Dr Tom Kerns
North Seattle Community College

 

Study Questions for

The Book of Job

 

1. What is "holiness" according to The Book of Job ? I.e., how does Job act and believe that is pleasing to God?

2. What is The Book of Job about? I.e., what is the problem/issue being dealt with in the book?

3. What, in your own words, is Job saying and feeling in 1:21?

4. Why do Job's friends think he should "repent" and turn his life around? And what does Job think about that?

5. What do Job's friends think is the explanation for why Job is suffering?

6. Is Job courageous or cowardly? Explain.

7. If this story were a dream that you woke up with some morning, what do you think the dream would be saying to you? Would you wake up feeling depressed or hopeful?

8. Why does the satan want to torture Job?

9. What is God's reason for allowing such torture? Note where in the book you find the answer to this question.

10. What, in your own words, is Job saying at 6:21-30?

11. Summarize in a sentence what Job is saying to God in chapter 10.

12. Is 13:15 a contradiction? "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him;
But I will argue my ways before Him."

13. Do you think 14:1-2 is true?

14. Are Job's friends good comforters? Compare 2:11-13 with 16:2 ff and 19:1-3.

15. Chp 28 is about wisdom. What, briefly, is wisdom and what does Job say about it?

16. In 33:14-22 Elihu says that God speaks to man in two ways. What are they? Explain.

17. Summarize the general meaning of God's words to Job in chps 38-41.

18. How does the story end?

19. What seems to you to be the overall meaning of the whole story?