My dear (late) father considered the story of Job one of the most important in the Bible. He was catholic, but with increasing age increasingly "free thinking". More philosophical and agnostic than, well, certainly not dogmatic. To him the story could be summed up by: "Shit happens to good people." I think that point is entirely missed if anyone says Job brought it on, in whatever way. Job himself very verbousely ( so many words!!! On an on) keeps saying to his friends: "NO, for God's sake, I did NOT bring this on!" I feel the Christian as represented by the US right tend to see a God that is "just" in the way that we can conclude from a person's success ( ie wealth, status) they are "loved by God". And the opposite: being in dire straits, means, God does not love you. The God of the unmitigated free from all consideration capitalism. Not the God easily justified with the Bible. The book of Job certainly does contradicts that view, even if the reward does come at the end.

Poor Job?
What about what was done to his wife and family as collateral damage?
The clear indication that wives and children are simply interchangeable possessions with no value in themselves.

Job is a very good reason to NOT want to exist in the "grace" of such a vicious monster.

God was proved to be a cruel bastard to Job in the Old Testament. In Jewish Sunday School I learned to fear god.

It was actually a "bet." A high-stakes bet at that. God pointed out Job, and then bet Satan that he wouldn't turn. It was initiated by God.

That's what I think Christians find most disturbing, and that's why they insist that it was something else, like Job's fear that brought on the disaster. It's the typical "blame the victim" mentality that they wholeheartedly embrace. If they were to allow, even for a minute, that this was God's doing, it would destroy their self-righteous ideology, and force them to deal with the very hard questions about life and suffering.

I don't believe the author of Job believed they were writing an historical account. I believe it was intended to be viewed as poetic fiction right from the start. It's not the author's fault that later generations mistook it for inspired history.

The book of Job is the story of God killing a bunch of people to win a bet with Satan. In the end Job asks God, why. God's answer; "Because I'm bigger than you." How could you possibly cast God in a worse light? Who thought it was a good idea to include this in the bible?

I read it as proof of loyalty and blind faith under torture. Prisoners of war would use the story to inspire and motivate them to endure torture and prove their loyalty and faith.

My theory is that whoever wrote this it was to prepare their soldiers for the possibility of capture and torture and to ensure vital information would not be revealed.

I like to joke that if god exisit then we are all in the book of Job. We are the Children of Job, the ones that all get killed.
and that book is just one of the things that makes god look like an asshole.

I had never heard that Job's fear was theorized to cause all that mess. Not a good way to go though cuz then you'd have to tangle with solipsistic stuff like everything being an extension of yourself.

I like DarkMatter2525's video on Job. It is basically a bet between God and Satan, and God tortures Job over this petty challenge.

Isn’t this conundrum just another example of stories created by the restless mind of humans. And also fear being used as a proof for the flaws in the level of belief being a cause of a calamity in the bible.

A fine example of Jewish story telling. Some of the verses in this book are quite profound.

It's a good parable, though. Is loyalty bought, or can it be just given. At what point is your word and honor stronger than the trials and tribulations thrown at you. That one made sense to me.