Thank you for the link to Hebrew retribution theology...that is extremely helpful.

My understanding of that theology is that it arose in a context in which Sheol was less desirable than this life, so a this-life system of reward/punishment was required to explain why being faithful to the covenant was made sense, was in one's self-interest. And Job's (and Qoheleth's) rejection of that system as contrary to experience set the scene for a late Hebrew conception of reward in the next life.

Do I have the trajectory more or less right?