Job 1:7

7. Whence comest thou According to the tenor of the Scriptures it is not unworthy of God to hold converse with any of his intelligent creatures, even though they be fallen; as is illustrated in the scenes subsequent to the sin of Adam, the murder of Abel, and in the conversation of Christ with the tempter.

From going to and fro The Chaldee paraphrase here adds, “to examine into the works of the sons of men.” The word שׁושׂ is best translated, as by Dr. Good, “roaming around,” which accords with Ewald and Dillmann. His course has been, not on paths divinely ordered, but here and there, as has been pleasing to himself. In like manner Peter: “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about [ περιπατει peripatetic,] seeking whom he may devour.” The rendering of Umbreit, “to whip through,” “as if Satan sped along in storm like a destructive wind,” may be in part accepted. See Job 5:21. It is apparently the law of all sinful beings severed from “the Lord of peace” to be unceasingly restless. The reply is curt and tart, that of a ruined spirit who has nothing to hope not unlike that of Cain when arraigned. Among the Arabs the devil is called el-hharith the active, busy, industrious one. The olden Greeks represented Ate, who had been hurled from heaven, as a malicious deity traveling to and fro over the earth with great rapidity, always intent on doing injury to mankind.