Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 1:17
While he [was] yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
17. The third stroke. The name Chaldeans was perhaps given generally to the tribes that roamed between the cultivated land on the east of the Jordan and the Euphrates. Dividing an attacking force into several bands, so as to fall on the enemy on several sides, was a common piece of Oriental tactics, Jdg 7:16; Jdg 9:43; 1Sa 11:11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Chaldeans – The Septuagint translates this, hai hippeis), the horsemen. Why they thus expressed it is unknown. It may be possible that the Chaldeans were supposed to be distinguished as horsemen, and were principally known as such in their predatory excursions. But it is impossible to account for all the changes made by the Septuagint in the text. Tho Syriac and the Chaldee render it correctly, Chaldeans. The Chaldeans (Hebrew kasdym) were the ancient inhabitants of Babylonia. According to Vitringa (Commentary in Isa. tom. i. p. 412, c. xiii. 19), Gesenius (Commentary zu Isa 23:13), and Rosenmailer (Bib. Geog. 1, 2, p. 36ff), the Chaldees or Casdim were a warlike people who orignally inhabited the Carduchian mountains, north of Assyria, and the northern part of Mesopotamia. According to Xenophon (Cyrop. iii. 2, 7) the Chaldees dwelt in the mountains adjacent to Armenia and they were found in the same region in the campaign of the younger Cyrus, and the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks. Xen. Anaba. iv. 3, 4; v. 5, 9; viii. 8, 14.
They were allied to the Hebrews, as appears from Gen 22:22, where kesed (whence Kasdim) the ancestor of the people is mentioned as a son of Nabor, and was consequently the nephew of Abraham. And further, Abraham himself emigrated to Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees ‘ur kasdym, Ur of the Kasdim), Gen 11:28; and in Judith 5:6, the Hebrews themselves are said to be descended from the Chaldeans. The region around the river Chaboras, in the northern part of Mesopotamia, is called by Ezekiel Eze 1:3 the land of the Chaldeans; Jeremiah Jer 5:15 calls them an ancient nation; see the notes at Isa 23:13. The Chaldeans were a fierce and warlike people, and when they were subdued by the Assyrians, a portion of them appear to have been placed in Babylon to ward off the incursions of the neighboring Arabians. In time they gained the ascendency over their Assyrian masters, and grew into the mighty empire of Chaldea or Babylonia. A part of them, however, appear to have remained in their ancient country, and enjoyed under the Persians some degree of liberty. Gesenius supposes that the Kurds who have inhabited those regions, at least since the middle ages, are probably the descendants of that people. – A very vivid and graphic description of the Chaldeans is given by the prophet Habakkuk, which will serve to illustrate the passage before us, and show that they retained until his times the predatory and fierce character which they had in the days of Job; Job 1:6-11 :
For lo I raise up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation,
Which marches far and wide in the earth.
To possess the dwellings which are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful,
Their judgments proceed only from themselves.
Swifter titan leopards are their horses,
And fiercer than the evening wolves.
Their horsemen prance proudly around;
And their horsemen shall come from afar and fly,
Like the eagle when he pounces on his prey.
They all shall come for violence,
In troops their glance is ever forward!
They gather captives like the sand!
And they scoff at kings,
And princes are a scorn unto them.
They deride every strong hold;
They cast up mounds of – earth and take it.
This warlike people ultimately obtained the ascendency in the Assyrian empire. About the year 597 B.C. Nabopolassar, a viceroy in Babylon, made himself independent of Assyria, contracted an alliance with Cyaxares, king of Media, and with his aid subdued Nineveh, and the whole of Assyria. From that time the Babylonian empire rose, and the history of the Chaldeans becomes the history of Babylon. – Rob. Calmet. In the time of Job, however, they were a predatory race that seem to have wandered far for the sake of plunder. They came from the North, or the East, as the Sabeans came from the South.
Made out three bands – literally, three heads. That is, they divided tbemselves, for the sake of plunder, into three parties. Perhaps the three thousand camels of Job Job 1:3 occupied three places remote from each other, and the object of the speaker is to say that the whole were taken.
And fell upon the camels – Margin, And rushed. The word is different from that which in Job 1:15 is rendered fell. The word used here pashat means to spread out, to expand. It is spoken of hostile troops, 1Ch 14:9, 1Ch 14:13; of locusts which spread over a country, Nah 3:15; and of an army or company of marauders. Jdg 9:33, Jdg 9:44; 1Sa 27:8. This is its sense here.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. The Chaldeans made out three bands] The Chaldeans inhabited each side of the Euphrates near to Babylon, which was their capital. They were also mixed with the wandering Arabs, and lived like them on rapine. They were the descendants of Chesed, son of Nahor and brother of Huz, from whom they had their name Casdim, which we translate Chaldeans. They divided themselves into three bands, in order the more speedily and effectually to encompass, collect, and drive off the three thousand camels: probably they mounted the camels and rode off.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Chaldeans, who also lived upon the spoil, as Xenophon and others observe.
Made out three bands, that they might come upon them several ways, and nothing might be able to escape them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. Chaldeansnot merelyrobbers as the Sabeans; but experienced in war, as is implied by”they set in array three bands” (Hab1:6-8). RAWLINSONdistinguishes three periods: 1. When their seat of empire was in thesouth, towards the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates. TheChaldean period, from 2300 B.C.to 1500 B.C. In thisperiod was Chedorlaomer (Ge 14:1),the Kudur of Hur or Ur of the Chaldees, in the Assyrian inscriptions,and the conqueror of Syria. 2. From 1500 to 625 B.C.,the Assyrian period. 3. From 625 to 538 B.C.(when Cyrus the Persian took Babylon), the Babylonian period.”Chaldees” in HebrewChasaim. They wereakin, perhaps, to the Hebrews, as Abraham’s sojourn in Ur, and thename “Chesed,” a nephew of Abraham, imply. The threebands were probably in order to attack the three separate thousandsof Job’s camels (Job 1:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
While he was yet speaking, there came also another,…. Another messenger from another part of Job’s possessions, where his camels were, and this before the last messenger had told his story out:
and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away; these were the 3000 camels, as in Job 1:3 and perhaps they were in three separate companies and places, 1000 in each, and therefore the Chaldeans divided themselves into three bands; or “appointed three heads” f, as it may be rendered; there were three bodies of them under so many leaders and commanders, and this was done, that they might the more easily take them; and they “diffused or spread themselves” g, as the word signifies, upon or about the camels; they surrounded them on all sides, or otherwise, these being swift creatures, would have run away from them: these Chaldeans or Chasdim were the descendants of Chesed, a son of Nahor, who was brother to Abraham, Ge 22:20, who settled in the east country, not far from Job: and this agrees with the character that Xenophon h gives of the Chaldeans, at least some of them, in later times; that they lived upon robbing and plundering others, having no knowledge of agriculture, but got their bread by force of arms; and such as these Satan could easily instigate to come and carry off Job’s camels:
yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee; [See comments on Job 1:15].
f “posuerunt tria capita”, Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt; “duces”, Pagninus, Vatablus. g “et diffuderunt se”, Mercerus, Schmidt “effuderunt se”, Cocceius. h Cyropaedia, l. 3. c. 11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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 , heads, multitudes, bands (two – Gen. Job 14:15; three – Jdg 7:16, 1Sa 11:11; or four – Judg. Job 9:34), is an ancient military stratagem; and , e.g., Jdg 9:33, is the proper word for attacks of such bands, either for plunder or revenge. In , at the edge of the sword, l’epe, is like the usual acc. of manner.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(17) The Chaldeans.Literally, Chasdim, or descendants of Chesed (Gen. 22:22; see Note on Job. 1:1). This name reappears in the classic Carduchia and in the modern Kurdistan, as well as in the more familiar Chalda; it being a well-known philological law that r and l and r and s are interchangeable. It is to be noted that this calamity arose from the opposite quarter to the last, illustrating the well-known fact that troubles never come alone, and that causes of a widely different nature seem to combine to overthrow the falling man.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THIRD MESSENGER.
17. The Chaldaeans Or, Chasdim. They appear to have been one of the many Cushite tribes inhabiting the great alluvial plain lying far to the north-east of Idumea, known as Babylonia or Chaldaea the latter, according to Ptolemy, forming the south-western portion of the former. From the earliest times the people occupying this land, though of the Hamite race, have been distinguished for their cultivation of science and their discoveries in the arts. Their principal tribe was the Accad.
Gen 10:10
Three bands They formed themselves into three columns, (Jdg 7:16: 1Sa 11:11,) according to the ancient tactics of war; literally, “set three heads ( bands) and spread out,” ( ,) that they might encompass the three thousand camels, which are easily affrighted and then exceedingly difficult to take. These three bands, according to Jahn, were probably the center, left, and right wing. In illustration of the availableness of the camel, Wellsted ( Arabia, 1:300) states that the usual pace of the Oman camels, when the Bedawin mount them for a desert journey, is a quick, hard trot from six to eight miles an hour. They will continue this for twenty to twenty-four consecutive hours, but increase their speed, on occasions which require it, to thirteen or fifteen miles an hour. Laborde tells us ( Arabia, 264) that his camel carried him from Suez to Cairo (thirty-two leagues) in seventeen hours. Burckhardt ( Notes, 2:79) describes a wager which the camel lost, but he had traveled one hundred and fifteen miles in eleven hours, though twice crossing the Nile in a ferry-boat.
FOURTH MESSENGER.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 1:17 While he [was] yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Ver. 17. While he was yet speaking ] See on Job 1:16 .
The Chaldeans
Made out three bands
And fell upon the camels
And have carried them away
Yea, and slain the servants, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Chaldeans: Gen 11:28, Isa 23:13, Hab 1:6
fell: Heb. rushed
I only am: Job 1:15, 2Sa 1:3
Reciprocal: Gen 10:22 – Elam 2Ki 24:2 – the Lord Job 5:5 – the robber Job 18:9 – robber Job 19:16 – my servant Job 20:22 – every hand Job 24:2 – violently Psa 119:61 – The bands Jer 50:1 – the land Eze 23:23 – the Chaldeans
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 1:17. There came also another Bringing tidings still more afflictive than either of the two former; and said, The Chaldeans Who also lived upon spoil, as Xenophon and others observe; made out three bands
That they might come upon their prey several ways, and that nothing might be able to escape them; and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away The three thousand camels which Job had; (see Job 1:3;) a prodigious loss indeed! slaying, at the same time, the servants that tended them. If the fire of God, and the sword of the plunderers, which fell upon Jobs honest servants that were in the way of their duty, had fallen upon the Sabean robbers that were doing mischief, Gods judgments therein would have been like the great mountains, evident and conspicuous; but when the way of the wicked prospers, and they carry off their booty, while just and good men are suddenly cut off, Gods righteousness is like the great deep, the bottom of which we cannot find, Psa 36:6.