I have read of Job set forth as an example of someone suffering from depression. I have heard Job preached as an example of depressive illness. Perhaps you have too. And people have from time to time asked me: ‘Alan, was Job depressed?’
Certainly poor Job had enough standard risk factors for depression. He endured immense loss events (his servants, oxen, camels, etc.), multiple bereavements (his seven sons and three daughters), physical illness (his horrendous skin disease), loneliness and social isolation. Poignantly, even his wife, pained by her own grief, criticised rather than supported him. And let us not talk about his three ‘comforters’!
