'It is their very contrariness that makes these books so fascinating, yet also a stumbling block for latter-day atheists. If the Bible is supposed to be God's "truth", His word, faithfully recorded and handed down to His chosen people, then how is it that we have the Wisdom books, which, as Alter writes, "are, in different ways, worlds apart from Genesis, Deuteronomy ands Prophets?".

'The Adversary, known in the King James Bible as "Satan", is a mysterious presence; not the Devil, the sum of all evil, of the later scriptures, but more like a zealous factory inspector, whose function is to test the mettle of the divine creation, Job'.

Salley Vickers reviewing 'The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes - A Translation with Commentary' translated by Robert Alter.