TEXT [Commentary]

  2.   The loss of family and possessions (1:13-19)

13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger arrived at Job’s home with this news: “Your oxen were plowing, with the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 when the Sabeans raided us. They stole all the animals and killed all the farmhands. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

16 While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your sheep and all the shepherds. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

17 While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with this news: “Three bands of Chaldean raiders have stolen your camels and killed your servants. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

18 While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home. 19 Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

NOTES

1:15 the Sabeans. Sheba is the name of the South Arabian people whose capital was Marib, about 1,200 miles south of Jerusalem. The Sabean inscriptions record many kings and buildings that give testimony to the wealth and power of ancient Sheba (Driver and Gray 1921:16). Sheba was famous for its trade in frankincense, gold, and precious stones; this is the subject of most of the Old Testament references to it (Isa 60:6; Jer 6:20; Ezek 27:22). The visit of the queen of Sheba to Solomon (1 Kgs 10:1-9) portrays the enormity of Solomon’s wealth by means of comparison with that of the queen. The author of Job, however, does not have such a distant country in mind (Dhorme 1984:xxiii, xxv). Sheba is related to Dedan (Gen 10:7; 25:3; Ezek 38:13); Uz and Buz are described as sons of Nahor (Gen 22:21); and the prophet Jeremiah connects Buz, Tema, and Dedan as the cities of one territory (Jer 25:23). Job will speak of the caravans from Tema and Sheba (6:19). Dedan and Tema are both identified with the oasis of al-‘Ula in the northwest region of the Arabian peninsula, about 350 miles south of Jerusalem and 250 miles north of Medina. Fohrer thinks the reference to the northern location indicates the great age of the Job narrative, and that later readers would have been inclined to think the Accuser went to the ends of the world to summon Job’s attackers (1989:90). However, it is also possible that there were trading stations of the distant, southern Sheba in northern Arabia in the area of Edom (Driver and Gray 1921:16).

1:16 The fire of God. The literal translation at this point retains the ambiguity of the original. In Heb., lightning is regularly called the “fire from heaven” (2 Kgs 1:10, 12, 14) or the “fire from the LORD” (cf. Num 11:1; 16:35; 1 Kgs 18:38). The term “fire of God” is often used in Heb. to express the superlative, i.e., “a very great fire” (see Waltke and O’Conner 1990:14.5b for examples), but clearly more than that is in mind here. Though the expression is a natural one for lightning, its use in this context reminds the reader that Job’s calamities are a part of divine intervention in his life.

1:17 bands of Chaldean raiders. This is not a reference to the imperial race of Aramaic-speaking descendants who formed the nucleus of Nebuchadnezzar’s army and empire (cf. 2 Kgs 24:1-2). The Chaldeans first appear in ninth-century BC Assyrian records, from the time of Ashurnasirpal II (884–859 BC); they settled west of the Tigris. Several times they gained control of Babylon in the late eighth century BC, before Nabopolassar formed the neo-Babylonian empire (626 BC). Marauding Aramaic nomads roamed the deserts of the whole area between the Persian Gulf and north Arabia.

COMMENTARY [Text]

The cryptic and stylized description of the four simultaneous catastrophes heightens the impact of the total devastation of all that God had blessed Job with. As the owner and manager of a large farm, Job received the reports of destruction from every aspect of his operation in immediate succession. The pattern of the reports is very similar to that underlying the ten plagues of Exodus (Sarna 1957:19-20). As in the plague story, stereotyped phrases demarcate the catastrophes and provide a symmetrical pattern. In the Job sequence, the messenger arrives, reports that only he has escaped, and while he is speaking another messenger arrives. Each of the first three reports mentions two things: first the total loss of Job’s livestock and then the complete loss of human life; in six blows Job has lost all of his possessions and servants. The fourth report comes as a climactic seventh blow, in which Job discovers that he has lost his entire family with the exception of his wife. The calamities alternately are caused by human and natural agency: Sabeans, lightning, Chaldeans, and wind. In each case, disaster strikes without warning. The disasters come from all directions: the Arabic Sabeans from the south, the Aramaic Chaldeans from the north; the lightning storm from the west, and the violent sirocco wind from the desert in the east. The seven blows emphasize the symbolic significance of the utter totality of the loss that Job endured.

Except for the plundering of the Chaldeans, each of the catastrophes is described as a disaster that fell (napal [TH5307, ZH5877]) upon Job. On the one hand, this provides a unified depiction of the fortuity of the events that happened to Job; but on the other, it reinforces the portrayal of pious Job in the face of the divine onslaught against him (Cheney 1994:57-58). After hearing these reports without interruption, Job fell (napal) to the ground and worshiped God (1:20). The succinct sequence of tragic events created a kind of “domino effect,” which ends with Job falling in reverence and blessing the author of his tragedies (1:21). This action counters the Accuser’s anticipation of the way in which Job would “bless God” (1:11).

Neither God nor the Accuser is implicated in the reports of the disasters. The absence of the heavenly figures establishes a dichotomy between the heavenly and earthly spheres; this absence replicates the human experience in which things simply happen. The calamities in themselves are cold and mute, which has the effect of amplifying the profundity of Job’s confession (1:21). Job fell to the ground before God as an acknowledgment of divine control over his life, even though he was totally ignorant of the actual cause behind his troubles.

The reports of the catastrophes are also surreal in their depiction, heightening the impact on Job as the recipient, but reminding the reader that these events were designed for total destruction according to the agreement of the divine council. The object of the Sabeans was to plunder, but they also killed all the farm hands except for one. A lightning strike might devastate a herd, but it is only preternatural fire that can destroy a flock of 7,000 along with all of their attendants except for one. The Chaldeans employ the strategy of striking from three directions simultaneously so there is no possibility of any escape, except for one. And finally the sirocco wind strikes all four sides at once, more in the fashion of a tornado though in description it simply “swept in from the wilderness,” an accurate portrayal of life on the desert fringe.

The life of Job is moved in an instant from uneventful normalcy to utter chaos (Clines 1989:31). In the early winter, after the early rains, the oxen were plowing Job’s vast acreage, while the donkeys that carried the gear and the seeds were quietly grazing alongside. The shepherds were out on the hills unmolested. The camels were on the caravan trail carrying out the business of Job’s extensive enterprise. Job’s family was gathered in the mansion of the eldest brother, as was their custom. In spite of all Job’s care and precaution, he suddenly fell prey to unpredictable tragedy.