_A.M. 2484. B.C. 1520._ Job's piety, children, substance, Job 1:1. Satan obtains leave to try him, Job 1:6. His oxen, sheep, camels, and servants destroyed, Job 1:13. His sons and daughters killed, Job 1:18; Job 1:19. His patience and piety, Job 1:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
_There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job_ We have observed in the argument, that the firstborn son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, was called _Uz._ It appears also from Genesis 10:23, that a grandson of Shem bore the same name, but it does not appear whether any country was named from eit... [ Continue Reading ]
_His substance also was seven thousand sheep_ Namely, seven thousand small cattle, whether sheep or goats, in opposition to the larger cattle next mentioned. _And three thousand camels_ Camels in these parts were very numerous, as is manifest from Judges 7:12; 1 Chronicles 5:21, and the testimonies... [ Continue Reading ]
_His sons went and feasted in their houses_ Or made a family feast, to testify and maintain their brotherly love. _Every one his day_ Not every day of the week and of the year, which would have been burdensome to them all, and gross luxury, and which certainly such a holy man as Job would not have p... [ Continue Reading ]
_When the days of their feasting were gone about_ When each of them had had his turn, and there was some considerable interval before their next feasting-time; or, as the Hebrew כי הקופו ימי, _chi hikkipu jemee_, may be rendered, _As the days went about, Job sent and sanctified them_ Exhorted and co... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now there was a day_ A certain time appointed by God; _when the sons of God came_ The Targum says, _Troops of angels_, the LXX., _Angels of God;_ the holy angels are called sons of God, (Job 38:7, and Daniel 3:25; Daniel 3:28,) because of their creation by God, their resemblance of him in power, di... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord said unto Satan_, &c. As we are not to suppose from the preceding verse that Satan entered into heaven among the angels of God, uncalled; so, neither are we so to understand what is here said, as if the Great and Holy One really entered into a conversation with that apostate spirit. But, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hast thou considered my servant Job?_ Hast thou taken notice of him, and of his spirit and conduct? _That there is none like him in_ all _the earth_ The Targum saith, “None like him in the land of the Gentiles;” intimating, probably, that notwithstanding he was of the Gentiles, he was yet so distin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Doth Job serve God for naught?_ That is, sincerely and freely, and out of pure love and respect to thee? No: it is policy, not piety, that makes him good: he doth not serve thee, but serves himself of thee; and is a mere mercenary creature, serving thee for his own ends.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hast thou not made a hedge about him?_ Protected him with a thorny and inaccessible defence, or secured him, by thy special care and providence, from all harm and inconveniences? which is sufficient to oblige and win persons of the worst tempers; _and about his house_ His children and servants; _ab... [ Continue Reading ]
_But put forth thy hand now_ In a way of justice and severity, as the phrase of putting or stretching forth God's hand is used, Isaiah 5:25, and Ezekiel 25:7; Ezekiel 25:13; Ezekiel 25:16: _and touch all that he hath_ That is, afflict or destroy his children and substance; _and he will curse thee to... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord said, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power_ I give thee full power to do with his property, his servants, his children, and his wife, whatsoever thy craft or malice shall prompt thee to do; _only upon himself put not forth thy hand_ Meddle not with his own person, with his body or soul... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the asses feeding beside them_ That is, beside the oxen. _And the Sabeans fell upon them_ A people of Arabia, who led a wandering life, and lived by robbery and plunder, as Strabo and other heathen writers observe. They were the descendants of Abraham by Keturah, whose son Jokshan begat Sheba,... [ Continue Reading ]
_While he was yet speaking_ Before the former had done speaking, or Job could have time to compose his disturbed mind, and to digest his former loss; _there came also another_ Another messenger of evil tidings; _and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven_ Not ordinary lightning, which could sca... [ Continue Reading ]
_There came also another_ Bringing tidings still more afflictive than either of the two former; _and said, The Chaldeans_ Who also lived upon spoil, as Xenophon and others observe; _made out three bands _ That they might come upon their prey several ways, and that nothing might be able to escape the... [ Continue Reading ]
_While he was yet speaking there came also another_ Bringing tidings the most distressing of all. One messenger immediately followed another in this manner, through the contrivance of Satan, by God's permission, that there might seem to be more than ordinary displeasure of God against Job in his tro... [ Continue Reading ]
_And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness_ From the further part of, or across the wilderness, whence the fiercest winds came, as having most power in such open places: see Jeremiah 4:11; Jeremiah 13:24. By this it appears that Job's situation was on the northerly side of the Arabian... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then Job arose_ From his seat whereon he had been sitting in a disconsolate posture; _and rent his mantle_ In token of his deep sense of, and just sorrow for, the heavy hand of God upon him, and his humiliation of himself under that hand: see Genesis 37:34; _and shaved his head_ Caused the hair of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Naked came I out of my mother's womb_ I brought none of those things which I have now lost with me when I came out of my mother's womb into the world, but I received them from the hand and favour of that God who hath now required his own again; _and naked shall I return_ I shall be as rich when I d... [ Continue Reading ]
_In all this Job sinned not_ That is, under all these pressures, or in all that he said or did upon these sad occasions, he sinned not in such a manner as Satan presaged that he would, and as is expressed in the following words. But the meaning is not that he was free from all human infirmity, of wh... [ Continue Reading ]