So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
Parallel Translations
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So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
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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.
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So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot even unto his crown.
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Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Job 2:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 28:35 Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
- Job 30:30 My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
- Isaiah 1:6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been closed, bandaged, or soothed with oil.
- Deuteronomy 28:27 Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumors, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed.
- Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
- Exodus 9:9-11 It shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boils and blisters breaking out on man and on animal, throughout all the land of Egypt.” They took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward the sky; and it became boils and blisters breaking on man and on animal. The magicians couldn’t stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.
- 1 Kings 22:22 Yahweh said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’
- Job 30:17-19 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest. My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic. He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
- Isaiah 3:17 therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and Yahweh will make their scalps bald.”
- Revelation 16:11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They didn’t repent of their works.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This sore was most vehement, wherewith also God plagued…
This sore was most vehement, wherewith also God plagued the Egyptians, Exod. 9:9, and threateneth to punish the rebellious people, Deut. 28:27, so that this tentation was most grievous: for if Job had measured God’s favor by the vehemency of his disease, he might have thought that God had cast him off.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence…
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.
Ver. 7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord] The like is said of Cain, when he meditated the murder of his innocent brother, and went to put it in practice. Malefactors amongst us, we know, are indicted in this form: For that thou, not having God before thine eyes, but moved by the instigation of the devil, didst -
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And smote Job] He pretended to touch him only, Job 2:5, but let every good man bless himself out of Satan’s bloody fingers; his iron entered into Joseph’s soul, his stroke was very vehement upon Job’s body, making return pro vulnere corpus: for to wound his body, for he smote Job
With sore boils] Hot boiling boils, such as the sorcerers of Egypt were smitten with, Exo 9:10, and afterwards the limbs of Antichrist, Rev 16:2. The Indian scab some say it was, or the French disease. A most filthy and odious ulcer it appeareth to have been, sore and mattory (why else should he so scrape himself with a potsherd, as Job 2:8), such as whose sharp and pricking humour penetrated the very bone, and put him to exquisite pain, being worse to him than Augustus’s tres vomicae tria carcinomata, above mentioned, or Philip II of Spain’s loathsome and lousy disease, whereof he died A.D. 1598. Carolus Scribanius thus describeth it (Instit. Princip. cap. 20), This potent prince for a long time endured ulcerum magnitudinem, multitudinem, acerbitatem, faetorem, &c., i.e. many great, sharp, and stinking ulcers, which fastened him to his bed, as to a cross, for a whole year before his death; besides six years torture by the gout, a hectic fever, with a double tertian for two years feeding upon his bowels and the very marrow of his bones; besides a most grievous flux for twenty two days, a continual nauseousness of his stomach, an unsatisfiable thirst, a continual pain of his head and eyes, abundance of matter working out of his ulcers, quae binas in dies scutellas divite paedore impleret, which in two short days, he spent is wealth, besides a most loathsome stench that took away his sleep, &c,: thus he. Think the same and worse of Job, the object of Satan’s utmost malice, and that for a whole year, say the Hebrews; for seven whole years, saith Suidas. Chrysostom compareth him with Lazarus, and maketh him to be in a far worse condition. Pineda showeth that his sufferings were a great deal worse than those of the wicked Egyptians under all their ten plagues; this was a boil, an evil boil, saith the text, one of the worst sort, the most painful and malignant that might be, and this all over his body.
From the sole of his foot unto his crown] It was all but one continued sore, universal as the leprosy, and therefore incurable; threatened as an utmost plague, an evil, an only evil, Deu 28:35. If any part were left untouched, it was his tongue and mouth, that it might be free to blaspheme God; and that herein he was not smitten by Satan, some have observed from Job 19:20, I am escaped with the skin of my teeth, having no sores there, as I have all the rest of my body over.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Like those inflicted upon the Egyptians, which are expressed…
Like those inflicted upon the Egyptians, which are expressed by the same word, and threatened to apostate Israelites, Deu 28:27, whereby he was made loathsome to himself and to his nearest relations, Deu 19:13,19, and a visible monument of Divine displeasure, and filled with tiring and consuming pains in his body, and no less torment and anguish in his mind.
From the sole of his foot unto his crown; in all the outward parts of his body. His tongue he spared, that it might be capable of venting those blasphemies against God which he expected and desired.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The devil, having got leave to tear and worry…
The devil, having got leave to tear and worry poor Job, presently fell to work with him, as a tormentor first and then as a tempter. His own children he tempts first, and draws them to sin, and afterwards torments, when thereby he has brought them to ruin; but this child of God he tormented with an affliction, and then tempted to make a bad use of his affliction. That which he aimed at was to make Job curse God; now here we are told what course he took both to move him to it and move it to him, both to give him the provocation, else he would not have thought of it: thus artfully in the temptation managed with all the subtlety of the old serpent, who is here playing the same game against Job that he played against our first parents (Gen. 3), aiming to seduce him from his allegiance to his God and to rob him of his integrity.
I. He provokes him to curse God by smiting him with sore boils, and so making him a burden to himself, Job 2:7, Job 2:8. The former attack was extremely violent, but Job kept his ground, bravely made good the pass and carried the day. Yet he is still but girding on the harness; there is worse behind. The clouds return after the rain. Satan, by the divine permission, follows his blow, and now deep calls unto deep.
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1. The disease with which Job was seized was very grievous: Satan smote him with boils, sore boils, all over him, from head to foot, with an evil inflammation (so some render it), an erysipelas, perhaps, in a higher degree. One boil, when it is gathering, is torment enough, and gives a man abundance of pain and uneasiness. What a condition was Job then in, that had boils all over him, and no part free, and those as of raging a heat as the devil could make them, and, as it were, set on fire of hell! The small-pox is a very grievous and painful disease, and would be much more terrible than it is but that we know the extremity of it ordinarily lasts but a few days; how grievous then was the disease of Job, who was smitten all over with sore boils or grievous ulcers, which made him sick at heart, put him to exquisite torture, and so spread themselves over him that he could lie down no way for any ease. If at any time we be exercised with sore and grievous distempers, let us not think ourselves dealt with any otherwise than as God has sometimes dealt with the best of his saints and servants. We know not how much Satan may have a hand (by divine permission) in the diseases with which the children of men, and especially the children of God, are afflicted, what infections that prince of the air may spread, what inflammations may come from that fiery serpent. We read of one whom Satan had bound many years, Luk 13:16. Should God suffer that roaring lion to have his will against any of us, how miserable would he soon make us!
2. His management of himself, in this distemper, was very strange, Job 2:8.
(1.) Instead of healing salves, he took a potsherd, a piece of a broken pitcher, to scrape himself withal. A very sad pass this poor man had come to. When a man is sick and sore he may bear it the better if he be well tended and carefully looked after. Many rich people have with a soft and tender hand charitably ministered to the poor in such a condition as this; even Lazarus had some ease from the tongues of the dogs that came and licked his sores; but poor Job has no help afforded him. [1.] Nothing is done to his sore but what he does himself, with his own hands. His children and servants are all dead, his wife unkind, Job 19:17. He has not wherewithal to fee a physician or surgeon; and, which is most sad of all, none of those he had formerly been kind to had so much sense of honour and gratitude as to minister to him in his distress, and lend him a hand to dress or wipe his running sores, either because the disease was loathsome and noisome or because they apprehended it to be infectious. Thus it was in the former days, as it will be in the last days, men were lovers of their own selves, unthankful, and without natural affection. [2.] All that he does to his sores is to scrape them; they are not bound up with soft rags, not mollified with ointment, not washed or kept clean, no healing plasters laid on them, no opiates, no anodynes, ministered to the poor patient, to alleviate the pain and compose him to rest, nor any cordials to support his spirits; all the operation is the scraping of the ulcers, which, when they had come to a head and began to die, made his body all over like a scurf, as is usual in the end of the small-pox. It would have been an endless thing to dress his boils one by one; he therefore resolves thus to do it by wholesale - a remedy which one would think as bad as the disease. [3.] He has nothing to do this with but a potsherd, no surgeon's instrument proper for the purpose, but that which would rather rake into his wounds, and add to his pain, than give him any ease. People that are sick and sore have need to be under the discipline and direction of others, for they are often but bad managers of themselves.
(2.) Instead of reposing in a soft and warm bed, he sat down among the ashes. Probably he had a bed left him (for, though his fields were stripped, we do not find that his house was burnt or plundered), but he chose to sit in the ashes, either because he was weary of his bed or because he would put himself into the place and posture of a penitent, who, in token of his self-abhorrence, lay in dust and ashes, Job 42:6; Isa 58:5; Jon 3:6. Thus did he humble himself under the mighty hand of God, and bring his mind to the meanness and poverty of his condition. He complains (Job 7:5) that his flesh was clothed with worms and clods of dust; and therefore dust to dust, ashes to ashes. If God lay him among the ashes, there he will contentedly sit down. A low spirit becomes low circumstances, and will help to reconcile us to them. The Septuagint reads it, He sat down upon a dunghill without the city (which is commonly said, in mentioning this story); but the original says no more than that he sat in the midst of the ashes, which he might do in his own house.
II. He urges him, by the persuasions of his own wife, to curse God, Job 2:9. The Jews (who covet much to be wise above what is written) say that Job's wife was Dinah, Jacob's daughter: so the Chaldee paraphrase. It is not likely that she was; but, whoever it was, she was to him like Michal to David, a scoffer at his piety. She was spared to him, when the rest of his comforts were taken away, for this purpose, to be a troubler and tempter to him. If Satan leaves any thing that he has permission to take away, it is with a design of mischief. It is his policy to send his temptations by the hand of those that are dear to us, as he tempted Adam by Eve and Christ by Peter. We must therefore carefully watch that we be not drawn to say or do a wrong thing by the influence, interest, or entreaty, of any, no, not those for whose opinion and favour we have ever so great a value. Observe how strong this temptation was. 1. She banters Job for his constancy in his religion: "Dost thou still retain thy integrity? Art thou so very obstinate in thy religion that nothing will cure thee of it? so tame and sheepish as thus to truckle to a God who is so far from rewarding thy services with marks of his favour that he seems to take a pleasure in making thee miserable, strips thee, and scourges thee, without any provocation given? Is this a God to be still loved, and blessed, and served?"
Dost thou not see that thy devotion's vain?
What have thy prayers procured but woe and pain?
Hast thou not yet thy int'rest understood?
Perversely righteous, and absurdly good?
Those painful sores, and all thy losses, show
How Heaven regards the foolish saint below.
Incorrigibly pious! Can't thy God
Reform thy stupid virtue with his rod?
- Sir R. Blackmore
Thus Satan still endeavours to draw men from God, as he did our first parents, by suggesting hard thoughts of him, as one that envies the happiness and delights in the misery of his creatures, than which nothing is more false. Another artifice he uses is to drive men from their religion by loading them with scoffs and reproaches for their adherence to it. We have reason to expect it, but we are fools if we heed it. Our Master himself has undergone it, we shall be abundantly recompensed for it, and with much more reason may we retort it upon the scoffers, "Are you such fools as still to retain your impiety, when you might bless God and live?" 2. She urges him to renounce his religion, to blaspheme God, set him at defiance, and dare him to do his worst: "Curse God and die; live no longer in dependence upon God, wait not for relief from him, but be thy own deliverer by being thy own executioner; end thy troubles by ending thy life; better die once than be always dying thus; thou mayest now despair of having any help from thy God, even curse him, and hang thyself." These are two of the blackest and most horrid of all Satan's temptations, and yet such as good men have sometimes been violently assaulted with. Nothing is more contrary to natural conscience than blaspheming God, nor to natural sense than self-murder; therefore the suggestion of either of these may well be suspected to come immediately from Satan. Lord, lead us not into temptation, not into such, not into any temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
III. He bravely resists and overcomes the temptation, Job 2:10. He soon gave her an answer (for Satan spared him the use of his tongue, in hopes he would curse God with it), which showed his constant resolution to cleave to God, to keep his good thoughts of him, and not to let go his integrity. See,
1. How he resented the temptation. He was very indignant at having such a thing mentioned to him: "What! Curse God? I abhor the thought of it. Get thee behind me, Satan." In other cases Job reasoned with his wife with a great deal of mildness, even when she was unkind to him (Job 19:17): I entreated her for the children's sake of my own body. But, when she persuaded him to curse God, he was much displeased: Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. He does not call her a fool and an atheist, nor does he break out into any indecent expressions of his displeasure, as those who ar sick and sore are apt to do, and think they may be excused; but he shows her the evil of what she said, and she spoke the language of the infidels and idolaters, who, when they are hardly bestead, fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, Isa 8:21. We have reason to suppose that in such a pious household as Job had his wife was one that had been well affected to religion, but that now, when all their estate and comfort were gone, she could not bear the loss with that temper of mind that Job had; but that she should go about to infect his mind with her wretched distemper was a great provocation to him, and he could not forbear thus showing his resentment. Note, (1.) Those are angry and sin not who are angry only at sin and take a temptation as the greatest affront, who cannot bear those that are evil, Rev 2:2. When Peter was a Satan to Christ he told him plainly, Thou art an offence to me. (2.) If those whom we think wise and good at any time speak that which is foolish and bad, we ought to reprove them faithfully for it and show them the evil of what they say, that we suffer not sin upon them. (3.) Temptations to curse God ought to be rejected with the greatest abhorrence, and not so much as to be parleyed with. Whoever persuades us to that must be looked upon as our enemy, to whom if we yield it is at our peril Job did not curse God and then think to come off with Adam's excuse: "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me persuaded me to do it" (Gen 3:12), which had in it a tacit reflection on God, his ordinance and providence. No; if thou scornest, if thou cursest, thou alone shalt bear it.
2. How he reasoned against the temptation: Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil also? Those whom we reprove we must endeavour to convince; and it is no hard matter to give a reason why we should still hold fast our integrity even when we are stripped of every thing else. He considers that, though good and evil are contraries, yet they do not come from contrary causes, but both from the hand of God (Isa 45:7, Lam 3:38), and therefore that in both we must have our eye up unto him, with thankfulness for the good he sends and without fretfulness at the evil. Observe the force of his argument.
(1.) What he argues for, not only the bearing, but the receiving of evil: Shall we not receive evil, that is, [1.] "Shall we not expect to receive it? If God give us so many good things, shall we be surprised, or think it strange, if he sometimes afflict us, when he has told us that prosperity and adversity are set the one over against the other?" Pe1 4:12. [2.] "Shall we not set ourselves to receive it aright?" The word signifies to receive as a gift, and denotes a pious affection and disposition of soul under our afflictions, neither despising them nor fainting under them, accounting them gifts (Phi 1:29), accepting them as punishments of our iniquity (Lev 26:41), acquiescing in the will of God in them ("Let him do with me as seemeth him good"), and accommodating ourselves to them, as those that know how to want as well as how to abound, Phi 4:12. When the heart is humbled and weaned, by humbling weaning providence, then we receive correction (Zep 3:2) and take up our cross.
(2.) What he argues from: "Shall we receive so much good as has come to us from the hand of God during all those years of peace and prosperity that we have lived, and shall we not now receive evil, when God thinks fit to lay it on us?" Note, The consideration of the mercies we receive from God, both past and present, should make us receive our afflictions with a suitable disposition of spirit. If we receive our share of the common good in the seven years of plenty, shall we not receive our share of the common evil in the years of famine? Qui sentit commodum, sentire debet et onus - he who feels the privilege, should prepare for the privation. If we have so much that pleases us, why should we not be content with that which pleases God? If we receive so many comforts, shall we not receive some afflictions, which will serve as foils to our comforts, to make them the more valuable (we are taught the worth of mercies by being made to want them sometimes), and as allays to our comforts, to make them the less dangerous, to keep the balance even, and to prevent our being lifted up above measure? Co2 12:7. If we receive so much good for the body, shall we not receive some good for the soul; that is, some afflictions, by which we partake of God's holiness (Heb 12:10), something which, by saddening the countenance, makes the heart better? Let murmuring therefore, as well as boasting, be for ever excluded.
IV. Thus, in a good measure, Job still held fast his integrity, and Satan's design against him was defeated: In all this did not Job sin with his lips; he not only said this well, but all he said at this time was under the government of religion and right reason. In the midst of all these grievances he did not speak a word amiss; and we have no reason to think but that he also preserved a good temper of mind, so that, though there might be some stirrings and risings of corruption in his heart, yet grace got the upper hand and he took care that the root of bitterness might not spring up to trouble him, Heb 12:15. The abundance of his heart was for God, produced good things, and suppressed the evil that was there, which was out-voted by the better side. If he did think any evil, yet he laid his hand upon his mouth (Pro 30:32), stifled the evil thought and let it go no further, by which it appeared, not only that he had true grace, but that it was strong and victorious: in short, that he had not forfeited the character of a perfect and upright man; for so he appears to be who, in the midst of such temptations, offends not in word, Jam 3:2; Psa 17:3.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself…
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, Rev 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, and even his wife, stood at some distance from him; the smell of him might be so nauseous, that it was intolerable, he was obliged to do what was done himself, which is here mentioned; though it seems something strange and unnatural, considering his case; Schmidt thinks that this scraping was done by him as a rite and ceremony used by mourners in those times and countries, and which Job would not omit though his body was full of sores:
and he sat down among the ashes; which was often done in cases of mourning and humiliation, see Jon 3:6; and which Job did to humble himself under the mighty hand of God upon him; whether these ashes were outside or inside the house is not certain; some think they were outside, and that he had no house to dwell in, nor bed to lie on, nor couch to sit upon, and therefore was obliged to do as he did; but the contrary is evident from Job 7:13; others say, that his disease being the leprosy, he was obliged to sit alone and outside; but it is not certain that that was his disease; and besides, the law concerning lepers did not as yet exist; and had it, it would not have been binding on Job, who was not of the Israelitish nation: the vulgar notion that Job sat upon a dunghill outside the city has no other foundation than the Septuagint version of this passage, which is a wrong one; for his sitting in ashes, there might be a reason in nature, and it might be chosen on account of his disease; for ashes are a drier, and an abstersive of ulcers, and Galen (f) says they are used in fresh wounds to stop the flow of the blood.
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(f) De simpl. Med. ad Paternian. apud Schenchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 661.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Boils - Like those inflicted upon the Egyptians, which…
Boils - Like those inflicted upon the Egyptians, which are expressed by the same word, and threatened to apostate Israelites, Deut. xxviii, 27, whereby he was made loathsome to himself, and to his nearest relations, and filled with consuming pains in his body, and no less torments and anguish in his mind.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. Sore boils] בשחין רע bischin ra, "with…
Verse 7. Sore boils] בשחין רע bischin ra, "with an evil inflammation." What this diabolical disorder was, interpreters are not agreed. Some think it was the leprosy, and this is the reason why he dwelt by himself, and had his habitation in an unclean place, without the city, (Septuagint, εξω της πωλεως,) or in the open air: and the reason why his friends beheld him afar off, Job 2:12, was because they knew that the disorder was infectious.
His scraping himself with a potsherd indicates a disease accompanied with intolerable itching, one of the characteristics of the smallpox. Query, Was it not this disorder? And in order to save his life (for that he had in especial command) did not Satan himself direct him to the cool regimen, without which, humanly speaking, the disease must have proved fatal? In the elephantiasis and leprosy there is, properly speaking, no boil or detached inflammation, or swelling, but one uniform disordered state of the whole surface, so that the whole body is covered with loathsome scales, and the skin appears like that of the elephant, thick and wrinkled, from which appearance the disorder has its name. In the smallpox it is different; each pock or pustule is a separate inflammation, tending to suppuration; and during this process, the fever is in general very high, and the anguish and distress of the patient intolerable. When the suppuration is pretty far advanced, the itching is extreme; and the hands are often obliged to be confined to prevent the patient from literally tearing his own flesh.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 2:7. Satan went forth from the presence of…
Job 2:7. Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord — Or, from the Lord, απο του Κυριου, as the LXX. render it. Compare Act 5:41, They departed, απο προσωπου του συνεδριου, from the presence of the council that is, from the council. And smote Job with sore biles — Ελκει πονηρω, with a foul ulcer, or evil inflammation, say the Seventy; breaking out and spreading itself over all his body. The biles, it seems, were like those inflicted upon the Egyptians, which are expressed by the same word, and threatened to the apostate Israelites, (Deu 28:27,) whereby he was made loathsome to himself and to his nearest relations, and filled with consuming pains in his body, and no less torments and anguish in his mind. From the sole of his foot unto his crown — In all the outward parts of his body. “His tongue,” says Poole, “he spared, that it might be capable of uttering those blasphemies against God which Satan desired and expected him to utter.” One boil, when it is gathering, is very distressing, and gives a man abundance of pain and uneasiness. What a condition was Job then in, who had biles all over his body, no part being free, and those as much inflamed, and of as raging a heat, as Satan could make them! If at any time we be exercised with sore and grievous distempers, let us not think ourselves more hardly dealt with than God has sometimes dealt with the best of his saints and servants. We know not how far Satan may have a hand, by God’s permission, in the diseases with which mankind, especially the children of God, are afflicted; or what infections that prince of the air may spread, what inflammations may come from that fiery serpent. We read of one whom he had bound for many years, Luk 13:10. And should God suffer him to have his will against us, he would soon make the best and bravest of us very miserable. It is a judicious remark of Dr. Mede here, that it is not Job himself or his friends, but the author of the book, who attributes his calamities to Satan; for this writer’s intention seems to have been to show, by a striking example, that the world is governed by the providence of God; and as the holy angels, whose ministry God makes use of in distributing his bountiful gifts, punctually execute all his commands; so Satan himself, with his agents, are under the power of God, and cannot inflict any evils on mankind without the divine permission.
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Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain So went Satan forth - Job 1:12.
So went Satan forth - Job 1:12.
And smote Job with sore boils - The English word boil denotes the well-known turnout upon the flesh, accompanied with severe inflammation; a sore angry swelling. “Webster.” The Hebrew word, however, is in the singular number שׁחין shechı̂yn, and should have been so rendered in our translation. Dr. Good renders it “a burning ulceration.” The Vulgate translates it, “ulcere pessimo.” The Septuagint, ἕλκει πονηρῶ helkei ponērō - “with a foul ulcer.” The Hebrew word שׁחין shechı̂yn means a burning sore; an inflamed ulcer, a bile. “Gesenius.” It is derived from שׁכן shâkan, an obsolete root, retained in Arabic, and meaning to be hot or inflamed. It is translated “bile” or “boil,” in Exo 9:9-11; Lev 13:18; 2Ki 20:7;: Isa 28:21, (see the notes on that place), Lev 13:19-20; Job 2:7; and “botch,” Deu 28:27, Deu 28:35. The word does not occur elsewhere in the Scriptures. In Deu 28:27, it means “the botch of Egypt,” some species of leprosy, undoubtedly, which prevailed there.
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In regard to the disease of Job, we may learn some of its characteristics, not only from the usual meaning of the word, but from the circumstances mentioned in the book itself. It was such that he took a potsherd to scrape himself with, Job 2:8; such as to make his nights restless, and full of tossings to and fro and to clothe his flesh with clods of dust, and with worms, and to break his flesh, or to constitute a running sore or ulcer, Job 7:4-5; such as to make him bite his flesh for pain, Job 13:14, and to make him like a rotten thing, or a garment that is moth eaten, Job 13:28; such that his face was foul with weeping, Job 16:16, and such as to fill him with wrinkles, and to make his flesh lean, Job 16:8; such as to make his breath corrupt, Job 17:1, and his bones cleave to his skin, Job 19:20, Job 19:26; such as to pierce his bones with pain in the night, Job 30:17, and to make his skin black, and to burn up his bones with heat, Job 30:30.
It has been commonly supposed that the disease of Job was a species of black leprosy commonly called “elephantiasis,” which prevails much in Egypt. This disease received its name from ἐλέφας elefas, “an elephant,” from the swelling produced by it, causing a resemblance to that animal in the limbs; or because it rendered the skin like that of the elephant, scabtons and dark colored. It is called by the Arabs judhām (Dr. Good), and is said to produce in the countenance a grim, distorted, and “lion-like” set of features, and hence has been called by some “Leontiasis.” It is known as the black leprosy, to distinguish it from a more common disorder called “white leprosy” - an affection which the Greeks call “Leuce,” or “whiteness.” The disease of Job seems to have been a universal ulcer; producing an eruption over his entire person, and attended with violent pain, and constant restlessness. A universal bile or groups of biles ever the body would accord with the account of the disease in the various parts of the book. In the elephantiasis the skin is covered with incrustations like those of an elephant. It is a chronic and contagious disease, marked by a thickening of the legs, with a loss of hair and feeling, a swelling of the face, and a hoarse nasal voice. It affects the whole body; the bones as well as the skin are covered with spots and tumors, at first red, but afterward black. “Coxe, Ency. Webster.” It should be added that the leprosy in all its forms was regarded as contagious, and of course involved the necessity of a separation from society; and all the circumstances attending this calamity were such as deeply to humble a man of the former rank and dignity of Job.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Ulcer; the leprosy: and even with that species which…
Ulcer; the leprosy: and even with that species which is called the venereal disease, which may be contracted without any crime. Job was afflicted with a complication of the most painful and disgraceful disorders. (Pineda) (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain sore boils--malignant boils; rather, as it is singular in…
sore boils--malignant boils; rather, as it is singular in the Hebrew, a "burning sore." Job was covered with one universal inflammation. The use of the potsherd [Job 2:8] agrees with this view. It was that form of leprosy called black (to distinguish it from the white), or elephantiasis, because the feet swell like those of the elephant. The Arabic judham (Deu 28:35), where "sore botch" is rather the black burning boil (Isa 1:6).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 7. Sore boils — The word שׁחין, translated boils,…
7. Sore boils — The word שׁחין, translated boils, in the verbal form signifies to be hot. Dr. Good, a learned physician, translates it “a burning ulceration.” That it was terrible is indicated by the addition of the word רע, ra’h, evil, or malignant. The features of the disease with which Job was afflicted most resemble the black leprosy, or elephantiasis, as it is called by the Greeks. It takes the latter name from its rendering the skin “scabrous, dark-coloured, and furrowed all over with tubercles,” (Dr. Good;) or, as others say, because in some of its stages the feet swell, and take the shape of those of the elephant. The Arabians and Syrians call it the lion disease, (leontiasis,) because of its producing in the countenance of the afflicted grim, distorted, and lion-like features. It is regarded as the most foul, painful, and incurable of all diseases. “It begins beneath the knee” (W. Scholtze) with tubercular boils, which, in time, resemble a cancer, and thence spreads itself over the whole body. In its slow and destructive course all the members of the body, fingers, toes, hands, feet, gradually decay and fall off, on which account the Arabians call it also the maiming disease. The dread the disease inspires appears in the title it bears throughout the East — “the first-born of death.” Its victim, even the Icelanders, among whom it prevails, say, resembles “a rancid, putrefying corpse.” Maundrell, an old but judicious Oriental traveller, describes the “distemper as so noisome that it might well pass for the utmost corruption of the human body on this side the grave.” The features and course of the disease may be traced in the incidental descriptions given by Job_3:24; Job_6:2; Job_6:4; Job_6:9; Job_6:11-14; Job_7:4-5; Job_7:14-15; Job_7:19; Job_9:17-18; Job_13:20; Job_13:27-28; Job_16:8; Job_16:16; Job_16:22; Job_17:1; Job_19:17-18; Job_19:20; Job_30:17; Job_30:30; Job_33:20. The entire diagnosis thus given answers to the elephantiasis.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. with sore boils] It is generally agreed that…
7. with sore boils] It is generally agreed that the disease of Job was the leprosy called Elephantiasis, so named because the swollen limbs and the black and corrugated skin of those afflicted by it resemble those of the elephant. It is said by ancient authors, as Pliny, to be peculiar to Egypt, but it is found in other hot countries such as the Hijâz, and even in northern climates as Norway. It is said to attack the limbs first, breaking out below the knees and gradually spreading over the whole body. We are probably to consider, however, that Job was smitten “from the sole of his foot unto his crown” all at once. Full details of its appearance and the sensations of those affected may be gathered from the Book, though, being poetically coloured, they will hardly bear to be read like a page from a handbook of Pathology. The ulcers were accompanied by an itching so intolerable that a piece of potsherd was taken to scrape the sores and remove the feculent discharge, Job_2:8. The form and countenance were so disfigured by the disease that the sufferer’s friends could not recognise him, Job_2:12. The ulcers seized the whole body both without and inwardly, Job_19:20, making the breath fetid, and emitting a loathsome smell that drove every one from the sufferer’s presence, Job_19:17, and made him seek refuge outside the village upon the heap of ashes, Job_2:8. The sores, which bred worms, Job_7:5, alternately closed, having the appearance of clods of earth, and opened and ran, so that the body was alternately swollen and emaciated, Job_16:8. The patient was haunted with horrible dreams, Job_7:14, and unearthly terrors, Job_3:25, and harassed by a sensation of choking, Job_7:15, which made his nights restless and frightful, Job_7:4, as his incessant pains made his days weary, Job_7:1-4. His bones were filled with gnawing pains, as if a fire burned in them, Job_30:30, or as if his limbs were tortured in the stocks, Job_13:27, or wrenched off, Job_30:17. He was helpless, and his futile attempts to rise from the ground provoked the merriment of the children who played about the heap where he lay, Job_19:18. The disease was held incurable, though the patient might linger many years, and his hopelessness of recovery made him long for death, Job_3:20 and often. Delitzsch and Dillmann refer to various treatises on the subject, in particular, to one published at the cost of the Norwegian Government, Danielsen et Boeck, Traité de la Spédalskhed ou Éléphantiasis des Grecs (with coloured plates), Paris, 1848.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (7) Sore boils.—Supposed to be Elephantiasis, an extreme form…
(7) Sore boils.—Supposed to be Elephantiasis, an extreme form of leprosy, in which the skin becomes clotted and hard like an elephant’s, with painful cracks and sores underneath.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain So went Satan forth from the presence of the…
So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord. (comp. Job_1:12, ad fin. ) Satan, we may be sure, is always anxious to quit the immediate presence of God; for "what communion hath light with darkness?". (2Co_6:14) But now he had a special motive for haste in his anxiety to put Job to the test. Doubtless he was confident that he would triumph. And smote Job with sore boils. "With a malignant inflammation" (Lee). It has been generally concluded, from the scattered notices of his malady contained in the Book of Job, (especially Job_7:4, 5 17:1 19:17-20; and Job_30:17-19) that the disease with which Satan "smote Job" was elephantiasis sometimes called Elephantiasis Arabum a marked and strongly developed form of leprosy (Rosenmuller, Michaelis, Professor Lee, Canon Cook, Stanley Leathes etc.). Elephantiasis is thus popularly described by Canon Cook, in the "Speaker"s Commentary," vol. 4. p. 26; "An intense heat, a burning and ulcerous swelling, or leprosy in its most terrific form, taking its name from the appearance of the body, which is covered with a knotty, cancerous bark like the hide of an elephant; the whole frame is in a state of progressive dissolution, ending slowly but surely in death." A modern scientific work gives the following more exact, but more technical, account of the disease: "A non-contagious disease characterized by recurrence of febrile paroxysms, attended by inflammation, and progressive hypertrophy of the integument and areolar tissue, chiefly of the extremities and genital organs; and occasionally by swelling of the lymphatic glands, enlargement and dilatation of the lymphatics, and in some cases by the coexistence of chyluria, and the presence in the blood of certain nematode haematozoa, together with various symptoms of a morbid or depraved state of nutrition" (Quain"s "Dictionary of Medicine," vol. 1. p. 431). The disease is not now regarded as incurable, though, without an entire change of scone and climate, it is regarded as very seldom cured (ibid., p. 432). From the solo of his foot unto his crown. Elephantiasis is generally local, attacking some part of the body, as, especially, the extremities or the genital organs. But in the worst forms, the entire body suffers.
Vers. 7-10. The patriarch"s second trial.
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I THE TWOFOLD ASSAULT UPON THE PATRIARCH.
1. The infliction of a loathsome disease.
(1) Its author. Satan. That diseases generally come through violation of hygienic laws is matter of everyday observation and of special scientific affirmation. But that Job"s malady had a diabolic origin, as had also many of the physical ailments that prevailed in the East about the time of Christ, must be accepted on the ground of revelation. And as in Christ"s day Beelzebub was permitted to wield a larger influence than usual over men"s bodies, that the power of Christ in destroying the works of the devil might be the more conspicuously displayed, so the exceptional ability of Satan to produce bodily malady in Job"s case existed solely for a special purpose. It would therefore be contrary to good theology as well as sound science to ascribe the "ills that flesh is heir to" to diabolic rather than to natural causes.
(2) Its nature. "Sore boils;" supposed, and with probability, to have been a malignant form of elephantiasis, a disorder having many of the characteristics of leprosy. From incidental allusions scattered throughout the poem, it appears to have been an exceedingly painful disease, accompanied in its early stages by severe bodily itching, (Job_2:8 Job_9:17, Job_9:18) and attended in its progress with extreme debility, and utter prostration of mind as well as body, leading to disturbed slumbers, terrifying dreams, and even suicidal temptations. (Job_6:4, Job_6:11, 14 7:4, 13, 14) A quickly spreading disease, rapidly covering the body with pustules, or boils, sometimes from head to foot. (Job_2:7 Job_7:5) A certainly corrupting disease, producing emaciation, and causing rottenness in the flesh and bones. (Job_13:28 Job_16:8 Job_33:21) A truly loathsome disease, rendering the wretched sufferer an object of disgust even to his nearest relatives and friends (Job_19:13-19) and ultimately, though not immediately, a mortal disease. (Job_16:22 Job_17:1 Job_30:23)
(3) Its design. To try the patriarch
(a) by wearing out his strength, and so rendering him more accessible to the entrance of diabolic temptations;
(b) by making him an object of abhorrence to mankind, and so in a manner cutting him off from human sympathy; and
(c) by leading him to regard his malady as a special visitation from Heaven, and so tempting him to entertain harsh thoughts of Jehovah.
2. The injection of a vehement temptation.
(1) The time when it was made. Not at the beginning of his malady, but after it had somewhat developed, when his strength was impaired, his nerves were unstrung, and his mind was depressed, and when, no longer permitted to enter the dwellings of men, he sat himself down upon the mezbele, or ash-heap, outside his dwelling an object of loathing and disgust to passers-by.
(2) The person through whom it was directed. Not the devil himself, since then it would scarcely have acquired the force of a temptation; nor even a friend like Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar counselors who afterwards fared rather badly at Job"s hands; but she who of all on earth was his nearest and dearest-his wife, the bride of his youth, the mother of his noble sons and fair girls now dead, the companion of his joys and sorrows. Beyond question, it was politic to attack the patriarch through his wife; and probably for this reason she was spared not because having her was a greater trial to the good man than losing her would have been, but because the devil wanted a tool against her husband (of. Adam"s temptation through Eve).
(3) The counsel which was offered. "Bless God" (sc. for the last time; i.e. "renounce him"), "and die!" perhaps words of wifely sympathy wrung from her loving bosom by the cruel sufferings which had been heaped upon her husband; certainly words of passionate vehemence calculated to bear down the opposition of a sufferer growing every day feebler through incessant pain; and words of much plausibility, suggesting a thought which seemingly had much in its favour, that his sufferings were to be ascribed purely to his religion; but also words of essential wickedness, since not only was the thought they suggested untrue, but the advice itself was wrong.
II THE TWOFOLD VICTORY OF THE PATRIARCH.
1. The inroad of physical disease he met with patient submission. "He took a potsherd and scraped himself withal." Indulging in no complaints against Providence for afflicting him, and, when the malady had so far developed that his presence became offensive to his friends and neighbours, quietly retiring to the ash-heap. Admirable meekness! Exquisite patience! Incomparable submission! "In all this Job sinned not with his lips.
2. The entrance of wifely temptation he encountered with:
(1) Deserved rebuke. "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh." Language distinctly bearing that the popular estimate of Job"s wife, which makes her to have been a sort of Oriental shrew, is incorrect, implying as it does that the patriarch was surprised to hear her talk so much out of character, not like a saint and the wife of a saint as she was, but like one of the foolish or ungodly women. Carried away by the tumultuousness of her womanly feeling, in a moment of passionate thoughtlessness she had lost her self-control, and given utterance to desperate words, which were such as to call for censure; and the faithful husband, much as he loved his wife, and laden as he was himself with misery, did not shrink from administering the needful admonition.
(2) Lofty resignation. "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil?" The voice, not of stoical indifference, or of heartless despair, or of cold, callous, reluctant acquiescence in a fate which cannot be escaped, but of intelligent and cheerful submission to a providence which he recognizes to be at once righteous and good. "In all this Job sinned not with his lips.
Learn:
1. That God"s saints in this world have sometimes to endure trial upon trial
2. That periods of protracted suffering are spiritually more dangerous than sharp and sudden strokes of greater severity.
3. That the fiercest trials often arise at unexpected moments, and from least anticipated quarters.
4. That the most painful temptation a good man can experience is the temptation to renounce his religion.
5. That Satan"s mercies (e.g. in sparing Job"s wife) have always somewhat of cruelty in them.
6. That the greatest outward blessings may sometimes prove a snare Job"s wife, and Adam"s.
7. That it is perilous for good men or women to give way to passion.
8. That in times of violent emotion a strong guard should be set upon the door of the lips.
9. That good people may sometimes give very bad advice.
10. That the devil"s prime aim in tempting men is to make them renounce God, and die.
11. That God"s people should on no account let go their integrity.
12. That those who have been recipients of God"s mercies should not repine when for their good he changes the dispensation.
Vers. 7, 8. Job"s leprosy.
Satan has now obtained permission to go a step further, and lay his hand on the person of God"s servant. He uses the new privilege with skillful ingenuity, selecting the most horrible and loathsome disease, and smiting Job with the worst form of leprosy elephantiasis.
I THE MISERY OF THE INFLICTION.
1. It touches the man himself. Hitherto the blows have fallen on his outer world, though, indeed, they have come very near to him in striking his children. Still, he has not felt them directly. Satan has drawn a marked line between these external troubles and personal troubles (vers. 4, 5). Now he crosses the line. Every man must feel what touches himself, though some may be too callous, too unimaginative, or too unsympathetic fully to appreciate what is outside them. No man can feel his brother"s toothache as acutely as he feels his own.
2. It lays hold of his body. Bodily pain is not the worst form of suffering. A broken heart is infinitely more pitiable than a broken skin. Still, bodily pain has this about it, that it cannot be denied or eluded. It is a very tangible and unquestionable fact.
3. It is loathsome and disgusting. Elephantiasis makes its victim an object of repulsion, hideous to behold, shunned by all his fellows. Job had been a prince among men, living in universal respect. He now comes down, not only to poverty, but also to a condition of visible degradation and disgust. To the man of sensitive feelings shame is worse than pain.
4. It is hopeless. Elephantiasis was thought to be incurable. Job took no medical remedies. He only retired to his ash-heap, seeking temporary alleviations. The worst agony can be endured with some patience if there is a prospect of cure; but even a milder complaint becomes intolerable if there is no hope of escape.
II THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE SUFFERER. The most significant thing about the narrative here is that so little is said about the behaviour of Job. As yet we have no word from him under his fearful malady. The silence is eloquent.
1. Great suffering stifles thought. This is a merciful provision of Providence. We could not bear both to feel acutely and to think profoundly at the same time. There is a sort of mental anodyne in fearful bodily pain. Its paroxysms act as an anaesthetic to the finer feelings of the soul When the worst of the bodily pain is over the mind recovers itself; but at first it is stunned and crushed into numbness.
2. True fortitude accepts alleviations of suffering. Job does what little he can to relieve the intolerable torments of his disease. He has no idea of attitudinizing as a martyr. Small sufferers may try to make the most of their pains, foolishly nursing them, and obviously playing for pity. This is not the case with the great tragic heroes. The depth of their sufferings are known only to God.
3. Bitter distress seeks solitude. Job retired to the ashes. His complaint made this action necessary; his mood must also have welcomed the retirement. In bitter distress the soul would be alone yet not alone, for God is present as truly among the ashes as in the gorgeous temple. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Job_2:7. “Smote Job with sore boils.” The Septuagint and…
Notes
Job_2:7. “Smote Job with sore boils.” The Septuagint and Vulgate, followed by MARTIN and DIODATI in their French and Italian versions, render the words which describe Job’s disease, “a bad or malignant ulcer.” The word שְׁחִין (shekheen) which we render “boils,” derived from a root not used in Hebrew, but appearing in the Arabic ׃َ־َה (sakhana) to be hot, inflamed, fevered. Job’s disease, according to GESENIUS, NOYES, and others, a kind of black leprosy, formerly prevailing in Egypt (Deu_28:27); called Elephantiasis, from the skin being covered with black scales, and from the mouth, feet, and legs swelling enormously, while the body becomes emaciated. The disease not attended with great pain, but with much debility of the system, uneasiness, and mental depression. Both Pliny and Lucretius speak of it as a disease peculiar to Egypt; the former calling it, “Ægypti peculiare malum.” PISCATOR and CASTALIO render the singular noun collectively “ulcers;” as our English version, “boils.” MORUS renders it: An inflammation. VATABLUS: Pustules,—boils from heat, such as were inflicted on Egypt (Exo_9:10), and threatened to Israel (Deu_28:27). GRYNŒUS, after SCHULCENS: An inflammation, of which the ulcers were the effect. ADAM CLARKE queries whether it was not the small-pox. GOOD makes it: Burning ulcerations,—the baras of the Arabs. WEMYSS: Foul ulcers. LEE: A burning disease. FRY: A sore ulcer. CAREY: A malignant ulceration,—the disease nearly proving fatal in the case of Hezekiah (Isa_38:1-21); in Job’s case, of a very virulent form. The Homilist: One universal inflammation. FAUSSET: A burning sore. CONANT, after EWALD, observes that the singular here has the effect of a collective. So HEILIGSTEDT: Malignant ulcers. ZÖCKLER, in Lange, regarding it as the Elephantiasis, speaks of it as the Arabian, or worst kind of leprosy; called also lepra nodosa, or tuberculosa, from the greatly swollen lumps, or boils, which give to the extremities the appearance of an elephant’s legs, whence its name. BARNES, after GOOD, calls it a universal ulcer, attended with violent pain and constant restlessness; named by the Arabs, gudham, and said to produce a grim, distorted, lion-like set of features, hence called Leoutiasis. CHRYSOSTOM observes that it made Job like Lazarus, but in a far worse condition. The Jewish doctors say that the disease, in Job’s case, lasted a whole year; while SUIDAS—we know not on what grounds—makes it to have continued seven.
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SEVENTH PART OF INTRODUCTION; JOB’S FURTHER TRIAL
I. Satan’s use of God’s permission (Job_2:7).
“So went Satan forth.” Glad in obtaining his wish, like Saul on his way to Damascus. Resolved to use his liberty to the utmost. Gets his will, but with limitation (Luk_22:31-32).—“From the presence of the Lord.” Like Cain (Genesis 4-16). His object not to serve God, but torture man.—“Smote Job.” Implies suddenness and vehemence. The hand heavy, though unseen. So Herod smitten by the angel (Act_12:23). Such smiting often ascribed to God, whoever the instrument (Deu_28:35). Satanic ingenuity in smiting the body yet preserving life and mental faculties. Piety and patience under one trial, no security against another and a heavier. Heavy burdens laid on strong shoulders. God knows the metal He gives Satan to ring [Trapp]. Our comfort is, that He lays no trial on His children beyond what He enables them to bear (1Co_10:13).
II. Job’s Disease
“Sore boils.” Heb., a bad, malignant ulcer, or inflammatory ulceration. Worst kind of leprosy. Inflicted on the Egyptians and threatened to the Israelites (Deu_28:27). Prevalent both in Arabia and Egypt. Made the sufferer loathsome to himself and his nearest relations (ch. Job_19:13; Job_19:19). Appeared to make him out as an object of the Divine displeasure; as Miriam, Gehazi, and King Azariah. In an advanced stage, fingers, toes, and hands, gradually fall off (ch. Job_30:17; Job_30:30). Attended with great attenuation and debility of body (Job_16:8; Job_19:20; Job_30:18). Restless nights and terrifying dreams (Job_30:17; Job_7:13-14). Anxiety of mind and loathing of life (Job_7:15). Foul breath and difficult respiration (Job_7:4; Job_13:15; Job_30:17). The skin itchy, of great tenseness, full of cracks and rents, and covered with hard or festering ulcers, and with black scales (Job_2:8; Job_19:20; Job_30:18; Job_7:5; Job_30:30). The feet and legs swollen to an enormous size; hence the disease also called Elephantiasis. The mouth swollen and the countenance distorted, giving the patient a lion-like appearance; hence another name to the disease, Leontiasis. Contagious through the mere breath. Often hereditary. As a rule, incurable. In any case, one of the most protracted as well as dreadful diseases.—“From the crown,” &c. So in Deu_28:35. The body one continued sore. Job escaped with the skin of his teeth—sores everywhere else (Job_19:20). The tongue left free for an obvious reason. Satan’s mercies cruel. Rare spectacle for angels; the holiest man on earth the most afflicted. Astounding sight for men; the richest and greatest man in the land made at once the most loathsome and miserable. Impossible to say to what extent God may allow his dearest children to be afflicted. After Job, no saint need be staggered at his suffering. Yet all Job’s sufferings under Divine inspection and admeasurement (Isa_27:8).—A circumstance marking the extremity of Job’s affliction (Job_2:8). “And he took him a potsherd.” As near at hand. Arab jars thin and frail, and easily broken—sometimes by merely putting them down on-the floor. Hence fragments of broken jars found everywhere (Isa_30:14). A potsherd used by Job instead of a napkin. Possibly, however, an instrument still used in the East for similar purposes. Required to remove the purulent matter from his sores, and perhaps to allay their irritation. His hands and fingers themselves affected, or the foulness of his sores forbidding the touch. Without friend, physician, or relative to attend to his disease. In the case of Lazarus, dogs supplied the place of the potsherd (Luk_16:20-21). God’s dearest saints often reduced to the greatest extremities.—“Sat down among the ashes.” In token of mourning (Job_42:6; Jon_3:6; Mat_11:21); and of abasement (Jer_6:26; Isa_47:3; Isa_58:5; Eze_27:30). The ash-heap probably outside the city. Dung-hills still similarly used in the East. One part of the leper’s affliction, that he was to be removed from society (Lev_13:46; Num_12:14-15; 2Ki_15:5).
1. Increased affliction calls for increased humiliation.
2. Self-abasement the certain way to Divine exaltation (Jas_4:9-10).
III. Job’s trial from his wife (Job_2:9).
“Then said his wife.” Amazed at her husband’s sufferings and piety. Herself already tempted and overcome. Spared by Satan to and him in his attempts upon her husband. Another of his cruel mercies. She who should have been a comforter now becomes a tormentor. Her former piety now staggered at her husband’s trials. Weak professors readily offended. The case of Adam and Eve expected to be repeated. Satan wise in selecting his instruments.
1. Those who full themselves usually employed in tempting others.
2. Strongest temptations and keenest triais often from nearest friends.
“Dost thou still retain thine integrity?” Already affirmed by God (Job_2:3). What is highly esteemed by God often reproached by man, and vice versa (Luk_16:15). Job, in his wife’s eyes, “perversely righteous and absurdly good” [Sir R. Blackmore]. Perseverance in piety under heavy crosses a mystery to the world.—“Curse God and die.” Three horrid temptations—infidelity, blasphemy, and despair. Same word used as in Job_1:11; but properly denoting “to bless.” Perhaps a bitter taunt, referring to Job_1:21—“Go on with your fine religion!” Probably—“Renounce God, who treats you so vilely.” Includes the idea of uttered reproach and blasphemy (1Ki_21:10). Job urged by his wife to fulfil Satan’s grand desire.
1. Satan’s great work to set men against their Maker and His service.
2. His fiercest temptations often reserved for the time of greatest affliction.
3. Satan tempts men to put the worst construction on God’s dealings, and prompts to the worst means of relief. Points Job to the gulf of Atheism as the only refuge [Davidson].
4. The holiest saints liable to the most horrid and blasphemous temptations.
5. The flesh in ourselves and others always an antagonist to faith and holiness (Mat_16:22-23).
“And die.” As the end of all your trouble. So Satan tempted Saul, Ahithopel, and Judas Iscariot. No suggestion so horrid but Satan may inject it into a believing mind. Job afterwards still pressed with the same temptation to suicide (Job_7:15). One of Satan’s lies, that death ends all. His object to make men die in an act of sin, without time or opportunity for repentance. His friendliest proposals tend to damnation and destruction. Would make men imitators of his blasphemy and partakers of his despair.
IV. Job’s continued patience and piety (Job_2:10). “But he said unto her.” Did not curse God, and then use Adam’s excuse (Gen_3:12.—“Thou speakest,” &c. Reproves with mingled gentleness and firmness. So Christ reproved Peter (Mat_16:23). Dishonour done to God to be at once discountenanced and reproved (Lev_19:17; Pro_27:5; Pro_29:15).—“As one.” A gentle form of reproof. Husbands to love their wives, and not be bitter against them (Col_3:19). No fierce or furious language here. Her present speech not like her usual self. Speaks out of her ordinary character.
1. Believers liable to be drawn into sin.
2. Love to be mingled with, and to moderate, reproof (Eph_4:15).
3. Reproof to be respectful, especially when addressed to relatives and seniors (1Ti_5:1).
“As one of the foolish women speaketh.” “Foolish,” in the Old Testament, used for “sinful or ungodly.” The language of Job’s wife, that of foolish, profane, wicked women.
1. The part of a fool to deny God and reproach His Providence (Psa_14:1).
2. Folly to judge of a man’s condition from God’s outward dealings with him.
3. Unworthy thoughts of God the mark of a carnal, foolish spirit.
4. Sin not only vile but foolish,—as truly opposed to man’s interests as to God’s honour.
5. Impatience and passion under trouble the greatest foolishness. Hard, and therefore senseless, to kick against the pricks (Act_9:5). Idolaters wont to reproach their gods in misfortune.
“What! shall we receive,” &c.? What is sinful is to be put down, not with rage but with reason. Satan’s horrid and blasphemous temptations not to be listened to for a moment. Sharp reproof consistent with love and sometimes required by it (Tit_1:13). He who knows not how to be angry knows not how to love [Augustine.]—“Shall we receive good at the hand of God?” Present miseries not to obliterate past mercies. The greatest sufferer already the recipient of unnumbered benefits. God’s mercies “new every morning.” To sinners all is mercy on this side of hell. Mercy written on every sunbeam that gilds and gladdens the earth.—“And shall we not receive evil also?” “Evil” put for affliction and adversity. All comforts and no crosses, unreasonable to expect and undesirable to receive. Evil as well as good to be not only expected, but thankfully accepted. The question points to the manner of receiving, as well as the matter received. Both equally dispensed by God, therefore both to be reverentially accepted by us. Both worthy of God to dispense, and beneficial for us to receive. The part of faith and love, to accept troubles as from a Father’s hand. The true spirit of adoption, to kiss the rod and the hand that holds it. Thankfully to accept of good is merely human, thankfully to accept of evil is Divine. In every thing to give thanks, God’s will in Christ concerning us (1Th_5:13). Job here greater than his miseries. More than a conqueror. One of heaven’s as well as earth’s heroes.—“In all this,” his increased calamities as well as his wife’s taunts and temptations. Job now lying under a quaternion of troubles—adversity, bereavement, disease, and reproach. More, however, yet remained for Satan to inflict and for Job to suffer. Continuance of suffering often much more trying than suffering itself. Inward affliction to be added to the outward. Much more trying. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear? (Pro_18:14). A hint, perhaps, here given of further trial, with a less gratifying result.—“Sinned not with his lips.” Vented no reflection on God’s character and procedure. The greatest temptation in such circumstances to sin with the lips. The thing Satan desired, endeavoured after, and waited for. The temptation to murmur present, but resisted and repressed. Job still by grace a conqueror over corrupt nature. Not always thus walking on the swelling waters of innate corruption. Man’s weakness to be exhibited, even in a state of grace. Hitherto Job shown to be the “perfect man” God declared him to be (Jas_3:2). The Old Testament ideal of a perfect man and a suffering saint. An illustrious type of Christ in His suffering and patience (Isa_53:7; 1Pe_2:23). The type afterwards fails, that in all things Christ may have the pre-eminence (Col_1:18).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Then Satan went away from the presence of Yahweh
Then Satan went away from the presence of Yahweh
See how you translated this in Job 1:12.
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He struck Job with painful boils
"He caused Job to suffer greatly with painful boils"
painful boils
large, itching and painful skin infections
a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself
The scraping scratches the skin to lessen the itch.
sat down in the middle of ashes
This probably refers to a place where trash and garbage were dumped and perhaps burned. Sitting in such a place was a sign of deep mourning. AT: "sat on the trash heap" (See: Euphemism and Symbolic Action)
translationWords
Satan
Yahweh
afflicted
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:7 This term for terrible boils was used for…
2:7 This term for terrible boils was used for any inflamed, running sores (Exod 9:10; Lev 13:18-20; Deut 28:27, 35).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.