Summary of the Book of Job: Narcissism, God, and the Shadow- Carl Jung’s Answer to Job Lecture 3
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Lecture 3: Summary of the Book of Job
Today I will provide a summary of the Book of Job. The video and audio version of this lecture can be found in my series on Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’: Season 2, Episode 3 of the Harry Venice Psychology Podcast. Below, I condense my lecture below into a blog post for your convenience.
The story takes place in the land of Uz (which is outside of Israelite territory) and centres on a man named Job.
The book has a basic structure. Below, I break down the book down into five sections so that it is easier to understand:
The Beginning (Chapters 1–2) – God makes a bet with Satan to test Job’s loyalty to God and Job suffers
Job debates with his friends (Chapters 3–31) – Job debates with his friends and his friends do not support him despite his unfair suffering
A young man speaks: randomly a young man named Elihu interrupts the debate with Job and his friends (Chapters 32–37)
God’s “Answer” to Job (Chapters 38–41): God responds in an aggressive, bullying, and abusive manner to Job
The ending (Chapter 42) – After Job “sees” God he repents and God ‘restores’ Job
You don’t have to read the whole book to get the facts of the story and understand the main action
I heard about this book for many years because I knew of Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’ and how important Jung viewed this biblical story to be. When I finally read the book… literally from an old copy of the bible I had from Australia, I was surprised to see that the real ‘action’ or at least the factual elements were contained in only a small portion of the book. So if you do not want to read the whole thing and want to read the Jungian or psychological ‘juice’, I would recommend that you just read Section 1 (Ch. 1-2 where the bet is made with God and Satan and Job’s losses and suffering is described), Section 4 (Ch. 38-41, where God answers Job), and Section 5 (Ch. 42 where God restores Job). The other two sections are important too, but not everyone has the luxury to read entire bible stories!
Summary of the Book of Job (a breakdown of the 5 sections of Book of Job)
Section 1. Beginning (Chapters 1–2) – God makes a bet with Satan to test Job’s loyalty to God and Job suffers
This section introduces Job, and he is described as a wealthy, righteous man who obeys and fears God.
Satan challenges Job’s loyalty to God despite there being no evidence to the contrary. Satan says that Job is faithful to God only because Job is prosperous, but that if he suffers, he will curse God and turn on him.
God allows Satan to test Job. God does this despite having no evidence or reason to doubt Job and despite it being the wrong and unethical thing to do (i.e. Unfairly torturing someone to ‘test’ how far their loyalty goes is not a conscious, ethical act from the Self).
Despite intense and unfair suffering, Job does not curse God, instead he curses the day of his own birth.
The bets between God and Satan
The bet that God has with Satan comes in two stages.
The first bet focuses on making Job suffer but God says that Job himself cannot be touched or hurt physically because God gives Job divine protection. However, as you’ll see in my next lecture, I believe Job is ‘touched’ by God because of the emotional abuse, and physical repercussions experienced by the extreme losses Job suffers. It would be inhuman to not be ‘touched’ by such loss and abuse, even if a person does not physically touch or harm us by force.
In the second bet, God, instead of appreciating and validating Job’s loyalty, he increases the violence and abuse against Job. He literally commands Satan: “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” (Job, Ch 2.4). He literally commands the devil to do whatever he wants, just allow him to be breathing and ‘alive’. For example, to understand the sick nature of this request, it means that Satan could literally cut off Job’s legs and arms and keep him ‘alive’. There is no end to the abuse sanctioned by God upon Job! God says that you can abuse, terrorise, harm, torture, hurt, and make this man suffer as much as you want… “only spare his life”.
This is why I saw the Book of Job is relevant for narcissistic abuse, parental abuse and the shadow. It opens up the psychological experience, the archetypal experience, of deep neglect, attachment wounds, narcissistic vile abuse, and other forms of terror and evil that parents inflict on children. Hell… even people we don’t know that well, people at workplaces, clients, strangers… even in these settings people can be evil to us. These are Job experiences… we wear the suffering in our souls.
How do we overcome them? How do we make meaning from our encounters which harm the soul? How do we be like Job and stand up to the tyrants, abusers, and gaslighters? To the Yahweh’s of the Old Testament who say we are wrong after they kill our children, burn our houses down (literally and psychologically), torment us, blame us for their shadow and expect us to apologise for their abuse.
Job stands up to his friends who piss down his back and tell him it is raining. He says ‘fuck you’… God is wrong. And when God tries the same, he stands up to God. He stands up to the most almighty, terrifying force despite the consequences. He cannot live a lie!
That is why I say the Book of Job is such an important psychological book and that is why Jung spent so much time and effort on it. That is why he says about ‘Answer to Job’ that it is THE ONLY BOOK HE WOULD NOT CHANGE A SINGLE WORD FROM. Why would Carl Jung write an ‘answer’ to Job in the years before he died… because it was damn important to do so. That’s why.
Now if you are wondering why I went on that diatribe, it will make sense once you read what Job suffered and what he lost. Below I break it down.
Job’s loss and suffering in the first bet:
In the first bet with Satan, Job lost and suffered in the five following ways:
Violent raiders (Sabeans) killed all of his servants with swords and then took all of his donkeys and oxen. Only one servant escaped who informed Job of this tragedy. As that servant finished speaking to Job, another servant arrived.
The second servant informed Job that a fire fell from God in heaven and burned up all his sheep and servants.
Before that servant could finish speaking, another servant arrived. This servant told Job that other violent raiders (Chaldeans), have taken Job’s camels and killed all his servants there with swords.
In similar fashion, another servant arrived to inform Job of more bad news. This servant told Job that Job’s ten children were killed. While Job’s 7 sons and 3 daughters were eating and drinking at his older brother’s house, a great wind came and struck the four corners of the house and fell upon the young people and they died.
Although there are only four “events” reported to Job, I include the killing of his servants in the first three reported events as a separate loss. Because Job was loved by his servants and he loved them too. Also, the loss of an enormous amount of human life is really a “loss” all onto its own. Accordingly, I count Job’s loss of all his servants as a separate and important loss he suffered due to God’s first bet with Satan.
Despite all of this, Job did not curse God. Instead, he said:
“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job, Ch.1.21)
The author of Book of Job also notes that:
“In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”
Job’s suffering and loss in the second bet:
When God next sees Satan. God remarks that:
“He [Job] still holds fast his integrity still, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason”
Note that in lecture 4, I dissect how this is a shadow projection by God onto Satan. But for this lecture, we will stick more to the facts of the story.
Satan then replies to God’s shadow laden compliment to Job, by saying:
“Skin for Skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.
But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”
In other words, Satan said that any man, even the most loyal and honourable, will give “all” or anything that he has; to save his own life (e.g. he will give away his possessions to save himself for example due to his fear of God). But “touch his bone and flesh” (e.g. physically harm him or threaten his physical health), and he will curse you to your face (e.g. he will betray and curse God).
God completely gives Job over to Satan’s hands. He literally says:
“Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
So, Satan has Job completely in his “hand” with the only stipulation being that he “only spare his life”.
Satan then strikes Job down “with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head”.
When Job’s wife questions why Job is still loyal to God, Job replies:
“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
The bible acknowledges that what was done to Job was “evil”.
When Job’s three friends see Job the damage is so bad that “they did not recognize him”, they saw that “his suffering was very great” and then they wept and cried for him.
The suffering is so great that Job curses the day he was born and even wishes that he would “die at birth” or be “a hidden still-born child” than to experience the pain he is suffering. At this point of the book, rather than demanding an answer from God, he curses himself.
Section 2 - Dialogue (Chapters 3–31): Job’s Debates with Friends and his friends do not support him despite his unfair suffering
Photo: Job Rebuked by His Friends by William Blake
In Section 2 of the book, Job is visited by three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
His three friends do not provide support and validation for their abused friend. Instead, they argue that Job must have sinned and done something wrong to deserve his suffering. The approach of these three friends, is in accordance with the traditional view of divine justice where a person has sinned and God intervenes and punishes them for those sins (e.g. the suffering is a divine justice delivered because the person sinned, e.g. he or she deserves the suffering).
However, Job insists on his innocence and demands an explanation from God. He questions God and demands an answer.
The dialogue and debates go back and forth for quite some time there is no agreement or resolution by the end of it. But the longer that his friends invalidate and do not support him, Job becomes increasingly bold in his “truth”, and he demands an answer from God. In modern psychological terms, he will not be invalidated, gaslighted, and he will not settle for an insecure attachment. He will not let narcissistic abuse be justified in the name of God, or as happens in scapegoat family dynamics, in the name of the Parents (who often act like God-images and ‘Gods’, specifically the Yahweh Old Testament God in ‘Book of Job’). Much like the scapegoat who has had enough of narcissistic abuse from his parents, he will no longer sit quiet and accept the abuse. He demands an “answer”. And we should learn from this and demand an “answer” and if we don’t like it… use therapy, psychological tools, mentors, other safe secure attachments to help us move on.
Section 3- Random Interruption: the Speech of a young man named Elihu (Chapters 32–37)
Photo: Warth of Elihu by William Blake
As reader, I found it quite random that a young man who “burned with anger” and interrupts the discussion because Job “justified himself rather than God” (Job, Ch.32.1). He was even angry at Job’s three friends because “they had found no answer” to Job (job, Ch.32.3). This younger man, Elihu, intervenes, makes some interesting, even insightful remarks. He claims that suffering can be a form of discipline and that God's ways are beyond human understanding.
Ultimately, Elihu tries to defend God's justice without fully blaming Job.
Section 4- God’s “Answer” to Job (Chapters 38–41)
Photo: The Lord answering Job out of the whirlwind by William Blake
After the young man speaks, God answers Job out of a whirlwind.
Instead of “answering” Job. He in fact reverses the tables and “questions” Job. God focuses on the complexity and vastness of his creation. But as we’ll see in my lectures on Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’, there is a lot of bullying, aggression, intimidation and I would say gaslighting and abuse involved in this display by God. Rather than take accountability for this role in making Job suffer, God grandstands and emphasizes his divine wisdom and power, and contrasts this with Job’s human limitations.
For my hardcore Jungians, and Edward Edinger fans, this is where Yahweh mentions Leviathan and Behemoth, the terrifying beasts created by God in the Old Testament bible. God essentially outlines how powerful and destructive these beasts are, yet God created them, and he can tame and control them. He uses this as an intimidation tactic to Job who is a mere mortal and display his superiority over Job.
Section 5- Epilogue (Chapter 42): God ‘restores’ Job
Photo: Job and His Family Restored to Prosperity
In a rather unusual and sudden move, Job acknowledges God’s greatness and repents for speaking without full knowledge.
Job says that: “I have uttered what I did not understand….
But now my eye sees you; therefore, I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
(Job, Ch.42.4 - 42.6)
After Job makes this concession, God becomes angry at Job’s three friends for misrepresenting Him. He allows them to be forgiven if they make sacrifices to Job and if Job prays for them to be forgiven, he will accept it. The sacrifices are made, Job prays for them, and God forgives them.
Job’s fortunes are then restored: he receives double his previous wealth, he is given the same amount of children as he previously had (7 sons and 3 daughters), and then he lives a long, full life until the ripe old age of 140.
If you want to do go on this inner path of individuation, Jungian Analysis, Shadow Work, trauma healing or to repair insecure attachment, book a Free 1:1 Discovery Call with me today: https://calendly.com/harryvenicepsychology/30min
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Always Believe. Stay Brave. Never Give Up.
Harry Venice
Attachment, Trauma, and Jungian Therapist
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