Read this when
The Book of Job
When your friends' idea of help is explaining why you deserved it. Job's friends did great for 7 days, then they started talking.
Who it's for
Job loses his children, his wealth and his health, and his friends first sit with him in silence, then spend dozens of chapters insisting he must have done something wrong.
Feelings it meets
What it is
The Book of Job is an anonymous book of the Hebrew Bible, generally dated by scholars to the Persian period (roughly 540-330 BCE). A prose prologue introduces Job, a righteous man who loses his children, wealth and health, followed by poetic dialogues in which three friends argue that his suffering must be deserved while Job protests his innocence.
Where to find it
The King James and other older translations are public domain and free online (e.g., Project Gutenberg's KJV, Bible Gateway). Modern literary translations by Robert Alter ('The Wisdom Books') and Step.
Before you start
Heads up: Deaths of all of a man's children.
Age: Ages 14+
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.Psalm 147:3, Psalm 147:3
