Job 1:1

THE BOOK OF JOB

As the time in which Job lived is so very uncertain, (see the preface, and the observations at the end of the notes on the first chapter,) Job 1:22 the date found in our common English Bibles, which is upon the supposition that Moses wrote the book while among the Midianites, about one thousand five hundred and twenty years before the commencement of the Christian era, is inserted in the margin, not because it is the most probable, but because it is the most generally received.

CHAPTER I

Character of Job, 1.

His family, 2.

His substance, 3.

Care of has family, 4, 5.

Satan accuses him to God as a selfish person, who served God

only for the hope of secular rewards, 6-11.

Satan is permitted to strip him of all his children and

property, 12-19.

Job's remarkable resignation and patience, 20-22.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse Job 1:1. In the land of Uz] This country was situated in Idumea, or the land of Edom, in Arabia Petraea, of which it comprised a very large district. See the preface.

Whose name was Job] The original is איוב Aiyob; and this orthography is followed by the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. From the Vulgate we borrow Job, not very dissimilar from the ιωβ Iob of the Septuagint. The name signifies sorrowful, or he that weeps. He is supposed to have been called Jobab. See more in the preface.

Perfect and upright] תם וישר tam veyashar; COMPLETE as to his mind and heart, and STRAIGHT or CORRECT as to his moral deportment.

Feared God] Had him in continual reverence as the fountain of justice, truth, and goodness.

Eschewed evil.] סר מרע sar mera, departing from, or avoiding evil. We have the word eschew from the old French eschever, which signifies to avoid. All within was holy, all without was righteous; and his whole life was employed in departing from evil, and drawing nigh to God. Coverdale translates an innocent and vertuous man, soch one as feared God, an eschued evell. From this translation we retain the word eschew.