For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible and the oldest poetical book preserved, thought to have been written by Moses in Midian. It consists of a prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2, poetic speeches, the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37, the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud, and a prose epilogue in chapter 42:7-17. Within that structure the verse stands in the second of the four parts of the book, the debate between Job and his three friends over his afflictions in chapters 4 to 31, arranged in three circles of speeches by each participant.
More narrowly, it belongs to Job 8-10 and to the larger unit of Job 8-27, in which the friends trouble Job with constant accusations, both implied and open, while Job answers them with replies that still continue at chapter 27. Specifically, it is part of Job's answer to Bildad's first speech, in which Bildad urges humility. There Job voices his experience of severe suffering that seemed to come without cause, presenting his wounds as multiplied and undeserved.
It belongs to the great problems of overruling providence and of sin and suffering, showing God disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction. Job's friends wrongly charged him with sin and treated his affliction as proof of God's displeasure, insisting his sufferings were because of sin and troubling him with constant accusations. Yet affliction is no proof of sin, for although evil is ultimately punished and good rewarded, suffering by itself does not show that a person is under God's displeasure.
Job's trial had a purpose beyond what he could see, and his suffering would become comfort and hope for others. The passage therefore warns against misjudging fellow sufferers in the same way the friends misjudged Job.
The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible and the oldest poetical book preserved, thought to have been written by Moses in Midian. It consists of a prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2, poetic speeches, the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37, the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud, and a prose epilogue in chapter 42:7-17. Within that structure the verse stands in the second of the four parts of the book, the debate between Job and his three friends over his afflictions in chapters 4 to 31, arranged in three circles of speeches by each participant.
More narrowly, it belongs to Job 8-10 and to the larger unit of Job 8-27, in which the friends trouble Job with constant accusations, both implied and open, while Job answers them with replies that still continue at chapter 27. Specifically, it is part of Job's answer to Bildad's first speech, in which Bildad urges humility. There Job voices his experience of severe suffering that seemed to come without cause, presenting his wounds as multiplied and undeserved.
It belongs to the great problems of overruling providence and of sin and suffering, showing God disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction. Job's friends wrongly charged him with sin and treated his affliction as proof of God's displeasure, insisting his sufferings were because of sin and troubling him with constant accusations. Yet affliction is no proof of sin, for although evil is ultimately punished and good rewarded, suffering by itself does not show that a person is under God's displeasure.
Job's trial had a purpose beyond what he could see, and his suffering would become comfort and hope for others. The passage therefore warns against misjudging fellow sufferers in the same way the friends misjudged Job.