History Literature / BookOfJob

* CurseIsFoiledAgain: Job has curses and misfortune heaped upon him and everyone close to him, due to a bet between God and Satan. After sucking it up and maintaining his faith and loyalty for long enough, he received double what he lost, and ten more children.

* TheDevil: UnbuiltTrope. {{Satan}} is a main character, but rather than being named the Lord of Darkness, he freely circulates in {{Heaven}} and converses (albeit rather impudently) with {{God}} Himself. His role seems to be something of a trickster prosecutor, trying to prove that Job's alleged devotion to God is not really genuine. It is suggested the name Satan should be read as ''adversary'' or ''accuser'', and that it refers to a role rather than a distinct person; as such, this is the [[TropeMaker original]] DevilsAdvocate.

* ScienceHero: God Himself throws in several scientific facts as a proof of His authority over His world, from water cycle to ''[[OlderThanTheyThink telecommunication]]''. He also throws in several biological facts during His speech.

Job is an honest upright man, blessed with wealth and children, but {{Satan}} challenges {{God}} that Job is only devout because of the blessings his life has given him. God decides to prove Satan wrong and demonstrate Job's genuine piety by allowing Satan to rob him of his life of blessing, in order to showing Satan that even when alone, impoverished and suffering, Job will keep the faith.

* PosthumousSibling: Job has seven sons and three daughters after losing the first ten children to an accident.

* ReligiousRussianRoulette: Over the course of the book, Job worked his way up to demanding answers from God, not only from the tragedies Satan inflicted, but from his know-it-all friends dragging down his morale. God does step in eventually in response to Job's demands, but doesn't give an answer and only says "Who are you to speak back to me?"

* HonorableElephant / GentleGiant: Whereas Leviathan is treated as a monstrous being to be feared, Behemoth, which is believed to be either an elephant, a hippo, or something other large beast, is treated as relatively peaceful despite its incredible power.

* AngryAngryHippos: Chapter 40 mentions Behemoth, a powerful and virtually invincible creature that it is said only God can defeat. While the Hebrew name is ambiguous, the description of Behemoth (it eats grass, lives in a river, and has strong bones) suggests that it is possibly based on a hippo.

* HonorableElephant Whereas Leviathan is treated as a monstrous being to be feared, Behemoth, which is believed to be either an elephant or something else (like a hippo), is treated as a relatively GentleGiant despite its incredible power.

* {{Kaiju}}: The Behemoth (a mammal-like creature even bigger than an elephant) and leviathan (a giant sea serpent) are [[UrExample ur examples]] of Kaijus.

* BrokeEpisode: The whole story is basically one long miserable chapter in Job's life where he has lost all his riches and goes through much suffering before he gets them back.

-->''"If God cannot trust some of His own angels and has charged some of them with folly, how much less will he trust those made of clay?"''

* GodIsGood: A righteous man suffers through no fault of his own, causing him to wonder how a good, omnipotent God could let this happen. After Job discusses this with three friends, God himself appears to provide context for Job's situation. God poises a series of rhetorical questions that show the sheer scale of existence God is responsible for, from the foundation of the Earth to the nourishment of the raven. Job agrees that he clearly doesn't have a wide enough understanding of the universe [[OmniscientMoralityLicense to moralize (to) an omniscient]], prompting God to also dare Job to take upon God's role, whether it be humbling the proud, tearing down the wicked, and [[OrderVersusChaos controlling the Leviathans or the Behemoths that bring chaos]]. Upon hearing all this, Job repents and God restores his prosperity, although not before rebuking Job's friends for not speaking rightly concerning God in trying to explain Job's suffering.

* HeavensDevils: The Book of Job is the TropeMaker, where ''ha-satan'' ("The Accuser") is a member of God's divine council. When God points out Job as a righteous and virtuous man who has never turned away from Him, Satan responds that of course Job is a loyal servant of God; he has everything he could possibly want, and if he lost all of that, he would curse God and turn away from him. God agrees that Satan may put his claim to the test.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Job is introduced as a righteous man, and even in spite of the inexplicable suffering he is forced to undergo, he refuses to sin by cursing God.

* NoSympathy: Job's friends spend a lot of their time reasoning that Job must have done something wrong to deserve all his sufferings, and even making theological arguments with Job to try to get him to agree. Job calls them out as "miserable comforters."

* PutOnABus: Job's wife past chapter 2. We never know whether Job and her separated or made amends or what; we just know that Job had seven sons and three daughters after everything gets straightened out.
* RagsToRiches: After having lost his entire fortune at the beginning of the book, God blesses Job at the end with twice as much wealth as he had previously.

* ScienceHero: God himself throws in several scientific facts as a proof of his authority over his world, from water cycle to ''[[OlderThanTheyThink telecommunication]]''. He also throws in several biological facts during his speech.

* SmugSnake: Satan. Of course, he [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse doesn't stay in the story long enough to see how it all turns out]].

-->''“If my heart has been deceived by a woman,''
-->''or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,''
-->''then let my wife grind for another,''
-->''and let others bow down over her.''
-->''For this is a heinous crime;''
-->''yes, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.''
-->''For it is a fire that consumes to destruction''
-->''and would root out all my increase.''

* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: When God appears before Job, he gives a speech describing his entire creation, essentially daring Job: "I created '''the entire universe'''. You mean to tell me ''you'' know better than ''I'' do?!"

* HonorableElephant Whereas Leviathan is treated as a monstrous being to be feared, Behemoth, which is believed to be either an elephant or something else, is treated as a relatively GentleGiant despite its incredible power.

* GodIsGood: A righteous man suffers through no fault of his own, causing him to wonder how a good, omnipotent God could let this happen. After Job discusses this with three friends, God himself appears to provide context for Job's situation. God poises a series of rhetorical questions that show the sheer scale of existence God is responsible for, from the foundation of the Earth to the nourishment of the raven. Job agrees that he clearly doesn't have a wide enough understanding of the universe [[OmniscientMoralityLicense to moralize an omniscient]], prompting God to also dare Job to take upon God's role, whether it be humbling the proud, tearing down the wicked, and [[OrderVersusChaos controlling the Leviathans or the Behemoths that bring chaos]]. Upon hearing all this, Job repents and God restores his prosperity, although not before rebuking Job's friends for not speaking rightly concerning God in trying to explain Job's suffering.

* DinosaursAreDragons: The leviathan has been speculated to be describing a dragon or dinosaur, or one in the same.

* DinosaursAreDragons: The leviathan has been speculated to be describing a dragon or dinosaur, or one in the the same.

* DinosaursAreDragons: The leviathan has been speculated to be a dragon or dinosaur, or a possibly one in the the same.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Job's family, servants, and employees, as a wager between two supernatural beings. Satan, literally, the Accuser, in the Bible proper has the authority and right to test ANYONE through suffering, within limits. In Job's case, God had sheltered him disproportionately up to that point, hence the extreme fridge-stuffing.

* CallBack: God's second conversation with Satan goes almost exactly the same as the first.

* TheDevil: UnbuiltTrope. {{Satan}} is a main character, but rather than being named the Lord of Darkness, he freely circulates in {{Heaven}} and converses (albeit rather impudently) with {{God}} Himself. His role seems to be something of a trickster prosecutor, trying to prove that Job's alleged devotion to God is not really genuine. It is suggested the name Satan should be read as ''adversary'' or ''accuser'', and that it refers to a role rather than a distinct person; as such, this is the [[TropeMaker original]] DevilsAdvocate.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Job is introduced as a righteous man, and even in spite of the inexplicable suffering he is forced to undergo, he refuses to sin by cursing God.

* SarcasmMode: ''God'', during His speech with Job.

* HonorableElephant / EverythingIsBetterWithDinosaurs: Whereas Leviathan is treated as a monstrous being to be feared, Behemoth, which is believed to be either an elephant or a sauropod dinosaur, is treated as a relatively GentleGiant despite its incredible power.

* {{Kaiju}}: The Behemoth (a dinosaur-like creature even bigger than an elephant) and leviathan (a giant sea serpent) are [[UrExample ur examples]] of Kaijus.

* AngryAngryHippos: Chapter 40 mentions Behemoth, a powerful and virtually invincible creature that it is said only God can defeat. The description of Behemoth (it eats grass, lives in a river, and has strong bones) suggests that it is based on a hippo.