Job (biblical figure)
biblical figure
Job (English: ; Hebrew: אִיּוֹב 'Īyyōv; Greek: Ἰώβ Iṓb) is the central figure of the Book of Job in the Bible. In Islam, Job (Arabic: أيوب, romanized: ʾAyyūb) is also considered a prophet.
The Book of Job presents him as a family man who is beset with disasters that take away his family and possessions; this scenario is intended to test his faith in God. Job struggles to understand while reflecting on his despair. Despite this, he consistently remains devout.
The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonian Hebrew and Aramaic influences, indicates it was composed during the Persian period (540–330 BCE), with the poet using Hebrew in a learned, literary manner.
In the Hebrew Book of Job
The Hebrew Book of Job is part of Ketuvim ("Writings") of the Hebrew Bible. Not much is known about Job based on the Masoretic Text.
The characters in the Book of Job consist of Job, his wife, his three friends (Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar), a man named Elihu, God, and angels.
It begins with an introduction to Job's character—he is described as a blessed man who lives righteously in the Land of Uz.
“Job (biblical figure)” enters the record as biblical figure. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what biblical and figure can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q179962. VIAF identifies the subject as 46762859. The Library of Congress control number is n50040036. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Job (biblical figure)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.