Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Job
Chapter 1: The LORD Gave, and the LORD Has Taken Away
Job is a blameless, upright man, rich in family and flocks, who fears God and shuns evil. Then in a single day, messenger after messenger, he loses it all: his wealth, his servants, his ten children. The reader is let in on what Job never sees, a scene in heaven where his faith is put on trial. And when everything is stripped away, Job falls to the ground, not cursing, but worshiping. This chapter opens Scripture's deepest wrestling with suffering.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Job chapter 1. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Job is the Bible's great book on the suffering of the righteous, and it opens by showing us both a godly man and the unseen realm behind his trial. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Why Do the Righteous Suffer?
Job wrestles with the hardest question of faith: why the godly suffer. It offers no easy formula, but it brings Job, and us, face to face with the greatness and wisdom of God.
Unknown, Ancient
The author is not named. The setting is patriarchal, with Job's great age and priest-like offering for his family, suggesting one of the oldest stories in Scripture.
The Land of Uz
Job lives in Uz, "the greatest of all the people of the East." The chapter moves between his prosperous life on earth and a hidden council in heaven.
Faith Under Fire
Is Job faithful only because God blesses him? The accuser says so. The chapter tests whether a man will still worship God when the blessings are gone.
Blameless and Upright (Job 1:1-5)
Before any trial comes, Scripture establishes Job's genuine godliness, so we cannot say he suffered for hidden sin.
One Who Feared God and Shunned Evil
"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?"
Hebrew Study
"Blameless," tam (תָּם). The word does not mean sinless but whole, complete, of integrity. Job's life matched his profession; there was no crack between what he claimed and what he was. It is the same word behind "perfect" in older translations, meaning sound and undivided, not flawless.
"Feared God and shunned evil." This is the very definition of wisdom that Job's own book and Proverbs give: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10). Job's righteousness was real, which makes his suffering all the more pointed.
Explanation
Job is introduced with the highest praise Scripture gives a man: "perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" — and blessed with ten children and vast wealth. His piety is not for show; when his children feast, he rises early to offer a burnt offering for each, "for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned." Here is a blameless, God-fearing man at the height of blessing, tenderly guarding even his children's hearts before God. The stage is set so that the suffering to come cannot be blamed on hidden sin.
Gospel Focus
Scripture goes out of its way to tell us Job was godly before it tells us he suffered. This dismantles the lie that suffering always means hidden sin, the very lie Job's friends will spend the book repeating. The godliest people are not exempt from pain; sometimes they are singled out for it. Even Jesus, the only truly blameless One, "learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). When trouble comes to a faithful believer, it is not always discipline. Sometimes it is a trial in which God intends to display the reality of a faith that loves Him for Himself.
The Accuser Before God (Job 1:6-12)
The curtain is pulled back on a heavenly scene Job never sees, where the reason for his suffering is revealed.
Does Job Fear God for Nothing?
"Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee."
Hebrew Study
"Satan," ha-satan (הַשָּׂטָן). With the article, the word means "the accuser" or "the adversary." His charge is not against Job only but against God: he claims no one truly loves God, that worship is only ever a bargain for blessing. The whole trial is really a challenge to whether God is worthy of love for His own sake.
Explanation
The scene shifts to a council in heaven that Job never sees. Satan ("the accuser") appears among the sons of God, and God points to Job's goodness — at which Satan sneers, "Doth Job fear God for nought?" His charge is that Job serves God only for the "hedge" of protection and prosperity around him; strip the blessings, and the worship will collapse. God permits the test, but sets strict limits ("upon himself put not forth thine hand"). Behind every earthly trial of the righteous stands this unseen backdrop: God's confidence in the faith He has given, and the enemy's accusation that it is only self-interest.
Gospel Focus
Two truths steady us here. First, the accuser can do nothing without God's permission; he must ask, and God sets the limit: "only do not lay a hand on his person." Satan is real and malicious, but he is on a leash. Second, Job never learns why. The comfort the reader receives, that this is a trial and not abandonment, is hidden from Job himself. So it often is with us. We may never see the heavenly reason for our pain, but we can know what Job could not: that our adversary is limited, and that our God permits nothing that He will not redeem. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations" (2 Peter 2:9).
Job Falls Down and Worships (Job 1:20-22)
Everything is gone in a single day, and Job's response silences the accuser's charge.
Blessed Be the Name of the LORD
"Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."
Hebrew Study
Stripped of everything in a single day, Job "arose, and rent his mantle... and worshipped," and said, "the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." The verb is barak, to bless — the very act Satan swore Job would abandon (v. 11). In the depth of loss Job does not curse God but blesses Him. His grief is real (he tore his robe), yet it bends his knee rather than clenching his fist.
Explanation
The chapter's verdict answers Satan's accusation directly: "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." The test's whole question — will a man love God for God's sake, and not merely for His gifts? — is answered in Job's worship on the ash-heap. He confesses that he entered the world with nothing and will leave with nothing, and that all he had was God's to give and to take. His faith, it turns out, was never bought by the blessings; it holds when they are gone.
Gospel Focus
Job does not pretend the loss is nothing; he tears his robe and shaves his head in real grief. But grief and worship are not enemies. In the same breath he mourns and he blesses: "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." He recognizes that everything was a gift to begin with, held on loan from God, so its return is not robbery. This is faith that loves the Giver more than the gifts, and it answers the accuser completely: yes, a man can fear God for nothing, for God Himself is enough. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15). May God give us hearts that can still worship in the ashes.
Chapter 1 in Review
Job 1 introduces a genuinely godly man and then, in one devastating day, strips him of everything but his life and his wife. The reader is shown what Job never sees: a heavenly scene where the accuser charges that Job serves God only for His blessings, and God permits a trial within strict limits. When the blows fall, Job grieves deeply, yet falls down and worships, blessing the name of the LORD who gave and has taken away.
For the Apostolic reader, this opening chapter overturns easy answers about suffering. The righteous do suffer; the accuser is real but leashed; and the reasons are often hidden from us. Above all, Job shows that true faith loves God for who He is, not merely for what He gives. It is a faith that can grieve and worship at once, and it points to the greater Sufferer who, blameless, trusted His Father through the deepest darkness of all.
- Suffering is not proof of hidden sin; the godliest may be singled out for trial.
- The accuser is real but can do nothing beyond the limits God sets.
- We often never learn the heavenly reason for our pain, and are called to trust anyway.
- True faith loves the Giver above the gifts and can worship even in loss.
Questions for Reflection
- Job's friends assumed suffering meant sin. Where have you wrongly judged your own or another's pain that way?
- The accuser said Job served God only for blessings. Would your worship survive if the blessings were gone?
- Job grieved and worshiped at once. How does holding both together change the way you face loss?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- Job's character and prosperity: Job 1:1-5.
- The fear of the LORD as the beginning of wisdom: Proverbs 9:10; Job 28:28.
- The heavenly scene and the accuser's charge: Job 1:6-12; compare Revelation 12:10.
- Job's worship in loss: Job 1:20-22; 13:15.
- The Lord delivers the godly; the suffering of the blameless Son: 2 Peter 2:9; Hebrews 5:8.