NP-7074Folder 02 — Biblical Files
'Sons of God' in Job
Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7
The phrase used in Genesis 6 appears three times in Job, and in Job it plainly means heavenly beings.
SCRIPTUREINTERPRETATION
Primary text
Job 1:6 and 2:1: 'there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD.' Job 38:7: at creation's foundation 'the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy'.
Why this is the strongest argument for reading 1
In Job the phrase cannot mean the line of Seth — Seth's descendants did not exist at the founding of the earth. Consistent vocabulary across the Hebrew Bible is the main lexical support for the heavenly-beings reading of Genesis 6.
Counter-consideration
Vocabulary consistency is strong but not absolute; Hebrew idioms shift by book, genre and era. It raises the probability of reading 1 — it does not close the case.