the dialogues between Job and his friends. In his suffering Job is not being punished by God for some sin. Job’s passionate protests of innocence, his intense search for God’s role in his suffering, and God’s condemnation of his friends for presuming his guilt must all be understood in light of this fact. Job is not suffering because he has sinned. Upon this fact the plot of this epic struggle is built. 1:2–3 The vastness of Job’s prosperity is characterized by the numbers “three,” “seven,” and “ten.”