January 31: Job 40:6 – Job 42:17

The Lord Challenges Job – Job 40:6–41:34

• God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, and confronts him with what he wrongly said in his speeches when he dared to annul God's justice. (Because Job believed that suffering is God's punishment for sin, he had to condemn God in order to maintain his innocence.)
• God suggests that since Job felt justified in condemning how He runs the universe, perhaps Job should be "king for a day." He also tells him to consider Behemoth (perhaps a hippopotamus?) and the strength of this animal God has created, as well as Leviathan (perhaps a crocodile?). He implies that King Leviathan is over all those who have pride, including Job, and that Job could never subdue him.

Job's Confession and Repentance – Job 42

• Job responds that he knows God can do all things and that none of His purposes can be thwarted. He claims that he has said things that he didn't understand, and asks God to speak and he will hear Him. Job despises himself.

The Lord Rebukes Job's Friends

• God now tells Eliphaz and his two friends that He burns with anger against them because they have not spoken of Him what is right, as Job has. He instructs them to take seven bulls and seven rams to Job and to offer burnt offerings for themselves, and tells them that Job will then pray for them and He will accept Job's prayer and not punish them.
• Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar do as God says, and God accepts Job's prayer on their behalf.

The Lord Restores Job's Fortunes

• God restores Job's fortunes, giving him twice what he had before. God doubles his livestock, and Job has seven sons and three daughters. Job lives 140 years and dies "an old man, full of days."

January 25: Job 22:1 – Job 25:6

Eliphaz Speaks: Job's Wickedness Is Great – Job 22

• Eliphaz continues to claim that Job is wicked, assuming that the righteous are always blessed and the wicked always receive God's judgment. He lists some (untrue) reasons for Job's situation: that he was greedy in business dealings, that he lacked charity, and that he lacked compassion toward people.
• Eliphaz calls on Job to repent and return to God, and implies that Job has been trusting in riches rather than God.

Job Replies: Where Is God? – Job 23 & 24

• Job claims he has not departed from God's ways. He says God has terrified him (with his power and sovereignty) and expresses his depression because of his losses and failure to understand God's purposes.
• Job continues to describe the ways of the wicked and points out that God prolongs their lives. He questions that if it is not so, who will call him a liar.

Bildad Speaks: Man Cannot Be Righteous – Job 25

• Bildad asks how men can be right before God and claims man is a maggot before God's eyes.

January 22: Job 12:1 – Job 14:22

Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This – Job 12

• Job calls himself a laughingstock, and claims that who—people or animals—doesn't know that the Lord has caused what happened to him. He goes on to talk of God's greatness and how He can do anything He pleases.

Job Continues: Still I Will Hope in God – Job 13

• Job continues that in spite of his circumstances, he will still trust in the Lord—that he will trust Him "though he slay me." (Job 13: 15). Job claims that he has prepared his case and he knows that he is right.

Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All – Job 14

• Job agrees with Eliphaz, that man is born for trouble and stresses life's shortness and misery. He goes on to say that man's days are numbered, which emphasizes his belief that God is sovereign, and claims that trees are better off than humans because they can regrow.

January 20: Job 5:1 – Job 7:21

Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prayer – Job 5

• Eliphaz continues, warning Job against appealing to "holy ones" or angels. His argument continues to be that Job's trouble didn't come from nowhere—he caused it. He tells Job to seek God, and to not despise what God is trying to teach him through trials. (Though God does sometimes discipline people for their sin through pain and suffering, Eliphaz was wrong to suggest this in Job's case.) Eliphaz then points out that God can heal the wounds he inflicted for discipline.

Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just – Job 6

• Job answers, but to all three friends instead of to just Eliphaz. He describes his suffering as caused by poison-tipped arrows sent by the Almighty. (Arrows are usually used to describe God's judgment or wrath, so Job seems to assume that the Lord was punishing him unjustly). His reply goes on to he would exult in pain rather than deny the words of God.
• Job calls his friends "my brothers," which indicates at one time he had a close relationship with them. But now he is disappointed in how they are treating him. Job had hoped to receive help from his friends, but they offer nothing, and he pleads with them to have understanding instead of an argumentative spirit.

Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope – Job 7

• Job argues that his situation is much worse than that of a slave. He uses the word "servant," which has some irony: Before he was God's servant, but now he feels like a mistreated servant or slave. Job believes his days are completely without hope. He speaks of  the weaver's shuttle and not having a thread of hope; he could not see God's design for his life through his suffering (but sometimes we can't see the design until the weaver—or God—is finished).
• Job appeals to God to show him what he has done wrong.

January 19: Job 1:1 – Job 4:21

Job's Character and Wealth – Job 1

• A man by the name of Job lives in the land of Uz (possibly near Edom?). He is blameless and upright, has always feared God and turned away from evil.
• Job has seven sons and three daughters, as well as much livestock (seven was the biblical number of completeness).
• Job's sons participate in a feast with their siblings on their appointed day. Afterward, Job sanctifies his children by interceding with burnt offerings, in case any of them have sinned and cursed God in their heart. 

Satan Allowed to Test Job

• The sons of God (angels) present themselves before God, and Job comes among them. God asks Satan where he has come from, and he answers that he has been walking about the earth. God points out his servant Job, and Satan says that Job fears God only because God has blessed him, and points out that if God took what he had, Job would curse God to his face.
• God tells Satan that he may do what he will with all that Job has, "only against him do not stretch out your hand." (This proves that God limits Satan's power.)
• Satan leaves God's presence.

Satan Takes Job's Property and Children

• On a day that Job's children are feasting in the oldest brother's house, a messenger comes to Job to tell him that the Sabeans (nomadic raiders from Sheba) have taken all the oxen and donkeys and have killed all the servants with them (except the one who escaped to tell Job). 
• Before that servant finishes speaking, another messenger comes and informs Job that fire fell from heaven and burned up all the sheep and the servants with them (except for the one who escaped to tell Job).
• Before that servant finishes speaking, another messenger comes and informs Job that the Chaldeans (a west Semitic raiding tribe) have taken all the camels and killed all the servants with them (except the one who escaped to tell Job).
• Before that servant finishes speaking, another messenger comes and informs Job that a great wind struck the house of his oldest son, collapsing the house on all his children, who all died.
• Job rises, tears his robe, shaves his head, and falls on the ground worshiping God. He claims, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
• Despite what has happened, Job does not sin or charge God with wrong.

Satan Attacks Job's Health – Job 2

• Again, Satan comes before God when the sons of God present themselves to Him. God asks Satan where he has been, and he responds that he has been walking the earth. God again points out his servant Job and how he has held to his integrity despite what has happened to him.
• Satan replies that a man will give all he has to keep his life, and that if God would "touch his bone and flesh," Job would curse Him to His face. God tells Satan he may do with Job as he wishes, but he must not take his life.
• Satan leaves the Lord's presence and strikes Job with "loathsome sores" from the top of his head to the sole of his foot.
• Job sits in ashes and uses a piece of broken pottery to scratch himself. His wife tells him to curse God and die. He replies that she speaks like a foolish woman and that they receive good from God, so why shouldn't they receive evil. He does not sin with his words.

Job's Three Friends

• When Job's three friends hear about what has happened to him, they come to show sympathy and comfort him. When they see him from a distance, they do not recognize him, and they tear their robes and sprinkle dust on their heads, crying loudly. They sit with him in silence for seven days and nights because of his great suffering.

Job Laments His Birth – Job 3

• Job curses the day of his birth. (He wishes that the popular magicians who cast spells could cast a spell on the day of his birth so he was never born. Job's belief in God indicates that he was speaking dramatically, and not that he was truly endorsing pagan magic.)

Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prayer – Job 4

• Eliphaz speaks, and though his words are more courteous than will be the other two friends', he points out that God would never punish the righteous. He concludes that since Job is suffering, he must be a sinner.
• Eliphaz adds illustrations of God's retribution on animals (possibly implying that Job's "groanings" or "roaring" made him comparable to an old lion, symbolizing the wicked). He then states that he heard a voice that told him that no one is righteous compared to God, implying that Job is not righteous.