Job 10: Group Study Handout

How to use: read Job 10 aloud together, then take the questions in order. One page is enough for an evening.

Overview

In Job chapter 10, Job continues his lament and appeals directly to God, expressing his confusion and anguish over his suffering. He feels as though God is treating him harshly without cause and questions why God would create him only to subject him to misery. Job implores God to reveal any hidden iniquity that might justify such punishment, leveraging his belief in his own innocence.

Key verse

“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.”
Job 10:8 (WEB)

Outline

Job 10:1–3 Job's Complaint and Plea to God
Job 10:4–7 Questioning God's Perspective
Job 10:8–12 God's Role in Creation and Life
Job 10:13–17 Divine Scrutiny and Indignation
Job 10:18–22 Despair and Reflection on Mortality

Discussion questions

What does Job say he will 'give free course to' in v1?
In vv. 10-11, what does Job compare his own making to, from 'milk' to 'bones and sinews'?
Job says God's hands 'framed me and fashioned me' and yet 'you destroy me' in v8: what is he accusing God of?
Why does Job wish in vv. 18-19 that he had been 'carried from the womb to the grave'?
When have you told God to 'leave me alone' the way Job does in v20, and what happened next?

Go deeper

Passages that echo Job 10: Job 9, Psalm 139, Job 7.

Before next time: read Job 11.