Job 1:15

And the Sabeans fell upon them,.... Or, "Sheba fell" (e); that is, as Aben Ezra and Simeon Bar Tzemach supply it, an host of the Sabeans, or a company of them; these were not the descendants of that

And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

The Sabeans; a people of Arabia, who led a wandering life, and lived by robbery and spoiling of others, as Strabo and other heathen writers note. I only am escaped alone to tell thee; whom Satan spared no less maliciously than he destroyed the rest, that Job might have speedy and certain intelligence of his calamity.

Job 1:15 And the Sabeans fell [upon them], and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.Ver. 15. And the Sabeans fell upon them] i.e. The Arabians, a thievish people, that lived by rapine and robbery, Sabaei apud poetas molles vocantur; With the poets, the Sabeans were called effeminate, but Satan set them awork. They are at this day called Saracens, of Sarac, to rob; for they keep up their old trade, and are not all out so good as those Circassians, a kind of mongrel Christians who are said to divide their life between sin and devotion; dedicating their youth to rapine, and their old age to repentance. Yea, they have slain the servants] Heb. The young men; for εργανεων, &c., Iuniores ad labores, junior men to work. It was happy, howsoever, that they were taken away when in their lawful calling, and about their honest employments. Elijah chose to be taken in such a posture; for he knew the very time; and yet when the chariots of heaven came to fetch him up he was going and talking to his scholar Elisha. The busy attendance on our holy vocation is no less pleasing to God, or safe for us to die upon, than an immediate devotion. Happy is that servant whom the Master, when he cometh, shall find so doing. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee] For no other cause escaped this one, this single one, but to add to Job’ s affliction. There was no mercy in such a sparing; it was that Job might have the ill news brought him suddenly and certainly. That old manslayer had so contrived it for the greater mischief.

(15) The Sabeans.—Literally, Sheba. Three persons named Sheba are found in Genesis: (1) The son of Raamah and grandson of Cush (Genesis 10:7); (2) the son of Jokshan and grandson of Abraham (Genesis 25:3); (3) The son of Joktanand grandson of Eber (Genesis 10:28). It is probably the second who is referred to here, whose descendants led a predatory and marauding kind of life in the country bordering on that of Job. (Comp. Ezekiel 38:13.)

Verse 15. And the Sabeans fell] The Vulgate alone understands this of a people. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, understand it as implying a marauding party. The Chaldee says, "Lilith, queen of Zamargad, rushed suddenly upon them, and carried them away." The Sabeans mentioned here are supposed to have been the same with those who were the descendants of Abraham by Keturah, whose son Jokshan begat Sheba. The sons of Keturah were sent by Abraham into the east, Genesis 25:6, and inhabited Arabia Deserta, on the east of the land of Uz. Hordes of predatory banditti were frequent in those countries and continue so to the present day. They made sudden incursions, and carried off men, women, children, cattle, and goods of every description; and immediately retired to the desert, whither it was in vain to pursue them.

13–22. Job’s first trial; and its issue: his reverence towards God remains unshaken Between Job 1:12-13 there is an interval, an ominous stillness like that which precedes the storm. The poet has drawn aside the curtain to us and we know what is impending. Job knows nothing. His children are about him and he thinks the Almighty is yet with him, Job 29:5. The earth smiles to him as it was wont by day; and by night the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades come forth in their silent procession, and the Dragon trails his glittering folds across the heavens overhead, and he looks with wonder into the deep chambers of the South. All is glorious with a constant glory because it is an unchanging hand that leads them forth, the hand of the Holy One from whose words he has never declined, Job 6:10, and whose candle as he deems still shines upon his head, Job 29:3. He does not know that he is being played for like a pawn. Suddenly the catastrophe overtakes him. Messenger after messenger, each taking up his tale of ruin before the other has concluded his, announce that all he had has been taken from him. Heaven and earth have combined to overwhelm him. The forces of nature and the destructive violence of men have united to strip him bare. The description has many features of the ideal. First, the catastrophe befell on the day when Job’s children were feasting in their eldest brother’s house, Job 1:13, the day on the morning of which Job had sent for his children and sanctified them and offered sacrifices on their behalf. Job’s godliness and his calamity are brought into the closest contrast. He felt this, and as he regarded every event as wrought by the hand of God immediately, his afflictions threw his mind into the deepest perplexity regarding the ways of God. Again, while heaven and men alternate their strokes upon him, these strokes follow one another with increasing severity, and in each case only one escapes to bring the grievous tidings. The rapid touches of the Author do not suggest any struggle or rising rebelliousness in Job’s mind. He manifests the liveliest grief, but maintains his self-control. And the scene closes upon the sufferer, a solitary man, worshipping God amidst the waste where his rich possessions once had lien.

And the Sabeans - Hebrew שׁבא shebâ', Vulgate, “Suboei.” The Septuagint gives a paraphrase, καὶἐλθόντεςοἱαἰχμαλωτεύοντεςἠχμαλώτευσαν kai elthonia hoi aichmalōteuontes ēchmalōteusan, “And

15. The Sabeans — In the original, Sheba; the name of the country, for its inhabitants.