Queering Job - Unbound

Job 1

And so we begin Queering Job—a journey into the pages of one of Scripture’s most haunting and powerful books, viewed through the lenses of queerness and trans experience. This series invites us to sit with the hard questions, to disrupt familiar readings, and to listen afresh to a story that

Job 2

by Shawna Bowman

Job is part of our Wisdom literature and is a story that like most wisdom literature is meant to trouble our assumptions and raise more questions than answers. Job’s story serves as one the most beautiful and heart wrenching pieces of sacred writing in our tradition, giving us permission to

Job 3

by Tyler Coles

“Cry, baby, cry. Cry out to God for [They] will hear you.” These are the words that were offered to me by a co-worker the morning after I came out. Distraught and confused, wishing that I could cease to be, my then high school self felt worn down by all

Job 4

by Miche Ilana van Essen

Many of you remember the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s, when entire communities were dying while religious leaders proclaimed it was God's judgment on sin. Then think back to 2020. As COVID-19 spread, how quickly did we hear voices saying this was God's judgment on LGBTQ+ communities, liberal

Job 10

by Laura Mariko Cheifetz

Job cries out to God, and is so very relatable. He has lost children, animals, household members, wealth, status, and health. And his cries feel somehow familiar. For all the times that God feels so close to us, in the holy and beautiful moments, we also feel as though God

Job 11

by Erin Tolar

The harshest words often come from those closest to us, and this sentiment is on full display in the book of Job. Job finds himself an unwitting participant in a divine experiment to see if “a blameless and upright man” (Job 1:8) will curse God if all his good fortune

Job 15

by Mike Maeshiro

Job 15 drops us into the middle of Job’s lament and his friends’ marathon attempt to explain it all. Job is in agony, wrestling with God, questioning the justice of his suffering. Enter Eliphaz, the first of Job’s “friends,” who speaks up again in this chapter with what he believes

Job 21

by Micah Melody Taberner

Job 21 features Job’s response to Zophar’s speech in the prior chapter. In particular, Job questions his friend’s assertion that the prosperity of the wicked is always short-lived. Reading into Zophar’s claims, we can see an underlying assumption that longstanding earthly prosperity directly equates to moral righteousness. And to Job,

Job 34

by Jason Oliver Evans

Elihu continues his series of speeches in Chapter 34 overall rebuking both Job and his three friends with a passionate, perhaps overzealous defense of divine justice. By doing so, Elihu accuses Job of being brash, recalcitrant, arrogant, and ignorant of God’s ways in the world. Elihu’s impassioned defense of God’s

Job 38

by Angela Tyler-Williams

Why do bad things happen to good people? This is the question of theodicy, which humans have wrestled with for millennia. Job is an answer to that question in Jewish and Christian traditions, albeit a potentially unhelpful and confusing one. In order to dig into Job 38 when God responds,