ACCUSER, adversary — one who opposes, obstructs, or brings a charge. ⚠ In Job it always appears as HA-satan, WITH THE DEFINITE ARTICLE (all fourteen times), and Hebrew does not put 'the' in front of a proper name: it is an office, not yet a name. The same titled figure prosecutes the high priest in Zechariah 3:1-2, and in Numbers 22:22 the angel of Jehovah himself stands in the road 'as a satan' against Balaam — the plainest proof that the word is a role. The one occurrence without the article, and so possibly a name, is 1 Chronicles 21:1 — the latest of the texts, retelling a story in which 2 Samuel 24 has JEHOVAH incite David. The word's growth into a name is visible inside the Bible. ⭐ Now that Numbers 22 is on these pages the count can be given exactly. The phrase le-satan, 'as an adversary', stands in FOUR verses of the Hebrew Bible: Numbers 22:22 and 22:32, where it is the angel of Jehovah; 1 Samuel 29:4, where Philistine commanders fear David will become one in battle; and 2 Samuel 19:23, where David says it of the sons of Zeruiah. ⚠ Not one of the four is the devil, and two of them are God's own messenger. And the shelf divides on it perfectly: at Job 1:6 and Zechariah 3:1 all thirteen versions this project consults print 'Satan' as a name, and at Numbers 22:22 not one of the thirteen prints the word at all — it becomes 'an adversary', 'to oppose', 'to resist', «a no dejarlo pasar», and in the TLB 'to kill him'. They are following a real distinction (the court figure is always HA-satan, with the article); what a reader loses is any way to see that the two are the same word. → first discussed at Job 1:6