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Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Book of Job, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Suffering and Divine Justice
The Mystery of God
Human Wisdom vs. Divine Wisdom
Faith in Suffering
Summary
Analysis
Job continues, wondering why God does not seem to be around at the right times. The wicked seize flocks; they take the livestock of the widow and orphan. The wicked push the needy out of the way, forcing them to scavenge for survival and seek shelter in the wilderness. The dying and wounded call to God for help, but he doesn’t answer.
Job continues to lament the fact that it seems like God doesn’t punish the wicked and, in fact, that God allows the vulnerable to suffer at the hands of the wicked. If one simply looks at the world, it appears as if God ignores or overlooks suffering. Just because Job trusts God, that doesn’t mean he understands all of God’s ways.
Themes
Some people rebel against the “light,” like the murderer who kills and thieves in the night, or the adulterer who waits for evening so his actions will be hidden. Such people befriend darkness, and Sheol claims such sinners. Even if God seems to sustain them for a little while, they will ultimately be cut off.
Even though it seems to Job like God isn’t around when he’s needed most, and that he even lets evildoers get away with awful things, Job ultimately believes that justice prevails; people who sin against God end up in Sheol, as is just.
Themes
