Job

Webb provides an exceptionally strong theological reading of Job without neglecting careful literary exegesis. Particularly impressive are his treatments of the book’s broken symmetry, Job’s repentance, undeserved suffering and the developing theme of comfort: the friends come to comfort Job but fail, God ultimately becomes Job’s true comforter, and the restored Job in turn intercedes for those who wronged him. Webb also integrates Job effectively into the wider biblical canon, seeing the undeserved suffering of God’s faithful servant and the defeat of Satan as anticipating themes that reach their climax in Christ without collapsing Job directly into Christ. The commentary is deliberately less exhaustive on detailed philological questions, for which Clines and others remain necessary, but its combination of exegesis, biblical theology, pastoral sensitivity and theological reliability is unusually successful. One of the best Christian theological commentaries on Job.

I just finished reading the 88-page introduction to the book of Job in this commentary. I was so impressed, I had to read it a second time! Webb brings remarkable clarity to the message of Job, demonstrating how it fits into biblical wisdom and ultimately points us to Jesus. I highly recommend this volume for pastors and preachers.

I really appreciated this commentary – certainly as an example of a commentary that can be read devotionally, as is my habit. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of Firth’s Joshua in the same series, and there are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I felt that occasionally Webb was a little wordier than needed, and that occasionally the format was a little off. Secondly, for a commentary on Job published in 2023, it appeared from the author’s preface that it was finished in 2019 – the four year delay might explain some omissions from the bibliography, but by no means all. Whilst this might seem niggly, for the more academically oriented pastor, this will be worth noting, and one wonders if the commentary could have come out a little sooner! To be fair, both of these criticism might be better directed at the publisher than the author – so I will bear the latter in mind in future EBTC reviews. Overall, though, this is a helpful, and very devotionally warm commentary on Job, which largely succeeds in the series’ aims in terms of biblical theology and evangelical spirituality. Whilst it isn’t perfect, I appreciated it and was edified by it. And this line has stuck with me: “Within the storm there will always be a golden glow” (p. 409). [Full Review]