Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 1:16

"While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." — Job 1:16 (ASV)

The fire of God. —Whether or not we understand this phrase as in the margin, it can hardly mean anything else than lightning. (Compare Genesis 19:24, and 2 Kings 1:10–14.) It is characteristic of the Old Testament poetry to see in the convulsions of nature the immediate action of the Most High; but perhaps it is intended throughout Job that we should see more than this, as the book undoubtedly assumes to be the record of a Divine revelation.