The book of job has two major parts: the narrative framework (chs 1-2, 42), and the body of the work (chs. 3-41), which is poetic in form. In the narrative framework the focus is on Job’s predicament from the narrator’s perspective, which includes the actions of God himself. The actions here include a description of Job’s righteousness, the Accuser’s challenge concerning Job to God (both the initial challenge and the follow-up), and the narrative description of the carrying out of that challenge (again, both initially and the follow-up), and finally, at the end of the book, the restoration of Job.
The poetic body of the book has as it’s subject the conversation between Job and his so-called friends, and the conversation (sic.) between Job and God. The narrator’s presence in this portion of the book is minimal, and it is clear that neither Job nor his friends see the actions that take place in the narrative framework from the perspective that the narrator enjoys.
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