Reviewed by: Job’s Journey: Stations of Suffering by Manfred Oeming and Konrad Schmid David Penchansky manfred oeming and konrad schmid, Job’s Journey: Stations of Suffering (Critical Studies in the Hebrew Bible 7; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015). Pp. xiv + 110. Paper $29.95. In this book, Schmid writes the first chapter, roughly one quarter of the whole, and Oeming writes the remaining five chapters. The chapter titles suggest that each covers a different section of the Book of Job, but in fact each chapter in itself is a mini-essay on the entire book. Two things hold the book together as a single work. First, both authors fully base their interpretation on the assumption that the Book of Job is a single work unified structurally. This position opposes that held by most Job scholars that different parts of Job developed independently and stand in tension with one another. The authors do not say that only a single author contributed to the whole but rather that there is intentionality and craft in the final form of the text. Second, both authors see the key to the interpretation of the Book of Job in a single verse in the last chapter: “. . . you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (42:7). For S. and O. the preposition in this translation should read, “you have not spoken to me what is right.” The climax of the book for these two authors is the assertion that one does theology only by speaking to God, not by speaking about the deity. O. in the latter three-quarters of the book seeks to link this insight to an approach to counseling. He sees the entirety of Job as a guide for counselors who help the grief-stricken. By contrast, S. in his chapter does not speak of counseling at all. His contribution seeks to establish Job’s unity. Many have noted that the first two chapters of Job and the last form a single narrative or frame, while the center of the biblical book consists in a series of arguments alternating between Job and his [End Page 690] friends, concluding with Yhwh’s speeches in chaps. 38–41. S. insists that the frame of Job (chaps. 1, 2, and 42) cannot stand alone and that there are ample literary connections between the two parts. In his five chapters, O. intends his interpretation to serve as practical theology to counsel damaged people. Job is the grieving person, having lost his family, his health, and his standing in the community. The counselors are in turn the Satan, Job’s wife, Job’s friends, and then finally God. Each develops a different approach to the damaged Job. O. sees each of these approaches as positive, in spite of the fact that each in turn—the Satan, Job’s wife, his friends, and God—turns against Job. The Satan challenges Job’s integrity in the heavenly court. His wife tells him to surrender his integrity and curse God. The friends tell Job that he caused his suffering because he has sinned. Finally, God refuses to answer any of Job’s questions. Yet O. finds merit in each approach. He defends Job’s companions, declaring that their theology is correct. He calls them “good friends and true counselors” (p. 34) and “studious and earnest theologians” (p. 98). O. does acknowledge the inherent weaknesses of their position—they attack Job to prop up their own theological insecurities, and make assumptions about how God works. In spite of these lapses, O. sees the friends as an important support in Job’s “journey.” The speeches of Yhwh receive similar treatment. In the frame, both the narrator and Yhwh affirm that Job is “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (1:2, 8; 2:3). Then Yhwh attacks this puny mortal who dares to challenge divine majesty. For O., Yhwh’s speeches force Job to see things in a wider, less anthropocentric way. God has not attacked Job, he says. Rather, God has more important things to do than notice Job’s suffering. The authors claim that the point of the speeches...