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Job 1 · a question people ask

Who is Satan in this chapter?

In the text

The WEB calls him Satan, and every time the chapter names him, the Hebrew has the in front of the word: hassatan (tap Satan). Here is all the chapter says of him. When God's sons "came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan also came among them" (1:6). Asked where he has come from, he answers, "From going back and forth on the earth, and from walking up and down in it" (1:7). He answers the LORD's words about Job with a question and a claim (1:9-11). The LORD sets him a limit: "Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand" (1:12). And "Satan went out from the presence of the LORD" (1:12). The chapter doesn't say what he is, or why he came, and after Job 2:7 the book doesn't name him again. These notes don't add to what the text says.

The verses

“So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.”
Job 2:7 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 1

Job 1: Does Job fear God for nothing?

Satan said Job would renounce God to his face (1:11); after the four messengers, Job said, "Blessed be the LORD’s name" (1:21). In Hebrew, renounce and Blessed are one verb, barakh. And it was the LORD, not Satan, who first spoke of Job: "Have you considered my servant, Job?" (1:8).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions