Job 1 Footnotes

1:1 Critical suggestions that the description of Job’s character (lit “perfect and upright”) contradicts texts indicating mankind’s sinfulness (Rm 3:23; 1Jn 1:8) are unfounded. God twice attested to Job’s integrity (Jb 1:8; 2:3). Both Hebrew words are used of God (Dt 32:4). Men and women in God’s image are to reflect those attributes (Mt 5:48; Eph 4:20-24).

1:7-8 God’s rhetorical questions to Satan do not imply that God had no knowledge of Satan’s activities. The Scriptures attest to God’s omniscience and omnipresence (Ps 33:13-15; 139:7-12). The phrase “roaming through the earth” has led some commentators to suggest that Satan was God’s “roving agent” to detect mischief in the world, much like the spies who served in the secret service of the Persian king (known from texts from Mari in upper Mesopotamia, contemporaneous with the Hebrew patriarchs). But this is mere speculation. God does not cooperate with Satan in any way.

1:12 God’s justice and integrity were not impugned by allowing Satan to inflict suffering upon an innocent man. Only a genuine test could demonstrate to Satan whether Job’s devotion was real or was, as Satan insinuated, the result of God’s having protected and blessed Job beyond that of most human beings. More important than proving something to Satan, God had purposes for Job’s good that could only come through this arduous path of testing.

1:15 Because Sabeans are traditionally associated with a location in present-day Yemen hundreds of miles to the south (1Kg 10:1; Jr 6:20), some consider as unlikely the arrival of marauders in Job’s homeland in Uz, east of the Jordan River somewhere between Aram (Gn 10:23) and Edom (Gn 36:28). But the Bible indicates Sabean presence further north (Gn 10:7; Jb 6:19). These Sabeans were brigands, hence may point to an early setting of the book before they became the well-known later traders of southern Arabia.