Job 2:8

_AND HE TOOK HIM A POTSHERD TO SCRAPE HIMSELF WITHAL; AND HE SAT DOWN AMONG THE ASHES._ A potsherd - not a piece of a broken earthen vessel, but an instrument made for scratching (the root of the Hebrew word is scratch); the sore was too disgusting to touch. 'To sit in the ashes' marks the deepest mourning (Jonah 3:6); also humility, as if the mourner were nothing but dust and ashes; so Abraham (Genesis 18:27)....

7-10 The devil tempts his own children, and draws them to sin, and afterwards torments, when he has brought them to ruin; but this child of God he tormented with affliction, and then tempted to make a bad use of his affliction. He provoked Job to curse God. The disease was very grievous. If at any time we are tried with sore and grievous distempers, let us not think ourselves dealt with otherwise than as God sometimes deals with the best of his saints and servants. Job humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, and brought his mind to his condition. His wife was spared to him, to be a troubler and tempter to him. Satan still endeavours to draw men from God, as he did our first parents, by suggesting hard thoughts of Him, than which nothing is more false. But Job resisted and overcame the temptation. Shall we, guilty, polluted, worthless creatures, receive so many unmerited blessings...

AND HE TOOK HIM A POTSHERD - The word used here חרשׁ _chârâsh_ means a fragment of a broken vessel; see the notes at Isaiah 45:9. The Septuagint renders it ὄστρακον _ostrakon_ - “a shell.” One object of taking this was to remove from his body the filth accumulated by the universal ulcer, compare Job 7:4; and another design probably was, to “indicate” the greatness of his calamity and sorrow. The ancients were accustomed to show their grief by significant external actions (compare the notes at Job 1:20), and nothing could more strongly denote the greatness of the calamity, than for a man of wealth, honor, and distinctio

EXPOSITION JOB 2:1 This chapter concludes the "Introductory section." It consists of three parts. Job 2:1 contain an account of Satan's second appearance in the courts of heaven, and of a second colloquy between him and the Almighty. Job 2:7 contain the sequel to this colloquy, viz. Satan's further affliction of Job, and his conduct under it. Verses 11-13 contain an account of the arrival of Job's three special friends to mourn with him and to comfort him; and of their behavior during the first seven days after their arrival JOB 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God same to present themselves

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 of their pains and their sores, Revelation 16:11; but Job bore his with the utmost patience; he took a piece of a broken pot, which perhaps lay in the ashes among which he sat, and scraped himself with it; either as some think to allay the itching, or rather to remove the purulent matter that ran from his boils; which he used instead of linen rags to wipe them with, having no surgeon to come near him, to mollify his ulcers with ointment, to supple them with oil, and lay healing plasters upon them; there were none to do any of these things for him; his maids and his servants,

CHAPTER 2:1-10 _ 1. Jehovah's second challenge and Satan's answer (Job 2:1)_ 2. Job stricken (Job 2:7) 3. Job's wife, Job's answer and victory (Job 2:9) Job 2:1. Once more the sons of God, and Satan among them, present themselves before the Lord. It must have been immediately after Job's afflictions had come upon him. Probably the Lord called the assembly. The victory is on the Lord's side. Satan is defeated and his defeat is known to the heavenly hosts, who undoubtedly watched the tragedies which had been enacted on earth and who, with joy, had listened to Job's marvellous words. Triumphantly the Lord said to Satan, “And still he holdeth fast hi

THE NARRATIVE OF THE SECOND CONVERSATION BETWEEN YAHWEH AND THE SATAN AND ITS ISSUES. Again the heavenly council comes together, and Yahweh reproaches the Satan with instigating Him to bring undeserved affliction on Job. The terrible trial has been shown to be unnecessary. Job still holds fast his integrity. Satan's answer is ready. He speaks impudently, using a common proverb, the origin of which, however, we do not know. Perhaps, says Duhm, the Bedouin may have threatened the shepherd, that he should pay with his own skin, if the cattle he tended were lost. The meaning is, as the second part of the sentence shows: nothing is more precious than life. What the Satan would say then is: the wager is not lost yet, the trial did not touch Job near enough. His goods, his children indeed have been touched, but that is not enough. His life has been spared. Yahweh consequently permits the Satan...

sat down. was sitting....

_and he sat down among the ashes_ Rather, AS HE SAT AMONG. By the "ashes" is possibly meant (as the Sept. already understands, which translates ἐ π ὶ τ ῆ ς κοπρίας) the Mázbalah, the place outside the Arabic towns where the _zibl_, that is, dung and other rubbish of the place is thrown. "The dung which is heaped up upon the _Mezbele_of the Hauran villages is not mixed with straw, which in that warm and dry land is not needed for litter, and it comes mostly from solid-hoofed animals, as the flocks and oxen are left over night in the grazing places. It is carried in baskets in a dry state to this place before the village, and usually burnt once a month … The ashes remain … If the village has been inhabited for centuries the Mezbele reaches a height far overtopping it. The winter rains reduce it into a compact mass, and it becomes by and bye a solid hill of earth … The Mezbele serves the in...

AND HE TOOK HIM A POTSHERD, &C.— It is plain that the disease of Job was cuticular, says Dr. Mede; and it is as certain that the bodies of the Hebrews were (in those hot countries) very liable to ulcers of the skin; upon which account, learned men think it was, that they were forbidden the eating of swine's flesh; which, as it affords a gross nourishment, and not easily perspirable, is very improper food in such constitutions; as by how much hotter the countries were which they inhabited (such as the Desarts of Arabia), the more severely these disorders raged. There is another much worse disease, so frequent in Egypt that it is said to be _endemial_ there, though it may also be engendered in this hot country; I mean the _elephantiasis._ Perhaps it was this, which is nearly of the same nature with the leprosy, that had afflicted the body of our righteous man. The doctor remarks further, t...