Job 1:18

While he was yet speaking, there came another,.... A servant of one of Job's sons, who was in waiting at the feast before mentioned, and here again repeated: and said, thy sons and thy daughters were

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: No JFB commentary on this verse.

i.e. Feasting after their manner, and, as Job generally feared and suspected, sinning against God, , which was a dreadful aggravation of the judgment.

Job 1:18 While he [was] yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters [were] eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’ s house:Ver. 18. While he was yet speaking] See Job 1:16. Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine] This was the last, but not the least, of Satan’ s assaults, reserved purposely to the last, to crush him quite, when he was now spent and spiritless, as he hoped. Let us look for like dealing, for a tough bout, at death howsoever; and be always ready prepared for another and a worse encounter. It is said of Caesar, that he sometimes put up, but seldom or never put off, his sword (Seneca). It is said of Queen Elizabeth, that, in the greatest calm, she provided for a storm. It is said of the bird onocrotalus, that she is so well practised to expect the hawk to grapple with her, that even when she shutteth her eyes she sleepeth with her beak exalted, as if she would contend with her adversary. Should not we stand constantly upon our guard, who have so restless and pitiless an enemy? Thy sons and thy daughters, &c.] Men may die, then, with the meat in their mouths, and in the midst of their mirth and jollity; as did Amnon, Elah, Belshazzar. Whether, therefore, we eat or drink, &c., do all to the glory of God, 1 Corinthians 10:31. Let there be "holiness to the Lord" written upon our pots, Zechariah 14:21. Let us eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life, as a reverend Scotch divine was said to do. Job’ s good heart ached and quaked, likely, at the hearing of this sad news, of so sudden a death of his children, amidst their merriments; for he used to say, when there was no such danger, It may be my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Methinks I hear him saying, or rather sighing, out those sorrowful words of Cratisilea, in Plutarch, when she saw her dear children slain before her, Quo pueri estis profecti? Poor souls, what is become of you?

(18) Thy sons and thy daughters.—See Job 1:13. The marvellous accumulation of disasters points us to the conclusion that it was the distinct work of Satan, according to the permission given him (Job 1:12), and consequently supernatural.

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.

Eating and drinking wine - ; the notes at Job 1:4, Job 1:13.

18. Drinking wine — The mention of wine-drinking in so painful an association, suggests that in the mind of the messenger there may have been the thought, how ill-prepared these young people were for death’s surprise.