The Book of Job does not present concrete solutions about why innocent people suffer. As far as the symposium is concerned, the author's purpose seems to be none other than to challenge the view presented by both prophets and historians to the effect that suffering is in itself evidence of wrongdoing. For centuries, it was accepted as true that because Yahweh is a just ruler of the universe, the distribution of rewards and punishments must be in strict accordance with what people actually deserve. The author of the symposium is convinced that this line of reasoning is not true. In order to make his position clear, he constructs the story of a righteous man named Job. As an introduction to his theme, the author makes use of a popular folktale in which a good man suffers in order to prove to Satan that he does not serve Yahweh for selfish reasons. That the author of the symposium did not accept this solution to the problem is shown very clearly in the arguments between Job and the three friends. Job's final speech in his own defense is probably where the book originally ended.
The skeptical character of the symposium, with its challenge to time-honored views, most likely would have kept the Book of Job out of the canon of Old Testament writings had some additions not been made to the original book. The speeches of Elihu appear to be added for the purpose of giving to the book an interpretation more in accord with the older views of the prophets. Quite possibly the same is true of the nature poems, which are presented as words spoken by Yahweh. Although neither the speeches of Elihu nor the nature poems gives any direct answer to the question of why innocent persons suffer, their presence in the book as a whole suggests that there may be a reason for such suffering that human beings are unable to grasp. The epilogue is, of course, a kind of anticlimax in that it tends to support the charges made by Satan in the prologue. However, it also presents an ending to the book quite in keeping with the older and more orthodox position concerning suffering.
