From chapter 4 to 31 of Job, Job conversed with his three friends about the meaning of suffering,

Alephas, Bill Dad, and Zofar. meaning of those

the meaning of suffering. Ella Faz, Bill Dad, and so far. And the upshot of those chapters was that the

theory of those three friends was inadequate. It was unsatisfactory. They had argued that suffering is basically punishment

for sin and prosperity is reward for righteousness.

Job's extraordinary experience of suffering

can only be explained by extraordinary wickedness.

Job had defended himself by saying that there's good evidence from all over the world.

If you just ask the people that apply the trade routes, you stupid friends, you would find out that there are wicked people around the world who prosper and don't suffer one wit and that there are righteous people who suffer.

And then he looks at his own case and says,

I've committed no extraordinary sin that would set me apart for suffering like this.

So Elifaz and Bild and Zofar are not able to sustain their theory of suffering with Job. They get quieter and quieter until at the end,

Bill Dad can only get out a few sentences and Zofar can't speak anymore.

Job has won the argument, but he doesn't answer his own question.

He has shown that suffering cannot be adequately explained by a simple principle of

retributive justice that says you get what you deserve. That doesn't work, he

argues, but he doesn't have very much to put in its place.

At the end of chapter 31, he's left speaking, and we're left feeling that he believes God is capricious, there is

arbitrariness in the world and there is no answer to why the righteous suffer in these extraordinary ways.

Now, it would be possible to just close the book right there and have a theology you could live with. You really could. Most Christians, I think, do try to live with this theology. It would say basically this. Yes, I believe God rules over the world and controls all things.

And yes, I believe that he is just and wise.

And yes, even though I... just and wise.

...