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1–5. Job's piety and complete prosperity are his reward. 6–12. The causes of Job's suffering. 13–19. The disasters that befell the righteous. 20–22. The patience of a sufferer. Job 1:1. There was a man in the land of Uz, his name was Job; and this man was blameless, just and God-fearing and shunned evil. Revealed in the first five verses with the help of a specific example, the life of Job, the general idea about the correspondence of piety to earthly well-being begins with a description of the religious and moral life of the main person of the book. “Immaculate,” that is, devoted with all his heart to God and goodness (Job 2.3; cf. Job 1.21; Job 23.11–12; Job 31.1), Job was impeccable in this regard, which is confirmed by his “justice” and “truth” (glory), - the correspondence of thoughts to deeds. More specifically, at the heart of Job’s religiosity - his relationship with God - lay “fear” - a reverent idea of God, excited by the consciousness of His greatness and perfections (Job 15.4; Job 37.23-24), and turning into awe when he was joined by the thought of God as a righteous Judge and Rewarder who does not tolerate evil (Gen. 3:10, 18:15; Ps. 64.9 ). The idea of ​​a God who does not tolerate evil determined Job’s morality: it boiled down, like that of all Old Testament people, to avoiding evil (Ps 33:15, 36:27; Proverbs 14.16). For Job's place of residence, see the Introduction. Job 1:2. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Job 1:3. He had property: seven thousand small cattle, three thousand camels, five hundred pairs of oxen and five hundred donkeys and a lot of servants; and this man was more famous than all the sons of the East. For piety, according to the teaching of the Old Testament, a person was rewarded with temporary, earthly blessings (Deut. 28.1–13). This point of view is fully shared by the author of our book. Putting the words into Satan’s mouth: “Is Job fearing God for nothing? Was it not you who surrounded him and...blessed the work of his hands? (Job.1:9–10), he makes it clear that the many children of Job that he notes, the abundance of livestock that provided food and clothing (sheep), which served to carry heavy loads and cultivate the fields (camels, oxen and donkeys (Job.1:15; cf. Gen. 42.26; 1 Sam. 25.18), as well as the multitude of servants inevitable in this case (Heb. “ebuddha”, “δουλεία” of Akila, LXX at the same time assimilate this word with a double meaning: “ὑπηρεσία πολλὴ σφόδρα”, - “many servants”, and “ἔργο μεγάλα ῆω αυτῶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ", - “the works he ordered upon the land,” meaning, it seems, farming by works, since the Hebrew “ebuddha” in Gen. 26.14 they convey the term “γεωργία ") are the reward for piety. According to Deut. 28.13, the same reward for righteousness can be considered the glory of Job among “all the sons of the East” - the descendants of Abraham from the concubines he sent to the East (Gen. 25.6) and who inhabited Arabia, as well as the population of Mesopotamia, since it is called “the country of the East” (Gen. 29.1; Num. 23.7). Job 1:4. His sons came together, each making feasts in his own house on his own day, and they sent and invited their three sisters to eat and drink with them. Job 1:5. When the circle of feasting days was completed, Job sent for them and sanctified them and, rising early in the morning, offered burnt offerings according to the number of all of them [and one bull for the sin of their souls]. For Job said: Perhaps my sons have sinned and blasphemed God in their hearts. This is what Job did on all such days. The characteristic of Job's piety is complemented by a new feature. He cares not only about personal morality, but also about the morality of his children, expressing this in the offering of a burnt offering (the comment of the synodal text about the sin offering is borrowed from the LXX translation; the Hebrew text mentions only the burnt offering) for possible sins on their part during the days of feasts. The latter were settled by his sons, “every one in his own house on his own day” (v. 4), that is, either on birthdays, as some believe, citing Job 3.1 in support of this view: “he cursed his day” and Gen. 40.20 (the custom of celebrating birthdays), or daily, as others think. The latter understanding seems more likely. Seven feast days, falling, in accordance with birthdays, at different times of the year, and therefore separated from each other by certain intervals, can hardly be called a “circle” (v. 5). The second view does not necessarily require the assumption of the incredible idea that Job’s children spent all their time, all year round, in feasts. After the seven-day feast there could be a break. Job 1:6. And there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord; Satan also came among them. Given Job's piety, the cause of the disasters that befell him was not in him; it lay outside of him - in the slander of the evil spirit (vv. 9-11), which gave Divine Justice a reason to prove, using the example of Job, the triumph of truth and good over evil. In the poetic language of the author of the book, this thought is expressed figuratively: he painted a heavenly picture of the appearance before the face of God of the “sons of God,” i.e. angels (Ps 28:1, 88:7; Dan 3.92), so named because of their God-created and godlike nature, and with them Satan (cf. 1 Kings 22.19–22). The last name, expressing the idea of ​​an evil, insidious creature, in the common sense generally denotes an enemy, a slanderer (Numbers 22.22; 1 Kings 29.4; 1 Kings 5:18, 11:14, 23, 25; Ps 108.6), and in the proper sense - an evil spirit (1 Chronicles 21.1; Zech 3.1). “Gassatan” (with a defined member) is an enemy in the absolute sense, an enemy of God, divine plans and creations - people, their salvation. Job 1:7. And the Lord said to Satan: Where did you come from? And Satan answered the Lord and said: I walked on the earth and walked around it. In response to the Lord’s question addressed to Satan: “Where did you come from?” , a question testifying not to God’s lack of omniscience, but to a complete moral opposition between Him and the evil spirit, reaching, as it were, to the Lord’s ignorance of the works of Satan (cf. Job 21.14), the latter answers with a general phrase: “walked the earth” (Hebrew “jester” means a quick walk from one end of the area to the other - 2 Samuel 24.2, 8; Am 8.12; Zech. 4.10) “and walked around her” - for the purpose of observation (1 Pet 5.8). Job 1:8. And the Lord said to Satan: Have you paid attention to my servant Job? for there is no one like him on earth: a blameless, just, fearing God and shunning evil. Job 1:9. And Satan answered the Lord and said: Does Job fear God for nothing? Job 1:10. Haven't you surrounded him and his house and all that he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his flocks are spread over the earth; Job 1:11. But stretch out Your hand and touch everything that he has, will he bless You? The evil spirit who walked the earth to observe is now asked a natural question: did he pay attention to Job’s exceptional piety (v. 8 cf. Gen. 6.9; Gen. 7.1), and Satan’s immediate response reveals his complete opposite to the Lord. According to Satan, there is nothing outstanding in Job's piety that deserves praise, as God does - it is selfish. Job honors the Lord only because it is beneficial for him: as a reward for his piety, he is delivered by God from all disasters (“protected all around,” cf. Isaiah 5.5) and enjoys success in all his affairs. The true, that is, selfish, nature of Job’s piety will be reflected if the Lord “stretches out his hand against him” (v. 11) - he will strike him with disasters (Ex 3:20, 9:15; Ps 31:4, 37:3). Under such circumstances there will be no incentive to piety. It will disappear, moreover, it will be replaced by a curse “in person,” that is, a daring, shameless curse (Isaiah 65.3). Synodal reading: “Will he bless you?” conveys from the whole Hebrew phrase: “im-lo al-paneika yebarekka” only the last word. “Yebarekeka” is a verbal form from “barak”, meaning both “bless” and “curse”, “blaspheme” (Job 1:5, 2:9; 1 Kings 21.10, 13), and the latter meaning is adopted by everyone to this verb in the present case. Closer to the original is the Slavic reading: “if not in your face he will bless you.” Job 1:12. And the Lord said to Satan: Behold, all that he has is in your hand; just don’t stretch out your hand on him. And Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. Satan's answer, representing slander against Job, at the same time cast a shadow on Divine Justice: the Lord rewards a knowingly insincere person. For the purpose of the triumph of truth, all the property of the righteous is now given into the hands of the evil spirit. He is left to test Job's piety in the way he himself indicated (v. 11). Job 1:13. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their firstborn brother. Job 1:14. And so a messenger comes to Job and says: Job 1:15. the oxen were yelling, and the donkeys were grazing near them, when the Sabeans attacked and took them, and struck the youths with the edge of the sword; and I alone was saved to tell you. Job 1:16. While he was still speaking, another came and said: the fire of God fell from heaven and scorched the sheep and the youths and devoured them; and I alone was saved to tell you. Job 1:17. While he was still speaking, another came and said: The Chaldeans settled down in three detachments and rushed at the camels and took them, and struck the youths with the edge of the sword; and I alone was saved to tell you. Job 1:18. While this one was speaking, another comes and says: Your sons and your daughters ate and drank wine in the house of their firstborn brother; Job 1:19. and behold, a great wind came from the desert and swept through the four corners of the house, and the house fell on the youths, and they died; and I alone was saved to tell you. According to Satan’s oath (v. 11), Job, struck by misfortune, will blaspheme God. The disasters listed in these verses are aimed at achieving this goal. As such, they present certain features calculated to provoke a curse on Job's part. First, the disaster falls on the day of the banquet meeting of Job's children in the house of his eldest son (v. 13). On a day of joy and fun, as the present day was, any grief is felt, according to the law of contrast, much more strongly than in ordinary times. Under the influence of strong grief, dissatisfaction is more likely to arise. Secondly, disasters follow one after another with extraordinary speed: before Job has time to come to his senses from the news of one misfortune, he is informed of another ("while he, the messenger, was speaking, another was coming," vv. 16, 17). The speed of the disasters must have had an overwhelming effect on Job, and indeed, in the expression of the sufferer, it “shook him” (Job 16.12). Depression of spirit and the inseparable confusion in thoughts provide the most convenient soil for grumbling. And thirdly, God himself is the author of disasters; Job’s great cattle are consumed by “the fire of God” (v. 16, see below). This detail could constitute the strongest test for the faith of the righteous. Is it worth it to be pious and devoted to the Lord, since He himself punishes His faithful servant? Under the name Saveyan in the book. Genesis and Chronicles two nations are known: one descended from the son of Ham Cush (Gen. 10.7; 1 Chron. 1.9), the other from the descendant of Shem Joktan (Gen. 10.28; 1 ​​Chron. 1.22). But if the first lived in Africa (Explanatory Bible, 1 vol., pp. 71–72), then in the present case, of course, obviously, the second settled in northern Arabia from the Persian Gulf to Idumea. The expression “fire of God” resembles identical expressions: “fire from the Lord” (Gen. 19.24), “fire of the Lord” (Num. 11.1; 1 Kings 18.38), “fire of God” (2 Kings 1.12), and therefore should be understood in the literal sense. Others, citing 18–19 Art. , see in this expression an indication either of the lightning that accompanies a storm, or of the samum wind that kills people and animals. The name Chaldeans (ancient Babylonian “Kashdu”, later “Kardu” and “Kaldu”, from where the Greek “Χαλδαιοι”) is adopted by the people who inhabited the area between the Euphrates and the Arabian desert, from Borzippa in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south, as well as the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates. It is preserved in three ancient biblical expressions: Ur of the Chaldeans, (Ur Kashdim), Arpakeshad (Arpakeshad) and Kesed (Gen. 22.22). The authenticity of the legend about the predatory raids of the Chaldeans on the East Trans-Jordanian side is confirmed by the evidence of the so-called Tell Amarna inscriptions about the existence of active relations between Mesopotamia and all of Palestine during the patriarchal period. Job 1:20. Then Job stood up and tore his outer garment, shaved his head and fell to the ground and bowed down. Job 1:21. and he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return.” The Lord gave, the Lord also took away; [as the Lord pleased, so it was done;] blessed be the name of the Lord! Job 1:22. In all this, Job did not sin and did not say anything unreasonable about God. Having patiently endured the destruction of his property, Job could not resist expressing deep emotion (“got up,” cf. Jonah 3:6) and sadness (“torn his clothes,” cf. 2 Samuel 1:11, 3:31; “shaved his head,” cf. Isa. 15.2–3) at the news of the death of his children. But it not only does not turn into despair and murmuring, but is combined with deep submission to the will of God, expressed both in action (“bowed down”) and in the words: “naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I will return” there (shamma). Having nothing, Job is ready to return “there,” that is, in the context, “into his mother’s womb,” not the mother in the literal sense (Jon. 3.4), but into the bowels of mother earth. She is called “mother” (Sir 40.1), as the beginning, all-producing, giving birth, even to man in view of his creation from the earth. In accordance with this, the Hebrew word “erez” (land) is feminine, and certain countries, lands, bear female names: Palestine is the name of the “Virgin of Israel” (Am 5.2), Phenicia is “the maidens, the daughters of Sidon” (Is 23.12), Idumea is “the daughter of Edom” (Lamentations 4.21), Chaldea is “the maidens, the daughters of Babylon” (Is 47.1, 5) etc. The source of Job’s humility and patience is the consciousness that He who gave him all the blessings is free to take them away (v. 21). You might be interested in: