Home

For Teaching

Job 1: What the Passage Says

77 claims across 22 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Job 1 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Job is introduced as a wealthy, blameless man in the land of Uz who fears God and regularly offers sacrifices on behalf of his ten children. In a heavenly scene, Satan claims before the LORD that Job only fears God because God has protected and prospered him, and the LORD allows Satan to strike everything Job has, but not Job himself. Four messengers then arrive in a row to report that Sabeans have carried off Job's oxen and donkeys, fire has burned his sheep, Chaldeans have carried off his camels, and his servants and all ten of his children are dead. Job tears his robe, shaves his head, worships, and says the LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; he does not sin or blame God with wrongdoing.

Claim by Claim

  1. 1:1
    • There was a man in the land of Uz.
    • The man's name was Job.
    • That man was blameless and complete in integrity.
    • That man was upright.
    • That man feared God.
    • That man turned away from evil.
  2. 1:2
    • Seven sons were born to Job.
    • Three daughters were born to Job.
  3. 1:3
    • Job's livestock included seven thousand sheep and goats.
    • Job's livestock included three thousand camels.
    • Job's livestock included five hundred yoke of oxen.
    • Job's livestock included five hundred female donkeys.
    • Job had a very large body of servants.
    • That man was the greatest of all the people of the east.
  4. 1:4
    • Job's sons would hold a feast in the house of each one on his day.
    • Job's sons would send and invite their three sisters.
    • The sisters were invited to eat and drink with their brothers.
  5. 1:5
    • When the days of feasting had run their course, Job sent for his children and sanctified them.
    • Job rose early in the morning.
    • Job offered burnt offerings according to the number of all his children.
    • Job said it might be that his children had sinned.
    • Job said it might be that his children had cursed God in their hearts.
    • Job did this continually.
  6. 1:6
    • There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD.
    • The Accuser also came among them.
  7. 1:7
    • The LORD asked the Accuser where he came from.
    • The Accuser answered the LORD that he came from roaming through the earth and from walking about in it.
  8. 1:8
    • The LORD asked the Accuser whether he had set his heart on the LORD's servant Job.
    • The LORD said there is none like Job in the earth.
    • The LORD said Job is a blameless and upright man.
    • The LORD said Job fears God.
    • The LORD said Job turns away from evil.
  9. 1:9
    • The Accuser answered the LORD.
    • The Accuser asked whether Job fears God for nothing.
  10. 1:10
    • The Accuser asked whether the LORD had not put a hedge around Job, around his house, and around all that he has on every side.
    • The Accuser said the LORD had blessed the work of Job's hands.
    • The Accuser said Job's livestock had spread abroad in the land.
  11. 1:11
    • The Accuser told the LORD to stretch out his hand and touch all that Job has.
    • The Accuser said that if the LORD did so, Job would curse the LORD to his face.
  12. 1:12
    • The LORD said to the Accuser that all that Job has is in the Accuser's hand.
    • The LORD said the Accuser must not stretch out his hand against Job himself.
    • The Accuser went out from the presence of the LORD.
  13. 1:13
    • There was a day when Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine.
    • They were in the house of their eldest brother.
  14. 1:14
    • A messenger came to Job.
    • The messenger said the oxen were plowing.
    • The messenger said the donkeys were feeding beside them.
  15. 1:15
    • The messenger said Sabeans fell upon them and took them away.
    • The messenger said they struck the servants with the edge of the sword.
    • The messenger said he alone had escaped to tell Job.
  16. 1:16
    • While the first messenger was still speaking, another came.
    • The second messenger said the fire of God fell from heaven.
    • The second messenger said the fire burned the sheep and the servants and consumed them.
    • The second messenger said he alone had escaped to tell Job.
  17. 1:17
    • While the second messenger was still speaking, another came.
    • The third messenger said the Chaldeans formed three bands.
    • The third messenger said they raided the camels and took them away.
    • The third messenger said they struck the servants with the edge of the sword.
    • The third messenger said he alone had escaped to tell Job.
  18. 1:18
    • While the third messenger was still speaking, another came.
    • The fourth messenger said Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother.
  19. 1:19
    • The fourth messenger said a great wind came from across the wilderness.
    • The fourth messenger said the wind struck the four corners of the house.
    • The fourth messenger said the house fell on the young people and they died.
    • The fourth messenger said he alone had escaped to tell Job.
  20. 1:20
    • Job arose.
    • Job tore his robe.
    • Job shaved his head.
    • Job fell to the ground.
    • Job worshipped.
  21. 1:21
    • Job said he came naked from his mother's womb.
    • Job said he would return there naked.
    • Job said the LORD gave.
    • Job said the LORD took away.
    • Job said may the name of the LORD be blessed.
  22. 1:22
    • In all this Job did not sin.
    • Job did not charge God with wrongdoing.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1
Uz was a land east or southeast of Israel; its exact location is unknown, and the story deliberately places Job outside Israel among foreigners. "Perfect" in the King James does not mean flawless or sinless: the Hebrew word means whole or all of one piece, a man whose conduct matched what he claimed. "Feared God" was the ordinary Hebrew phrase for being a religious person, awe and loyalty toward God, not being frightened of him.
1:3
Wealth in this world was counted in livestock and servants rather than money, and these numbers are enormous. A "yoke" of oxen is a pair harnessed together to pull a plow, so 500 yoke measures how much land he could work. Female donkeys were the valuable ones, kept for breeding and milk. "The people of the East" is a loose term for the tribes of the desert regions east of Canaan, who had a reputation for both wealth and wisdom.
1:4
"Every one his day" is ambiguous in the Hebrew. It may mean the brothers took turns in a fixed rotation, each hosting on his assigned day, or that each held a feast on his birthday.
1:5
"Made clean for God" (King James "sanctified") means put through ritual purification before approaching God (typically washing the body, washing clothes, and abstaining from ordinary activity for a set time. A burnt offering was an animal killed and burned whole on an altar, with none of it kept back to be eaten. Job performs this himself, as head of the family; the story is set in a world with no temple and no priests. Where the text says his children may have "cursed" God, the Hebrew actually writes the verb "bless") a deliberate substitution, so that the words "curse" and "God" never stand side by side on the page. Readers understood the real sense.
1:6
"The sons of God" means members of God's heavenly court, supernatural beings in his service, not human children. Presenting themselves before the LORD is the language of royal courtiers reporting for duty to a king. "Satan" here is the Hebrew ha-satan, with the definite article: "the adversary" or "the accuser," a job description more than a personal name. The role is roughly that of a prosecutor in the king's court.
1:7
The answer describes patrolling: an official's tour of inspection through the king's territory, followed by a report back. It is the sort of thing a royal agent would say.
1:9
"For nought" translates a Hebrew word meaning "for nothing, free of charge." The accusation is that Job's devotion is paid for (that God has bought it), not that Job is insincere by nature.
1:10
A hedge here is a barrier of piled thorn branches or stones that farmers built around a field, vineyard, or sheepfold to keep out animals and raiders. The image is of protection, not decoration.
1:11
"Put forth thine hand" means use your power; "touch" in this idiom means strike or harm, not brush lightly. As in verse 5, the Hebrew writes "bless" where the sense is "curse."
1:12
The Hebrew says "in your hand", in your power, at your disposal.
1:14
A plow is a tool that cuts long lines in the dirt. Oxen pulled it so seeds could be planted.
1:15
The Sabeans came from Sheba, in southwestern Arabia, known as long-distance traders, and here as raiders striking from the desert.
1:16
"The fire of God" is a Hebrew way of describing fire of extraordinary scale; many readers have understood it as lightning. Either way, the messenger is reporting something that came from the sky rather than from human hands.
1:17
The Chaldeans were a people of southern Mesopotamia, later the rulers of Babylon. Here they appear in an earlier role, as mobile raiding parties. Splitting into three bands was a standard raiding tactic: attack from several directions at once so the herds cannot be driven to safety.
1:19
Sudden violent windstorms blow off the desert in this region. "The four corners of the house" means it was struck on every side at once, the wind hit the whole structure, not one wall. Houses were commonly mud brick with heavy flat roofs, which collapse inward.
1:20
Tearing your outer robe and shaving your head were the standard public signs of mourning in the ancient Near East, recognized, expected gestures that announced grief to everyone who saw you, not a loss of self-control.
1:21
The Hebrew says "naked I shall return there," and "there" is left open. It can point back to the mother's womb as an image, or to the earth as the mother all people return to, or simply to the grave. The saying keeps the ambiguity.
1:22
"Charged God foolishly" translates a phrase meaning he did not assign anything improper or unworthy to God. The narrator is making a legal-sounding judgment on Job's speech: whatever Job said, it contained no accusation that God had done wrong. Keep the line in mind, because Job's words get much harder from chapter 3 onward.

Read Job 1