Job 1:5

5. Sanctified them The Septuagint renders יקדשׁם , “purified them.” Not being present himself at their festivities, Job sent some messenger who should summon them to cleanse themselves, perhaps their garments, (Genesis 35:2; Exodus 19:10,) by some unrecorded process of lustration. Thus they would become ceremonially pure; for thus only would they be prepared to participate in the benefit of the sacrifices he proposed next day to offer. Jacob pursued a similar course with his family prior to the erection of an altar unto God. St. Chrysostom (quoted by Wordsworth) says, “that he purified their hearts, and not their bodies, by prayers; and that this lustration resembled an apostolic purification, not a Levitical one.” Job regarded himself as responsible for his family. Its very constitution points to higher ends than the mere training of children for the present life. The family circle is a divinely constituted section of our race, severed from all others, intrusted to the two who stand at its head; and God holds that head to stern responsibility, according to the enlarged views of the patriarch Job. (On the entire absorption of the family in the person of the father under the patriarchal system, see Maine on “Ancient Laws.”)

Burnt offerings עלה , ‘ holah, a whole burnt offering a sacrifice to be wholly consumed by fire, hence called holocaust. This word first appears in the sacrifice by Noah, (Genesis 8:20,) and denotes, as in the text, a primitive institution of this the most imposing of all the forms of sacrifice. As a whole victim was offered for each of the sons, the thoughtful family must have read in the ascending flames ( ‘ halah, to go up) the enormity of sin against God, the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice, and the necessity of entire consecration to him. In the substitution of one for one, they may have descried afar off the One Being who should die for each sinner. In the Levitical economy the offering of sacrifices devolved upon a distinct tribe. Here Job discharges the duties of a priest, which could have been proper only among a people distinct from the Jewish, (compare Exodus 18:12; Numbers 23:3; Numbers 23:15,) or in an age antedating the Jewish economy. “Besides, the Levitical law required in such cases as these the offering of a sin offering or a trespass offering, but Job offered a burnt offering.” Wordsworth. The indications are, that this sacrifice preceded those of the Levitical dispensation, and belonged rather to those of the patriarchal. It serves also casually to show the antiquity of this book. Under the light, then, of a primeval revelation whose one chief rite was apparently that of sacrifice, Job appears before us the peer of Melchisedek like him without father and mother of no known lineage, but highly honoured to shadow forth the One Priesthood, greater than all others, and which, though not of the house of Aaron, was to abide forever.

Cursed God Rather, renounced God. The word ברךְ , translated curse, primarily means to “bow” or “bend the knee;” thence it came to signify to “pray,” “praise,”

and to “bless,” since the knee was bowed in these respective acts. From the custom of pronouncing blessings upon occasions of separation the word in time assumed another meaning, that of “bidding farewell.” In like manner our own word farewell, fare (thee) well, pronounces a blessing upon the act of parting. A like change took place in the Greek χαιρειν and in the Latin valere, until, like the Hebrew barak, they were used in the sense of “renouncing.” Job’s fear of God led him to apprehend that his sons, in the excess of pleasure, might have deemed the thought of God intrusive, at least unessential to their joys, and thus in their hearts have been guilty of renouncing God. Comp. Job 21:14. “It is curious that the sin which the father’s heart dreaded in his children was the sin to which he himself was tempted, and into which he almost fell.” Davidson.

In their hearts Job’s view of the heart partly anticipates that of Christ: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.” Job evidently regarded the heart as the seat of evil, the source of moral action, and the fountain-head of responsibility. A dominion is thus betokened not only over overt action, but the more mysterious realm of thought. Job knew that evil thoughts needed an atonement. The senseless and practically Epicurean maxim, “Thought is free,” found no favour in that earnest age. The flames of whole burnt offerings “continually” proclaimed, as with solemn tongues of fire, man’s responsibility for all his thoughts. See note on Romans 10:10.