ABSTRACT
This chapter concludes and summarises the monograph, but develops the discussion of assigning the book of Job the genre ‘dramatised comedy’. It discusses comedy’s various roles as well as the drawbacks and advantages of adjusting our horizons of expectations when engaging with Job by this genre classification. The chapter then turns to analyse Job’s clipped and cryptic responses to Yahweh in the whirlwind speeches. Job’s responses to Yahweh continue his characteristic sarcastic and petulant style of speech and as such the iconoclastic and irreverent nature of the responses is highlighted. The irony of the situation is also emphasised: Job has the unexpected privilege of perhaps the most profound theophany in the entire Hebrew Bible and is disappointed by it. Insult is added to irony in the final ending, where after chapters of moralising advice, Job is instructed to ‘pray for’ his friends.
