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 31:31

31:31 if ⁴  the members of my household ⁵  have never said, ⁶ 

‘If only there were ⁷  someone

who has not been satisfied from Job’s ⁸  meat!’ –

Job 32:3

32:3 With Job’s ⁹  three friends he was also angry, because they could not find ¹⁰  an answer, and so declared Job guilty. ¹¹ 

Job 42:15

42:15 Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers.

Job 42:12

42:12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

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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.

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.

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

⁴ tn Now Job picks up the series of clauses serving as the protasis.

⁵ tn Heb “the men of my tent.” In context this refers to members of Job’s household.

⁶ sn The line is difficult to sort out. Job is saying it is sinful “if his men have never said, ‘O that there was one who has not been satisfied from his food.’” If they never said that, it would mean there were people out there who needed to be satisfied with his food.

⁷ tn The optative is again expressed with “who will give?”

⁸ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.

¹⁰ tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.

¹¹ tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.