The Book of Job is often referred to as one of the great classics of world literature. Its subject matter is the all-important question, "Why, in a world over which Yahweh has jurisdiction, should innocent persons have to suffer when at the same time the wicked escape suffering and are permitted to have comfort and security?" All people — not just Jews — sooner or later confront this universal problem. Some of the Hebrew prophets attempted to deal with this question insofar as it affected the nation as a whole, but the writer of the Book of Job deals with it on an individual basis. The book, in its present form, loosely divides into five parts: the prologue, the symposium, the speeches of Elihu, the nature poems, and the epilogue. As a whole, the book appears to have been written as a direct challenge to the time-honored doctrine that people are rewarded or punished according to their merits.
The prologue, which consists of the book's first two chapters, is believed to have been based on an older folktale in which a wager is made between Yahweh and Satan. Satan contends that no one serves Yahweh except for selfish reasons, but Yahweh disagrees and presents Job, a righteous man who "fears God and shuns evil," as an example to counter Satan's claim. In order to prove to Satan that Job's loyalty is not based on material reward, Yahweh permits Satan to take from Job all of the material benefits Job has received and to afflict him with the most severe and excruciating pain. Through all of this suffering, Job never complains. His only response is "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." However, Job's wife urges him to "curse God and die" in order to gain relief from his suffering. Three friends — Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite — come from afar and express their sympathy by remaining silent and by clothing themselves in sackcloth and sitting in ashes.
