1 Chronicles 21:1

The Lord Sends a Plague against Israel

21:1 An adversary ¹  opposed ²  Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had. ³ 

Job 1:6

Satan’s Accusation of Job ⁴ 

1:6 Now the day came when ⁵  the sons of God ⁶  came to present themselves before ⁷  the Lord – and Satan ⁸  also arrived among them.

Job 1:12

1:12 So the Lord said to Satan, “All right then, ⁹  everything he has is ¹⁰  in your power. ¹¹  Only do not extend your hand against the man himself!” ¹²  So Satan went out ¹³  from the presence of the Lord. ¹⁴ 

Job 2:1

Satan’s Additional Charge

2:1 Again the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also arrived among them to present himself before the Lord. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 109:6

109:6 ¹⁶ Appoint an evil man to testify against him! ¹⁷ 

May an accuser stand ¹⁸  at his right side!

Zechariah 3:1-2

Vision Four: The Priest

3:1 Next I saw Joshua the high priest ¹⁹  standing before the angel of the Lord, with Satan ²⁰  standing at his right hand to accuse him. 3:2 The Lord ²¹  said to Satan, “May the Lord rebuke you, Satan! May the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, ²²  rebuke you! Isn’t this man like a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

[21:1]  ¹ tn Or “Satan.” The Hebrew word שָׂטָן (satan) can refer to an adversary in general or Satan in particular. There is no article accompanying the term here, which suggests it should be understood generally (cf. NAB “a satan”).

[21:1]  ² tn Heb “stood against.”

[21:1]  ³ tn Heb “and incited David to count Israel.” As v. 5 indicates, David was not interested in a general census, but in determining how much military strength he had.

[1:6]  ⁴ sn The text draws the curtain of heaven aside for the reader to understand the background of this drama. God extols the virtue of Job, but Satan challenges the reasons for it. He receives permission to try to dislodge Job from his integrity. In short, God is using Job to prove Satan’s theory wrong.

[1:6]  ⁵ tn The beginning Hebrew expression “and there was – the day” indicates that “there came a day when” or more simply “the day came when.” It emphasizes the particular day. The succeeding clause is then introduced with a preterite with the with vav (ו) consecutive (see E. Dhorme, Job, 5).

[1:6]  ⁶ sn The “sons of God” in the OT is generally taken to refer to angels. They are not actually “sons” of Elohim; the idiom is a poetic way of describing their nature and relationship to God. The phrase indicates their supernatural nature, and their submission to God as the sovereign Lord. It may be classified as a genitive that expresses how individuals belong to a certain class or type, i.e., the supernatural (GKC 418 §128.v). In the pagan literature, especially of Ugarit, “the sons of God” refers to the lesser gods or deities of the pantheon. See H. W. Robinson, “The Council of Yahweh,” JTS 45 (1943): 151-57; G. Cooke, “The Sons of (the) God(s),” ZAW 76 (1964): 22-47; M. Tsevat, “God and the Gods in the Assembly,” HUCA 40-41 (1969/70): 123-37.

[1:6]  ⁷ tn The preposition עַל (’al) in this construction after a verb of standing or going means “before” (GKC 383 §119.cc).

[1:6]  ⁸ sn The word means “adversary” or with the article “the adversary” – here the superhuman adversary or Satan. The word with the article means that the meaning of the word should receive prominence. A denominative verb meaning “to act as adversary” occurs. Satan is the great accuser of the saints (see Zech 3 where “Satan was standing there to ‘satanize’ Joshua the priest”; and see Rev 12 which identifies him with the Serpent in Genesis). He came among the angels at this time because he is one of them and has access among them. Even though fallen, Satan has yet to be cast down completely (see Rev 12).

[1:12]  ⁹ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) introduces a foundational clause upon which the following volitional clause is based.

[1:12]  ¹⁰ tn The versions add a verb here: “delivered to” or “abandoned to” the hand of Satan.

[1:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in your hand.” The idiom means that it is now Satan’s to do with as he pleases.

[1:12]  ¹² tn The Hebrew word order emphatically holds out Job’s person as the exception: “only upon him do not stretch forth your hand.”

[1:12]  ¹³ tn The Targum to Job adds “with permission” to show that he was granted leave from God’s presence.

[1:12]  ¹⁴ sn So Satan, having received his permission to test Job’s sincerity, goes out from the Lord’s presence. But Satan is bound by the will of the Most High not to touch Job himself. The sentence gives the impression that Satan’s departure is with a certain eagerness and confidence.

[2:1]  ¹⁵ tc This last purpose clause has been omitted in some Greek versions.

[109:6]  ¹⁶ sn In vv. 6-19 the psalmist calls on God to judge his enemies severely. Some attribute this curse-list to the psalmist’s enemies rather than the psalmist. In this case one should paraphrase v. 6: “They say about me, ‘Appoint an evil man, etc.’” Those supporting this line of interpretation point out that vv. 2-5 and 20 refer to the enemies’ attack on the psalmist being a verbal one. Furthermore in vv. 1-5, 20 the psalmist speaks of his enemies in the plural, while vv. 6-19 refer to an individual. This use of the singular in vv. 6-19 could be readily explained if this is the psalmist’s enemies’ curse on him. However, it is much more natural to understand vv. 6-19 as the psalmist’s prayer against his enemies. There is no introductory quotation formula in v. 6 to indicate that the psalmist is quoting anyone, and the statement “may the Lord repay my accusers in this way” in v. 20 most naturally appears to be a fitting conclusion to the prayer in vv. 6-19. But what about the use of the singular in vv. 6-19? Often in the psalms the psalmist will describe his enemies as a group, but then speak of them as an individual as well, as if viewing his adversaries collectively as one powerful foe. See, for example, Ps 7, where the psalmist uses both the plural (vv. 1, 6) and the singular (vv. 2, 4-5) in referring to enemies. Perhaps by using the singular in such cases, the psalmist wants to single out each enemy for individual attention, or perhaps he has one especially hostile enemy in mind who epitomizes the opposition of the whole group. This may well be the case in Ps 109. Perhaps we should understand the singular throughout vv. 6-19 in the sense of “each and every one.” For a lengthy and well-reasoned defense of the opposite view – that vv. 6-19 are a quotation of what the enemies said about the psalmist – see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 72-73.

[109:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “appoint against him an evil [man].”

[109:6]  ¹⁸ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive here (note the imperative in the preceding line).

[3:1]  ¹⁹ sn Joshua the high priest mentioned here is the son of the priest Jehozadak, mentioned also in Hag 1:1 (cf. Ezra 2:2; 3:2, 8; 4:3; 5:2; 10:18; Neh 7:7; 12:1, 7, 10, 26). He also appears to have been the grandfather of the high priest contemporary with Nehemiah ca. 445 b.c. (Neh 12:10).

[3:1]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew term הַשָּׂטָן (hassatan, “the satan”) suggests not so much a personal name (as in almost all English translations) but an epithet, namely, “the adversary.” This evil being is otherwise thus described in Job 1 and 2 and 1 Chr 21:1. In this last passage the article is dropped and “the satan” becomes “Satan,” a personal name.

[3:2]  ²¹ sn The juxtaposition of the messenger of the Lord in v. 1 and the Lord in v. 2 shows that here, at least, they are one and the same. See Zech 1:11, 12 where they are distinguished from each other.

[3:2]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.