Job was not Righteous. Here's Why.

Traditional interpreters of Job characterize Job as righteous before he repented, largely overlooking all but the first two chapters of the Old Testament book that bears his name. Here are 15 reasons to challenge their assumptions:

1. Job exhibited ungodly pride and cherished his own glory (Job 29), in contrast to men of the Bible who humbled themselves and sought to please God, not people. (Galatians 1:10; Luke 3:16; Genesis 18:27; Numbers 12:3)
2. Job listed more than two dozen ways in which he was righteous (Job 31), some of them unrealistic. (Job 31:18) In doing so, Job sounded remarkably like the New Testament Pharisee, who was confident of his own righteousness. (Luke 18:9-14)
3. Despite Job’s claims of extraordinary benevolence, none of his beneficiaries supported him in his loss. (Job 19:13-19)
4. Starving boys who lived among the rocks universally despised Job—and the feeling was mutual.  Job said he would have disdained to put their fathers with his sheep dogs (Job 30:1) and rejected them because they were too weak from hunger to be of use to him. (Job 30:2)
5. Four friends challenged Job’s self-assessment and charged Job with the same sin: devastating business practices that took advantage of the vulnerable. (Job 22:6-9; See Joy of Job for other verses.)
6. There is no evidence that Job’s friends possessed such evil character that would cause them to conspire to falsely accuse Job. They had no motive to lie, they sought Job’s restoration, (Job 8:5-7; 22:19-21; 33:26) and they likely spent weeks—possibly months—away from their homes to comfort Job without prospects of personal gain. (Job 2:11-13; Job 7:3)
7. If Job’s four friends were evil-hearted, so was every other person in his life. All others—even the very people he said he helped—either abandoned him or mocked him. His family reunited with him only after he repented. (Job 42:11)
8. Job mourned the loss of reputation (Job 17:2; 30:10; 16:10; 12:4; 30:15 and other verses) more than the loss of his children, whose names or memories he did not invoke.
9. The reprimand by the Lord issued against Job’s three friends was not for wrongly speaking about Job’s character, as some analysts argue, but for speaking wrongly about God. (Job 42:7)
10. Elihu wholeheartedly agreed with the other friends’ character assessment, but God did not rebuke him. (Job 36:17-21, NLT; Job 42:7)
11. Job repented and took back everything he said.  (Job 42:1-6, NLT)
12. Job demanded extreme loyalty, even at the Lord’s expense. He accused his friends of wickedly showing partiality to God and stated that his friends should be loyal to a man even if he abandoned fear of the Almighty. (Job 13:7-8; 6:14, CSB)
13. Job condemned the Lord to justify himself. (Job 40:8)
14. God angrily accused Job of talking with “words without knowledge” and commended him only after he repented. (Job 38:2; 42:8)
15. It was Job’s regular custom to make sacrifices for his errant children, but there is no evidence that he tried to intervene or discipline them. In reality, the Lord did not want sacrifices without repentance. (Job 1:5. Isaiah 1:12-13, TLB)

 
For elaboration on these and other arguments against Job's claims of righteousness, readThe Joy of Job, An Investigator’s Perspective on the Most Righteous Man on Earth. Learn why Job matters. Buy the award-winning book here.