The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the word “satan” is an ordinary Hebrew word. Usually it can be translated by its English equivalent, “adversary”; and usually the A. V. translators have done this. Young’s Concordance lists the following passages where the word “satan” is translated “adversary” in the A. V.: Numbers 22:22; 1 Samuel 29:4; 2 Samuel 19:22; 1 Kings 5:4, 11:14, 23, 25. These passages demonstrate that the adversary may be good, bad or indifferent. The first relates to an angel of God, the second to David, the third to David’s cousins, the fourth is negative and general, and the remainder (those of 1 Kings 11) are adversaries whom God stirred up against Solomon because of his disobedience. The related verb, “satan” is used in Psalms 71:13, 109:20, 29.
Sometimes the translators have left the word “satan” untranslated, as, for example, in Job and Zechariah 3. Ought they not to have rendered it “adversary” here too? Perhaps they could have done so; but they had a good reason for preferring to let the original word stand. In Job 1 & 2 and Zechariah 3:1, the word “satan” is preceded by the definite article. It is not “a satan” but “the satan”. It is a distinctive title given to a special adversary: so there may be some justification for leaving it untranslated.
There are just two passages where the A. V. translators may have misled us: 1 Chronicles 21:1 and Psalms 109:6.
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Author: Peter Watkins
Keywords: Satan, Adversary, Angel of light, Devil
Bible reference(s): Numbers 22:22, 1 Samuel 29:4, 2 Samuel 19:22, 1 Kings 5:4, 1 Kings 11:14, 1 Kings 11:23, 1 Kings 11:25, Psalms 71:13, Psalms 109:20, Psalms 109:29
Source: Some Difficult Passages, Book 2 (CIL).
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