Ælfric's homily on the Book of Job is the first treatment in English of an Old Testament book whose compelling narrative and intensely lyrical meditation on the meanings of misfortune have influenced western authors as diverse as Geoffrey Chaucer, Franz Kafka and Toni Morrison. The early Middle Ages, informed by Gregory the Great's massive commentary, Moralia in Iob, understood Job as a prefigurement of Christ. Ælfric considers this figurative interpretation too difficult for the lay audience of this homily. Further, he worries here, as in some of his other writings, that laymen may pick up erroneous notions from an Old Testament text such as this, since we are not now permitted to practice some of the customs depicted, such as animal sacrifice. However, Ælfric, like many other authors, finds in Job an irresistible moral exemplar: in patiently bearing his afflictions without losing his faith, he teaches us to bear patiently the adversities that God sends upon us. Ælfric seems also to recognize in the Book of Job an opportunity to exercise his own considerable ability as a storyteller: whereas the original is a "wisdom book" in which the narrative component is subordinated to the long and meditative conversation between Job and his friends,, Æfric's version has it the other way around. The meditative element has been radically abbreviated and now appears not so much as an exploration of the problem of evil, but rather as a justification of Job as an ideal servant of God.

This text belongs to a lengthy work called the Catholic Homilies, which presents two series of forty homilies each, most of them intended to be read on particular dates in the liturgical calendar. The homily on Job is the thirtieth in the second series, intended for the first Sunday in September. For a scholarly edition of the Catholic Homilies, with commentary and glossary, see Godden and Clemoes (1979-2000).