When individuals attempt to confront the mystery of suffering, three main questions stand out above all others. Why is there suffering? What is the origin, or cause, of suffering, in general or in any given circumstance? Why does this suffering happen to specific persons? The Book of Job is not an attempt to provide a final answer to these questions. Nor does it defend any one theological dogma on suffering. Rather, it is an attempt to provide different viewpoints on the issue. Other views are possible. No one definitive answer exists.

As Job struggles to understand the calamities that overwhelm him, we gain insight into his way of life, his personal code of ethics. While we can get no clear definition of suffering, we do get a clear picture of his spiritual life, his relationship to his God. In his defense against his accusers, Job outlines for us his personal commitment to his understanding of what it means to be righteous. He lays bare before us, the readers of his story, his spiritual and ethical purity. By the end of his story, Job has revealed the truth of his innocence to his friends and to God through his spirituality.

By examining two Scriptural texts, Jewish and Christian, in comparison with the Book of Job, specifically Chapter 31, the picture of Job represented becomes a clear portrait of a man’s response in love to the love of his God. His attempts at self-purification, born of this love, were successful because of his sincerity of heart. Job 31, then, presents a portrait of not merely a man of faith but a man of intense love. Through his own words, Job brings that love out as explicitly as possible because his words tell of his deeds, his MITSVOT, his active purification.