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Job
Read the cited context and compare 8 documented textual points.
Comparison 27 of 34
Job
The two accounts at a glance
Bible
World English BibleJob suffers catastrophic losses, remains in dispute and lament, and is ultimately restored.
Qur'an
Sahih InternationalJob calls on God in affliction, is healed, has his family restored, and is told to strike with a bunch so as not to break an oath; the object of the strike is not identified.
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8 documented comparison points
The comparison reads the entire biblical Job narrative and speeches plus both Qur'anic Job episodes, including affliction, restoration, and the command involving an oath. Q 38:44 does not identify the object of Job's strike. Labels use one standard: agreement means both texts state the point; additional detail means one adds a non-conflicting detail; omission means one is silent; ambiguity means an identity or meaning is not explicit; contradiction means both texts state mutually exclusive claims. Stylistic wording alone is not counted.
The heavenly cause of Job's suffering
The accuser appears in the heavenly council and challenges Job's motives; God permits staged losses and bodily affliction within limits.
Job says Satan has afflicted him with distress and suffering, but no heavenly council, challenge to his motives, or two-stage permission scene is narrated.
Which losses are narrated
Raiders and fire destroy livestock and servants, a wind kills Job's ten children, and painful sores cover his body.
The verses mention adversity, harm, distress, and later restoration of family, but do not narrate the raiders, fire, wind, ten children's deaths, or potsherd scene.
Job's wife
Job's wife tells him to curse God and die; Job rebukes her but does not strike her.
No wife is named or quoted. Job is told to take a bunch, strike with it, and not break his oath, but the text does not identify whom or what he is to strike.
The friends and long debate
Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu participate in extensive poetic argument about suffering, justice, wisdom, and Job's integrity.
No friends are named and no debate cycle or Elihu speech is included.
The range of Job's complaint
Job curses the day of his birth, protests his treatment, asks for an audience with God, and maintains his integrity while refusing to curse God.
Job's preserved prayers are brief and reverent, naming adversity while appealing to God's mercy without the biblical book's extended protest.
How God answers Job
God speaks from the whirlwind through extended questions about creation, Behemoth, and Leviathan; Job responds in humility.
God tells Job to strike the ground, producing water for washing and drinking; no whirlwind discourse or Behemoth and Leviathan speeches appear.
How Job is healed
The narrative says God restores Job after he prays for his friends, without describing healing water.
Job is commanded to strike with his foot and receives cool water to wash in and drink.
The restoration
Job receives double livestock, seven sons and three daughters, named daughters, inheritance for them, 140 additional years, and death in old age.
God restores Job's family and the like of them as mercy and reminder, but gives no livestock totals, children's names, inheritance, 140 years, or death scene.
What do both texts share?
- Job endures severe suffering and calls on God.
- God restores Job after affliction.