Related Verses: Job 8:1-22; 11:1-20

Leading Question: Is it possible that the book of Job eliminates all possibilities of speaking of retributive punishment?

This week’s lesson focuses on Job’s second and third “friends,” Bildad and Zophar, who are even more brutal than Eliphaz was.  In Job 11:6, Zophar confidently asserts: “Know then that God exacts of you less that your guilt deserves” (NRSV).  How could Job’s “friend” come to such a conclusion?

If we look at what we can know about “punishment” for sin, Job’s friends assume that any trouble that falls upon a human is the result of that person’s sin.  ...