Job 1:9

Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, doth Job fear God for nought.

Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Fear God for nought? It is a mark of the children of Satan to sneer and not give credit to any for disinterested piety.

i.e. Sincerely and freely, and out of pure love and respect to thee? No. It is policy, not piety, that makes him good; he doth not serve thee, but serveth himself of thee, and is a mere mercenary, serving thee for his own ends.

Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?Ver. 9. Then Satan answered and said] Satan and his imps will ever have somewhat to say against the clear truth; their wits will better serve them to elude or withstand it, than their pride and malice will suffer them once to yield and acknowledge it. But what said Austin of the heretics of his time? Garriant illi, nos credamus, Let them chatter, let us belive. Let them talk their fill, and think it a great matter to have the last word; let us hold to our principles, and count it enough, that, with Demetrius, we have good report of all men, (or if not so, yet) of the truth itself, 3 John 1:12. Doth Job fear God for nought?] q.d. No such matter. Is there not a cause? as they said once; hath he not wages of the best? and are not thy retributions more than bouutiful? He may serve thee well enough for such price and pay, as he daily receiveth; he may swim well enough, when so held up by the chin. But the truth is, Job is a mere mercenary, and serveth God for hire; he serveth not God, but himself upon God; in a word, he is an arrant hypocrite, and a self seeker, such a one as doth in parabola ovis capras suas quaerere, to seek among his comparative sheep his nanny-goat, pretend piety to his own worldly respects, and serves God merely out of interest. A hypocrite indeed doth so, being therein like the eagle, which soareth aloft, not for any love of heaven; her eye is all the while upon the prey, which by this means she spieth sooner, and seizeth upon better. But how will Satan prove that Job is a hypocrite, since he cannot possibly know his heart? and did not the searcher of hearts acquit Job of this foul sin in Satan’ s hearing, when he pronounced him perfect and upright, &c.? How impudent then is this accuser of the brethren! The best is, that we have an advocate with the Father, who puts by and non-suits all Satan’ s accusations in the court of heaven, 1 John 2:2. Yea, though Satan sometimes stand at the right hand of Joshua, Zechariah 3:1, and may seem to have the better of him; yet here is the comfort, Jesus Christ our Advocate is also a propitiation for our sins, as it is in the same text. Who then shall lay anything to the charge of God’ s children? Or if any do, what need we care, when it is God that justifieth, and the saints as vanquishers shall come off as Job did, with great glory to themselves, and shame to the assailer.

(9) Doth Job fear God for nought?—Manifesting the worst kind of scepticism, a disbelief in human goodness. Satan knows that the motive of an action is its only value, and by incrimination calumniates the motives of Job. The object of the book is thus introduced, which is to exhibit the integrity of human conduct under the worst possible trial, and to show man a victor over Satan.

Verse 9. Doth Job fear God for naught?] Thou hast made it his interest to be exemplary in his conduct: for this assertion Satan gives his reasons in what immediately follows.

9. for nought] Satan does not dispute Job’s piety; only, the devotion of the rich landowner to the Bountiful Giver of all good is not ill to understand! A different estimate of what true religion is and of the things that are difficulties in the way of it was formed by Another, who said: “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” A subtle turn is given to the words of Satan by Godet in his Essay on Job, who thinks that while they are openly a slur upon man, they are covertly a sarcasm on the Most High Himself, implying that no one truly loves Him, He is served only for the benefits He confers. The Essayist may do no injustice to Satan, but he does to the Old Testament conception of him. The Satan of this Book may shew the beginnings of a personal malevolence against man, but he is still rigidly subordinated to heaven, and in all he does subserves its interests. His function is as the minister of God to try the sincerity of man; hence when his work of trial is over he is no more found, and no place is given him among the dramatis persona of the poem.

Doth Job fear God for nought? - “Is his religion disinterested?

9. Doth Job fear God for nought — The praise of piety implies its counterpart, the condemnation of evil. Smarting under the implied reproof, Satan retorts that Job’s virtue consists solely of selfish fear.