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Chapter 26
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 speaks again and says that as long as God (who has embittered his soul) lives, and as long as there’s breath in Job’s nostrils, he won’t say anything false. Until he dies, he won’t throw away his integrity.
Job continues his speech by insisting that he will continue to uphold his innocence—he won’t speak falsely by agreeing with his friends that his sufferings are the result of his sin. When he cites his “integrity,” he actually agrees with God’s evaluation of Job in the book’s prologue.
Themes
Job tells his friends he will teach them about the Almighty’s ways. (His friends have seen God’s hand for themselves, so why do they speak vainly?) When wicked and oppressive people bear children, those offspring are destined to starve or be killed by the sword. Survivors die of disease, and no one mourns them. Even if they accumulate riches, the innocent will enjoy these things. Terrors like floods and whirlwinds stalk their lives.
Job turns the tables on his friends by undertaking to inform them about God’s ways. Contradicting the idea floated by his friends that it’s always obvious when somebody is a sinner, Job argues that often it’s not obvious until after a wicked person dies, like when their children suffer, or when their riches wind up in other hands.
Themes
