just because of their virtue and the
steadfastness with which they clung to the nobler ideals of their race
that they were thus assailed, the current interpretations of evil were no
longer satisfactory. When in time many of them went down to the grave
crushed by affliction and the objects of the taunts and revilings of their
wicked pursuers, the insufficiency of the current explanation of
misfortune was tragically demonstrated. To their minds Sheol or the grave
offered no solution, for, as among all early Aryan and Semitic peoples, it
was thought of as the dark, passionless, joyless abode of the shades.

In most of the psalms of this period the poets who speak in behalf of the
afflicted class, like the author of Malachi, expressed the hope that
Jehovah would speedily come to their deliverance and signally vindicate
and reward them. The heroism and fidelity that they represent can only be
fully appreciated in the light of this discouraging period when evil was
regnant. It was apparently at this time that the great poet, who speaks
through the book of Job, presented, with the spirit and method of a modern
philosopher, the lot of these innocent sufferers. He also proved for all
time that misfortune is not always the evidence of guilt, and that the
current doctrine of proportionate rewards and the explanations that were
adduced to support it were in certain cases absolutely untenable.

Section XCVIII. THE PROBLEM AND TEACHINGS OF THE BOOK OF JOB

[Sidenote: Job 1:1-5]
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. And that man was
blameless and upright; he feared God and turned away from evil. And seven
sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also included
seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen,
five hundred she asses, and an exceedingly large number of servants; so
that this man was the greatest of all the peoples of Palestine. And his
sons were accustomed to hold a feast in one another's house each on his
day. And they were wont to send and invite their three sisters to eat and
drink with them. And when the days of their feasting were over, Job used
to send and sanctify them, and he rose up early in the morning, and
offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said,
Perhaps my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts. Thus Job
did continually.

[Sidenote: Job 1:6-11]
Now on a certain day when the sons of God came to presen