Albert Barnes Commentary Job 1:20

"Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped;" — Job 1:20 (ASV)

Then Job arose - The phrase "to arise," in the Scriptures, is often used in the sense of beginning to do anything. It does not necessarily imply that the person had been previously sitting; see (2 Samuel 13:13).

And tore his mantle - The word rendered here as “mantle,” מעיל (me‛ı̂yl), means an upper or outer garment. The dress of Orientals primarily consists of an undergarment or tunic—which is not substantially different from the “shirt” familiar to us, except that its sleeves are wider—and beneath this, they wear large, loose pantaloons (Niebuhr, Reisebeschreibung 1. 157). Over these garments, they often throw a full and flowing mantle or robe. This is made without sleeves, reaches down to the ankles, and when they walk or exercise, it is bound around the middle with a girdle or sash. When they labor, it is usually laid aside. The robe referred to here was worn sometimes by women (2 Samuel 13:18); by men of birth and rank, and by kings (1 Samuel 15:27; 1 Samuel 18:4; 1 Samuel 24:5, 11); by priests (1 Samuel 28:14), and especially by the high priest under the ephod (Exodus 28:31).

See Braun, De Vestitu Sacerdotum, ii. 5; Schroeder, De Vestibus Mulierum.

Hebrew, p. 267; Hartmann, Hebraerin, iii, p. 512; and Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum by Ugolino, Tome i, p. 509; Tome iii, p. 74; Tome iv, p. 504; Tome viii, p. 90, 1000; Tome xii, p. 788; Tome xiii, p. 306. Compare the notes at (Matthew 5:40), and Niebuhr, as quoted above.

The custom of tearing the garment as an expression of grief prevailed not only among the Jews but also among the Greeks and Romans (Livy 1.13; Suetonius, in “Julius Caesar,” 33). It also prevailed among the Persians (Curtius, Book 10, Chapter 5, Section 17). See Christian Boldich, in Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum, Tome xii, p. 145; also Tome xiii, pp. 551, 552, 560; Tome xxx, pp. 1105, 1112.

In further proof that the custom prevailed among pagans, see Diodorus Siculus, Book 1, p. 3, Chapter 3, regarding the Egyptians, and Book 17 regarding the Persians; Quintus Curtius, 3.11; Herodotus, Book 3 (Thalia), and Book 8 (Urania), where he speaks of the Persians. So Plutarch, in his life of Antony, speaking of Cleopatra’s deep grief, says, περίεῤῥηξατο τοὺς πέπλους ἐπ’ αὐτῷ (perierrēxato tous peplous ep’ autō). Thus, Herodian, Book 1: καὶ ῥηξαμένη ἐσθῆτα (kai rhēxamenē esthēta). So Statius, in Glaucum:

Tu modo fusus humi, lucem aversaris iniquam,
Nunc torvus pariter vestes, et pectora rumpis.

So Virgil:

Tunc pius Aeneas humeris abscindere vestem,
Auxilioque vocare Deos, et tendere palmas.

Aeneid 5.685.

Demittunt mentes; it scissa veste Latinus,
Conjugis attonitus fatis, urbisque ruina.

Aeneid 12.609.

So Juvenal, Satire 10:

Ut primos edere planctus
Cassandra inciperet, scissaque Polyxena palla.

Numerous other quotations from classical writers, as well as from Jewish writings, may be seen in Ugolino’s Sacerdotium Hebraicum, Chapter 6 (Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum, Tome xiii, p. 550 and following).

And shaved his head - This was also a common way of expressing great sorrow. Sometimes it was done by formally cutting off the hair of the head, sometimes by plucking it violently out by the roots, and sometimes the beard was also plucked out or cut off. The idea seems to have been that mourners should divest themselves of what was usually considered most ornamental (Isaiah 7:20). Lucian says that the Egyptians expressed their grief by cutting off their hair on the death of their god Apis, and the Syrians in the same manner at the death of Adonis. Olympiodorus remarks on this passage that people for whom long hair was regarded as an ornament would cut it off in times of mourning; but those who commonly wore short hair would, on such occasions, allow it to grow long.

See Rosenmüller, Morgenland, on this passage. A full description of the customs of the Hebrews in times of mourning, and particularly of the custom of plucking out the hair, may be seen in Martin Geier, De Hebraeorum Luctu, especially in Chapter 8.

See Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum, vol. 33, p. 147 and following. The meaning here is that Job was filled with excessive grief, and he expressed that grief in the manner common in his day.

Nature demands some external expression of sorrow, and religion does not forbid it. He who gives an appropriate expression to sorrow pays tribute to the nature with which God has endowed him; he wars against that nature who attempts to remove from his countenance, conversation, dress, and dwelling everything that indicates the sorrows of his soul in a time of calamity. Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, and religion is not designed to make the heart insensible or incapable of grief. Piety, like every kind of virtue, always increases the soul’s susceptibility to suffering.

Philosophy and sin destroy sensibility, but religion deepens it. Philosophy does this on principle, for its great object is to render the heart dead to all feeling; sin produces the same effect naturally.

The drunkard, the licentious man, and the man of avarice are incapable of being affected by the tender scenes of life. Guilt has paralyzed their feelings and rendered them dead. But religion allows people to feel, and then shows its power in sustaining the soul and imparting its consolations to the heart that is broken and sad. It comes to dry up the mourner’s tears, not to forbid those tears to flow; to pour the balm of consolation into the heart, not to teach the heart to be unfeeling.

And fell down upon the ground - So Joshua, in a time of great calamity, prostrated himself upon the earth and worshipped (Joshua 7:6). The Orientals were then in the habit, as they are now, of prostrating themselves on the ground as an act of homage. Job seems to have done this partly as an expression of grief and partly as an act of devotion—solemnly bowing before God in the time of his great trial.

And worshipped - He worshipped God. He resigned himself to His will. A pious man has nowhere else to go in trial, and he will desire to go nowhere else than to the God who has afflicted him.