Chapter One

1–5. Job’s piety and complete prosperity as a reward for it. 6–12. The reasons for Job’s suffering. 13–19. The disasters that befell the righteous man. 20–22. The patience of the sufferer.

Job 1:1. There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and this man was blameless, righteous, God-fearing, and he turned away from evil. Revealed at the beginning in the first five verses through a concrete example—the life of Job—the general thought about the correspondence of piety to earthly prosperity begins with a characterization of the religious and moral life of the main figure of the book. “Blameless,” that is, devoted with all his heart to God and to good (Job 2:3; cf. Job 1:21; Job 23:11-12; Job 31:1), Job was irreproachable in this regard, which is confirmed by his “righteousness” and “truthfulness” (Slavonic), the correspondence of thoughts to deeds. More specifically, at the basis of Job’s religiosity—his relationship to God—lay “fear,” the reverent conception of God, aroused by consciousness of His greatness and perfections (Job 15:4; Job 37:23-24), and passing into awe when to it was joined the thought of God as the righteous Judge and Rewarder, who does not tolerate evil (Gen 3:10; Ps 64:9). By the conception of God as not tolerating evil, Job’s morality was determined: it came down, like that of all Old Testament people, to avoidance of evil (Ps 33:15; Prov 14:16). Regarding the place of Job’s dwelling, see the Introduction.

Job 1:2. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Job 1:3. His possessions were: seven thousand head of livestock, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred female donkeys, and very many servants; and this man was more famous than all the sons of the East. For piety, according to Old Testament teaching, a man was rewarded with temporal, earthly goods (Deut 28:1-13). Such a point of view is entirely shared by the author of our book. Putting into the mouth of Satan the words: “Is Job God-fearing for nothing? Is it not you who have hedged him about,...the work of his hands...blessed him?” (Job 1:9-10), he indicates that the abundance of children of Job noted by him, the abundance of livestock, which provided food and clothing (sheep), which served for carrying burdens and tilling fields (camels, oxen and female donkeys (Job 1:15; cf. Gen 42:26; 1 Sam 25:18)), as well as the multitude of servants inevitably necessary in this case (Hebrew “ebudda,” “ δουλεία “ of Aquila, while the LXX simultaneously give this word a twofold meaning: “ ὑπηρεσία πολλὴ σφόδρα “, “very many servants,” and “ ἔργα μεγάλα ἦσαν αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς “, “great works were his on the earth,” meaning, it seems, under works agriculture, since the Hebrew “ebudda” in Gen 26:14 they render by the term “ γεωργία “) are a reward for piety. According to Deut 28:13, by such requital for righteousness one can also count Job’s fame among “all the sons of the East,”—the descendants of Abraham from concubines sent by him to the East (Gen 25:6) and inhabiting Arabia, as well as the population of Mesopotamia, since it is called “the eastern land” (Gen 29:1; Num 23:7).

Job 1:4. His sons went about making feasts, each in his own house on his appointed day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. Job 1:5. When the round of feasting days was completed, Job would send for them and sanctify them and, rising early in the morning, would offer whole-offerings according to the number of all of them [and one bull as a sin offering for their souls]. For Job said: Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did on all such days. The characterization of Job’s piety is completed with a new trait. He was concerned not only for his own moral righteousness, but also for that of his children, expressing this in the offering of a whole-offering (the note of the Synodal text about the sin offering is borrowed from the translation of the LXX; the Hebrew text mentions only the whole-offering) for possible sins on their part on the days of feasting. The feasts were arranged by his sons, “each in his own house, on his appointed day” (v. 4), that is, either on their birthdays, as some suppose, citing in support of this view Job 3:1: “he cursed his day” and Gen 40:20 (the custom of celebrating birthdays), or else daily, as others think. The latter understanding seems more probable. Seven days of feasting, falling, according to the days of birth, at different times of year, and therefore separated from each other by such or other intervals, can hardly be called a “round” (v. 5). The second view does not necessarily require the admission of the improbable thought that the children of Job spent all their time, throughout the year, in feasts. After a seven-day feast there could be a break.

Job 1:6. And it was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord; and Satan came among them. Given Job’s piety, the reason for the disasters that befell him lay not in him; it lay outside him, in the slander of the evil spirit (vv. 9–11), which gave Divine Justice occasion to prove, on the example of Job, the triumph of righteousness and good over evil. In the poetic language of the book’s author, this thought is expressed figuratively: he drew a heavenly picture of the appearance before God’s face of the “sons of God,” that is, angels (Ps 28:1; Dan 3:92), so called because of their God-created and God-like nature, and along with them Satan (cf. 1 Sam 22:19-22). The latter name, expressing the idea of a malicious, deceitful being, in the appellative sense denotes in general an opponent, a slanderer (Num 22:22; 1 Sam 29:4; 1 Sam 5:18; Ps 108:6), and in the proper sense—an evil spirit (1 Chr 21:1; Zech 3:1). “Ha-Satan” (with the definite article)—the enemy in the absolute sense,—the enemy of God, of divine plans and creations—people, their salvation.

Job 1:7. And the Lord said to Satan: From where have you come? And Satan answered the Lord and said: I have been going about on the earth and have walked through it. To the question directed at Satan by the Lord: “From where have you come?,” a question that testifies not to the absence of omniscience in God, but to the complete moral opposition between Him and the evil spirit, reaching as it were to the Lord’s not knowing the deeds of Satan (cf. Job 21:14), the latter answers with a general phrase: “I have been going about on the earth” (Hebrew “shut” denotes a quick going about from one end of a place to another—2 Sam 24:2; Amos 8:12; Zech 4:10) “and walked through it”—for the purpose of observation (1 Pet 5:8).

Job 1:8. And the Lord said to Satan: Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth: a man blameless, righteous, God-fearing, and turning away from evil. Job 1:9. And Satan answered the Lord and said: Is Job God-fearing for nothing? Job 1:10. Is it not you who have hedged him about and his house and all that he has? The work of his hands you have blessed, and his flocks spread out on the earth; Job 1:11. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has—will he not curse you? The evil spirit, wandering on the earth for observation, is now asked a natural question: Has he paid attention to the exceptional piety of Job (v. 8, cf. Gen 6:9; Gen 7:1), and in Satan’s quick response shows forth his complete opposition to the Lord. According to Satan, in Job’s piety there is nothing outstanding, worthy of praise, as God does—it is mercenary. Job honors the Lord only because it is advantageous for him: in reward for piety he is protected by God from all disasters (“hedged him about,” cf. Isa 5:5) and enjoys success in all his undertakings. The true, that is, mercenary, character of Job’s piety will appear if the Lord “stretches out his hand against him” (v. 11)—smites him with disasters (Exod 3:20; Ps 31:4). Under such circumstances there will be no motivation for piety. It will disappear, and worse, be replaced by cursing “to his face,” that is, cursing bold and shameless (Isa 65:3). The Synodal reading: “will he not curse you?” conveys from the entire Hebrew phrase: “im-lo al-paneyaka yebarekeka” only the last word. “Yebarekeka”—a verb form from “barak,” meaning both “to bless” and “to curse,” “to revile” (Job 1:5; 1 Sam 21:10), the latter meaning being assigned to this verb by all in the present case. Closer to the original the Slavonic reading: “if he does not curse you to your face.”

Job 1:12. And the Lord said to Satan: See, all that he has is in your hand; only do not lay your hand upon him. And Satan went away from the presence of the Lord. Satan’s answer, representing a slander against Job, cast a shadow at the same time on Divine Justice: the Lord rewards a man of notoriously insincere piety. In order for righteousness to triumph, all the righteous man’s wealth is now delivered into the hands of the evil spirit. He is given the opportunity to test Job’s piety in the very way he himself indicated (v. 11).

Job 1:13. And it was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their oldest brother. Job 1:14. And behold, a messenger came to Job and said: Job 1:15. The oxen were plowing and the female donkeys were grazing beside them, when the Sabeans fell upon them and took them, and killed the young men with the edge of the sword; and only I alone have escaped to tell you. Job 1:16. While he was yet speaking, another came and said: Fire from God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the young men and consumed them; and only I alone have escaped to tell you. Job 1:17. While he was yet speaking, another came and said: The Chaldeans formed three bands and rushed upon the camels and took them, and killed the young men with the edge of the sword; and only I alone have escaped to tell you. Job 1:18. While he was yet speaking, another came and said: Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of your oldest brother; Job 1:19. And behold, a great wind came from the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and the house fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and only I alone have escaped to tell you. According to Satan’s oath (v. 11), struck by misfortune, Job will curse God. To achieve this goal are directed the disasters listed in the present verses. As such, they present certain features, designed to provoke on Job’s part a curse. First, the disasters fall on the day of the festive gathering of Job’s children in the house of his eldest son (v. 13). On a day of joy, of mirth, as the present day was, every sorrow is felt by the law of contrast far more intensely than at ordinary times. Under the influence of intense sorrow, discontent can arise all the more easily. Second, the disasters follow one after another with extraordinary speed: Job has no time to recover from news of one misfortune before he is told of another (“while he was yet speaking, another came,” vv. 16, 17). The speed of the disasters was to act on Job in a crushing manner, and indeed, by the sufferer’s own expression, it “shook him” (Job 16:12). Depression of spirit and the confusion of mind inseparable from it provide the most favorable ground for complaint. And third, God Himself is the cause of the disasters; Job’s great cattle are burned by “fire from God” (v. 16, see below). This detail could constitute the most powerful test for the righteous man’s faith. Is it worth being pious, devoted to the Lord, if He Himself punishes His faithful servant?

Job 1:15. The oxen were plowing and the female donkeys were grazing beside them, when the Sabeans fell upon them and took them, and killed the young men with the edge of the sword; and only I alone have escaped to tell you. Under the name Sabeans in the book of Genesis and Chronicles two peoples are known: one, descended from the son of Ham, Cush (Gen 10:7; 1 Chr 1:9); another—from the descendant of Shem, Joktan (Gen 10:28; 1 Chr 1:22). But if the first dwelt in Africa (Commentary on the Bible, vol. 1, p. 71–72), then in the present case is clearly meant the second, settling in northern Arabia from the Persian Gulf to Idumea.

Job 1:16. While he was yet speaking, another came and said: Fire from God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the young men and consumed them; and only I alone have escaped to tell you. The expression “fire from God” recalls identical expressions: “fire from the Lord” (Gen 19:24), “fire of the Lord” (Num 11:1; 1 Sam 18:38), “fire of God” (2 Sam 1:12), and therefore must be understood in the literal sense. Others, citing vv. 18–19, see in this expression an indication either of the lightning which accompanies a storm, or of the killing wind and animal-destroying samum.

Job 1:17. While he was yet speaking, another came and said: The Chaldeans formed three bands and rushed upon the camels and took them, and killed the young men with the edge of the sword; and only I alone have escaped to tell you. The name Chaldeans (ancient Babylonian “Kashdu,” later “Kardu” and “Kaldu,” from which the Greek “ Χαλδαιοι “) is assigned to the people inhabiting the region between the Euphrates and the Arabian desert, from Borsippa in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south, as well as the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates. It is preserved in three ancient biblical expressions: Ur of the Chaldeans (Ur Kashdim), Arphaxad (Arpakeshad), and Kesed (Gen 22:22). The credibility of the account of the robber raids of the Chaldeans on the eastern Trans-Jordan side is confirmed by the testimony of the so-called Tel-el-Amarna inscriptions on the existence of active relations between Mesopotamia and all of Palestine in the patriarchal period.

Job 1:20. Then Job arose and tore his mantle and shaved his head and fell upon the earth and worshipped Job 1:21. And he said: Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; [as it pleased the Lord, so it has come to pass;] blessed be the name of the Lord! Job 1:22. In all this Job did not sin and did not speak anything unreasonable about God. After bearing patiently the loss of his possessions, Job could not help but express deep distress (“rose,” cf. Jonah 3:6) and sorrow (“tore his mantle,” cf. 2 Sam 1:11; “shaved his head,” cf. Isa 15:2-3) at news of his children’s death. But it not only does not pass into despair and complaint, but is united with deep submission to God’s will, expressed both in action (“worshipped”) and in words: “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, naked and I will return” there (shamma). Having nothing, Job is ready to return “there,” that is, by the context, “to my mother’s womb,” not to mother in the literal sense (Jonah 3:4), but to the bosom of mother-earth. She is called “mother” (Sir 40:1), as the beginning, all-productive, giving birth, even to man in view of his creation from earth. In accordance with this, the Hebrew word “eretz” (earth) is of the feminine gender, and individual countries, lands, bear feminine names: Palestine—the designation of “the virgin daughter of Israel” (Amos 5:2), Phoenicia—“the maiden, daughter of Sidon” (Isa 23:12), Idumea—“daughter of Edom” (Lam 4:21), Chaldea—“the maiden, daughter of Babylon” (Isa 47:1), and so forth. The source of Job’s submission, patience, is the consciousness that He who gave him all blessings has the right to take them away (v. 21).