The structure of the Book of Job is easy to follow. We will be pressed more as we try to understand its content, translate its poetry accurately and attempt to enter the mental life of the world's most famous sufferer. Here we only attempt to understand the structure. The Book of Job is primarily a conversation between Job and his three friends. I encourage you to take the time to learn the book's structure through the following table. When you do so, you will then be ready to grasp the flow and nuances of the argument, which I present in the subsequent Basic Essays. The numbers refer to chapters in Job.

Description/Chapter Prose Prologue 1-2 First Cycle     Second Cycle     Third Cycle (Incomplete)   Elihu Enters 32-37 God Speaks; Job Answers 38:1-42:6 Prose Conclusion 42:7-17

Job 3 6-7 9-10 12-14 16-17 19 21 23-24 26-31*

Eliphaz   4-5     15     22

Bildad     8     18     25

Zophar       11     20

*26-31. Scholars have often noted that the third cycle of speeches is incomplete. The text as we have it has Job speaking in Job 26, after Bildad's unexpectedly short speech. Curious is the fact that Job 27 also tells us that Job is speaking; normally if the same person keeps speaking in two consecutive chapters no notation of that is made. This has led some scholars to posit a third speech of Zophar in Job 26, though reference to Zophar as speaking would somehow have fallen out of the text. Then, Job 28 (the Hymn to Wisdom) is unattributed, and it appears to function more like the chorus of a Greek tragedy than an exhortation that Job or any of the friends would have spoken. Finally, Job again is mentioned as speaking at the beginning of Job 29. This is not the place to try to "solve" the dilemma of who is actually speaking in chapters 26-29. This outline attributes the entire section to Job, though your guess is as good as most scholars in this connection.

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