Job 2
OGCQUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 2:1-13
What is cynicism? Who is the father of it?
How well would we do stripped of all our security symbols? Discuss.
Read verse three and discuss how it is that Satan is able to move God.
What is meant by the phrase skin for skin?
Describe the disease sent by Satan. Discuss its ten characteristics.
Why sit in the ashes?
Someone reacted like Satan expected, who was it? Why?
In what sense did Job call his wife foolish?
Who is our greatest enemy?
Who are Job’s friends? What was their job? From where?
TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION
Satan Tests Job Again
2 When the day came for the heavenly beings to appear before the Lord again, Satan was there among them. 2 The Lord asked him, Where have you been? Satan answered, I have been walking here and there, roaming around the earth. 3 The Lord asked, Did you notice my servant Job? There is no one on earth as faithful and good as he is. He worships me and is careful not to do anything evil. You persuaded me to let you attack him for no reason at all, but Job is still as faithful as ever. 4 Satan replied, A man will give up everything in order to stay alive. 5 But now suppose you hurt his bodyhe will curse you to your face. 6 So the Lord said to Satan, All right, he is in your power, but you are not to kill him. 7 Then Satan left the Lord’s presence and made sores break out all over Job’s body. 8 Job went and sat by the garbage dump and took a piece of broken pottery to scrape his sores.-’ His wife said to him, You are still as faithful as ever, aren-’t you? Why don-’t you curse God and die? 10 Job answered, You are talking nonsense! When God sends us something good we welcome it. How can we complain when he sends us trouble? Even in all this suffering Job did not say anything against God.
Job’s Friends Come
11 Three of Job’s friends were Eliphaz, from the city of Teman, Bildad, from the land of Shuah, and Zophar, from the land of Namah. When they heard how much Job had been suffering, they decided to go visit him and comfort him. 12 While they were still a long way off they saw Job, but did not recognize him. When they did, they began to weep and wail. They tore their clothes in grief and threw dust into the air and on their heads. 13 Then they sat there on the ground with him for seven days and nights without saying a word, because they saw how much he was suffering.
Job 2:1-8
- The second trialbodily suffering (Job 2:1-8)
TEXT 2:1-8
2** Again it came to pass on the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah, that Satan came also among them to present himself before Jehovah. (2) And Jehovah said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answereth Jehovah, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. (3) And Jehovah said onto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil: and he still holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. (4) And Satan answered Jehovah, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will be give for bis life. (5) But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce thee to thy face. (6) And Jehovah said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; only spare his life.
(7) So Satan, went forth from the presence of Jehovah, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. (8) And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself therewith; and he sat among the ashes.**
COMMENT 2:1-8
Job 2:1-3Job 2:1-3 a repeat Job 1:6-8 almost verbally. In Job 2:3 b without cause is the very same adverb as appears in Job 1:9 translated as for nothing. It is Satan’s cynicism, not Job’s integrity, that goes for nothing. Now Satan begins his sustained attack on the individual as against the corporate. Job’s ultimate concern is neither things nor family, but his integrity before Yahweh. Strip him of all his values and security symbols and he will still reverence God. The verb translated holds fast literally means to hold firmly or tenaciously to something. One may also hold firmly to anger (Micah 7:18; or to deceitJer 8:5). In Job 27:6 we are told that he holds firmly to his innocence. The verb translated movedst or incited me against him generally is used in a negative senseJob 36:18; Deuteronomy 13:7; Joshua 15:18. Yahweh even gives Satan his due for instigating the experiment.
**Job 2:4**The proverbial saying skin after skin is meaningful only because of the following phraseall that a man has he will give for his life. Then the Lord gives Satan permission to get under Job’s skin, anything short of his death. The Hebrew word translated his life (napso) means himself as a person.[38] Satan does not want Job dead because then he could never prove that Job’s piety rested in self-interest. A martyr for a cause is hardly an appropriate example of radical self-interest.
[38] See the indispensable comparative study of Hebrew psychological terms used metaphorically in Edouard Dhorme, L-‘Emploi metaphorique des noms de parties du corps en hebreu et in akkadian (Paris, 1923).
**Job 2:5**God has permitted Satan to only lightly touch Job, i.e., externally and superficially. Now, from skin to skin into the depths of Job’s beingflesh and bone. Surely now Job will revolt against Yahweh when He afflicts his bones and flesh. Such is Satan’s shrewd strategy. But stripped of honor and health, Job still fears God.
**Job 2:7**Job is afflicted with some unnamed but disfiguring disease which causes continual pain and sleeplessness. The first disease has been identified with leprosy, because the ancients considered elephantiasis as a disease peculiar to Egypt.[39] The Hebrew word means -to be inflamed, hot-’ Thus the disease which afflicts Job is an inflammation of the skin which causes sores and boils. We do not seek to minimize Job’s agony and alienation, but it seems idle to seek a precise identification of his disease. The symptoms of his despicable disease are presented throughout the Jobian drama: (1) inflamed eruptionsJob 2:7; (2) intolerable itchingJob 2:8; (3) disfigured appearanceJob 2:12; (4) maggots in his ulcersJob 7:5; (5) terrifying dreamsJob 7:14; (6) running tears which blind his eyesJob 16:16; (7) fetid breathJob 19:17; (8) emaciated bodyJob 19:20; (9) erosion of the bonesJob 30:17; (10) blackening and peeling off of his skinJob 30:30.[40]
[39] Pliny, Natural History, XXVI, 7ff; and Lucretius, VI, 1105ff.
[40] A document from the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Prayer of Nabonidus reveals that he is afflicted with the same disease as is Job. See R. Meyer, Das Gebet des Nabonid, 1962, p. 16, A 2f.
**Job 2:8**Because of the intolerable itching, Job takes a broken piece of pottery to scrape himself. How much Lord? He sat among the ashes. This describes the dunghill (mazbaleh) outside of town. Here the rubbish was thrown. Children, outcasts, and dogs came here. When tragedy came, men came here to sit (Isaiah 47:1; Jonah 3:6), or roll in the ashes (Jeremiah 6:26; Micah 1:10); or to throw ashes on their heads (Ezekiel 27:30).[41]
[41] See Dhorme, Job, p. 19 for description.
Job 2:9-10
- Job refuses to curse God. (Job 2:9-10)
TEXT 2:9, 10
(9) Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce God, and die. (10) But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What: shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
COMMENT 2:9, 10
**Job 2:9**Not Job, but his wife reacts as Satan intended. Here the Septuagint inserts a long speech from Job’s wife. (The Qoran also refers to Job’s rebuke of his wife in 38:43.) But the lean and spare simplicity of our text proceeds to set the stage for the dramatic dialogue. This situation must not be psychoanalyzed, especially now that we are deeply involved in women’s liberation mentality. Psychoanalysis of dead people is a most precarious scientific pastime. We accept it as a matter of fact. Curse Elohim and die. Resignation is not the chief attribute of Job’s wife. She, like many of us, are only prepared for good not evil in God’s universe.
**Job 2:10**The sufferer responds to his wife’s mindless suggestion. He calls her foolish. This is not a reflection on her intelligence, but rather on her moral character. Nabal (1 Samuel 25:25masculine form) is the masculine form of the same word and means one who is both morally and intellectually obtuse. David describes a fool (same word) as one who says there is no GodPsa 14:1. This fool is one who wants to live as though there is no God before whom we will give an account of every thought and action. Job has accepted the loss of property and family. He here accepts his illness, in hope of resurrection. Death is not our greatest enemy as the Buddhist mentality of the 20th century seeks to say; live it up, for today may be all that you have.
Job 2:11-13
- Three friends come, and a further great trial begins (their insinuations). (Job 2:11-13)
TEXT 2:11-13
(11) Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to bemoan him and to comfort him. (12) And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his robe, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. (13) So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and no one spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
COMMENT 2:11-13
**Job 2:11**The passage in Job 2:11-13 prepares for the coming dialogue. Job’s three comforters are professional wise men from Edom (the proverbial home of wise men, Obadiah 1:8; Jeremiah 49:7). Their concern is both genuine and charitable. They find Job’s condition worse than they had expected and begin expressing the ritual gestures for mourning for the dead by a week long silence.[42] They wait for Job to break his silence before attempting to comfort him. Silence is often the deepest comfort. Our mere presence is frequently the most powerful therapy for broken hearts. Three concerned wise men come to console Job: (1) Eliphaz, (probably means God is fine goldGen 36:11; Genesis 36:15; Genesis 36:42; 1 Chronicles 1:36; 1 Chronicles 1:53) the Temanite. Teman is from a root meaning the right hand of southland, because when one faces the rising sun his right hand is to the south. Teman is probably located in Nabatean territory about 15 miles from Petra (Jeremiah 49:7; Ezekiel 25:13; Amos 1:12 f; Obadiah 1:9Teman is always a principal location of Edom). (2) Bildad, (meaning uncertain[43]) the Shuhite. Shuah is mentioned as a son of Abraham and QeturahGen 25:2; 1 Chronicles 1:32. The geographical location is, in all probability, also to be found in Edom or Arabia. (3) Zophar, (means young dove,the name appears only in Job) the Naamathite. The most likely location is that of Jebel el Na-‘ameh, approximately 40 miles east of Tebuk.[44] The three made an appointment with Job for the purpose of consoling him. The verb means to move to and fro, i.e., to move the body as a sign of mutual grief.
[42] N. Lohfink, Vetus Testamentum 12 (1962), pp. 260-77.
[43] See suggestions of Speiser and Albright. Speiser, Archiv fur Orientalforschung, 6 (1930), p. 23; and W. F. Albright, Journal of Biblical Literature, 54 (1935), p. 174, N. 3.
[44] For major possibilities see F. M. Abel, Geographie de la Palestine Tome I, Paris, 1933, p. 287, N. 4.
Job 2:12Job was so disfigured by the disease that they did not recognize him. To this extent Job is similar to the Suffering Servant of Isa 53:3, Job’s vindicator, and our Saviour. Each of the three sheikhs wore a robe as a badge of nobility, like JobJob 1:20. As a sign of torturous grief one tore his robe and sprinkled dust upon his head (Joshua 7:6; Ezekiel 27:30).
**Job 2:13**The three wise men sat down with him on the ground. This was the Near Eastern custom for mourners (Lamentations 2:10). The seven days and nights was also the custom for mourning the dead. Surely they thought Job would die, so aggravated was his condition. Sympathy and grief comingled between the sufferer and the mourners. (Ezekiel sat seven days and nights among the exilesJob 3:15.)