Job · chapter 1 of 42
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Job 1 introduces Job, a blameless man who fears God, lives in the land of Uz, and is rich with ten children. In the heavenly court Satan claims Job serves God only for his blessings, and the Lord allows him to take Job's possessions. In one day Job loses his livestock, servants and children, yet he falls down and worships without accusing God of wrong.
Job is the first poetic book of the Bible and one of its great wisdom books. It opens with a prose prologue (chapters 1 and 2) that tells the reader what Job never learns: that his suffering comes as a test of his faith. Long speeches in poetry follow. This first chapter raises the question of the whole book: why does the righteous suffer, and what kind of faith survives loss?
The book begins in the land of Uz, where Job lives. He is blameless and upright, fears God and turns away from evil. He has seven sons and three daughters and enormous wealth in livestock and servants; the text calls him the greatest of all the people of the east. When his children finish their rounds of feasting, Job sends for them to be consecrated and offers burnt offerings for each one, in case any had sinned in his heart. This was his regular habit.
The scene shifts to heaven. The sons of God present themselves before the Lord, and Satan comes among them, back from roaming the earth. The Lord points to Job as a servant without equal. Satan answers with a question: does Job fear God for nothing? Take away what he has, he says, and Job will curse God to his face. The Lord puts everything Job owns into Satan's hand but forbids him to touch Job himself.
In a single day four messengers arrive one after another with terrible news. Sabeans carry off the oxen and donkeys and kill the servants; fire of God falls from heaven and burns up the sheep and shepherds; Chaldeans in three bands raid the camels; and a great wind strikes the house where Job's sons and daughters were feasting, and all of them die.
Job gets up, tears his robe, shaves his head and falls to the ground. He says he came naked into the world and will leave it naked, and he blesses the name of the Lord. The chapter closes with the narrator's verdict: in all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The book introduces Job as a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. From the start the narrator makes clear that what follows is not punishment for a hidden sin, and that changes how we read the whole book.
Satan asks whether Job fears God for nothing and challenges the Lord to take away what Job has and see if he curses him. The underlying question is whether true faith depends on blessings or loves God for who he is.
Job confesses that he came naked from his mother's womb and will return naked, that the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, and he blesses God's name. This is not cold resignation; it is worship still standing among the ruins.
The narrator concludes that in all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything wrong. Satan had bet that Job would curse, and the chapter ends with that bet lost, although Job's pain has only begun.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: As a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil. — Job 1:1
Answer: He sent for them to be consecrated and offered burnt offerings for each one, in case they had sinned in their hearts. — Job 1:5
Answer: That Job feared God only because of what he received, and that if he lost his possessions he would curse God to his face. — Job 1:9-11
Answer: He put everything Job had in Satan's hand but forbade him to lay a hand on Job himself. — Job 1:12
Answer: His oxen, donkeys, sheep and camels, many of his servants, and all ten of his children. — Job 1:13-19
Answer: He tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground and worshiped, blessing the name of the Lord. — Job 1:20-21
Job 1 reminds us that faith is not measured when everything goes well. Job worshiped God in abundance and kept worshiping when he was left with nothing. In a class or small group it is worth asking what we truly love: God himself or the gifts he gives.
The chapter also teaches us not to read another person's pain as punishment. The narrator tells us from the start that Job was blameless. When someone in the church suffers a loss, the first task is not to look for blame or explanations but to stay at their side. And to those who suffer, Job shows that it is possible to weep, tear a robe and still worship.
Job 1 ends with a man who has lost his children and his wealth, on his knees, blessing the Lord. But the story is not finished: Job 2 brings a second scene in heaven, a test that will reach Job's own body, and the arrival of three friends who will sit down beside him.
Job was a rich, blameless, God-fearing man who lived in the land of Uz. The text gives no dates and does not place him in Israel's history, which is why many readers think the story belongs to the age of the patriarchs. What matters for the book is his character, not his genealogy.
The text does not give a complete explanation, and Job never learns about the heavenly scene. What it does show is that Satan acts only with permission and within limits God sets, and that the test answers whether faith in God is genuine or self-interested. Job's sufferings are not punishment for his sin.
The phrase describes a gathering in the heavenly court, and most interpreters understand the sons of God to be angelic beings. Satan appears among them as an accuser who must answer to the Lord. The scene teaches that nothing happens outside God's sovereignty.