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Chapter 18
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Book of Job, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Suffering and Divine Justice
The Mystery of God
Human Wisdom vs. Divine Wisdom
Faith in Suffering
Summary
Analysis
Job asks his friends how long they’ll continue to torment him with their destructive words. Aren’t they ashamed to do him wrong? If Job’s words have been false, then that’s his affair; but in any case, Job is confident that it’s God who has wronged him. Even when Job calls on God for help, God continues to treat Job like an enemy.
Job suggests that his friends are actively harming him with their so-called comfort. And as he’s stated elsewhere, it’s not human beings’ judgment that Job is mainly concerned about, but God’s. However, God still seems to remain aloof from Job and even hostile.
Active
Themes
Job’s family and friends have rejected him. Even his servants regard him as a stranger, and his wife and family find him abhorrent. He begs his friends to have pity on him and stop pursuing him to death like God does. Job wishes that his words could be written down, even engraved on a rock.
This passage connects back to the prologue, when Job’s wife seemed disgusted by Job’s refusal to curse God. Now Job has been abandoned by his entire social circle, whose “help” feels like persecution. Job is so certain that he’s right that he wishes his self-defense could be recorded for posterity somehow.
Active
Themes
