Job 1:19 - Exposition

And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness ; rather, from across the wilderness —a wind which began in the region lying on the other side of the wilderness, and sweeping across it, came with full force upon the inhabited tract where Job and his sons were dwelling. The desert winds are often very violent. Generally they are Laden with heavy clouds of fine sand, which cause intolerable discomfort and thirst; but when they sweep over a rocky and gravelly region, they are simply of extreme violence, without other distressing feature. They then resemble the hurricanes or tornadoes of the West Indies. We may reasonably connect this hurricane with the thunderstorm of verse 16 . And smote the four corners of the house, and it fell. The "houses" of the East are not the solid structures of heavy timber, brick, and stone to which we of the West are accustomed, but light fabrics of planks and palisades, thatched mostly with reeds. Houses of this kind, when the rain descends, and the winds blow and beat against them ( Matthew 7:6 ), readily fall. Upon the young men ; rather, the young persons. Na'ar ( נער ) is of both genders in early Hebrew (see Genesis 24:14 , etc.). And they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee . Again, the calamity has a completeness which marks it as supernatural. The fall of a house does not usually destroy all the inmates.