Commentary on Job 40:30

One virtue that our commentator clearly lacks is a concern not to offend ethnic sensitivities. But then that virtue is a modern one. Job 40:30 gives him an opportunity to disparage two different nations:

Do the nations feed on him? (40:30) 

Because just as the Lord is the food of the righteous, likewise the serpent is the food of the wicked. For he gave it to the people of Ethiopia (cf. Ps. 73:14), who feed on the many evil deeds from which demons take pleasure.

Do the nations of the Phoenicians share him? (40:30)

But the Phoenicians are a nation of sordid gain (աղտեղաշահք), and they immerse themselves in sin and share the serpent by sacrificing, some to Bel, some to Dagon, and some to Aramazd, and some by doing other wicked things. But God-pleasing men divide him with a sword of the word of faith and kill him by acquiring good things in opposition to all his evil works, which you may readily compare if you wish.

Here again Stepanos follows Olympiodorus.

Olymp. 368.4-19: 

For just as the Lord is the food of the righteous, thus [the serpent] is of the impious. ‘You gave him as food to the Ethiopians’ says the Psalmist (Ps. 73:14), that is, to the sons of darkness, to those who are in ignorance. 

The Phoenicians are occupied in business (πραγματευτικοὶ) and are lovers of gain (φιλοκερδεῖς). [Scripture] hints through this at their immersion in sins.

Present-day Phoenicia was first called Canaan. For the Gospels call the Syro-Phoenician woman a Canaanite. And the Canaanites worship idols. He says then that the idol-worshippers share the serpent.

Otherwise those who sacrifice to idols are rightly thought to be Phoenicians because they become red (φοινισσόμενοι) from the blood on the altar, and one who happens to sacrifice to Dagon, and one to Bel, and one Astarte all share the serpent. Or one who fornicates, and one who covets, and one who participates in some other unlawful act. Or also one who is a false teacher, and one a false prophet. And the different heresies in various ways cut the serpent in pieces.

Evidence for Stepanos' dependence on Olympiodorus is found in his inclusion of the distorted reference to Psalm 73. The Armenian version of the Psalms has զօրացն Հնդկաց (‘army of the Indians’) in the place of Ethiopia.