Book Of Job Essay, Research Paper

The Book of Job, including the epilogue, argues justice is retributive in its nature. Retributive justices states that a just distribution of fairness exists. Throughout the book, Job portrays the idea that good things happen to those who are good, while bad things happen to those who are bad. Job s friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bilidad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, also serve as the spokespeople for retributive justice. In all their speeches, the basic underlying idea is that Job is being punished because he is guilty of a crime. Eliphaz the Temanite says, For consider, has any innocent person ever perished? Where have the upright been destroyed? This is what I have seen: those who plough mischief and sow trouble reap no other harvest. They all perish at the blast of God; they are shriveled by the breath of his nostrils (Book 3 verses 7-8). Most importantly, the outcome of the book demonstrates retributive justice. Job was originally used as a pawn in a bet between God and Satan. He was good and just, but because he was the pawn of the bet God took everything from Job except his faith, which God could not take. One might argue that this treatment is unjust, but in the end retributive justice is demonstrated when God gives everything Job lost back to him in twofold. The actions of God and the reasoning of Job along with his friends demonstrate that justice in the Book of Job is undoubtedly retributive.