Job 1:5 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Job 1:5
And 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.
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
offered
וְהֶעֱלָ֣הve.he.'e.Lah
H5927
to ascend · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
offerings
עֹלוֹת֮'o.lOt
H5930
a step or (collectively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
number
מִסְפַּ֣רmis.Par
H4557
a number · noun, common masculine singular construct
Job
אִיּ֔וֹב'i.Yov
H347
Ijob · proper noun, a man's name
said
אָמַ֣ר'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
be
אוּלַי֙'u.Lai
H194
if not · adverb
sons
בָנַ֔יva.Nai
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
sinned
חָטְא֣וּcha.te.'U
H2398
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
cursed
וּבֵרֲכ֥וּu.ve.ra.Khu
H1288
to kneel · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
God
אֱלֹהִ֖ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
hearts
בִּלְבָבָ֑םbil.va.Vam
H3824
the heart (as the most interior organ) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
did
יַעֲשֶׂ֥הya.'a.Seh
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Job
אִיּ֖וֹב'i.Yov
H347
Ijob · proper noun, a man's name
continually
הַיָּמִֽיםhai.ya.Mim
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + noun, common masculine 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 42:8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my se…
Genesis 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
1 Samuel 16:5 And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jess…
Genesis 35:2-3 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change yo…
Job 8:4 If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
1 Kings 21:10 And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him…
1 Kings 21:13 And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 1:4-5
We have here a further account of Job's prosperity and his piety.
I. His great comfort in his children is taken notice of as an instance of his prosperity; for our temporal comforts are borrowed, depend upon others, and are as those about us are. Job himself mentions it as one of the greatest joys of his prosperous estate that his children were about him, Job 29:5. They kept a circular feast at some certain times (Job 1:4); they went and feasted in their houses. It was a comfort to this good man, 1. To see his children grown up and settled in the world. All his sons were in houses of their own, probably married, and to each of them he had given a competent portion to set up with. Those that…
when the days of their feasting were gone about--that is, at the end of all the birthdays collectively, when the banquets had gone round through all the families.
cursed God--The same Hebrew word means to "curse," and to "bless"; GESENIUS says, the original sense is to "kneel," and thus it came to mean bending the knee in order to invoke either a blessing or a curse. Cursing is a perversion of blessing, as all sin is of goodness. Sin is a degeneracy, not a generation. It is not, however, likely that Job should fear the possibility of his sons cursing God. The sense "bid farewell to," derived from the blessing customary at parting, seems sufficient (Gen 47:10). Thus UMBREIT translates "may…
And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about,.... When they had been at each other's houses in turn; when the rotation was ended: something like this is practised by the Chinese, who have their co-fraternities, which they call "the brotherhood of the month"; this consists of thirty, according to the number of days therein, and in a circle they go every day to eat at one another's house by turns; if one man has not convenience to receive the fraternity in his own house, he may provide it at another man's, and there are many public houses very well furnished for this purpose (e): Job's sons probably began at the elder brother's house, and so went on according to their age, an…
The Church Fathers
"He offered for each of them victims. The confessions of each of them were as many particular victims and differed from the general sacrifices made for the sins of all; This is what he makes, saying, Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. He is right in saying "maybe," because he only dreads this misfortune.
ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION. And 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. 'The days of feasting are gone,' when the ministrations of preaching are brought to an end; and when the feasts were ended, Job offered an holocaust for his sons, in that our Redeemer besought the Father in behalf of the Apostles, when they returned from preaching. Now it is rightly said, that he 'sent and sanctified,' in that when He bestowed the Holy Spirit Which proceeds from Himself, upon the hearts of His disciples, He cleansed them from whatsoever might be in them of offence, and it is rightly delivered that he rose up early to offer sacrifices; forasmuch as through this His offering up the prayer of His Intercessions in our behalf, he dispelled the night of error, and illumined the darkness of man's mind; that the soul might not be polluted in secret by any defilements of sin contracted from the very grace of preaching; that it might never attribute to itself aught that it does; that it might not, by attributing them to itself, lose all the things it had done. Hence it is well added, For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and blessed God in their hearts. For this blessing God, which means cursing, is the taking glory to one's self from a gift of His hand. Hence the Lord did well to wash the feet of the holy Apostles after their preaching, doubtless with this view, that He might shew plainly, both that very frequently in doing good the dust of sin is contracted, and that the steps of the speakers are often defiled by the same means whereby the hearts of their hearers are purified. For it often happens that some in giving words of exhortation, however poorly, are inwardly lifted up, because they are the channel, by which the grace of purification comes down; and while by the word they wash away the deeds of other men, they as it were contract the dust of an ill thought from a good course. What then was it to wash the disciples' feet after their preaching, but after the gloriousness of preaching to wipe off the dust of our thoughts, and to cleanse the heart's goings from inward pride? Nor does it hinder the universal knowledge which our Mediator has, that it is said, It may be; for knowing all things, but in His mode of…
Dictionary and topics
Priest — The Heb. kohen, Gr. hierus, Lat. sacerdos, always denote one who offers sacrifices. At first every man was his own priest, and presented his own sacrifices before God. Afterwards that office devolved…
Sacrifice — The offering up of sacrifices is to be regarded as a divine institution. It did not originate with man. God himself appointed it as the mode in which acceptable worship was to be offered to him by…
Amusements And Pleasures, Worldly · Are likely to lead to greater evil — Are likely to lead to greater evil
Amusements And Worldly Pleasures · Lead to greater evil — Lead to greater evil
Burnt Offering, The · The most ancient of all sacrifices — The most ancient of all sacrifices
4, 5 And his sons went and feasted in the house of him whose day it was, and sent and called for their sisters to eat and drink with them. And it happened, 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, I may be that my sons have sinned, and dismissed God from their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
The subordinate facts precede, Job 1:4, in perff.; the chief fact follows, Job 1:5, in fut. consec. The perff. describe, according to Ges. 126, 3, that which has happened repeatedly in the past, as e.g., Rut 4:7; the fut. consec. the customary act o…
Ritual washing and changing garments were common ways for individuals to purify themselves before offering a sacrifice (Gen 35:2; Exod 19:10, 14). • The common time for conscientious piety was early in the morning (see Gen 22:3; Ps 5:3; Mark 1:35). • cursed: The Hebrew term barak (literally blessed) is used here as a euphemism for cursing (cp. Job 1:11; 2:5, 9; 1 Kgs 21:10, 13; Ps 10:3). Job was concerned that his children might have committed this capital crime (Lev 24:10-16; 1 Kgs 21:9-13; cp. Job 1:11; 2:5, 9). Job understood that sinful attitudes in people’s hearts constitute sin (Jer 17:9-10; Mark 7:21-23).
Rashi on Job 1:5
Now it would come about when the cycle of the feasting days would be over When the days of the feasting would be over, Job would act in this manner; upon every termination of the seven days on which the days of feasting rotated, he would send and summon them (ויקדשם) ; i.e., he would prepare them and summon them, as in (Num. 11:18). “Prepare yourselves for tommorow.”
and offer up... early in the morning The meaning is that he would offer up burnt-offerings early. Therefore, Scripture wrote in the future tense, that he was wont to do so always at the end of every seven days.
the number of all of them The sons and the daughters.
and blasphemed Heb. וברכו, lit. will do. A euphemism [used in]…
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION. And 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. When it is said, sent and sanctified them, it is openly shewn what strictness he practised with those when present, for whom when absent he was not wanting in concern. But this circumstance demands our discreet consideration, that, when the days of feasting were past, he has recourse to the purification of a holocaust for each day severally; for the holy man knew that there can scarcely be feasting without offence; he knew that the revelry of feasts must be cleansed away by much purification of sacrifices, and whatever stains the sons had contracted in their own persons at their feasts, the father wiped out by the offering of a sacrifice; for there are certain evils which it is either scarcely possible, or it may be said wholly impossible, to banish from feasting. Thus almost always voluptuousness is the accompaniment of entertainments; for when the body is relaxed in the delight of refreshment, the heart yields itself to the admission of an empty joy. Whence it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Almost always talkativeness is an attendant upon feasts, and when the belly is replenished, the tongue is unloosed; whence the rich man in hell is well described as thirsting for water, in these words, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. He is first said to have fared sumptuously every day, and then it is recorded that he craved a drop of water upon his tongue; for as we have said, because at feasts talking is wont to give itself full vent, the fault is indicated by the punishment, in that he, whom the Truth had said fared sumptuously every day, was described as most on fire in his tongue. They that attune the harmony of stringed instruments arrange it with such exceeding skill, that frequently, when one chord is touched, a very different one, placed with many lying between, is made to vibrate, and when this last is sounded, the former, which is attempered to the same tune, rings without the others being struck. According to which Holy Scripture very often so deals with the several virtues,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
· .Righteousness of
— .Righteousness of
Light · 2:15; — 2:15;
Parents · Should pray for their children: When in temptation — Should pray for their children: When in temptation
Patriarchal Government · Exercised in: Acting as priests — Exercised in: Acting as priests
Prayer, Social And Family · Exemplified: Job — Exemplified: Job
Sacrifices · Were offered: By the patriarchs — Were offered: By the patriarchs
Worship · Of Job — Of Job
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).
