Sons of God. — Comp. Job 38:7; Genesis 6:2; Genesis 6:4; and for the sense comp. 1 Kings 22:19. The phrase probably means the angels; or at all events an incident in the unseen spiritual world is referred to simultaneous with a corresponding one on earth. (Comp. 1 Corinthians 11:10.) In the latter sense, a solemn thought is suggested by it to those who join in the public worship of God.
Satan. — The word appears in the Old Testament as the name of a specific person only here and in Zechariah 3:2, and possibly in 1 Chronicles 21:1 and Psalms 109:6. If this psalm is David’s, according to the inscription, no reliance can be placed on speculations as to the late introduction of a belief in Satan among the Jews, nor, therefore, on any as to the lateness of these early Chapter s of Job. Precisely the same word is used, apparently as a common name, in the history of Balaam (Numbers 22:22; Numbers 22:32), also in 1 Samuel 29:4, and 1 Kings 5:4; 1 Kings 11:14; 1 Kings 11:23; 1 Kings 11:25, where it can hardly be otherwise. Here only and in Zechariah it is found with the definite article “the adversary.” The theory of the personality of the evil one must largely depend upon the view we take of these and other passages of Scripture as containing an authoritative revelation.