The question that launches Job's story is posed by God at the outset of the story: "Have you considered my servant Job?” (1:8; 2:3). By any estimation the answer to this question must be yes. The forty-two chapters that form the biblical story have in fact opened the story to an ongoing practice of reading and rereading, evaluating and reevaluating. Samuel E. Balentine examines this rich and varied history of interpretation by focusing on the principal characters in the story.

Samuel E. Balentine is a professor of Old Testament studies and director of graduate studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He is the author of eight books, including the Torah's Vision of Worship, general editor of the Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary series, series editor of Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church, and editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Bible and Theology.