The Analysis of the Book of JobThe Book of Job is generally regarded as a masterpiece of the Bible and even of world literature. Its full rich-ness can never be exhausted; every approach remains limited. Our approach to the text is synchronic. Moststudies of this Book emphasize the complex history of its formation: the prose prologue and epilogue contrastsharply with the poetic dialogues in the central section. At the beginning and at the end, 3 friends are men-tioned. So where does the sudden appearance of the fourth speaker, Elihu (32–37), come from? Many other ir-regularities have led scholars to conclude that the book has undergone a long prehistory. Historical‑critical stud-ies are diachronic: they investigate how the book developed, but their reconstructions of the prehistory of thebook remain hypothetical, and vary from one scholar to another. Our analysis takes the Book of Job in itspresent form. There are indeed good reasons to accept a prehistory, with additions, different redactions, and soon. Be that as it may, we now have a book that forms a unity. It is a distinct biblical book that has been read andtransmitted as such for centuries, and it deserves to be read with great reverence in that form.Much has been written about the meaning of the book. Is it about the problem of the suffering of the innocent,about God’s justice, about the doctrine of retribution? We will not search for the meaning of the text. A text canhave an openness to meanings; We will rather try to discover its structure. How does the book function? Whatis happening within it? How do all the parts of the book belong together? What are the links between them?How does the text evolve?1. THE NARRATIVE SEQUENCE OF THE BOOK OF JOBIn a text a person can be described by verbs of state (he is/ has) or by verbs of action (he does). To have a nar-rative, a transformation from one state into another is needed. By comparing begin-state and end-state one maynotice the changes that have happened. The...