Taking a more general outlook, Job declared that man's life is ever transitory, and full of trouble. This should be a reason why God should pity him, and let him work out the brief period of its duration in quietness (1-6). Naturally, following this, he spoke of what the end of a man's doing is, showing the endlessness thereof. There is hope for a bee that it will bud again, but there is none for a man (7-12). This dark assertion seems to have created in the mind of Job a question of wondering hope, If a man die, shall he live?
and he declared that if this were so, then he could endure through all the days of warfare (13-15). The whole answer ends in lamentation over his present condition, which is so strangely in contrast to the hope suggested.
Thus ends the first cycle. In it Job's friends had, with differing emphasis propounded the one general philosophy that God is righteous, and punishes the wicked while He blesses the good. They had left Job to make the personal application. He had denied their philosophy by opposing facts to their arguments. He was not wicked but just, and yet he was afflicted. He could not understand it himself, and while refusing to accept their view, was crying out to God for some explanation.