Job 1-20

Summary

We find Clines’s Job 1 to 20 to be an exceptionally detailed technical treatment of Job’s opening cycles. He helps us slow down in the speeches, attend to the text’s rhetoric and progression, and face the book’s hard questions without smoothing them out too quickly.

The work is not written from a confessional Reformed stance, so we use it with discernment. Even so, its close engagement with the text can be genuinely useful, especially when we keep Job’s canonical voice and theological aims in the foreground.

Why Should I Own This Commentary?

We should own this commentary when we are doing serious work in Job and want a technical resource that forces careful observation. Job can be mishandled either by quick answers that the book itself rebukes, or by despairing ambiguity that refuses the fear of the Lord. Close exegesis helps us navigate between those errors.

We also benefit when the speeches become repetitive or emotionally intense. Clines helps us notice the development in argument and the shifts in tone, which supports preaching that respects the book’s pacing and pastoral realism.

For Reformed preaching, we keep our doctrinal bearings clear, and we treat this as a supplement. Its value is in sharpening our reading, not in supplying our theological conclusions.

Closing Recommendation

We recommend this as an advanced technical supplement for Job 1 to 20. It is best used alongside a more explicitly evangelical and church facing commentary, but it can strengthen careful preparation when used wisely.

As a next step, we can visit the Bible Book Overview for Job, browse Top Recommendations, or use the Reformed Commentary Index to build a wiser, more balanced shelf.