INTRODUCTION TO JOB 2 This chapter gives an account of a second trial of Job's constancy and integrity, the time and occasion of it, Job 2:1; the motion made for it by Satan, which being granted, he smote him from head to foot with sore boils, which he endured very patiently, Job 2:4; during which... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAIN, THERE WAS A DAY, WHEN THE SONS OF GOD CAME TO PRESENT THEMSELVES BEFORE THE LORD,.... When good men, professors of religion, met together by agreement to worship the Lord; the Targum calls them companies of angels, interpreting the words of them, and of their standing before the Lord, as most... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO SATAN, WHENCE CAMEST THOU?.... The same question is put to him, and the same answer is returned by him; Job 1:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
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?.... The same with this is also before put unto Satan, and the same character given of Job, which is here continued an... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SATAN ANSWERED THE LORD, AND SAID,.... Satan would not as yet own that Job was the man the Lord had described; but still would suggest, that he was a selfish and mercenary man, and that what had been done to him was not a sufficient trial of his integrity; the thing had not been pushed far and c... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT PUT FORTH THINE HAND NOW, AND TOUCH HIS BONE AND HIS FLESH,.... That is, his body, which consisted of flesh and bones; these are the constituent parts of the body, and which distinguish it from spirit, Luke 24:39; this is the motion made by Satan for a second trial of Job's integrity; he moves t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO SATAN, BEHOLD, HE [IS] IN THINE HAND,.... Well may a behold be prefixed to this, it being matter of wonder and astonishment that a saint and servant of God should be permitted to be in the hand of Satan; which yet must not be so understood; as if he was off of, and no more upo... [ Continue Reading ]
SO WENT SATAN FORTH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD,.... With leave and license, with power and authority, as the Targum; having got his commission enlarged, on a fresh grant, to do more mischief to Job, he departed directly and immediately, being eager to put in execution what he had a permission to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE TOOK HIM A POTSHERD TO SCRAPE HIMSELF WITHAL,.... His mouth was shut, his lips were silent, not one murmuring and repining word came from him, amidst all this anguish and misery he must be in; much less anything that looked like cursing God and blaspheming him, as some are said to do, because... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SAID HIS WIFE TO HIM,.... The Jews g, who affect to know everything, say, that Job's wife was Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, as the Targum, but this is not very likely; however, we may observe that polygamy had not obtained in these early times; Job had but one wife, and very probably she is the... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HE SAID UNTO HER, THOU SPEAKEST AS ONE OF THE FOOLISH WOMEN SPEAKETH,.... The wicked and profane women of that age; he does not say she was one of them, but spake like them; which intimates that she was a good woman, and had always been thought to be so; but now spake not like herself, and one o... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW WHEN JOB'S THREE FRIENDS HEARD OF ALL THIS EVIL THAT WAS COME UPON HIM,.... Of the loss of his substance, servants, and children, and of his own health; the news of which soon spread in the adjacent countries, Job being a person of great note, and his calamity so very extraordinary and uncommon:... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THEY LIFTED UP THEIR EYES AFAR OFF,.... Either when at some distance from Job's house, and he being without in the open air, as some think; or as they entered his house, he being at the further part of the room, or in another further on, which they could see into: AND KNEW HIM NOT; at firs... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THEY SAT DOWN WITH HIM UPON THE GROUND SEVEN DAYS AND SEVEN NIGHTS,.... Which was the usual time of mourning, Genesis 50:10; not that they were in this posture all this time, without sleeping, eating, or drinking, and other necessaries of life; but they came and sat with him every day and night f... [ Continue Reading ]