Boys · Hebrew · Old Testament · uncommon · Uncertain — possibly patriarchal
Job
/JOHB/
אִיּוֹב
"Persecuted; afflicted; where is the father?"
Job 1:1
RoleRighteous sufferer; questioner of God
Etymology
Possibly from the Hebrew root 'ayav' (to be hostile, to persecute). Some scholars connect it to an Arabic root meaning 'to return, to repent.' The meaning 'where is the father?' (from 'ay' + 'av') would make his name a question that the book itself tries to answer.
Who they were
The book of Job is the Bible's deepest confrontation with the problem of suffering. Job was 'blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil' — and God said so. Then everything was taken. His livestock, his servants, his ten children, and finally his health. His wife told him to curse God and die. Three friends came and sat with him in silence for seven days — then spent thirty-five chapters arguing that he must have sinned to deserve such suffering. Job refused to accept their logic. He demanded an audience with God. His complaints were raw and unfiltered: 'Why did I not perish at birth?' 'Does it please you to oppress me?' 'I loathe my very life.' The friends offered theology. Job offered honesty. When God finally spoke — out of a whirlwind — he did not explain Job's suffering. He asked questions. 'Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Have you ever given orders to the morning?' Four chapters of questions about the universe, its creatures, its beauty, its wildness. Job's response: 'My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.' Not an answer to his suffering. An encounter with the one who suffers with him. God then rebuked the friends — 'You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has' — vindicating Job's honesty over their tidy theology. Job was restored: twice what he had before, and three daughters whose beauty was legendary. But the book never explains why he suffered. It only insists that honest anguish before God is more faithful than comfortable answers about God.
Family
- Children
- Seven sons and three daughters (first family); seven sons and three daughters (second family — Jemima, Keziah, Keren-Happuch)
Character qualities
- Integrity under unimaginable loss
- Refusal to accept false comfort
- Radical honesty with God
- Willingness to demand answers
- Humility when God speaks
Key verse
Job 42:5
Where they appear
Themes
Variants & related forms
Joab · Hiob · Ayub
Read their story
Job's story begins in Job.
The full passage is at Job 1:1. Any modern translation will do — the NLT and NIV are the most readable; the ESV and NKJV stay close to the wording the church has used for centuries.
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