Job Two

by Dr. Henry M. Morris

(taken from the Defender's Study Bible)

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Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

Job 2:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Job 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

Job 2:8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

potsherd. Broken piece of pottery.

Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

curse God. Satan had claimed he could make Job curse God (Job 1:11; 2:5), and now his own wife is used by Satan to urge him to do just that. Job had lost his wealth and his children, now his health and all his great respect in the community (Job 2:8), and finally even his wife. Yet “in all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).

Job 2:10 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.

Job 2:11 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: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.

his own place. Job was a famous man, and the news concerning his calamity spread rapidly, reaching three nearby tribal kingdoms, and apparently the three men who occupied similar positions to that held by Job in Uz. These three “friends” gathered as quickly as they could to learn what had happened and to “comfort” him.

Temanite. Eliphaz, the chief spokesman of the three, was from Teman, an ancient city later prominent among the Edomites who eventually took over that whole region.

Shuhite. Bildad was from Shuhu, an Aramaean city south of Haran, on the middle Euphrates.

Naamathite. Zophar was from Naamah, a city believed to be in Arabia.

Job 2:12 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 mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

Job 2:13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

grief was very great. The scene defies imagination. Job had been living on the ash dump outside the city for a long time before his friends could arrive. He was no longer welcome in the city in which he had formerly been its chief citizen, so ugly and foul was his presence. His former friends and colleagues could not even recognize him (Job 2:12). The most godly man in the world seemed now to be forsaken and repudiated by the God he had loved and served for many years, and he was grief-stricken to a degree probably no one else in the human family has ever experienced. He still trusted God, but Satan was far from finished with his experiment.