Underserved suffering of various kinds was a reality in ancient Israel, as in every society and the question of why God seemed to allow these injustices to occur was a pressing one for Israel's religious leaders. Theodicy is the attempt to explain the problem of evil while maintaining the belief that God is a moral creator who loves his people. Professor Crenshaw's introduction offers the suggestion that defense of God's justice almost invariably came at human expense and often also appeared to limit certain divine attributes. The essays selected are of two kinds. The first three deal with the general problem of theodicy in Israel and the ancient Near East, and the remainder focus on specific books or discrete texts within biblical books. These more specialized treatments cover Job, Ecclesiates, Psalms 73, the confessions of Jeremiah, Sirach and 2 Esdras.