Job, Faith in the Ashes (Job 1:1-42:17)

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Job, Faith in the Ashes

Job 1:1-42:17

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Job, Faith in the Ashes

Job 1:1-42:17

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About this song

This song belongs to the Job collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book: Job
Collection: Job
Musical styles: Acoustic

Job, the story of a righteous man, tested by suffering, faithful to God. There was a man who lived in us, walked with God and feared his name. Seven sons and three daughters, servants, flocks and field of grain. Camels black across the morning Oxen working in the sun Every house and every blessing Job knew where his life had come Then a wind came from the desert And a messenger came running Then another, then another Till the fourth one said the same Fire fell, the raiders took them Roof beams broke and crushed his own Job stood up and tore his garment Shaved his head and knelt alone The Lord gave and the Lord taketh Blessed be his holy name In the ashes and the silence Job would not curse and would not blame He laid down in the dust and worshipped With nothing left and no one near The Lord gave and the Lord taketh Blessed be his holy name Then the source came on his body Head to foot and foot to head Took a piece of broken pottery Sat in ashes near the dead And his wife came down beside him, said, now curse the Lord and die. Job said, woman, speak no folly, take the bitter with the sweet. Three friends came across the country, sat seven days without a word. Then they opened up their mouths and spoke of things they hadn't heard. You have sinned, confess it, Job, now God don't punish without cause But the man inside the ashes would not lie to please their loss The Lord gave and the Lord taketh, blessed be his holy name In the ashes and the silence, Job would not curse and would not blame He laid down in the dust and worshiped with nothing left and no one near The Lord gave and the Lord taketh Blessed be His holy name And He said, I know my Redeemer, I know that He lives And though my flesh be wasted, with my eyes I'll see Him still Though he slay me, I will trust him Though I argue all my ways Let the almighty answer Let him come and let him say Then the whirlwind came down howling And a voice came through the storm Where were you when I laid the earth? Where were you when stars were born Can you call the lightning down, son Can you tame the great behemoth Job lay down and put his hand across his mouth And held his breath The Lord gave and the Lord taken Blessed be his holy name And the man who would not curse him Saw his fortune come again Twice the flocks and twice the cattle Seven sons and daughters, three The Lord gave and the Lord taketh Blessed be the Lord with me Blessed be his holy name Blessed be his holy name

Lyrics transcribed from this recording. Word-for-word review is pending.

Named in this songJob

About the passage

Job 1: Integrity before the losses begin

Job is introduced with the verdict that matters before the losses begin: he is upright, reverent, and careful to turn from evil. His prosperity follows that description but does not define it, and his repeated offerings show a father concerned even about possible inward failures among his children. The heavenly challenge then shifts the question from conduct to motive. Satan argues that Job's devotion has been purchased by protection, and permission is given to touch what he has while leaving his person untouched. The disasters arrive without pause, ending with the deaths of his children. Job's response holds mourning and worship together. He tears his clothing, shaves his head, falls down, and blesses the LORD. The chapter closes by expressly refusing to call that response sin.

Study Job 1 in depth

Job 2: The boundary moves, and the friends sit down

The second heavenly exchange begins with the first accusation already defeated. Job still holds fast his integrity, and the LORD describes the earlier destruction as occurring "without cause." Satan therefore changes the proposed test from possessions to person, arguing that bodily suffering will succeed where bereavement and ruin did not. Permission expands, but a boundary remains: Job's life must be spared. The sores reduce the once prosperous man to ashes and a potsherd. His wife urges the very curse Satan predicted, and Job refuses her proposal while acknowledging that calamity has come from the hand of God. Then Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar arrive with a stated purpose to mourn and comfort. Their first response is not argument but shared grief. Unable at first even to recognize Job, they weep, tear their garments, scatter dust, and sit beside him in silence for seven days and nights.

Study Job 2 in depth

Job 3: Job curses the day, not God

After seven days of silence, Job finally gives grief a voice. He does not curse God. He curses the day of his birth and imagines that date erased from light, stars, calendar, and memory. The impossible wish turns creation backward because his present anguish makes his own beginning seem unbearable. He then imagines death as release from rank, labour, oppression, and command, a place where kings, prisoners, servants, and the exhausted lie beyond the structures that govern ordinary life. The lament broadens into a question about why life continues when a sufferer longs for its end. The hedge that Satan described as protection now feels to Job like confinement because his path cannot be seen. He closes not with explanation but with bodily grief: sighing before food, roaring like water, no safety, no quiet, no rest. Trouble has arrived before the sentence can settle.

Study Job 3 in depth