Storybook

The Book of Job · Part Three

Now my eyesees you.

God turns up in a storm and answers thirty-seven chapters of questions with about seventy of his own — none of them about suffering. He talks about rain on empty ground, an ostrich outrunning a horse, and a sea monster. Every scene below is a real frame from our animated film.

Real film frames Job 38 – 42 Scroll to begin
Scroll to begin
A colossal spiral of cloud filling the whole sky Lightning turning inside it Four men flat in the ash, and one standing up He leans on his staff into the wind The cloud opens into a ring of gold Black starfield inside the aperture One tiny figure under an open sky The whole storm, and a man the size of a full stop
Scene IOut of the Whirlwind

Thirty-seven chapters of argument, and God does not answer a single question in any of them. What arrives instead is weather. Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, and you will answer me.” God turns up and starts asking the questions. Job 38 : 1–3

Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind.

A single line of light in absolute dark Galaxies unrolling out of it A spiral arm turning, seen edge on A bare planet, red and unfinished The sea bursts up out of the rock Water climbing into a wall of spray Waves breaking against new cliffs And then stopping exactly where they are told
Scene IIWhere Were You?

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding… when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb… and said, ‘You may come here, but no further; here your proud waves shall be stopped’?” Job 38 : 4–11

Where were you when I laid the foundations?

A river of light running across a dark continent Dawn taking hold of a forest Gazelles running through new grass Rain falling on cracked, empty desert One green shoot in the dust The whole desert opening into wildflowers Constellations drawn out across the night Job's face, lit from above, listening
Scene IIIHave You Commanded the Morning?

“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place… to cause it to rain on a land where no man is, on the wilderness, in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, and to cause the tender grass to grow?” Rain that falls where nobody lives, on ground nobody owns, because it is good. Then: “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?” Job 38 : 12–31

A lion asleep in long grass at sunset Cubs climbing all over him One of them chewing his ear A lioness rolls over, entirely done in Raven chicks in a nest on a windblown pine Every beak open at once The parent coming in with food Full crops, and quiet
Scene IVWho Hunts for the Lioness?

“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions… Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?” Notice what this is not. It is not a lecture about power. It is a father showing somebody round a house he built, animal by animal, and most of the animals are being fed. Job 38 : 39–41

Mountain goats on a pinnacle above the clouds A newborn kid leaning into its mother They pick their way along an impossible ledge A wild donkey braying at nothing in particular It bolts across open plain, delighted with itself An ostrich looks straight down the lens It sets off at a flat sprint It overtakes a galloping horse And is extremely pleased about it
Scene VThe Goats, the Donkey, the Ostrich

“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?… Who has set the wild donkey free? Whose bonds have I loosened?” And then the ostrich, whom God describes with open affection as not very bright and completely magnificent: “she deals harshly with her young ones… because God has deprived her of wisdom. When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.” Job 39 : 1–18

A black stallion rears in a mountain pass It comes on at a gallop through the dust Head on, mane up, nostrils wide Lightning behind it An eagle on a rock spire above the cloud layer Its eye, close — gold and black It drops off the peak into the air A speck against the sun
Scene VIThe Horse and the Eagle

“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?… He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength… Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?” Job 39 : 19–27

A door of light standing open in the storm Debris turning in the air around one man He braces on his staff and does not run He walks out into the middle of the crater He puts a hand over his own mouth The hand stays there The sky, one enormous slow vortex He walks toward the light at the centre of it A radiance standing in the cloud above him
Scene VIIShall He Who Argues Contend?

“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” And Job — who has demanded a hearing for thirty chapters and has every legal point on his side — gives the shortest speech in the book: “Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.” Job 40 : 1–5

I lay my hand on my mouth.

Interlude · Your turn

God is asking the questions now. How do you answer?

Job had every argument ready. This is what he did instead.

Press and hold — lay your hand over your mouth, and keep it there.

Something enormous stands up in a flooding river Feet like pillars in the brown water It shoulders the whole river aside It lowers its head and eats grass like an ox Egrets riding on its back A vast placid face, chewing It settles down in the flood, unbothered An island of an animal in a moving river
Scene VIIIBehemoth

“Behold now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox. Behold now, his strength is in his thighs… He moves his tail like a cedar… Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn't tremble. He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.” God's argument here is not that he is frightening. It is that he exists, he is enormous, he eats grass, and Job has never once thought about him. Job 40 : 15–23

A black sea under a black sky Light moving under the water An enormous head breaks the surface Coils of it rising, lit from inside It stands up out of the ocean The same shape, redrawn in stars A constellation coiling across the sky One eye, close, full of light
Scene IXLeviathan

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook?… Will you play with him as with a bird? Will you bind him for your girls?… Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out… Upon earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear.” Four chapters of questions, and this is the last one. God never explains the suffering. He shows Job the sea monster and asks whether he would like to try putting a lead on it. Job 41 : 1–33

Will you play with him as with a bird?

One man alone on a rise in the last of the storm A single tear on a filthy cheek He kneels down in the ash Both hands open on his knees, empty His eyes close Close — wet lashes, no anger left He bows his head over his hands Still
Scene XNow My Eye Sees You

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained… I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” He is not told why. He never finds out. What changes is not his information — it is that the God he had only been told about has now turned up in person, and answered him. Job 42 : 1–6

I had heard of you — now my eye sees you.

Sunlight coming down through a hole in the cloud The ash plain, bright for the first time Two doves land on a dead branch The ruined town, gold-lit Job on all fours, looking up His face, in daylight
Scene XIThe Storm Clears

And then it is over, and it is a nice morning. There is no transition — the wind simply stops, the light comes back, and two doves land on the dead tree that has been in the background of every shot for two episodes. Job 42 : 7

The three friends face-down in the dust One of them presses his forehead into the ground Three heads sticking out of a drift of ash One claps a hand over another's mouth The other three glance at him — too late for that They sit in a row, chastened Three faces, no arguments left Waiting to be told what to do
Scene XIIYou Have Not Spoken What Is Right

“My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.” The three men who defended God for thirty chapters are told they got him wrong, and the man who shouted at the sky is told he got him right. The moment plays for comedy — one of them physically claps a hand over another's mouth. Job 42 : 7

They come back over the ridge leading bulls and rams Seven of each, driven down into the crater The three of them standing in front of Job One of them asks him for something Job kneeling at a small altar, the friends behind him Both hands open Gold light spreading out across the ash from where he kneels They reach down and haul him up out of the pit An embrace, foreheads together
Scene XIIIAnd Job Prayed for His Friends

God's instruction to the friends is humiliating and exact: take seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and he will pray for you; for I will accept him. The men who told him to repent have to go and ask him to intercede for them. And then the hinge of the whole ending: Yahweh turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Not when he repented. When he forgave. Job 42 : 8–10

When he prayed for his friends.

A figure in blue on the cracked ground, walking He straightens up and sees her Her face, close He puts a hand out toward her She runs the last of it They hold on to each other Forehead to forehead in the sunrise The two of them walking out of the crater together
Scene XIVShe Came Back

The Bible does not say a word about this, and here it gets a whole scene: the woman who told him to curse God and die comes back over the ruined ground, and he is already reaching for her before she gets there. They walk out of the ash heap holding hands. Job 42 : 10

A procession of people coming up a road with baskets Old friends grabbing him by both shoulders Sisters and a daughter in a tangle of arms A full table, lamps, everybody talking at once The house lit up from inside The estate at night, people arriving
Scene XVThey Ate Bread With Him

Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, came to him, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and each one gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. They arrive after the worst is over, which the book records without comment. They come, and they eat with him, and that counts. Job 42 : 11

Sheep filling a whole valley to the horizon A camel train coming down a dust road Oxen turning the first furrow of new ground Job standing in the middle of it with his arms out A servant nose to nose with a camel, overwhelmed A baby's hand closes around one big finger Three young women riding hard through gold wheat One of them reins in, laughing An older Job watching them from a stone wall
Scene XVITwice as Much

So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. Fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen. Seven sons and three daughters — and one strange, quiet sentence that would have raised eyebrows in every century since: their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. Job 42 : 12–15

Two white-haired people on a bench in a yard A grandchild on his knee, both of them laughing Children and goats in the evening light Very old now, climbing a hill with a staff He sets one more stone on a small altar He stands on the hilltop in gold cloud The whole country laid out below him Ranks of light, and a throne, seen once more A single lamp burning above the clouds
Scene XVIIOld, and Full of Days

After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, to four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days. It climbs with him one last time to the little stone altar he was building before any of it happened — and then keeps climbing, back up through the cloud into the room where the whole thing started, and looks down. Nobody ever tells him. He never needed to be told. Job 42 : 16–17

Old, and full of days.

After the story

God never answers the question. He answers the man.

Read the speech again and notice what is missing: no wager, no accuser, no explanation, not one word about why. Job is never told, in this life or in this book. What he gets instead is a tour — the sea being told where to stop, rain falling on ground where nobody lives, a lioness being fed, an ostrich who cannot fly and does not care. And it is enough. "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you." The thing that healed him was not information. It was that God came, and spoke to him, by name.

A single lamp burning on a stone above an ocean of gold cloud A very old man standing on a hilltop in golden cloud
The book ends where it began: back above the little room, looking down.

Voices of the storm · hover or tap to turn

Job Job

"Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth."

— Job 40:4
The whirlwind The Whirlwind

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding."

— Job 38:4
Behemoth Behemoth

"See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox."

— Job 40:15

The whirlwind

How closely were you watching?

1. What does God's answer out of the whirlwind consist of?

2. What is Job's response?

3. What does God say about the three friends?

4. When was Job restored?

What this story teaches

The answer is a person, not an explanation.

God never tells Job why. He turns up, speaks to him directly, and takes him round the world he made. Job stops asking — not because he was satisfied with an argument, but because he was no longer talking to an absence.

"I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you." Job 42:5

He was restored when he prayed for them.

Not when he repented. The text is precise: "Yahweh turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends" — the same men who had spent a month telling him he deserved it.

"Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends." Job 42:10

Nothing lost is replaced.

He gets twice the livestock and the same number of children, because children are not livestock. The book restores him without pretending the first ten did not exist.

"So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning." Job 42:12
Read the scripture itself. Job 38 · 40 · 42 — World English Bible

Job 38

1Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

2“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

3Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!

4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.

5Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?

6Whereupon were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,

7when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,

9when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,

11and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further. Here your proud waves shall be stayed?’

12“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place;

13that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?

14It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment.

15From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.

16“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

17Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

18Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.

19“What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,

20that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?

21Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

22Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen the treasures of the hail,

23which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

24By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?

25Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm;

26To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;

27to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?

28Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?

29Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?

30The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.

31“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?

32Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

33Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

34“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you?

35Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?’

36Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?

37Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,

38when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?

39“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

40when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?

41Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?

Job 40

1Moreover Yahweh answered Job,

2“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

3Then Job answered Yahweh,

4“Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

5I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”

6Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

7“Now brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me.

8Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?

9Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?

10“Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty.

11Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.

12Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place.

13Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place.

14Then I will also admit to you that your own right hand can save you.

15“See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox.

16Look now, his strength is in his thighs. His force is in the muscles of his belly.

17He moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

18His bones are like tubes of brass. His limbs are like bars of iron.

19He is the chief of the ways of God. He who made him gives him his sword.

20Surely the mountains produce food for him, where all the animals of the field play.

21He lies under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.

22The lotuses cover him with their shade. The willows of the brook surround him.

23Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble. He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.

24Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with a snare?

Job 42

1Then Job answered Yahweh,

2“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.

3You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.

4You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’

5I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

6Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

7It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.

8Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”

9So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.

10Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before.

11Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.

12So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.

13He had also seven sons and three daughters.

14He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch.

15In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

16After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations.

17So Job died, being old and full of days.

World English Bible (WEB) — a public-domain modern English translation. Read it freely, share it freely.

NEXT — A NEW BOOK

Ten times better.

Four boys are marched from a burning Jerusalem to the greatest city on earth, and win everything by quietly refusing the king's table.

Read the episode ›

The Book of Job — animated film in production

These scenes are real frames from the film.

Help us finish it — and every story like it — free for the world.

Support the Mission Back to the Storybook