Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Hast thou considered my servant Job? - Margin, "Set thine heart on." The margin is a literal translation of the Hebrew. Schultens remarks on this, that it means more than merely to observe or to look at - since it is abundantly manifest from the following verses that Satan "had" attentively considered Job, and had been desirous of injuring him. It means, according to him, to set himself against Job, to fix the heart on him with an intention to injure him, and yahweh means to ask whether Satan had done this. But it seems more probable that the phrase means to consider "attentively," and that God means to ask him whether he had carefully observed him. Satan is represented as having no confidence in human virtue, and as maintaining that there was none which would resist temptation, if presented in a form sufficiently alluring. God here appeals to the case of Job as a full refutation of this opinion. The trial which follows is designed to test the question whether the piety of Job was of this order.
That there is none like him in the earth - That he is the very highest example of virtue and piety on earth. Or might not the word kı̂y here be rendered "for?" "For there is none like him in the earth." Then the idea would be, not that he had considered "that" there was none like him, but God directs his attention to him "because" he was the most eminent among mortals.
A perfect and an upright man - See the Notes at Job 1:1. The Septuagint translates this verse as they do Job 1:1.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Job 1:8:
Job 1:6
Job 1:17
Job 2:3
Daniel 1:21
Daniel 11:17
Joel 2:29
Micah 6:2
Haggai 1:5
Zechariah 3:1
Matthew 4:1
Luke 22:3
Luke 22:31
1 Timothy 3:11
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