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Job, book of
Job, book of A major book of the wisdom literature of the OT, of unknown authorship, probably written during or soon after the Exile (6th cent. BCE). The book questions the justice of a God who was expected to offer protection and prosperity in return for loyalty and obedience. How then explain the suffering and pains of people who were pious, ‘blameless and upright’ (Job 1: 1)? Job was such a one in this dramatic poem. In a short time he lost children, property, and health. If God was just, why did he let this happen? The book of Job has a special poignancy in the age of the Holocaust (Shoah)—so many prayers answered by total silence.
The structure of the book is that of a prose prologue and epilogue, while chs. 3 to 42: 6 are the poem in which there is a dialogue between Job and three friends; there are three cycles of six speeches, with a reply to each by Job. This is followed by a further intervention (chs. 32–7) from a fourth friend, the young Elihu. Job's ‘comforters’ (16: 1–2) explain why it is not unreasonable that he should be suffering such distress and they exhort him to endure it with fortitude and without complaint—much to Job's indignation. Job rails against God, blasphemously, cursing with his mouth and proclaiming his innocence. The day of his birth should be deleted from the calendar (3: 3–7). He issues a challenge to God, even if he is killed by doing so. There is only silence. There is no one to act as umpire between himself and God. Then at last God does reveal himself and Job's obstinate pride is brought low. He can no longer assert his righteousness in the face of God speaking out of the whirlwind (38: 2–4). What God says is very much what the friends had argued, but it reduces Job to repentance and God's generosity responds—though it is rather a crude response in that it is simply that Job's former prosperity is not only restored but doubled (42: 10), and his three new daughters are the most beautiful in the land (42: 15). Job's three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, would vindicate God by claiming that there is a correspondence between sin and suffering. In the epilogue God is shown to rebuke the friends for this naïve orthodoxy (42: 7) which in effect he has himself affirmed: he is inscrutable (38: 4) and the laws of his creation are just, regular, immutable, and magnificent, by no means to be questioned (40: 8). The orthodox doctrine was that the good and the wicked receive their just deserts in life; the author of the book of Job felt that this was irreconcilable with the facts as he knew them. He has left a superb poem, but as the eighteen illustrations by William Blake (1825) suggest, the book is ultimately mysterious. |
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W. R. F. BROWNING. "Job, book of." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. W. R. F. BROWNING. "Job, book of." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-Jobbookof.html W. R. F. BROWNING. "Job, book of." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-Jobbookof.html |
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Job
Job , book of the Bible. The book is of unknown authorship and date, although many scholars assign it to a time between 600 BC and 400 BC A lament in narrative form, the subject is the problem of good and evil in the world: "Why do the just suffer and the wicked flourish?" In the prose prologue Satan obtains God's permission to test the unsuspecting Job, whom God regards as "a perfect and an upright man" ; accordingly, all that Job has is destroyed, and he is physically afflicted. The main part of the book is cast in poetic form and consists of speeches by Job and three friends who come to "comfort" him: Job speaks, then each of the three speaks in turn, with Job replying each time; there are three such cycles of discussion, although the third is incomplete. The friends insist alike that Job cannot really be just, as he claims to be, otherwise he would not be suffering as he is. Nevertheless, Job reiterates his innocence of wrong. The sequence changes with the appearance of a fourth speaker, Elihu, who accuses Job of arrogant pride. He in turn is followed by God himself, who speaks out of a storm to convince Job of his ignorance and rebuke him for his questioning. The prose epilogue tells how God rebukes the three friends for their accusations and how happiness is restored to Job. The author did not intend to solve the paradox of the righteous person's suffering, but rather to criticize a philosophy that located the cause of suffering in some supposed moral failure of the sufferer. The texts are imperfect, and there may be serious losses, misplacements, or even additions to the original. The book contains many eloquent passages; among them are Job's declaration of faith in the "redeemer," his speech on wisdom, and God's discourse on animals. Job is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible.
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"Job." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Job." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Job.html "Job." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Job.html |
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job
job1 / jäb/ • n. 1. a paid position of regular employment: jobs are created in the private sector, not in Washington a part-time job. 2. a task or piece of work, esp. one that is paid: she wants to be left alone to get on with the job you did a good job of explaining. ∎ a responsibility or duty: it's our job to find things out. ∎ [in sing.] inf. a difficult task: we thought you'd have a job getting there. ∎ inf. a procedure to improve the appearance of something, esp. an operation involving plastic surgery: she's had a nose job someone had done a skillful paint job. ∎ inf. a thing of a specified nature: the car was a blue malevolent-looking job. ∎ inf. a crime, esp. a robbery: a series of daring bank jobs. ∎ Comput. an operation or group of operations treated as a single and distinct unit. • v. (jobbed, job·bing ) 1. [intr.] [usu. as adj.] (jobbing) do casual or occasional work: a jobbing builder. 2. [tr.] buy and sell (stocks) as a broker-dealer, esp. on a small scale. 3. [tr.] inf. cheat; betray. 4. [intr.] archaic turn a public office or a position of trust to private advantage. PHRASES: do the job inf. achieve the required result: a piece of board will do the job.do a job on someone inf. do something that harms or defeats an opponent: I go out and do a job on anyone who is giving our top scorers a hard time.a good job inf., chiefly Brit. a fortunate fact or circumstance: it was a good job she hadn't brought the car.on the job while working; at work.out of a job unemployed.job2 archaic • v. (jobbed, job·bing ) [tr.] prod or stab: he prepared to job the huge brute. ∎ thrust (something pointed) at or into something. • n. an act of prodding, thrusting, or wrenching. |
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"job." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "job." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-job005.html "job." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-job005.html |
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Job
Job in the Bible, a prosperous man whose patience and piety were tried by undeserved misfortunes, and who, in spite of his bitter lamentations, remained confident in the goodness and justice of God; also, the book of the Bible recounting his story.
Job is shown initially as a man who is wealthy and upright, surrounded by his family; he is reduced from this to sitting among ashes scraping with potsherds at the boils that afflict him, while his wife urges him to ‘Curse God, and die.’ Despite this, and despite the comforting of his friends which only aggravates his sense of despair, he remains true to his belief in God, and is in the end restored and justified. Job's comforter a person who aggravates distress under the guise of giving comfort, with allusion to the story of the biblical patriarch, in which three friends who came to comfort him only increased his sense of injustice and wrong. poor as Job very poor. Job after his possessions are taken from him becomes a type of abject poverty; proverbial allusions to him are recorded from late Middle English. |
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Job." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Job." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Job.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Job." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Job.html |
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Job, Book of
Job, Book of. One of the books of Writings (Ketuvim) in the Hebrew scriptures. It describes how the righteous Job was deprived by God of all his possessions including his children and was struck down with a vile disease (1–2). His three friends try to comfort him (3–26), but Job will not accept that he has sinned against the Lord (rightly, since he has been defined as innocent for the purpose of the book). Job laments his disastrous fate (29–31) and a fourth friend attempts consolation (32–7). Ultimately God speaks to Job (38–48) and all his fortune is restored.
In Islam Job is known as Ayyūb. Qurʾān 21. 83–4 and 38. 41–4 refer briefly to his calamities, his patience, and his restoration to prosperity. |
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JOHN BOWKER. "Job, Book of." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Job, Book of." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-JobBookof.html JOHN BOWKER. "Job, Book of." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-JobBookof.html |
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Job
JobJob is the name of a book in the Hebrew Bible and the name of the book's main character. Many scholars consider the Book of Job to be one of the finest works of literature ever written. It focuses on the question of why the innocent suffer. Job, a wealthy man, blessed with a loving wife and family, is known for his goodness and devotion to the will of Yahweh, the Hebrew god. The Bible indicates that Job's prosperity and general good fortune are a reward for his goodness and belief in Yahweh. However, in a meeting between Yahweh and his heavenly advisers, Satan questions Job's faith, claiming that he is faithful because of the many blessings he enjoys. If Job were to suffer misfortune, suggests Satan, he would curse Yahweh as readily as he now praises him. Satan challenges Yahweh to test Job's faith, and Yahweh accepts the challenge. Yahweh inflicts a number of terrible misfortunes on Job. He kills Job's children and causes him to lose all his wealth, but Job's belief in the goodness of Yahweh remains unshaken. This show of faith does not convince Satan, however, who says that physical pain and suffering would cause Job to abandon his belief. So Yahweh causes Job to be afflicted with painful boils all over his body, and still his faith remains firm. * See Names and Places at the end of this volume for further information. At this point three friends visit Job, supposedly to comfort him by explaining why Yahweh is causing him to suffer. They suggest that Job must be guilty of some sin, because Yahweh only punishes the wicked. Knowing that he is a righteous man, Job refuses to accept their arguments. Finally Job pleads with Yahweh to end his suffering and asks him to explain why he is tormenting a good man. Yahweh appears to Job in all his glory, overwhelming him with his magnificence. He proceeds to question Job about the mysteries of the universe. When Job cannot answer, Yahweh asks him how he could possibly hope to understand the will of the almighty if he cannot explain the workings of nature. Job accepts this answer and renews his faith in Yahweh, who rewards him by restoring his health and prosperity. In the end, Yahweh offers no answer to the question of why the innocent must suffer. Instead, the Book of Job delivers the message that one must believe in the goodness of Yahweh, even in the face of seemingly unjust punishment. |
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"Job." Myths and Legends of the World. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Job." Myths and Legends of the World. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3490900279.html "Job." Myths and Legends of the World. 2001. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3490900279.html |
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Job
Job ♂ Biblical name, pronounced rhyming with ‘robe’. It is borne in the Bible by the hero of the Book of Job, a man of exemplary patience, whose faith was severely tested by God's apparently motiveless maltreatment of him. His name, appropriately enough, means ‘persecuted’ in Hebrew. His story was a favourite one in the Middle Ages and frequently formed the subject of miracle plays. The name was used among Puritans and Christian fundamentalists, but is currently out of favour, although the form Jobe, presumably a respelling to fix the pronunciation, is occasionally found.
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PATRICK HANKS, KATE HARDCASTLE, and FLAVIA HODGES. "Job." A Dictionary of First Names. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PATRICK HANKS, KATE HARDCASTLE, and FLAVIA HODGES. "Job." A Dictionary of First Names. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O41-Job.html PATRICK HANKS, KATE HARDCASTLE, and FLAVIA HODGES. "Job." A Dictionary of First Names. 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O41-Job.html |
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job
job A set of programs and the data to be manipulated by these programs. The word also means the execution of the set of programs. In its simplest form a job may consist of loading a binary program and then executing this program using supplied data. In more complex forms whole series of steps may be taken, certain of which may be contingent on the outcome of earlier steps. The complete description of a job is written in a job-control language.
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JOHN DAINTITH. "job." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN DAINTITH. "job." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O11-job.html JOHN DAINTITH. "job." A Dictionary of Computing. 2004. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O11-job.html |
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Job, Book of
Job, Book of. The main portion of this OT Book consists of a discussion between Job and his three friends. Its subject is the problem of innocent suffering. Job rejects the traditional view that suffering is the result of sin, since he has no doubt of his own innocence. No final solution to the problem is offered, apart from emphasis on the omnipotence of God. The Book probably dates from c.400 BC.
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Job, Book of." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Job, Book of." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-JobBookof.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Job, Book of." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-JobBookof.html |
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Job
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"Job." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Job." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-job.html "Job." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-job.html |
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job
job2 piece of work XVI; transaction, operation XVII; position of employment XIX (orig. U.S. colloq.). poss. transf. use of †job piece, lump (XIV), cart-load (XVI), of unkn. orig.
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T. F. HOAD. "job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-job1.html T. F. HOAD. "job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-job1.html |
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Job
Job Old Testament book describing the crises in the life of Job, a well-to-do man from a town e of Palestine. The main theme is that suffering comes to good and bad people alike.
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"Job." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Job." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Job.html "Job." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Job.html |
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Job
Job patriarch of the O.T. taken as a type of destitution and of patience. XVI.
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Cite this article
T. F. HOAD. "Job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "Job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-Job.html T. F. HOAD. "Job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-Job.html |
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job
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Cite this article
T. F. HOAD. "job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-job.html T. F. HOAD. "job." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-job.html |
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job
job •blob, bob, cob, dob, fob, glob, gob, hob, job, knob, lob, mob, nob, rob, slob, snob, sob, squab, stob, swab, throb, yob
•nabob • skibob • thingamabob
•corncob • hobnob • doorknob
•heartthrob
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"job." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "job." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-job.html "job." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-job.html |
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