And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my
servant
Job
Or, "hast thou put thine heart on my servant" F16; not
in a way of love and affection to him, to do him any good or
service, there being an original and implacable enmity in this
old serpent to the seed of the woman; but rather his heart was
set upon him in a way of desire to have him in his hands, to do
him all the mischief he could, as the desire of his heart was
toward Peter, ( Luke 22:31 ) but the
sense of the question is, since thou sayest thou hast been
walking up and down in the earth, hast thou not taken notice of
Job, and cast an eye upon him, and wished in thine heart to have
him in thine hands to do him hurt? I know that thou hast; hast
thou not contrived in thine heart how to attack him, tempt him,
and draw him from my service, and into sins and snares, in order
to reproach and accuse him? thou hast, but all in vain; and so it
is a sarcasm upon Satan, as well as an expression of indignation
at him for such an attempt upon him, and as anticipating his
accusation of Job; for it is as if he should further say, I know
he is in thine eye, and upon thine heart, now thou art come with
a full intent to accuse and charge him; so Jarchi, "lest thou set
thine heart" so as "to have a good will to accuse him" he had,
but the Lord prevents him, by giving a high character of him, in
these and the following words: here he calls him "my servant";
not a servant of men, living according to the lusts and will of
men, and their customs and forays of worship, superstition, and
idolatry; nor a servant of sin and the lusts of the flesh; nor of
Satan, who boasted of the whole earth being his; but the Lord's
servant, not only by creation, but by special choice, by
redemption, by efficacious grace, and the voluntary surrender of
himself to the Lord under the influence of it; and by his
cheerful and constant obedience he answered this character; and
the Lord here claims his property in him, acknowledges him as his
servant, calls him by name, and gives an high and honourable
account of him:
that there is none like him in the earth;
or "in the land"; in the land of Uz, so Obadiah Sephorno;
whatever there were in other countries, there were none in this,
being in general idolaters; or in the land of the people of the
Heathen nations, as the Targum; or rather in the whole earth,
where Satan had been walking: and, very probably, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, were now dead; Job being, as it should seem, between
them and the times of Moses; and though there might be many godly
persons then living, who were like to him in quality, being
partakers of the same divine nature, having the same image of God
upon them, and the same graces in them, and a similar experience
of divine things, yet not upon an equality with him; he exceeded
them all in grace and holiness; and particularly, none came up to
him for his patience in suffering affliction, though this was
often tried; as Moses excelled others in meekness, and Solomon in
wisdom; Job was an eminent saint and servant of the Lord, a
father in his family, a pillar in his house, like Saul among the
people, taller in grace and the exercise of it; and this is a
reason why he could not but be taken notice of by Satan, who has
his eye more especially on the most eminent saints, and envies
them, and strikes at them; and so the words are by some rendered,
"for there is none like him" F17; or rather they may be
rendered, "but there is none like him" F18: and
so are opposed to the accusations and charges Satan was come with
against him:
a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and
escheweth evil?
(See Gill on Job
1:1) here the character there given is confirmed by the
Lord in the express words of it.