Job 1:13–1:19, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 1:13–1:19
Four Messengers Announce Catastrophic Loss
The children are eating when the first blow lands, and each survivor is a person who has to speak
There was a day when Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. A messenger comes: the oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away; they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
While he is yet speaking, another comes: the fire of God is fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them. Then the Chaldeans make out three bands, fall upon the camels, slay the servants, and another lone messenger lives to report it. The phrase fire of God is the messenger's wording, not a narrator's proof that the dead deserved the flame.
The last report is the house of the eldest son
A great wind from the wilderness smites the four corners of the house, and it falls upon the young men, and they are dead. I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
The servants killed at the plow, at the sheep, and at the camels are persons, not stage dressing for Job's test. The seven sons and three daughters are persons. Their deaths are not a parable device. The prologue has already said Job is upright; this sequence must not be read as their moral exposure.
How this should shape us
After sudden compound loss, name each person who died, meet food, shelter, burial, and safety needs, and do not explain the tragedy. Do not treat workers or children as collateral in someone else's spiritual story.
Teach it back
Explain Job 1:13–1:19 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 1:13–1:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 1:13–1:19
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 1:13–1:19.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 1:13–1:19
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Summary, Background, Introductory Issues: framework, adversary, historicity, and unity; applied to Job 1:13–1:19
Supports: A fully inspected critical alternative on the framework, litigation, human condition, divine speeches, and moral evaluation.
Harvey, 'Questions on the Book of Job,' Religious Studies 59.S1 (2023), pp. S7-S16, The Framework Story; applied to Job 1:13–1:19
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying death wishes, despair, severe loss, and suicide-related material; not exegesis.
WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii, evidence pp. 7-10, dos and don'ts pp. 11-16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Job 1:13–1:19
Sources for This Section
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Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 1:13–1:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 1:13–1:19
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 1:13–1:19.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 1:13–1:19
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Summary, Background, Introductory Issues: framework, adversary, historicity, and unity; applied to Job 1:13–1:19
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗open access philosophical and literary article
Questions on the Book of Job
Warren Zev Harvey
Religious Studies 59, Special Issue S1, 2023
Supports: A fully inspected critical alternative on the framework, litigation, human condition, divine speeches, and moral evaluation.
Exact location: Harvey, 'Questions on the Book of Job,' Religious Studies 59.S1 (2023), pp. S7-S16, The Framework Story; applied to Job 1:13–1:19
Open the Cambridge Job article ↗public health communication guidance
Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023
World Health Organization
World Health Organization, 2023
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying death wishes, despair, severe loss, and suicide-related material; not exegesis.
Exact location: WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii, evidence pp. 7-10, dos and don'ts pp. 11-16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Job 1:13–1:19
Open the WHO communication guide ↗