Job 1 (JND) - Bible Truth Library

• Job is one of the poetical books, called in Scripture “the Psalms.”.... JOB — the experience of a righteous man in learning deliverance from himself. (“Job Introduction” by S. Ridout)

• In Job we pass entirely out of the national atmosphere into what we may call Gentile, or at least patriarchal, modes of thought and speech. (“Job Introduction” by S. Ridout)

• {This is} a book of intense individuality, in which we see a man learning the lesson of his own nothingness, in the fierce fire of deep affliction, by “the messenger of Satan” —through loss, bereavement and disease—fighting single-handed against the crude philosophy and cruel attacks of his friends; above all, with his own proud, unsubdued self-righteousness and unbelief, until “an interpreter” is heard, who leads him to the point where he listens to God and learns the lesson of all the ages, that He alone is God, and therein lies his blessing. (“Job Introduction” by S. Ridout)

• The book divides naturally into five parts, of unequal length, which seem to correspond in theme with the numerical significance of their order. The first and last of these divisions are historical, very brief and concise, giving us the introduction and the conclusion; these are written in prose. The main part of the book is poetry of a high order, rising into the sublime, and tender in many of its parts. Three divisions are found here: the controversy of Job and his friends, the testimony of Elihu, and the answer of Jehovah. The five divisions may therefore be given as follows: 1. Chaps. 1, 2. The historical introduction: Job’s piety and prosperity; his sufferings at the hand of Satan—in his possessions, his family and his person. 2. Chaps. 3-31. The controversies of Job and his three friends, exhibiting the futility of human reason in explaining God’s ways in affliction, and the deep-rooted self-righteousness of man’s heart. 3. Chaps. 32-37. The manifestation of God’s character of holiness and of mercy, as exhibited in the testimony of Elihu. 4. Chaps. 38-42:6. Jehovah’s testimony from creation, testing Job and bringing him into the dust. 5. Chap. 42:7-17. “The end of the Lord:” the result of the divine ways with Job, restoring him to greater blessing than before. (“Job Introduction” by S. Ridout)

• Is Job a real or a fictitious character? Scripture replies by associating him with Noah and Daniel (Ezek. 14:14, 20), and James refers to his well-known trials and patience, and to “the end of the Lord” (Jas. 5:11). (“Job Introduction” by S. Ridout)

• Uz is believed, by competent authority (the elder Delitzsch), to lie west of Babylon and east of Palestine; perhaps, to the northeast of Idumea. This country, with fertile grazing lands, broken by great stretches of rocks, with the desert near (the land of the inhabitants of Seir when dislodged from their original territory) is the suited home of Job and his friends. (“Job Introduction” by S. Ridout)

• He was perfect, complete and rounded out in character; humanly speaking, there was nothing uneven or lacking in him. (“Job 1-2” by S. Ridout)

• He was upright. This describes his relationship to others. Righteousness marked his ways, as he himself knew all too well. (“Job 1-2” by S. Ridout)

• He feared God; this is the “beginning of knowledge,” and must be taken at its full value. Job was not, as some have thought, an unregenerate man; there was life in his soul. (“Job 1-2” by S. Ridout)

• He “eschewed evil;” his outward walk corresponded with the state of his heart. (“Job 1-2” by S. Ridout)

J. N. Darby Translation

There was a man in the land of Uza whose name was Job; and this man was perfectb and upright, and one that feared God and abstained from evil.

JND Translation Notes

See Lam. 4.21.

Complete, lacking nothing; cf. 2 Sam. 22.24.