to bear young · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
seven
שִׁבְעָ֥הshiv.'Ah
H7651
seven (as the sacred full one) · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
sons
בָנִ֖יםva.Nim
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
three
וְשָׁל֥וֹשׁve.sha.Lo.osh
H7969
three · conjunction + cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
daughters
בָּנֽוֹתba.Not
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
Psalms 127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Esther 5:11 And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and…
Job 13:13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
Psalms 107:38 He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.
Psalms 128:3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 1:1-3
Concerning Job we are here told,
I. That he was a man; therefore subject to like passions as we are. He was Ish, a worthy man, a man of note and eminency, a magistrate, a man in authority. The country he lived in was the land of Uz, in the eastern part of Arabia, which lay towards Chaldea, near Euphrates, probably not far from Ur of the Chaldees, whence Abraham was called. When God called one good man out of that country, yet he left not himself without witness, but raised up another in it to be a preacher of righteousness. God has his remnant in all places, sealed ones out of every nation, as well as out of every tribe of Israel, Rev 7:9. It was the privilege of the land of Uz to have so go…
And there were born unto him,.... By his wife, in lawful wedlock, who was now living, and after mentioned:
seven sons and three daughters; next to his religious character, his graces, and spiritual blessings, and as the chief of his outward mercies and enjoyments, his children are mentioned; and which are indeed blessings from the Lord, and such as good men, and those that fear the Lord, are sometimes blessed with, see Psalm 127:3 and to have a numerous offspring was always esteemed a very great favour and blessing, and as such was reckoned by Job; who, having so many sons, might hope to have his name perpetuated by them, as well as his substance shared among them; and having so many daught…
2, 3 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 servants in great number; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
It is a large, princely household. The numbers are large, but must not on that account be considered an invention. The four animals named include both kinds. With the doubled אלפי corresponds the also constructive מאות, the Tsere of which is never shortened, though in the singular one says מאת, from מאה. The aorists, especially of the verb היה (הוה), which, according to its root, signifies not so much esse a…
The Church Fathers
Notice how the author first of all speaks about Job's virtue and then of the goods Job has received from God. Observe the opportunity Job received to have children, and the proportion of children who are boys, desired as a source of greater benefit. Scripture says immediately why the man must receive our praise. It is because of the greatness of Job's virtue and the fruitfulness of his soul. And indeed we derive all such goods from virtue. That is why I speak about beautiful and plentiful progeny. "There shall not be," Scripture says, "male or female barren among you." But Abraham was childless, so that you might learn that Abraham's goods were not the reward of virtue but of other goods. Therefore God has promised those goods in order to be generous to you.
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. The heart of the parent is often enticed into avarice by a numerous offspring, for he is the more inflamed with ambition for laying up an inheritance, in proportion as he abounds in the number to inherit it. In order then that it might be shewn what holiness of mind blessed Job possessed, he is both called righteous, and is said to have been the father of a numerous offspring. And the same man in the beginning of his book is declared devout in offering sacrifices, and besides he afterwards with his own mouth records himself as ready in giving alms. Let us then consider with what resolution he shewed himself to be endowed, whom no feelings of affection for so many heirs could ever dispose to be greedy of an inheritance for them.
MORAL INTERPRETATION. And forasmuch as each particular vice is stifled by fear, whilst the several virtues spring from charity, it is rightly added, And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. For there are seven sons born to us, when by the conception of good intent the seven virtues of the holy Spirit spring up in us. Thus the Prophet particularizes this inward offspring, when the Spirit renders the mind fruitful, in these words; And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him. So when by the coming of the Holy Spirit there is engendered in each of us, 'wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord,' something like a lasting posterity is begotten in the mind, which preserves the stock of our nobility that is above unto life, for so much the longer as it allies it with the love of eternity. Yet surely the seven sons have in us three sisters, forasmuch as all that manly work which these virtuous affections do, they unite with faith, hope, and charity. For the seven sons never attain the perfection of the number ten, unless all that they do be done in faith, hope, and charity.
Dictionary and topics
Apostles · .See COMMISSION OF, above, and — .See COMMISSION OF, above, and
Mourning · 9:3,5; — 9:3,5;
Testimony · 3:4-14; — 3:4-14;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Job was prosperous in sons, daughters, livestock, and servants (cp. Gen 30:43; Deut 7:13; Ps 107:38). • Numbers such as seven and three (and 7,000 and 3,000) indicate the completeness of the blessing Job experienced (see Job 42:13; see also Pss 127:3-5; 128:3). • the richest person in that entire area: The figures that catalogue Job’s wealth might not be exact, but they are realistic for a wealthy man of that time (cp. Nabal’s wealth, 1 Sam 25:2).
Rashi on Job 1:1
There was a man in the land of Uz This means in the land of Aram, as it is written (Gen. 22: 21): “Uz, his firstborn,” of the sons of Nahor.
and that man was Although that is a future expression, that is the style of the Hebrew language, and the proper expression for it is “Now that man was greater than all the children of the land of the East”; the children of the land of the East, for Aram is in the east of the world, as it is stated (Num. 23:7): “From Aram has Balak, king of Moab, brought me, from the mountains of the East.” Another explanation: Uz is Job. Buz is Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite. This is what Job said (31:34): “and the most contemptible of families shatters me.” This…
