.

And the things they say about the Lord are not all accurate.

So is there any point in us going through them then?

Well, I think there is.

You make some valid points and their arguments need to be considered.

So I think they're worth looking at.

OK, how does the discussion go then?

Well, each of the three friends makes a speech and then Job responds.

We have three discourses from Eliphaz and we have three discourses from Bildad, although one of Bildad's speeches are quite short.

And also we have two comments from Zophar.

Each of these has a response from Job.

So do they have a lot of

different points

to

make

in these speeches?

Well, no, not really.