In Job 11, Zophar, the last of Job’s 3 friends speaks up. He shared the same opinion about the reason for Job’s suffering as his other 2 friends. He harshly rebuked Job for babbling and questioning the all wise God. He was confident that God was punishing Job less than he deserved. He told Job his only way out of his misery was to repent of his hidden sin.

Job vents his emotions in chapter 10. He was confused as to why God created him if He was just going to condemn him to such a terrible fate. From Job’s small perspective, he suggested it would have been better if he had died before his mother gave birth to him.

Job chapter 9 is Job’s response to the accusations of his friend Bildad. Bildad articulated his oversimplified view of the nature of God in chapter 8, and Job refutes it here in chapter 9. Job wanted to bring his case before God and have God vindicate him, but he also knew that God was so great that no man could stand before Him. Job wanted an arbiter, someone who could go between him and God and plead his innocence.

In Job 8, Job’s second friend, Bildad spoke up for the first time. He wasted no time rebuking Job for pretending to be righteous. Bildad had a very oversimplified view of God. He thought God would always bless righteous people and always humble evil people. His view convinced him that Job was guilty of some kind of hidden sin, and he wasn’t shy about rebuking Job even though he had no proof of Job’s sin.

Job despaired of life in chapter 7. He talked about the difficulty and brevity of human life. Job mistakenly thought that it was God who was tormenting him. He spoke directly to God and asked Him to leave him alone so he could have some relief.

In the sixth chapter of Job, Job talks about the weight of his suffering being heavier than all the sand of the sea. He longs for death because at least there is relief in death. In the second half of the chapter, he rebuked his 3 friends. Instead of offering him comfort and friendship they arrived ready to rebuke him for a sin they weren’t even sure he committed.

In Job 5, the Eliphaz continues his monologue expressing his confidence that God is disciplining Job for some secret unconfessed sin. Eliphaz oversimplifies the nature of God by suggesting God always elevates the righteous and always humbles sinners. He encourages Job to confess his sin and accept the Lord’s reproof, which will allow God’s blessings to return to him.

In Job 4, Eliphaz, one of Job’s 3 friends, responds to Job’s suffering. He suggests that Job’s suffering is due to some kind of hidden sin in Job’s life. He suggested that Job was reaping what he had sown, even though he wasn’t aware of any specific sin Job had committed.

In Job 3, after sitting with his friends for 7 days, Job expresses his deep despair by cursing the day of his birth. He didn’t understand why God allowed him to be born if suffering and loss was to be his fate. He trusted that God’s light was still with him, but he couldn’t make sense of his circumstances. Job 3 begins the poetic section of the book in which Job and his friends discuss the reasons for his suffering.

After failing to turn Job’s heart away from God in Job 1, Satan told the Lord Job would abandon faith if his health was taken from him. God gave Satan permission to test his theory. Satan afflicted Job with disease and sores that covered his body, but Job’s faith remained steadfast. At the end of the chapter, Job is joined by 3 friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) who come to comfort him.

In Job 1, Satan appeared before God and God challenged him to test His servant, Job. Job was a righteous man who loved God, but Satan was convinced he could turn his heart. Satan caused Job to lose all his possessions and his 10 children, but by the end of chapter 1, Job’s heart still belonged to God. Satan’s oppression of Job is the setup for the rest of the book.

A short outline of the Book of Job in the Bible. This outline breaks the book’s 42 chapters down into 4 high level sections.

The last chapter of Esther is a very short piece of text informing the reader where they can read more about the deeds of King Ahasuerus and Mordecai, his second-in-command. All the acts of Ahasuerus and Mordecai were written in a book called the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia.

Thanks to the decree of Esther and Mordecai, on the day the Jews were to be killed, they were prepared to fight back. They defended themselves against their enemies and were assisted by the local governors. The fighting lasted two days in Susa, and the Jews defeated all those who opposed them. After the fighting, Mordecai decreed that the Feast of Purim be celebrated annually to memorialize the Jew’s salvation.

After the king put Haman to death, Mordecai was elevated to his vacated role in the government. While the king’s first decree couldn’t be revoked, Esther and Mordecai wrote a second decree permitting the Jews to arm themselves and defend themselves against any hostile force that came against them.

In Esther 7, we see the tables turned and the script flipped on the evil Haman. At Esther’s second feast, she exposed Haman by revealing that she was a Jew, and asked the king to spare her life and the life of her people from Haman’s extermination plot. When the king realized Haman’s evil, he ordered him to be arrested and hung him on the gallows that were originally intended for Mordecai.

Esther 6, God’s providence is on full display as He thwarts the plan of Haman to kill Mordecai. Rather than getting to kill Mordecai, King Ahasuerus makes Haman parade Mordecai through the streets in honor as a reward for saving him from the violent plot of Bigthan and Teresh (2:19-23).

In Esther 5, Esther appeared before King Ahasuerus to counter Haman’s plot to kill her people. Before stating her intentions, she invited the king and Haman to two private feasts. After leaving the first feast, Haman was disrespected again by Mordecai, and he became furious. Together with his wife and friends, Haman put together a plan to hang Mordecai the next day.

After Haman’s decree to murder all the Jews in Esther 3, Esther 4 tells of Mordecai’s grief, and his attempt to convince Esther to go to the king of her people’s behalf. Esther was afraid because a person could be killed for entering the king’s presence without a royal invitation. But Mordecai finally convinced her and suggested that perhaps she was elevated to the throne of Persia for this special moment.

In Esther 3, King Ahasuerus promoted an evil man named Haman to the top of the government. When Mordecai refused to bow to Haman and pay him homage, Haman put together a plot to slaughter Mordecai and all his people, the Jews (this would have included Esther). The king, unaware of what Haman was really doing, gave Haman permission to execute the evil plan.