Bible Strands
Job 1:9
Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Satan addresses God directly in response to God’s own commendation of Job, posing a rhetorical question at the moment divine favor is highlighted. The words — The Hebrew term חִנָּם (ḥinnām) translates literally to “in vain” or “for nothing,” reducing Job’s reverence to a transactional exchange. The thread — This challenge to motive runs parallel to Matthew 16:26’s warning about gaining the world at the cost of the soul, and is later answered by Job’s uncalculated trust in Job 1:21. Why it lands — The verse states that Satan questions whether devotion requires divine reward, then infers that faith may be self-serving, forcing a reader to examine personal motives without assuming hidden agendas.
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
Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Cross-references
- Matthew 16:26 What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
- 1 Timothy 4:8 For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come.
- Job 1:21 saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
- Job 21:14 Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
- 1 Timothy 6:6 Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.
- Job 2:10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
- Malachi 1:10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.