Job 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is anonymous; most scholars believe it was written around 6th century BCE. This chapter belongs to the prologue of the book,comprising Job 1:1–2:13.
Text
The original text is written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 22 verses.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC; some extant ancient manuscripts of this version include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: S; 4th century), and Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century).
Analysis
Within the structure of the book, chapters 1 and 2 are grouped as "the Prologue" with the following outline: Job Is Utterly Righteous (1:1–5) The First Heavenly Court Scene (1:6–12) The First Test - Loss of Possessions and Family (1:13–19) Job's First Reaction to His Loss and the Narrator's Verdict (1:20–22) The Second Heavenly Court Scene (2:1–6) The Second Test - Ghastly Sores (2:7–10) The Arrival and Mission of the Friends (2:11–13) The whole section precedes the following parts of the book: The Dialogue (chapters 3–31) The Verdicts (32:1–42:6) The Epilogue (42:7–17)
The Prologue consists of five scenes in prose form (1:1–5; 1:6–12; 1:13–22; 2:1–6; 2:7–13 (3:1)) — alternating between earth and heaven — which introduce the main characters and the theological issue to be explored.
Job's profile (1:1–5) After stating Job's place of residence (which until now cannot be positively identified), this section provides the information about: Job's qualities: "blameless" (Hebrew: tam) and "upright" (yašar) (1:1) Job's possessions and status (1:2–3) Job's piety (1:4–5)
Verse 1
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. "Land of Uz": the exact location is hard to determine, but significantly it is outside the land of Israel, setting the stage for a universal, rather than an Israelite discussion of the topic of the book. "Job": the mention of his name in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 14 in the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) and the Epistle of James chapter 5 in the New Testament of Christian Bibles argues for the historicity of the person, but without any supports from non-biblical ancient documents, he is regarded as a legendary character. Job's qualities are given in an unparalleled fourfold description: "blameless" (Hebrew: tam; cf. Genesis 20:5, 6:1 Kings 9:4; Psalm 7:8; 25:21; 26:1, 11; 41:12; 78:72) "upright" (Hebrew: yasar, "straight, whole, just") "one who feared God" [one who] "shunned evil" The word pair – "blameless" and "upright" – is parallel in Psalm 37:37. The most crucial description is that Job "feared God", which is picked up by "the Adversary" (the "Satan") in verse 9 as a representative description of Job's supposed righteousness. The expression "fearing God/Yahweh" is used in Proverb 1:7, 29; 2:5; 3:7; 8:13; 9:10; 10:27; 14:2, 26, 27; 15:16, 33;16:6;19:23; 22:4; 23:17; 24:21; 31:30; Ecclesiastes 5:7: 7:18; 8:12; 12:13; Psalm 15:4; 19:9; 34:9, 11; 111:10.
First conversation (1:6–12) The passage describes a gathering in heaven, where the hidden drama is revealed for the readers to understand the background of the coming events, but cannot be seen by Job and the people around him. During this heavenly court, God (Hebrew: YHWH) extols the virtue of Job, but "the adversary" (Hebrew: ha-satan) challenges the reasons for it, so he receives permission from God to 'try to dislodge Job from his integrity'; that is, 'God is using Job to prove Satan’s theory wrong'.