Bible Strands
Job 1:17
While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — A second messenger reports to Job while a first messenger is still finishing his account of the Sabeans' attack. The report occurs in the middle of Job's rapid succession of calamities.
The words — The Hebrew כַּשְׂדִּים (kasdim) identifies the raiders as Chaldeans, while שָׂמוּ (samu) literally means they formed or organized themselves into groups. These terms ground the narrative in a specific historical and military context.
The thread — The Chaldeans appear in Genesis 11:28 and Genesis 11:31 as inhabitants of Ur, and Habakkuk 1:6 describes them as a ruthless nation God raises up. This verse places Job's personal loss within that broader biblical trajectory of Chaldean activity.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of the systematic nature of the destruction rather than attributing it to a single event. It requires the reader to track the escalating sequence of reports without offering comfort or explanation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Genesis 11:28 During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
- Habakkuk 1:6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
- Genesis 11:31 And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.
- Isaiah 23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans—a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin.
- 2 Samuel 1:3 “Where have you come from?” David asked. “I have escaped from the Israelite camp,” he replied.
- Job 1:15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”