Job 1:13

Job’s Integrity in Adversity ¹ 

1:13 Now the day ²  came when Job’s ³  sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

Job 1:15

1:15 and the Sabeans ⁴  swooped down ⁵  and carried them all away, and they killed ⁶  the servants with the sword! ⁷  And I – only I alone ⁸  – escaped to tell you!”

[1:13]  ¹ sn The series of catastrophes and the piety of Job is displayed now in comprehensive terms. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong, and yet Job, the pious servant of Yahweh, continues to worship him in the midst of the rubble. This section, and the next, will lay the foundation for the great dialogues in the book.

[1:13]  ² tn The Targum to Job clarifies that it was the first day of the week. The fact that it was in the house of the firstborn is the reason.

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:15]  ⁴ tn The LXX has “the spoilers spoiled them” instead of “the Sabeans swooped down.” The translators might have connected the word to שְָׁבָה (shavah, “to take captive”) rather than שְׁבָא (shÿva’, “Sabeans”), or they may have understood the name as general reference to all types of Bedouin invaders from southern Arabia (HALOT 1381 s.v. שְׁבָא 2.c).

[1:15]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew is simply “fell” (from נָפַל, nafal). To “fall upon” something in war means to attack quickly and suddenly.

[1:15]  ⁶ sn Job’s servants were probably armed and gave resistance, which would be the normal case in that time. This was probably why they were “killed with the sword.”

[1:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “the edge/mouth of the sword”; see T. J. Meek, “Archaeology and a Point of Hebrew Syntax,” BASOR 122 (1951): 31-33.

[1:15]  ⁸ tn The pleonasms in the verse emphasize the emotional excitement of the messenger.