Verses 18-19 form a unit on the pattern of 1.16-17. The first and third attacks were by human forces; the second and fourth are the work of nature. The fourth messenger arrives with the worst news of all: Job’s children are all dead. The present episode began depicting the children feasting. Now the author returns to the celebration that has been going on during the series of tragedies. (See verse 13.)

In 1.19 behold, a great wind came across the wilderness begins with the same word translated “Behold” in verse 12. Here the word serves more as an attention-getter, pointing forward to a sudden action about to be reported. In some languages this is rendered “hear my two words,” “listen, I say,” or by particles that serve this purpose.

A great wind: Good News Translation uses “storm,” which is generic. The wind came across the wilderness. Winds blowing off the desert are normally hot, dry, and dusty. Jeremiah 13.24 speaks of a desert wind. Here the emphasis is on the suddenness and destructive force of the wind. New English Bible has “whirlwind,” Bible en français courant “hurricane,” and Bible de Jérusalem “violent wind.” In language areas which experience such winds, there are usually specific terms. In such cases it may only be necessary to qualify the particular wind term as “strong,” “violent,” or “destructive.” The author does not intend to suggest that the wind is a mysterious one, but rather that it blew in from the desert. In languages where desert areas are unknown, one must often translate “a strong wind blew from the dry, barren place.” If this expression is ambiguous or too vague, it will be better to say, for example, “a strong wind blew.”

Struck the four corners of the house: no part of the house escaped the violence of the storm. In languages in which houses cannot be described as having “corners” (because they are round), we may speak of the “walls”; for example, “the wind blew against the walls.” In any event the four corners is simply a way of saying the wind struck the house, the entire building, and is a dramatic device leading up to the destruction of the building and its occupants.

And it fell upon the young people, and they are dead: the wind hit the house on all four sides, causing it to collapse on the occupants and killing them, or as Good News Translation says with economy of words, “it blew the house down and killed them all.” The word translated the young people is the same word translated “servants” in the other destructions. Although the word in Hebrew is masculine, it includes Job’s daughters as well as the servants (male and female) working in the oldest brother’s house.

Now Job has lost everything except his wife, who has been spared to echo the pitiless heart of Satan in chapter 2.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .