The first five verses introduce us to Job and his life on earth. The next scene starting with verse six introduces us to the heavenly court. Verses one through five are natural and from man’s perspective. This next part is Supernatural and we only know of it because God chose to reveal it to the author.

One of the first things I found in study of these verses is something that is not at all obvious in the typical English translations. In scene one, God is referred to as “God”. In this second scene, God is referred to as “the Lord”. With a little bit of my memory that does not work, I could probably distinguish the nuances between the use of “God” and the use of “the Lord”. I found however that in Hebrew, there is a vast difference because they do not use “the Lord”, they use His actual name “Yahweh” to identify the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I really prefer this usage when appropriate as it eliminates the question of whose God are we talking about.

Interestingly, in my daily study I saw how God was once referred to as “the God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father.” (Gen 31:53) Nahor being Abraham’s brother and their father being Tehah who God called out of the land of Ur. Another rabbit trail, Nahor was also the name of Tehah’s father. This line runs back to Shem, son of Noah.

The next study from verse six is what exactly do the myriad of terms for the beings that go before God mean. I found divine beings, angels, servants, courtiers, sons of God, lesser gods, among others. I personally prefer heavenly beings as it is adequate to define them as supernatural, but not so specific as to define their roles or backgrounds that may not have been intended by the author.

Lesser gods is out because I believe there is only one God. Sons of God is out because I believe there was only one Son of God who died on the cross to save me. Servants is out as it distinguishes nothing about the beings. Divine beings is the same as heavenly being, yet a little too generic. Angels is also too generic, but mainly because we learn elsewhere of the hierarchy within their ranks. Courtiers has a certain appeal in the context of Satan being among them in his role as Adversary or Accuser. I did use “heavenly court” to balance the supernatural and the court aspect of the scene. I am not sure of the court aspect as no other details of the “meeting” are recorded.

Also in verse six, I took note of the phrase translated as “came to present themselves before the Lord.” I did not look to other sources, but settled on “came into the presence of Yahweh.” “The Lord’s presence” seems acceptable, but “Yahweh’s presence” does not; maybe because I am used to “the Lord” in my past readings. “The presence of Yahweh” seems so much more dignified and appropriate. “Came into” was a bit of a struggle as I picture only getting to be there as a privilege and decided that if they were the court, they had a little more right to “come into” with being “brought before.”

Christ as the Son of God has the right to “come into” and passes that onto us through the atonement of His blood. I envision being brought before the seat of judgement and then being allowed to come into the presence of Yahweh.

Lots of little things to look at and exactly why I was happy to choose this period to study Job.