Satan, you will notice, is not represented in this book as
the suggester of evil to the human soul, nor as the

^ See this point forcibly urged by Godet, Etudes Bibliques, p. 203.
36 The Book of Job.
Lecture fallen Angel, his Maker's foe. He is depicted as

^^- simply a malicious spirit', whose power for evil is rigidly

'' . limited by his Master and the Master of the world. And
Chap. 1. -'

such as he is, he goes forth to work his will. And once more

the scene shifts to the land of Uz.
It is a high festival with the children of the unconscious

ver. 13. Job. It is the day apparently on which the father offers his
accustomed sacrifices ; the day certainly on which the happy
children gather round their eldest brother. Out of the clear
sky comes the thunder. Blow falls on blow, falls with rapid
ver. 14, 15. and tragic strokes four times repeated. First, a message
comes that Sabaans, plundering Arabs, marauders from the
South, have burst into his cultivated lands, carried off his
oxen and his asses, and slain his servants. /, / only, says

ver. 16. the bringer of the evil tidings, am escaped to tell thee. And in
a moment, another tells of the destruction of his grazing
flocks and shepherds by the _;fris of God, the terrible lightning.
ver. 17. And while he was yet speaking, another, a sole survivor also,
bursts in with the news that a still wilder tribe, the Chaldeans,
or Chasdim, of the North, have made a foray from their
highlands, and dividing their forces Hke skilled marauders
into three bodies, have swept away his wealth of camels, and
massacred their guardians.
