Job 1 Bible study: Does Job fear God for nothing?

The chapter opens by telling you who Job is: "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil" (1:1) (tap blameless, upright, turned away). Then come his children, "seven sons and three daughters" (1:2), and what he owned, so that "this man was the greatest of all the children of the east" (1:3). When the days of his sons' feasting were over, "Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all" (1:5), and the chapter adds, "Job did so continually" (1:5). A few verses later the LORD describes Job in the chapter's own words: "a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil" (1:8). In Hebrew, blameless and upright is tam veyashar in both verses, and turned away from evil and turns away from evil are the same two words, vesar mera. The LORD adds, "there is no one like him on the earth" (1:8).

Job 1:21→leads toLuke 8:13

Satan said of Job, "But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face" (1:11). After the four messengers (1:13-19), Job "fell down on the ground, and worshiped" (1:20), and said, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the LORD’s name" (1:21). Explaining his parable of the sower, Jesus said of those on the rock, "They believe for a while, then fall away in time of temptation" (Luke 8:13). Jesus doesn't name Job or cite this chapter, so setting his words beside it is a reading, resting on a shared subject, whether faith lasts when trouble comes, not on a shared word (Luke is written in Greek, so no link between the two passages' words is claimed). Some read the two together: Satan said that if all Job had were touched, "he will renounce you to your face" (1:11), a falling away like the one Jesus speaks of "in time of temptation" (Luke 8:13), and when it was touched, Job blessed the LORD's name (1:21). Others read each in its own setting: Jesus speaks of those who "receive the word with joy" and "have no root" (Luke 8:13), and says nothing of Job; Job 1 tells what Job said, and its own verdict is "In all this, Job didn’t sin" (1:22). Neither reading makes Job a picture of Jesus.

חִנָּםchinnamsay khin-NAHM

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "gratis, gratuitously, for nothing", and "without cause, undeservedly". Strong's: "gratis, i.e. devoid of cost, reason or advantage". Satan asks, "Does Job fear God for nothing?" (1:9). The word comes four times in the Hebrew of Job. The next time it is the LORD's, in chapter 2: "you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause" (Job 2:3). Job uses it of God: "For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause" (Job 9:17). And Eliphaz uses it of Job: "For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing" (Job 22:6).