Editing Book of Job (section)

=== Job's opening monologue and dialogues between Job and his three friends ===
In [[Job 3|chapter 3]], "instead of cursing God",<ref>{{cite book |author-link=James Crenshaw |last=Crenshaw |first=J.L. |year=2001 |section=17.&nbsp;Job |editor1-last=Barton |editor1-first=J. |editor2-last=Muddiman |editor2-first=J. |title=The Oxford Bible Commentary |page=335 |section-url=https://b-ok.org/dl/946961/8f5f43 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171122193211/http://b-ok.org/dl/946961/8f5f43 |archive-date=22 November 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Job laments the night of his conception and the day of his birth; he longs for death, ''"but it does not come"''.<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|3:21|NKJV}}</ref>

His three friends, [[Eliphaz (Job)|Eliphaz the Temanite]], [[Bildad|Bildad the Shuhite]], and [[Zophar|Zophar the Naamathite]], visit him, accuse him of sinning, and tell him that his suffering was deserved. Job responds with scorn, calling his visitors ''"miserable comforters"''.<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|16:2|NKJV}}</ref> Job asserts that since a ''just'' God would not treat him so harshly, patience in suffering is impossible, and the Creator should not take his creatures so lightly, to come against them with such force.{{sfn|Kugler|Hartin|2009|p=190}}

Job's responses represent one of the most radical restatements of Israelite [[theology]] in the Hebrew Bible.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Clines |first=David J.A. |date=2004 |title=Job's God |journal=Concilium |volume=2004 |issue=4 |pages=39–51}}</ref> He moves away from the pious attitude shown in the prologue and begins to berate God for the disproportionate wrath against him. He sees God as, among others,
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* intrusive and suffocating<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|7:17–19}}</ref>
* unforgiving and obsessed with destroying a human target<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|7:20–21}}</ref>
* angry<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|9:13}}; {{bibleverse|Job|14:13}}; {{bibleverse|Job|16:9}}; {{bibleverse|Job|19:11}}</ref>
* fixated on punishment<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|10:13–14}}</ref>
* hostile and destructive<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|16:11–14}}</ref>
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Job then shifts his focus from the injustice that he himself suffers to God's governance of the world. He suggests that God does nothing to punish the wicked, who have taken advantage of the needy and the helpless, who, in turn, have been left to suffer the significant hardships inflicted on them.<ref>{{bibleverse|Job|24:1-12}}</ref>