Istilah asal dalam bahasa Ibrani (שָּׂטָן) ini adalah merupakan kata nama generik yang bermaksud "penuduh" atau "musuh". Ia digunakan dalam kitab suci agama berbahasa Ibrani bagi merujuk kepada permusuhan antara manusia biasa dan juga merujuk kepada entiti kuasa ghaib. Perkataan ini diterbitkan dari kata kerja yang asasnya bermaksud "menghalang, menentang". Apabila ia digunakan tanpa sebarang penanda tetap iaitu dengan kata satana sahaja maka ia akan merujuk kepada sesiapa sahaja sebagai penuduh. Namun apabila ia digunakan bersama dengan penanda tetap seperti ha-satana maka ia selalunya merujuk kepada penuduh samawi, Syaitan.
Ha-Satan dengan penanda tetap ini muncul sebanyak 13 kali dalam teks masoretik, dalam dua kitab Perjanjian Lama iaitu sebanyak 10 kali dalam Kitab Ayub bab 1-2 dan sebanyak tiga kali dalam kitab Zakaria bab 3: 1-2. Satan tanpa penanda tetap digunakan sebanyak 10 kali dan ia diterjemahkan menjadi Diabolos dalam kitab Septuagint berbahasa Yunani dan Satan dalam Kitab Perjanjian Lama versi King James yang berbahasa Inggeris.
1 Chronicles 21:1, "Satan stood up against Israel" (KJV) or "And there standeth up an adversary against Israel" (Young's Literal Translation)[13]
Psalm 109:6b "and let Satan stand at his right hand" (KJV)[14] or "let an accuser stand at his right hand." (ESV, etc.)
The word "satan" does not occur in the Book of Genesis, which mentions only a talking serpent and does not identify the serpent with any supernatural entity.[15] The first occurrence of the word "satan" in the Hebrew Bible in reference to a supernatural figure comes from Numbers 22:22,[16] which describes the Angel of Yahweh confronting Balaam on his donkey:[6] "Balaam's departure aroused the wrath of Elohim, and the Angel of Yahweh stood in the road as a satan against him."[16] In 2 Samuel 24, Yahweh sends the "Angel of Yahweh" to inflict a plague against Israel for three days, killing 70,000 people as punishment for David having taken a census without his approval.[17] 1 Chronicles 21:1 repeats this story,[17] but replaces the "Angel of Yahweh" with an entity referred to as "a satan".[17]
Some passages clearly refer to the satan, without using the word itself.[18] 1 Samuel 2:12 describes the sons of Eli as "sons of Belial";[19] the later usage of this word makes it clearly a synonym for "satan".[19] In 1 Samuel 16:14–23 Yahweh sends a "troubling spirit" to torment King Saul as a mechanism to ingratiate David with the king.[20] In 1 Kings 22:19–25, the prophet Micaiah describes to King Ahab a vision of Yahweh sitting on his throne surrounded by the Host of Heaven.[19] Yahweh asks the Host which of them will lead Ahab astray.[19] A "spirit", whose name is not specified, but who is analogous to the satan, volunteers to be "a Lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets".[19]
Book of Job
The Examination of Job (c. 1821) by William Blake
The satan appears in the Book of Job, a poetic dialogue set within a prose framework,[21] which may have been written around the time of the Babylonian captivity.[21] In the text, Job is a righteous man favored by Yahweh.[21] Job 1:6–8 describes the "sons of God" (bənê hāʼĕlōhîm) presenting themselves before Yahweh.[21] Yahweh asks one of them, "the satan", where he has been, to which he replies that he has been roaming around the earth.[21] Yahweh asks, "Have you considered My servant Job?"[21] The satan replies by urging Yahweh to let him torture Job, promising that Job will abandon his faith at the first tribulation.[22] Yahweh consents; the satan destroys Job's servants and flocks, yet Job refuses to condemn Yahweh.[22] The first scene repeats itself, with the satan presenting himself to Yahweh alongside the other "sons of God".[23] Yahweh points out Job's continued faithfulness, to which the satan insists that more testing is necessary;[23] Yahweh once again gives him permission to test Job.[23] In the end, Job remains faithful and righteous, and it is implied that the satan is shamed in his defeat.[24]
Book of Zechariah
Zechariah 3:1–7 contains a description of a vision dated to the middle of February of 519 BC,[25] in which an angel shows Zechariah a scene of Joshua the High Priest dressed in filthy rags, representing the nation of Judah and its sins,[26] on trial with Yahweh as the judge and the satan standing as the prosecutor.[26] Yahweh rebukes the satan[26] and orders for Joshua to be given clean clothes, representing Yahweh's forgiveness of Judah's sins.[26]
Second Temple period
Map showing the expansion of the Achaemenid Empire, in which Jews lived during the early Second Temple Period,[8] allowing Zoroastrian ideas about Angra Mainyu to influence the Jewish conception of Satan[8]
During the Second Temple Period, when Jews were living in the Achaemenid Empire, Judaism was heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Achaemenids.[27][8][28] Jewish conceptions of Satan were impacted by Angra Mainyu,[8][29] the Zoroastrian god of evil, darkness, and ignorance.[8] In the Septuagint, the Hebrew ha-Satan in Job and Zechariah is translated by the Greek word diabolos (slanderer), the same word in the Greek New Testament from whic
