Robert Sutherland

Steve Carr:

No. The existence of evil brings doubt as to the existence of a God of goodness. The book posits that evil and doubt is necessary to sever any connection between righteousness and reward. So if any one choose to love God, then they do it not because of what they will get from God. Hence, if God were to prematurely give the answer to Job and to all mankind, then people would assume there is a connection between righteousness and reward and try to manipulate God.

ichabod crane

This is a theologically biased assessment. The word can mean repent, but of course there are theological problems for Christians if they say that God repented. Therefore they argue that the word doesn't mean repent in that context. Whether true or not, the word can and does mean repent in the standard sense, as Jer. 8:6 and elsewhere proves - a point you haven't addressed. That it usually means to grieve or sorrowfully mourn, rather than to comfort, when applied to humans, is obvious to anyone who reads the verses in Hebrew in which it is used - although it certainly can mean to comfort. It meaning also depends on the stem, as I noted previously.

Wrong. Firstly, Shuv (not Shub, see second point) just means to turn around. It is used metaphorically of a change of mind, but typically means just to physically turn around and travel in the other direction, or to return. It does not mean "turning away from sin and returning to God through repentance". There are hundreds of examples: e.g. "return to the ground" in Gen. 3:19, "the water returned from off the earth" in Gen. 8:3 (did the water repent of its sin?), and so forth. Shuv just means to return or to turn around in general. It has no specific application to repentance, although it is sometimes used in that manner.

Secondly, the correct modern transliteration of the word is shuv, not shub. The letter bet in Hebrew without a dagesh lene is pronounced "v" not "b".

Steven Carr

Doesn't Job get rewarded at the end of the book?

How could Job have manipulated God by learning the truth about why God allowed Satan to subject him to trial by ordeal?

Isn't the truth supposed to set you free?

Dr_Paine

It looks like a conspiracy, does it not?

Satan, going to one of his regular committee meetings with God, decides to challenge God.

SATAN: Hey, I bet your servant Job will call you a lying motherfucker if you let me give him a little trouble!

GOD: Your on Bitch. You can kill his kids, his livestock, and all-around destroy his life - but you can't kill him.

SATAN: Cool, I'm on it! [I am guessing they probably bet a crisp one dollar bill]

Does this remind anyone else of the 80s movie "Trading Places"?