Job 2

4. Skin for skin. Job may be willing to surrender his property and his children, so long as he is permitted to retain what is equivalent to all—his own life. Satan’s inference is, that Job’s piety had not yet been subjected to the severest test.

7 boils. Supposed to have been elephantiasis Graecorum. See Sir J. R. Bennett’s Diseases of the Bible, p. 97. The nature and effects of the disease are indicated in other passages of the book: see ii. 6; vii. 4, 5; xiii. 14, 28; xvi. 8, 16; xvii. 1; xix. 20; xxx. 17, 30.

10 one of the foolish women. The epithet often means “wicked” (R.V. marg., “impious”): see Gen. xxxiv. 7.

shall we not receive evil? That is, “Shall we recognise God only with gratitude for the blessings which He gives, and not also with submission to the sorrow which He sends?”

11. Eliphaz the Temanite. These personal and geographical names, as well as those in i. 1, 15, 17, give some clue to the scene of the history: Teman (south) was in the land of Edom; the Shuhites were descendants of Shwach, a son of Abraham by Keturah; their home was probably west of Chaldæa, bordering on Arabia; the Naamathites and their locality are nowhere else mentioned in Scripture. There was, however, a Naamah in the Valley (Shephelah) of South-west Palestine, Josh. xv. 41. These friends of Job seem to have been not only persons of distinction but also men of wisdom and piety, though they expressed many erroneous views.

12 knew him not. So altered was his appearance by disease and suffering.

13 seven days and seven nights. A usual time of mourning among Orientals: see Gen. l. 10; 1 Sam. xxxi. 13.

none spake a word. They were astonished at Job’s sufferings, and unable to offer any consolation in consequence of the views they entertained of their cause.