Job 1:17
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While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The Third Messenger: 17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans ranged themselves in three bands, and rushed upon the camels, and carried them away, and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Without any authority, Ewald sees in this mention of the Chaldeans an indication of the composition of the book in the seventh century b.c., when the Chaldeans under Nabopolassar began to inherit the Assyrian power. Following Ewald, Renan observes that the Chaldeans first appear as such marauders about the time of Uzziah. But in Genesis we find mention of early Semitic Chaldeans among the mountain ranges lying to the north of Assyria and Mesopotamia; and later, Nahor Chaldeans of Mesopotamia, whose existence is traced back to the patriarchal times (vid., Genesis, p. 422), (Note: This reference is to Delitzsch's Commentar ber die Genesis, 1860, a separate work from the Keil and Delitzsch series. - Tr.) and who were powerful enough at any time to make a raid into Idumaea. To make an attack divided into several ראשׁים, heads, multitudes, bands (two - Gen. Job 14:15; three - Jdg 7:16, Sa1 11:11; or four - Judg. Job 9:34), is an ancient military stratagem; and פּשׁט, e.g., Jdg 9:33, is the proper word for attacks of such bands, either for plunder or revenge. In לפי־חרב, at the edge of the sword, l'epe, ל is like the usual acc. of manner.
Open source ↗The history of Job begins here with an account, I. Of his great piety in general (Job 1:1), and in a particular instance (Job 1:5). II. Of his great prosperity (Job 1:2-4). III. Of the malice of Satan against him, and the permission he obtained to try his constancy (Job 1:6-12). IV. Of the surprising troubles that befel him, the ruin of his estate (Job 1:13-17), and the death of his children (Job 1:18, Job 1:19). V. Of his exemplary patience and piety under these troubles (Job 1:20-22). In all this he is set forth for an example of suffering affliction, from which no prosperity can secure us, but through which integrity and uprightness will preserve us.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans— that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.
Look at the land of the Chaldeans— a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin.
“Where have you come from?” David asked. “I have escaped from the Israelite camp,” he replied.
the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”