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Job is more of a story about motives, and uses the "wager" (which one could see as an abbreviated account of the rebellion of the devil) as a background for the main question: Is it possible for a man to submit to God & truth, for their own sake, rather than because he expects success/reward? The answer we are given is yes, it is possible, even when times are hard, and that it is often not the victim's fault when times are hard. These moral questions were the primary subject of the book.

The hardening of Pharaoh's heart is described both ways, as God doing it and as Pharaoh doing it. The idea seems to be emphasizing agency, rather than the reverse: God took some actions to free the Hebrews. Pharaoh responded to these with (varying degrees of) opposition, anger, and pride. God's actions were the proximate cause, sure, but Pharaoh was not a puppet.

For Sodom, the dialogue ends at 10 because, as with Noah, we then get down to the number of the last remaining righteous (or less-bad) family, and they are commanded to leave. The indication (made explicit elsewhere in the Bible) is that God would not destroy even one righteous along with the wicked, when it's a direct action. In the Gospels, Jesus then answers another charge related to this, when he says that things like a building collapse or other random accident can and does happen to both good and bad alike.

Ezekiel and the other prophets had it rough.

Babel is about pride and evil culture, not about feats of engineering.

The fig tree was a metaphor for Israel: "All leaf, and no fruit". Not a good day for that plant, but... It's a plant.




The story of Job is much more illuminating when you read it and PAY ATTENTION to the fact that God murders his wife and children.

His wife and children. MURDERS.

Then at the end he gets a NEW wife and NEW children.

The brazen horror of this is just ignored by the faithful.




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