The Importance Of True Friendship In 'Job'

Job is the central figure in the Book of Job from the bible. In this biblical story, God takes up Satan's challenge and overwhelms Job with many tragedies in order to test his faith. Job becomes victim of the plague and marauders. Through all this suffering Job had three friends that would visit in an attempt to comfort him, but only made things worse. They agreed Job must have been guilty of some evil and that is why God is punishing him. However, at the end of the story instead of turning to sin Job confides in a false comfort. The biblical allusion to Job characterizes Rebekka’s own suffering. She too is suffering, in this case from smallpox, and takes comfort in her imaginary friends. These imaginary friends, or spirits, are welcomed by

Who I chose to write my character study paper over was Job and his life influenced by god’s grace, mercy, and evilness. The dominant theme of Job is the difficulty of understanding why God the creator of everything can allow good people and followers of his to suffer. In Job he is trying a way to justify God’s actions. The poetry in Job is a true dialogue, for the characters develop ideas and unique personalities throughout the course of their responses. The Book of Job is one of the most celebrated pieces of biblical literature, not only because it explores some of the most profound questions humans ask about their lives, also because it is extremely well written.

him. How one deals with despair and suffering is what makes a person who he or

Close friends often have a major impact on the choices that people make. A close

The theme of the Book of Job is the perseverance of the human spirit. Job loses everything but he does not lose his faith in God. “Job refuses to curse God” (Book). Job has not done anything to deserve this, but it is a test from God and Satan to see if Job is actually as

Friendship is a very valuable thing because it can get people through the hardest of times, as shown in Nancy Farmer’s House of the Scorpion, where the reign of El Patron over his country, Opium, is overthrown by his own clone, Matteo Alacran, with the help of his few friends, whom he keeps through loyalty and compassion.

The Book of Job is of wisdom genre. Job was a righteous, rich man. God and Satan have a confrontation regarding Job’s faith in God. God allows Satan to test Job by taking away his family, sheep, camels, and servants. Job was passed the test. Job was tested again. This time it was his health that was taken away. Job speaks to his three friends and curses the day he was born. The four of them have a lengthy conversation as to why Job is being punished. Elihu enters the conversation and becomes somewhat angry with Job’s lack of faith in God. God speaks to Job in question form. Job repents. God speaks the three friends and advises them to sacrifice a burnt offering. Job was them made prosperous and was “given twice as much as he had before” by God.

Each character in The Book of Job was given a specific role. The main hero is Job with his rich but complex nature. As one can deduce from the name of the book, he plays the most important part. His wife, even though appearing rarely, also has an essential role of showing the readers the opposite of her husband. The authors structured her in a way that readers can compare two spouses’ personalities and ponder which one had a better reaction on the book events. After all the tragedies, happened to the family, Job’s wife chose to abuse God and commit suicide. Her behavior proves readers that her faith in God largely depended on the gifts, He was providing. She showed us an example of a person, who Satan was speaking about on the heaven council. Job with his behavior, which is the opposite to his wife, only verifies his faith in God. He refuses to listen to his wife and insists that he have done nothing to deserve the sufferings.

One can see many different themes of friendship throughout Chaim Potoks book, The Chosen. For example, Reuven and Danny have a ‘classic friendship,’ while Reuven has a silent friendship with his father. Furthermore, Reuven has a father-son friendship with his dad at first, but later it changes into a ‘friend-friend’ friendship, where they are no longer in the classic state, in which the father guides and teaches the son; but that they guide each other. Three different types of friendship display themselves in these characters, Danny and Reuven, Reuven and Mr. Malter and Danny and Reb Saunders. The differences between these types of friendships are quite vast, and one must look at the type of interaction and the people involved when analyzing them. For the people one must look at the roles they play on society, and for the interactions one must identify a superior and observe the nature of the friendship.

Zaphar tells Job that he must put away his sins and then God will restore him to former form.3 By saying this, Zaphar claims that once Job repents for the sins he has committed, God will heal Job and he will be well once again. Similar to Zaphar’s speech, Bildad asks Job if he should be blameless and that surely God will awaken in him and restore him to his former domain.4 After these speeches Eliphaz tells Job “Call now! Will anyone respond to you? To which of the holy ones will you appeal?”5 By saying this, he is telling Job to call for help and pity from God and religious officials. He is also claiming that Job does not appeal to anyone in his current state because of his leprosy and distorted state. After all of these accusations and claims against Job, the thought that he may truly be innocent never crosses any of the friends minds.7 And after his friend’s speeches, Job’s other friend Elihu cannot hold his thoughts in any more and begins a tirade against Job.

Job was an upright man, without sin or fault. He was God's favored, and because of this, was granted wealth and progeny beyond the dreams of most mortal men.

In the book of Job, Satan receives permission from God to inflict trouble against Job. Job lost many of his possessions including his livestock, children, and servants. Distressed, Job calls upon his friends to comfort him. Not having much sympathy, his friends

Two people of different ages and genders can form solid friendship, which becomes their spiritual dependence and compensates their lacking of emotional care. Also, the end of friendship further demonstrates the importance of it. This paper will focus on Okyō and Kichizō’s friendship in “Separate Ways,” by Higuchi Ichiyo, and Park So-nyo and Lee Eun-gyu’s friendship in Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin, to analyze the form and end of their friendships.

They then say that God is just and that his sons and daughters had died because of their own sins. Then God appears before Job and curses him asking why he was not there when he created the world or why he isn't omnipotent. God goes on about how Job dares question God's power, wisdom and decisions. God continues to pound him with questions and Job apologizes for questioning God and finally repents to God. God then addresses Job's three friends and tells them that they have angered God and they have to offer seven bulls and seven rams to clear their wrongdoings against God. After all the repenting and prayers, God then gives back all of Job's losses, blessing him with twice the number of livestock he had before and blessing Job with seven sons and three daughters. Job goes on to live joyously for another 140 years before dying.

Job argues with each man, never wavering in his insistence that he is guiltless. This great debate continues until Job becomes tired of his friends' ill advice and expresses his desire to argue his case with God himself. His friends fall silent, knowing that they cannot sway Job from his self-righteousness. God then appears to Job as a powerful whirlwind and questions Job, unmercifully, as to whether he could perform the works of God. It is through this barrage that Job comes to accept, without question, his lot, and the awesome power of God.