Bible Commentaries
Job 1

Verses 1-13

(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).

III

THE PROLOGUE OF JOB

Job 1-2.

The book of Job divides itself into three parts: The Prologue, the Poetical Drama, and the Epilogue. The Prologue is a prose narrative but intensely dramatic in form and recites the occasion of the poetical drama which constitutes the body of the book. The Epilogue, also dramatic in prose, recites the historical outcome of the story.

The analysis of the Prologue consists of chapters Job 1-2 with forward references elsewhere in the book.

I. Two scenes and a problem.
1. An earth view of a pious, prosperous, and happy man (Job 1:1-5; with Job 29:1-25; Job 31:1-34)

2. An earth view in which his piety is considered in the crosslights of divine and of satanic judgment (Job 1:6-12)

3. A problem: Can there be disinterested piety?

II. First trial of Job’s piety – Satan permitted to conduct the trial – under limitations (Job 1:13-22)
1. Satan’s stroke on Job the farmer (Job 1:14-15)

2. Satan’s stroke on Job the stockman (Job 1:16)

3. Satan’s stroke on Job the merchant (Job 1:17)

4. Satan’s stroke on Job the father (Job 1:18-19)

5. Result of first trial (Job 1:20-22)

III. Second trial of Job’s piety (Job 2:1-10)

1. Another heaven view in which Job is vindicated and the malice of Satan condemned, but further trial permitted under limitation (Job 2:1-6)

2. Satan’s fifth stroke – Job’s person smitten with leprosy (Job 2:7-8)

3. Satan’s sixth stroke on Job the husband (Job 2:9)

4. Result (Job 2:10)

IV. Satan’s continued trial (Job 2:11-13; and other references in the book)

1. Satan’s seventh stroke on Job the kinsman, neighbor, and master (Job 19:13-19)

2. Satan’s eighth stroke on Job’s social position (Job 30:1-15)

3. After long interval Satan’s ninth stroke on Job the friend (Job 2:11-13)

4. Satan’s tenth and master stroke in leading Job to attribute the malice of these persecutions to God and to count him an adversary without mercy or justice. (See Job 9:24, "If it be not he, who then is it?"; Job 19:11.)

The Prologue opens with two remarkable scenes, an earth view, a heaven view, and a problem. (See the analysis of the Prologue.)

The earth view (Job 1:1-5) presents a pious, prosperous, and happy man. The length, extent, and unbroken character of this prosperity, Job’s ascription of it to God, the healthful effect on his piety and character, are all marvelous. It had lasted all his life without a break. It gave him great wealth, a numerous and happy family, health for every member, great wisdom, extensive knowledge and power, high honor among men, and yet did not spoil him. He was a model husband and father, successful merchant, farmer, and shepherd, benevolent and just toward men, pure in life, and devout toward God. (See Job 29-31.)

The heaven view (Job 1:6-12) in which Job’s piety is considered in the contrasted light of divine and of satanic judgment, is every way marvelous and instructive. It reveals the fact that on stated occasions, angels, both good and bad, must report their work to the sovereign God; that Satan’s field of movement is restricted to this earth. He has no work in heaven but to report when God requires it, and then under inquisition he must tell where he has been, what he has seen, what he has even thought, and what he has done. It must not be supposed that he attends this angelic assembly from curiosity or from audacity, but is there under compulsion. Though fallen and outcast he is yet responsible to God, and must account to his Sovereign.

The bearing of this Prologue on the chief object of the book, namely, to suggest the necessity of and to prepare the way for a wider revelation, is as follows:

1. None of the actors or sufferers on earth know anything of this extraneous origin, purpose, and limitation of his fiery ordeal through which Job and his family must pass. Hence the need of a revelation that man may understand how the spiritual forces of heaven and hell touch his earthly life.

2. How far short all the several philosophies of Job and his friends in accounting for the cause, purpose, or extent of the great suffering which befell Job. Hence the conclusion that unaided human philosophy cannot solve the problem of human life, and therefore a revelation is needed.

Satan’s power is manifested in four simultaneous scenes of disaster:

(1) The stroke on Job, the farmer (Job 1:14-15);

(2) The stroke on Job, the shepherd, or stockman (Job 1:16);

(3) The stroke on Job, the merchant (Job 1:17);

(4) The stroke on Job, the father (Job 1:18-19).

The cunning, malice and cumulative power of Satan’s strokes are seen, as follows:

(1) The mockery of the date of all these disasters, the elder son’s birthday, the gathering of all the children in one house, and the joyous feasting.

(2) The timing of Job’s reception of the news of the several disasters shows that it was stroke upon stroke without intermission.

(3) The sparing of one survivor alone from each disaster, and him only that he might be a messenger of woe.

(4) The variety, adaptation, and thorough naturalness of these means, none of them so out of character as to suggest the supernatural: the Sabeans, the fire of God (a Hebraism), the Chaldeans, the desert tornado. Why suspect supernatural agents when the natural causes are all possible, evident, and credible?

(5) The refinement of cruelty in sparing Job’s wife that she might add to his wretchedness by her evil counsel.

(6) The making of his kindred, neighbors, friends, servants, and the rabble instruments of torture by their desertion, reproach, and mistreatment.

(7) Knowing that Job’s intelligence must perceive that such a remarkable series, even of natural events, could not result from chance, but must have been timed and directed by one endowed with supernatural power, and full of malice, he reveals the very depths of his wickedness and cunning in leading Job to attribute this to God.

The scene of Job’s reception of the direful news (Job 1:14-20) is very remarkable. See the cumulative power of blow on blow without intermission for breathing. Job’s grief is great, but his resignation is instant. He ascribes all the disasters to the divine Sovereign, without a thought of Satan, and without any knowledge of the divine purpose. Here ends Job’s first trial in complete victory for him.

The second scene, in heaven, shows angels, good and bad, reporting divine and satanic judgment on Job’s piety and Satan rebuked for malice against Job but permitted a further test (Job 2:1-6), in which he was given power over Job’s person with one limitation. Satan’s power over Job’s person, and yet hidden from Job, may be seen by comparison of Job 2:7 with other references in the book. The nature of this affliction is found to be elephantiasis, a form of leprosy, usually attributed to the direct agency of God. Yet, it was a well-known disease in that country, and might be explained by natural causes. So Satan’s agency is again hidden and Job has no thought of him.

The awful pain and loathsomeness of this disease, then and now, isolated the patient from human association and sympathy, and human judgment said it was incurable. The law of Moses on the isolation and treatment of lepers is found in Leviticus 13:45 f.; Numbers 5:1-4; Numbers 12:14. Their degredation and isolation in New Testament times, Christ’s sympathy for them, and his healing of them may be seen in Luke 17:11-19 and other references. Lew Wallace, in Ben Hur, Book VI, Job 2, "Memorial Edition," gives a vivid description of leprosy in the case of Ben Hur’s mother and sister:

Slowly, steadily, with horrible certainty, the disease spread, after a while bleaching their heads white, eating holes in their lips and eyelids, and covering their bodies with scales; then it fell to their throats, shrilling their voices, and to their joints, hardening the tissues and cartilages, slowly, and, as the mother well knew, past remedy, it was affecting their lungs and arteries and bones, at each advance making the sufferers more and more loatheeorne; and so it would continue till death, which might be years before them.

He sets forth the awful state of the leper thus:

These four are accounted as dead, the blind, the leper, the poor, and the childless. Thus the Talmud.

That is, to be a leper was to be treated as dead – to be excluded from the city as a corpse;. to be spoken to by the best beloved and most loving only at a distance; to dwell with none but lepers; to be utterly unprivileged; to be denied the rites of the Temple and the synagogue; to go about in rent garments and with covered mouth, except when crying, "Unclean! Unclean!" to find home in the wilderness or in abandoned tombs; to become a materialized specter of Hinnom and Gehenna; to be at all times less a living offense to others than a breathing torment to self; afraid to die, yet without hope except in death.

N. P. Willis in his poem on the leper (The Poetical Works of N. P. Willis, pp. 5-9) gives a fine poetic description of the leper, the progress of the disease and a typical leper healed by Jesus. The substance of this poem is as follows:

In the first section is a description of the approach of the leper, at which the cry is heard,

Room for the leper I Room I And as he came

The cry pass’d on – Room for the leper! Room! Then the response by the leper, "Unclean! Unclean!" In the second section is a description of a young man before the attack of the disease and then a leper after the disease had laid hold upon him. The blighting effect, of the disease is here depicted very forcefully. In the next section we find the most horrifying denunciations of the leper. He makes his way to the temple and, standing before the altar, he hears his doom: – Depart! depart, O child Of Israel, from the temple of thy God I For He has smote thee with His chastening rod: And to the desert-wild, From all thou lov’st away, thy feet must flee, That from thy plague His people may be free. Depart I and come not near The busy mart, the crowded city, more; Nor set thy foot a human threshold o’er; And stay thou not to hear Voices that call thee in the way; and fly From all who in the wilderness pass by. Wet not thy burning lip In streams that to a human dwelling glide; Nor rest thee where the covert fountains hide; Nor kneel thee down to dip The water where the pilgrim bends to drink. By desert well or river’s grassy brink; And pass thou not between The weary traveller and the cooling breeze; And lie not down to sleep beneath the trees Where human tracks are seen; Nor milk the goat that browseth on the plain, Nor pluck the standing corn, or yellow grain. And now, depart! and when Thy heart is heavy, and thine eyes are dim, Lift up thy prayer beseechingly to Him Who, from the tribes of men, Selected thee to feel His chastening rod. Depart! O Leper I and forget not God!

Then follows a description of the leper departing and going into the wilderness where Jesus found him and healed him. The closing lines of the poem are as follows:

His leprosy was cleansed, and he fell down

Prostrate at Jesus’ feet and worshipp’d Him.

The counsel of Job’s wife and Job’s reply to it are found in Job 2:9-10. Here ends Job’s second trial in victory as complete as in the first trial. Satan drops out of the story after the second trial. Now, the question is, How do we know he is yet taking part? The answer is, we see his tracks. Job’s wife in Job 2:9 quotes the very words of Satan in Job 2:5. Satan, though hidden, uses Job’s wife against him as Eve was used against Adam (Cf. Job 2:5; Job 2:9). Washington Irving, on a wife’s influence in helping her husband to recover from a great misfortune, says, I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters which break down the spirit of man, and prostrate him in the dust, seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity. Nothing can be more touching than to behold a soft and tender female, who had been all weakness and dependence, and alive to every trivial roughness, while treading the prosperous paths of life, suddenly rising in mental force to be the comforter and support of her husband under misfortune, and abiding with unshrinking firmness the bitterest blasts of adversity. – Sketch Book.

In this sifting of Satan, Job’s piety surpasses that of Adam’s in that Adam with eyes open, through love of his wife, heeded her advice and fell, but Job, blind to many things that Adam was not, withstood the temptation of his wife, and held fast his integrity. In another part of this book Job himself claims to be superior to Adam (See Job 31:33), in that he did not attempt to hide his sin as did Adam.

Satan further appears to be taking part, though he now ostensibly disappears from the story. He is really present, using Job’s friends and tempting Job himself.

Now, Job’s words in Job 1:21, and his reply to his wife in Job 2:10 solve the first problem suggested by Satan, "Can there be sincere and disinterested piety?" Hypocrites may serve for the loaves and the fishes, but the true children of God serve him even in the loss of all things and in excruciating sufferings. See case of Paul in the New Testament.

The results of Satan’s three trials are as follows: Job’s complete triumphs in the first and second; the third was a downfall. Satan failed in the main point, but he got Job into a heap of trouble.

There are proofs from the book that a considerable time elapsed between the smiting with leprosy and the visit of the three friends, so that the time of the intervening events prepares the mind to understand the subsequent debates, and enables it to appreciate this man’s heroic fortitude and patience before he uttered a word of complaint. Their coming by appointment or previous arrangement has a bearing on the lapse of time since he was smitten with leprosy. The time necessary for each friend to hear of Job’s calamity, and then to arrange by communication with each other for a joint visit, and then for the journey, show that considerable time elapsed in this interval.

On the same point the time necessary for the intervening events set forth in Job 19:13-19; Job 30:1-15, namely, desertion by wife, brothers, sisters, and friends, and the horrible treatment he received from young people, from criminals whom he had punished, and from the cruel rabble, all of which preceded the visit of his three friends – must be considered here in order to maintain the thread of the story.

What he himself says on the length of time since his last affliction may be noted (Job 7:3): "So am I made to possess months [literally moons] of misery"; and (Job 29:2): "Oh that I were as in the months of old." The time intervening between the last scene with his wife and the visit of his friends could not have been less than two months and was doubtless three or four; so we correlate his sufferings and losses in their order thus: loss of all his property, loss of all his children, loss of his health, alienation of wife and kindred, loss of honor among men and every exalted position, followed by contempt and disgust of the rabble. As he himself puts it (Job 12:5): "In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt for misfortune."

Now the reader must connect all these things and vividly see them following in order for so long a time, a time of unremitting pain, horrible by night and by day, in order to grasp the idea of this man’s heroic patience before he uttered a word of complaint.

The last straw that broke down the fortitude of Job, that broke his spirit, was the seven days’ silence of his friends, staring upon his wretchedness without a word of comfort. Comparing the Satan of Job with the serpent (Gen. 3) ; the Satan of David (2 Samuel 24:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1); the Satan of Joshua, the high priest (Zechariah 2:1-5); the Satan of Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11); the Satan of Peter (Luke 22:31 with 1 Peter 5:8-9) ; the Satan of Paul (1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 12:7; Ephesians 6:11; Ephesians 6:16); the Satan of John (Revelation 12:7-13), and the scene in 1 Kings 22:19-23, we find:

1. That the case of the Satan of Job is in harmony with the other cases of the Bible.

2. That when Satan is permitted to try men he is an agent of God.

3. That there are several scriptural names of him and that each one has its own meaning, thus:

(1) "Satan" which means adversary, suggesting that he is the adversary of God and his people.

(2) "Devil," which means an accuser and slanderer; he is the cunning and malignant suspecter and accuser of the righteous; he accuses men to God and slanders God to men.

(3) "Apollyon," which means "destroyer" and indicates the nature of his work.

(4) "Beelzebub" which means prince, or chieftain. He is the prince, or chief, of demons.

(5) "Dragon" which means serpent, and refers to his slimy work in the garden of Eden where he took the form of a serpent.

4. That his field of operation is restricted to the earth.

5. That he is limited in power.

6. That he must make stated reports to God.

7. That he can touch the righteous only by permission.

8. That he can touch them only in matters that try their faith.

9. That he cannot take them beyond the intercession of the High Priest.

10. That he cannot touch their lives.

11. That he cannot touch them except for their good, and therefore his trials of the righteous are included in the "all things" of Romans 8:28.

12. That no philosophy which knows only the time life of men and natural causes can solve the problem of life.

QUESTIONS

1. What the natural divisions of the book, and what the relation of these parts to each other?

2. Give an analysis of the Prologue.

3. What the two scenes and the problem of the Prologue?

4. Describe the earth view,

5. What of the heaven view and its revelations?

6. What bearing has this Prologue on the chief object of the book, namely, to suggest the necessity of and to prepare the way for a wider revelation?

7. How is Satan’s power manifested here?

8. Show the cunning, malice, and cumulative power of Satan’s strokes.

9. Describe the scene of Job’s reception of this news.

10. Describe the second scene, in heaven.

11. What the further test of Job permitted to Satan?

12. How was Satan’s power on Job’s person manifested and yet hidden from Job?

13. Describe this disease and its effect on Job’s social relations.

14. Compare the law of Moses on the isolation and treatment of lepers.

15. Show their degradation and isolation in New Testament times, Christ’s sympathy for them, and his healing of them.

16. Give Ben Hur’s vivid description of leprosy in the case of his mother and sister and the substance of N. P. Willis’ poem on the leper.

17. What the counsel of Job’s wife and what Job’s reply?

18. Since Satan drops out of the story after the second trial, how do we know he is yet taking part?

19. What has Washington Irving (Sketch Book) to say on a wife’s influence in helping her husband to recover from a great misfortune?

20. In this sifting of Satan where does Job’s piety surpass that of Adam?

21. Where else, in the book of Job, does Job himself claim to be superior to Adam?

22. How does Satan further appear to be taking part?

23. How is the first problem, as suggested by Satan, solved?

24. What was the result of Satan’s three trials?

25. Give proofs from the book that a considerable time elapsed between the smiting with leprosy and the visit of the three friends, so stating in order the intervening events as to prepare the mind to understand the subsequent debates, and enable it to appreciate this man’s heroic fortitude and patience before he uttered a word of complaint.

26. What the last straw that broke down the fortitude of Job?

27. Give a summary of the Bible teaching relative to Satan.