Job 1:1

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job,.... Of the signification of his name, see the introduction to the book.

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

JOB CHAPTER 1 Job's country, and sincere holiness: his children; their feasts; and his religious care for them, Job 1:1-5. Satan's appearance before God: God's character of Job, Job 1:6-8. Satan imputeth Job's goodness to his prosperity; and so obtaineth leave to afflict him in his goods, Job 1:9-12. Job's oxen, sheep, camels, and servants destroyed, Job 1:13-17. His sons and daughters perish, Job 1:18,19. Job, with his mantle rent, head shaved, and upon the ground, worshippeth; blesseth God; sinneth not, Job 1:20-22. The land of Uz was either in Edom, called the land of Uz, Lamentations 4:21, or in some part of Arabia, not far from the Chaldeans and Sabeans, as this chapter witnesseth; so called probably from Uz, one of Esau's posterity, Genesis 36:28 Jeremiah 25:20. That man was perfect; not legally or exactly, as he confesseth, Job 9:20; but comparatively to such as were partial in their obedience to God's commands, and as to his sincere intentions, hearty affections, and constant and diligent endeavours to perform all his duties to God and men. Upright, Heb. right; exact and regular in all his dealings with men; one of an unblamable conversation, doing to others as he would have others to deal with him. One that feared God; one truly pious, and devoted to God's worship and service. Eschewed evil, i.e. carefully avoiding all sin against God or men.

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name [was] Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.Ver. 1. There was a man] A notable man, a man by an excellency, and with an accent (as it were), a man of high degree ( Animo virili praeditus), as the word Ish signifieth, Psalms 49:2; Psalms 62:9 (where it is opposed to Adam, utpote quem ex meliore luto finxit Titan), a manly man, every way excellent and eximious: Magnus et admirabilis vir, &c. A great and marvellous man, if it be fit to call him by the name of a man, as Chrysostom speaketh of Babylas the martyr. Basil, in his sermon of the forty martyrs, calleth them the stars of the world, and the flowers of the Churches, αστεραςτηςοικουμενης, ανθητωνεκκλησιων. Chrysostom, speaking of those that were praying for Peter, Acts 12:12, saith that Puriores caelo afflictione facti sunt, by their afflictions they were become clearer than the azured sky; and elsewhere, falling into speech of some religious men of his time, he doubteth not, for their holy and heavenly conversation, to style them Aγγελους, angels. That Job deserved this high title, as well as the best of them, we have here, and otherwise, God’ s own testimony of him, and this whole Book, whereof he is the principal object, doth abundantly prove him a hero, Daemonium hominis et miraculum naturae, ut de Scaligero non nemo dixit, a supernatural man and of miraculous nature so that anyone said concerning Scaliger. τρισμακαρεςτεκασιγνητοιτε, κασιγνηταιτε (Hem. Odys.). In the land of Uz] Which, what it was, and where situated, though our maps show us not, yet, by the consent of all, it was a country bordering upon Idumea in part, and part upon Arabia. See Lamentations 4:21 Jeremiah 25:20. Chrysostom testifieth that Job’ s sepulchre hath been showed in Arabia; which might well have been called happy, if but for having such an inhabitant. Ptolemy placeth the Hussites in Arabia. Whose name was Job] It is, then, a true and real history that we here have of him, and not a fiction or a moral parable, as some have believed. See a double testimony for this, the one prophetical, Ezekiel 14:14, the other apostolical, James 5:11, and such a well twined cord is not easily broken. What if Josephus make no mention in his history of such a man? it was beside his purpose to write anything but what concerned the Jews. Aristeus in his History of the Jews maketh Job to be descended of Esau, and to dwell in Idumea. The Jewish doctors and some of the fathers of the Church make him to be that Jobab mentioned Genesis 36:33. True it is that the words differ much in the Hebrew writing; but for that, while he prospered, he might be called Jobab; when in distress (which lasted twelve months, say the Hebrews, seven years, saith Suidas) contracted into Job. See the like Rth 1:20 Genesis 17:5.

(1) There was a man in the land of Uz.—The first mention of this name is in Genesis 10:23, where Uz is said to have been one of the sons of Aram, who was one of the sons of Shem. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 1:17.) Another Uz (in the Authorised Version spelt Huz) is mentioned in Genesis 22:21 as the firstborn of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. A third form of this name is mentioned in Genesis 36:28 among “the sons of Seir the Horite. who inhabited the land” of Edom. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 1:42.) It is probable that each of these is to be associated with a different district: the first perhaps with that of the Lebanon—a district near Damascus is still called El-Ghutha; the second with that of Mesopotamia or Chaldea; and the third with the Edomite district south of Palestine. From the mention of “the land of Uz” (Lamentations 4:21) and “the kings of the land of Uz” (Jeremiah 25:20), where in each case the association seems to be with Edom, it is probable that the land of Job is to be identified rather with the district south and southeast of Palestine. Whose name was Job.—The name is really Iyyov, and is carefully to be distinguished from the Job (Yov) who was the son of Issachar (Genesis 46:13), and from the Jobab (Yovav) who was one of the kings of Edom (Genesis 36:33), with both of which it has been confounded. The form of the name may suggest the signification of “the assaulted one,” as the root from which it appears to be derived means “was an enemy.” Perfect and upright . . .—Noah in like manner is said to have been “perfect” (Genesis 6:9). Abram was required to be so (Genesis 17:1), and Israel generally (Deuteronomy 18:13), though the adjective in these places is not quite the same as that used here; and our Lord required the same high standard of His disciples (Matthew 5:48), while He also, through the gift of the Spirit, made it possible. The character here given to Job is that in which wisdom is declared to consist. (Comp. Job 28:28.) It has the twofold aspect of refusing the evil and choosing the good, of aiming at a lofty ideal of excellence and of shunning that which is fatal or opposed to it.

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 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.

Ch. Job 1:1-3. Job’s name and abode; his piety, and consequent family felicity and worldly prosperity 1. the land of Uz] This word occurs several times in the Old Testament: (1) as the name of a son of Aram, Genesis 10:23; (2) as the name of the eldest son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham, Genesis 22:21; and (3) as that of a descendant of Seir, Genesis 36:28. These references would point either to Syria on the north-east of Palestine or to the region of Edom, further south. From the Book itself we learn that Job’s flocks were exposed on the east to inroads on the part of the Chaldeans, the tribes between Syria and the Euphrates, Job 1:17; and in another direction to attacks from the Sabeans, Job 1:15. The most prominent man among his friends was from Teman, which belonged to Edom, Job 2:11 (comp. Genesis 36:15; Jeremiah 49:7; Jeremiah 49:20), and he himself is named the greatest of all the children of the East, Job 1:3. In Lamentations 4:21 it is said: Rejoice O daughter of Edom that dwellest in the land of Uz. These words do not imply that Uz is identical with Edom, but they imply that Edomites had possession of Uz, which could not have been the case unless the lands bordered on one another. The land of Uz, therefore, probably lay east of Palestine and north of Edom. This general position is already assigned to it in the Sept. which, in some verses added to the end of the Book, and embodying the tradition of the time, says that the land of Uz lay “on the borders of Edom and Arabia.” There is nothing in Scripture that defines the position of Job’s home more precisely. An interesting tradition, as old at least as the early centuries of the Christian era, has been investigated by Wetzstein. This tradition places the home of Job in the Nukra, the fertile depression of Bashan at the south-east foot of Hermon. Near the town of Nawa, about 40 miles almost due south of Damascus, a little to the west of the pilgrim route from this city to Mecca, and about the latitude of the north end of the sea of Tiberias, there still exist a Makâm, that is, place, or tomb, and monastery of Job. Wetzstein assigns the building to the end of the third century. See his Excursus at the end of Delitzsch’s Comm. on Job. whose name was Job] The Heb. form of the name is Iyyôb, which does not occur again in the Bible. There is no play on the name or allusion to its significance in the Book. It does not seem, therefore, to have been coined by the Author of the Poem, but probably came down to him with other fragments of the tradition on which he worked.

There was a man - This has all the appearance of being a true history. Many have regarded the whole book as a fiction, and have supposed that no such person as Job ever lived.

. — Chaps. 1, 2.THE PIETY AND OF JOB, Job 1:1-5.1. There was a man — These first words point to an historical basis for the ensuing work.