Job 31 - Introduction

Job 29-31. Job's Reply to Zophar. He sums up his whole case, ending with an appeal to God. In Job 29 he surveys his former happy days, in Job 30 his present misery. Job 31 is his great oath of clearing: Job solemnly protests his innocence and invites God to judge his case. In Job 30:21 Job almost returns to his former feeling against God. Since Job 19:25 f. he has moved away from his great conviction that God will ultimately right him, to face the general problem of Providence, and has come to the dreadful conclusion that there is no moral law in the universe. He comes back, therefore, to the point from which he started, and demands that God should clear up matters here and now. It was necessary to the poet that Job should thus present his case in order to prepare for the Divine revelation which is the answer to the problem of Providence. He allows Job to gain the victory of faith and then to lose ground again, so as to state the wider problem and deal with it.