Job 1King James Version
Job is a blameless man in the land of Uz, with seven sons, three daughters, and great flocks. The scene shifts to heaven. Satan comes before God. God boasts about Job. Satan says Job only serves God because God has blessed him. God allows Satan to take everything except Job's life. In one day, all four waves of disaster strike. Job tears his clothes, shaves his head, falls to the ground, and worships. 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'
Job is introduced as blameless and wealthy, a man who fears God and avoids evil. Satan appears before God in heaven and challenges God: Job only serves him because he is prosperous. God permits Satan to strike everything Job has, but not his person. In one day, raiders take his oxen, donkeys, and camels; fire kills his sheep; and a wind collapses a house, killing all ten children. Job mourns, then worships.
The most righteous man in the world loses everything in a single day, not because of sin, but because of a wager he knows nothing about.
21: "The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." Job's first response to total loss is not a theological argument but an act of worship, and it costs him everything to say it.
The land of Uz, likely east of Palestine in the region of Edom or northwestern Arabia, places Job outside Israel entirely. This is wisdom literature, not covenant history. Job is probably a patriarchal-era figure, somewhere around 2000 BC or earlier, a wealthy semi-nomadic chieftain with large herds and a household of dependents. The world of the book is ancient, tribal, and honest about its brutality.
Job, the blameless and upright patriarch who speaks in grief and worship. God, who initiates the conversation about Job's character. Satan (the adversary), who challenges Job's integrity and receives permission to test him. Job's servants, who arrive one after another with catastrophic news. Job's ten children, who die in the final disaster.
The prologue frames all 42 chapters: the suffering that follows is not punishment for sin. This matters enormously. Job's friends will spend most of the book insisting it must be punishment, and they will be wrong. The heaven scene forces the reader to hold two truths at once: God is sovereign, and the righteous suffer.
When everything collapses at once and you cannot find a reason, this chapter names what that feels like. Job tears his robe and shaves his head and falls to the ground, and that is worship, not weakness.
1There 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.
2And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
3His 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.
4And 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.
5And 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.
6Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
7And 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.
8And 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?
9Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10Hast 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.
11But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
12And 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.
13And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
14And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
15And 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.
16While 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.
17While 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.
18While 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:
19And, 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.
20Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21And 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.
22In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.