---
title: Job 1:7
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/job-1-7/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/job-1-7.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Job 1:7
testament: OT
section: Poetry
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Job 1:7

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan.  “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "Then Jehovah said to Satan: 'Where do you come from?' At that Satan answered Jehovah and said: 'From roving about in the earth and from walking about in it.'"
- NWT (2013 revision): "Then Jehovah said to Satan: 'Where have you come from?' Satan answered Jehovah: 'From roving about on the earth and from walking about in it.'"

## JW Usage

JWs cite Job 1:7 to confirm Satan's active role as wandering adversary on the earth, and to demonstrate that Jehovah retains sovereign questioning authority over him. The verse is treated as historical rather than mythic and is used to motivate vigilance against satanic influence in worldly culture, entertainment, and apostate teaching. The locomotion language is acknowledged but rarely pressed against the parallel framing of Satan as nearly ubiquitous in Watchtower pulpit speech.

## Protestant Usage

Job 1:7 is the clearest single verse on Satan's mode of operation: he goes to and fro. Jehovah asks where he has come from, and Satan answers "from roving about on the earth and from walking about in it" (NWT 2013). The grammar is locomotion grammar: he comes from somewhere, he reports an itinerary, he is in one place at one time. Pair this verse with 1 Peter 5:8 (he "prowls" — locomotion), Zechariah 3:1 (he stands at Joshua's right hand to accuse — one place, one posture), Revelation 20:1-3 (he is bound — locatable), and James 4:7 (he flees when resisted — movable). The cumulative picture: Satan is creature, not ubiquity. Now set this against Jeremiah 23:24 — Yahweh fills heaven and earth, and that omnipresence is exclusive. On the doorstep, the verse helps name the asymmetry that JW pulpit-speech often blurs: Satan moves, Jehovah fills. The one is a creature; the other is the Creator. Restoring that distinction restores room for honest inquiry instead of attributing every doubt to a nearly-omnipresent adversary.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Satan Is Not Omnipresent — Locomotion, Not Ubiquity](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/satan-functional-omnipresence.md) — Job 1:7 — Going to and fro on the earth [Holy Spirit]