Job 2 commentary

How well is it for us, that neither men nor devils are to be our judges! but all our judgment comes from the Lord, who never errs. Job holds fast his integrity still, as his weapon. God speaks with pleasure of the power of his own grace. Self-love and self-preservation are powerful in the hearts of men. But Satan accuses Job, representing him as wholly selfish, and minding nothing but his own ease and safety. Thus are the ways and people of God often falsely blamed by the devil and his agents. Permission is granted to Satan to make trial, but with a limit. If God did not chain up the roaring lion, how soon would he devour us! Job, thus slandered by Satan, was a type of Christ, the first prophecy of whom was, that Satan should bruise his heel, and be foiled.

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 from a just and holy God, and shall we refuse to accept the punishment of our sins, when we suffer so much less than we deserve? Let murmuring, as well as boasting, be for ever done away. Thus far Job stood the trial, and appeared brightest in the furnace of affliction. There might be risings of corruption in his heart, but grace had the upper hand.

The friends of Job seem noted for their rank, as well as for wisdom and piety. Much of the comfort of this life lies in friendship with the prudent and virtuous. Coming to mourn with him, they vented grief which they really felt. Coming to comfort him, they sat down with him. It would appear that they suspected his unexampled troubles were judgments for some crimes, which he had vailed under his professions of godliness. Many look upon it only as a compliment to visit their friends in sorrow; we must look life. And if the example of Job's friends is not enough to lead us to pity the afflicted, let us seek the mind that was in Christ.

CHAPTER 2

Job 2:1-8. Satan Further Tempts Job.

1. a day--appointed for the angels giving an account of their ministry to God. The words "to present himself before the Lord" occur here, though not in Job 1:6, as Satan has now a special report to make as to Job.

3. integrity--literally, "completeness"; so "perfect," another form of the same Hebrew word, Job 11:7.

movedst ... against--So 1Sa 26:19; compare 1Ch 21:1 with 2Sa 24:1.

4. Skin for skin--a proverb. Supply, "He will give." The "skin" is figurative for any outward good. Nothing outward is so dear that a man will not exchange it for some other outward good; "but" (not "yea") "life," the inward good, cannot be replaced; a man will sacrifice everything else for its sake. Satan sneers bitterly at man's egotism and says that Job bears the loss of property and children because these are mere outward and exchangeable goods, but he will give up all things, even his religion, in order to save his life, if you touch his bones and flesh. "Skin" and "life" are in antithesis [Umbreit]. The martyrs prove Satan's sneer false. Rosenmuller explains it not so well. A man willingly gives up another's skin (life) for his own skin (life). So Job might bear the loss of his children, &c., with equanimity, so long as he remained unhurt himself; but when touched in his own person, he would renounce God. Thus the first "skin" means the other's skin, that is, body; the second "skin," one's own, as in Ex 21:28.

6. but save--rather, "only spare his life." Satan shows his ingenuity in inflicting pain, and also his knowledge of what man's body can bear without vital injury.

7. 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 (De 28:35), where "sore botch" is rather the black burning boil (Is 1:6).

8. 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 (Jon 3:6); also humility, as if the mourner were nothing but dust and ashes; so Abraham (Ge 18:27).

Job 2:9-13. Job Reproves His Wife.

9. curse God--rather, "renounce" God. (See on Job 1:5) [Umbreit]. However, it was usual among the heathens, when disappointed in their prayers accompanied with offerings to their gods, to reproach and curse them.

and die--that is, take thy farewell of God and so die. For no good is to be got out of religion, either here or hereafter; or, at least, not in this life [Gill]; Nothing makes the ungodly so angry as to see the godly under trial not angry.

10. the foolish women--Sin and folly are allied in Scripture (1Sa 25:25; 2Sa 13:13; Psa 14:1).

receive evil--bear willingly (La 3:39).

11. Eliphaz--The view of Rawlinson that "the names of Job's three friends represent the Chaldean times, about 700 B.C.," cannot be accepted. Eliphaz is an Idumean name, Esau's oldest son (Ge 36:4); and Teman, son of Eliphaz (Ge 36:15), called "duke." Eusebius places Teman in Arabia-Petræa (but see on Job 6:19). Teman means "at the right hand"; and then the south, namely, part of Idumea; capital of Edom (Am 1:12). Hebrew geographers faced the east, not the north as we do; hence with them "the right hand" was the south. Temanites were famed for wisdom (Jr 49:7). Baruch mentions them as "authors of fables" (namely, proverbs embodying the results of observation), and "searchers out of understanding."

Bildad the Shuhite--Shuah ("a pit"), son of Abraham and Keturah (Ge 25:2). Ptolemy mentions the region Syccea, in Arabia-Deserta, east of Batanea.

Zophar the Naamathite--not of the Naamans in Judah (Jos 15:41), which was too distant; but some region in Arabia-Deserta. Fretelius says there was a Naamath in Uz.

12. toward heaven--They threw ashes violently upwards, that they might fall on their heads and cover them--the deepest mourning (Jos 7:6; Ac 22:23).

13. seven days ... nights--They did not remain in the same posture and without food, &c., all this time, but for most of this period daily and nightly. Sitting on the earth marked mourning (La 2:10). Seven days was the usual length of it (Ge 50:10; 1Sa 31:13). This silence may have been due to a rising suspicion of evil in Job; but chiefly because it is only ordinary griefs that find vent in language; extraordinary griefs are too great for utterance.

Again there was a day - How long this was after the former trial, we know not: probably one whole year, when, as the Targum intimates, it was the time of the annual atonement; which, if so, must have been at least one whole year after the former; and during which period the patience and resignation of Job had sufficient scope to show themselves. This appearance of the sons of God and Satan is to be understood metaphorically - there could be nothing real in it - but it is intended to instruct us in the doctrine of the existence of good and evil spirits; that Satan pursues man with implacable enmity, and that he can do no man hurt, either in his person or property, but by the especial permission of God; and that God gives him permission only when he purposes to overrule it for the greater manifestation of his own glory, and the greater good of his tempted followers.

To destroy him without cause - Thou wishedst me to permit thee to destroy a man whose sins have not called for so heavy a judgment. This seems to be the meaning of this saying. The original word, לבלעו leballeo, signifies to swallow down or devour; and this word St. Peter had no doubt in view in the place quoted on Job 2:7 of the preceding chapter: "Your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may Devour; ζητων, τινα καταπιῃ, seeking whom he may Swallow or Gulp Down. See the note on 1Pet 5:8.

Skin for skin - That is, A man will part with all he has in the world to save his life; and he will part with all by piecemeal, till he has nothing left on earth, and even be thankful, provided his life be spared. Thou hast only destroyed his property; thou hast left him his life and his health. Thou hast not touched his flesh nor his bone; therefore he is patient and resigned. Man, through the love of life, will go much farther: he will give up one member to save the rest; yea, limb after limb as long as there is hope that, by such sacrifices, life may be spared or prolonged. This is the meaning given to the passage by the Targum; and, I believe, the true one; hence, Job 2:6, the Lord says, Save his life.

He will curse thee to thy face - Literally, If he will not bless thee to thy face or appearances. His piety to thee will be always regulated by thy bounty to him. See the note on Job 1:11.

But save his life - His body thou shalt have permission to afflict, but against his life thou shalt have no power; therefore take care of his life. The original, נפשו שמר naphsho shemor, may be translated, keep his soul; but the word also signifies life; yet in the hands of the destroyer the life of this holy man is placed! How astonishing is the economy of salvation! It is so managed, by the unlimited power and skill of God, that the grand adversary of souls becomes himself, by the order of God, the preserver of that which the evil of his nature incessantly prompts him to destroy!

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.

Then said his wife - To this verse the Septuagint adds the following words: "Much time having elapsed, his wife said unto him, How long dost thou stand steadfast, saying, 'Behold, I wait yet a little longer looking for the hope of my Salvation?' Behold thy memorial is already blotted out from the earth, together with thy sons and thy daughters, the fruits of my pains and labors, for whom with anxiety I have labored in vain. Thyself also sittest in the rottenness of worms night and day, while I am a wanderer from place to place, and from house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, that I may rest from my labors, and from the griefs which oppress me. Speak therefore some word against God, and die." We translate ברך אלהים ומת barech Elohim vamuth, Curse God, and die. The verb ברך barach is supposed to include in it the ideas of cursing and blessing; but it is not clear that it has the former meaning in any part of the sacred writings, though we sometimes translate it so. Here it seems to be a strong irony. Job was exceedingly afflicted, and apparently dying through sore disease; yet his soul was filled with gratitude to God. His wife, destitute of the salvation which her husband possessed, gave him this ironical reproof. Bless God, and die - What! bless him for his goodness, while he is destroying all that thou hast! bless him for his support, while he is casting thee down and destroying thee! Bless on, and die. The Targum says that Job's wife's name was Dinah, and that the words which she spake to him on this occasion were בריך מימרא דיי ומית berich meymera dayai umith. Bless the word of the Lord, and die. \\

Ovid has such an irony as I suppose this to have been: -

Quid vos sacra juvant? quid nunc Aegyptia prosuntSistra? -

Cum rapiant mala fata bonos, ignoscite fasso,Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos.

Vive plus, moriere pius; cole sacra, colentemMors gravis a templis in cava busta trahet.

Amor. lib. iii., Eleg. ix. ver. 33. "In vain to gods (if gods there are) we pray,

And needless victims prodigally pay;

Worship their sleeping deities: yet death

Scorns votaries, and stops the praying breath.

To hallow'd shrines intruding fate will come,

And drag you from the altar to the tomb."

Stepney.

Thou speakest as one of the foolish - Thou speakest like an infidel; like one who has no knowledge of God, of religion, or of a future state. The Targum, who calls this woman Dinah, translates thus: "Thou speakest like one of those women who have wrought folly in the house of their father." This is in reference to an ancient rabbinical opinion, that Job lived in the days of the patriarch Jacob, whose daughter Dinah he had married.

Shall we receive good - This we have received in great abundance for many years:

And shall we not receive evil? - Shall we murmur when He afflicts us for a day, who has given us health for so many years? Shall we blaspheme his name for momentary privations, who has given us such a long succession or enjoyments? His blessings are his own: he never gave them to us; they were only lent. We have had the long, the free, the unmerited use of them; and shall we be offended at the Owner, when he comes to reclaim his own property? This would be foolish, ungrateful, and wicked. So may every one reason who is suffering from adversity. But who, besides Job, reasons thus? Man is naturally discontented and ungrateful.

In all this did not Job sin with his lips - The Chaldee adds, But in his heart he thought words. He had surmisings of heart, though he let nothing escape from his lips.

Job's three friends - The first was Eliphaz the Temanite; or, as the Septuagint has it, Ελιφαζ ὁ Θαιμανων βασιλευς, Eliphaz the king on the Thaimanites. Eliphaz was one of the sons of Esau; and Teman, of Eliphaz, Gen 36:10, Gen 36:11. Teman was a city of Edom, Jer 49:7-20; Eze 25:13; Amo 1:11, Amo 1:12.

Bildad the Shuhite - Or, as the Septuagint, Βαλδαδ ὁ Συχεων τυραννος, Baldad, tyrant of the Suchites. Shuah was the son of Abraham by Keturah: and his posterity is reckoned among the Easterns. It is supposed he should be placed with his brother Midian, and his brother's sons Sheba and Dedan. See Gen 25:2, Gen 25:3. Dedan was a city of Edom, see Jer 49:8, and seems to have been situated in its southern boundary, as Teman was in its western. Eze 25:13.

Zophar the Naamathite - Or, according to the Septuagint, Σωφαρ Μιναιων Βασιλευς, Sophar king of the Minaites. He most probably came from that Naamah, which was bordering upon the Edomites to the south and fell by lot to the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:21-41. These circumstances, which have already been mentioned in the introduction, prove that Job must have dwelt in the land of Edom, and that all his friends dwelt in Arabia Petraea, or in the countries immediately adjacent. That some of those Eastern people were highly cultivated, we have at least indirect proof in the case of the Temanites, Jer 49:7 : Concerning Edom thus saith the Lord of hosts, Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished? They are celebrated also in Baruch 3:22, 23. Speaking of wisdom he says: It hath not been heard of in Chanaan; neither hath it been seen in Theman. The Agarenes that seek wisdom upon earth, the merchants of Meran and of Theman, the expounders of fables, and searchers out of understanding, none of these have known the way of wisdom. It is evident enough from these quotations that the inhabitants of those districts were celebrated for their knowledge; and the sayings of Job's three friends are proofs that their reputation for wisdom stood on a very solid foundation.

They rent every one his mantle - I have already had frequent occasions to point out and illustrate, by quotations from the ancients, the actions that were used in order to express profound grief; such as wrapping themselves in sackcloth, covering the face, strewing dust or ashes upon the head, sitting upon the bare ground, etc., etc.; significant actions which were in use among all nations.

They sat down with him upon the ground seven days - They were astonished at the unprecedented change which had taken place in the circumstances of this most eminent man; they could not reconcile his present situation with any thing they had met with in the history of Divine providence. The seven days mentioned here were the period appointed for mourning. The Israelites mourned for Jacob seven days, Gen 50:10. And the men of Jabesh mourned so long for the death of Saul, 1Sam 31:13; 1Chr 10:12. And Ezekiel sat on the ground with the captives at Chebar, and mourned with and for them seven days. Eze 3:15. The wise son of Sirach says, "Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead;" Sirach 22:12. So calamitous was the state of Job, that they considered him as a dead man: and went through the prescribed period of mourning for him.

They saw that his grief was very great - This is the reason why they did not speak to him: they believed him to be suffering for heavy crimes, and, seeing him suffer so much, they were not willing to add to his distresses by invectives or reproach. Job himself first broke silence.

Still - Notwithstanding all his afflictions, and thy suggestion to the contrary. Movedst - This, as the rest of this representation, is not to be understood literally: But the design is to signify both the devil's restless malice in promoting man's misery and God's permission of it for wise and holy ends.

Skin, &c. - The sense is, this is so far from being an evidence of Job's sincere and generous piety, that it is only an act of mere self - love; he is contented with the loss of his estate, and children too, so long as he sleeps in a whole skin; and he is well pleased, that thou wilt accept of these a ransom in his stead; and it is not true patience which makes him seem to bear his crosses so submissively, but policy, that he may appease thy wrath against him, and prevent those farther plagues, which, for his hypocrisy, he fears thou wilt otherwise bring upon his own carcase.

In thine hand - If God did not chain up the roaring lion, how soon would he devour us! As far as he permits the wrath of Satan and wicked men, to proceed against his people, he will make it turn to his praise and theirs, and the remainder thereof he will restrain. Job, in being thus maligned of Satan, was a type of Christ. He had permission to bruise his heel, to touch his bone and his flesh; yea, and his life also; because by dying he was to do what Job could not do, to destroy him that had the power of death.

Boils - Like those inflicted upon the Egyptians, which are expressed by the same word, and threatened to apostate Israelites, Deut 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.

Scrape - This he did not with soft linen clothes, either because he had not now a sufficient quantity of them; or because therein he must have had the help of others who abhorred to come near him. Nor with his own hands or fingers, which were also ulcerous, and so unfit for that use; but with potsherds, either because they were next at hand, and ready for his present use; or in token of his deep humiliation under God's hand, which made him decline all things that favoured of tenderness and delicacy. Heb. in dust or ashes, as mourners used to do. 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.

Then said his wife - Whom Satan spared, to be a troubler and tempter to him. It is his policy, to send his temptations by the hands of those that are dear to us. We must therefore carefully watch, that we be not drawn to any evil, by them whom we love and value the most. Die - I see thou art set upon blessing of God, thou blessest God for giving, and thou blessest God for taking away, and thou art still blessing God for thy loathsome diseases, and he rewards thee accordingly, giving thee more and more of that kind of mercy for which thou blessest him. Go on therefore in thy generous course, and bless God, and die as a fool dieth.

Shall we - Shall we poor worms give laws to our supreme Lord, and oblige him never to afflict us? And shall not those great and manifold mercies, which from time to time God hath given us, compensate these short afflictions? Ought we not to bless God for those mercies which we did not deserve; and contentedly bear those corrections which we do deserve. And if we receive so much good for the body, shall we not receive some good for our souls? That is, some affliction, whereby we may be made partakers of his holiness? Let murmuring therefore, as well as boasting, be forever excluded. Sin with his lips - By any reflections upon God, by any impatient or unbecoming expression.

They - Who were persons eminent for birth and quality, for wisdom and knowledge, and for the profession of the true religion, being probably of the posterity of Abraham, a - kin to Job, and living in the same country. Eliphaz descended from Teman, the grandson of Esau, Gen 36:11. Bildad probably from Shuah, Abraham's son by Keturah, Gen 25:2. Zophar is thought to be same with Zepho, (Gen 36:11.) a descendant from Esau. The preserving of so much wisdom and piety among those who were not children of the promise, was an happy presage of God's grace to the Gentiles, when the partition wall should be taken down.

Upon the ground - In the posture of mourners condoling with him. Seven days - Which was the usual time of mourning for the dead, and therefore proper both for Job's children, and for Job himself, who was in a manner dead, while he lived: not that they continued in this posture so long together, which the necessities of nature could not bear; but they spent the greatest part of that time in sitting with him, and silent mourning over him. None spake - About his afflictions and the causes of them. The reason of this silence was the greatness of their grief for him, and their surprize and astonishment at his condition; because they thought it convenient to give him time to vent his own sorrows, and because as yet they knew not what to say to him: for though they had ever esteemed him to be a truly good man, and came with full purpose to comfort him, yet the prodigious greatness of his miseries, and that hand of God which they perceived in them, made them now question his sincerity, so that they could not comfort him as they had intended, and yet were loth to grieve him with reproofs.

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.

Another set time some convenient space after the former calamities. Of this and the two next Verses see the Notes on Ch. 1. 6, 7, 8.

Marginal references: G[illegible: 1+ letters]. the [illegible: 1 word] of God.

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 .]

Notwithstanding all his Trials and Tribulations, and thy malicious suggestion to the contrary.

i. e. He continues to be the same perfect and upright man which he was before. All thy endeavours to pull away his Integrity, have made him only to hold it the faster.

i. e. Didst persuade me, and prevailed with me to do it▪ But this, as the rest of this Representation, is not to be understood properly, as if God could be moved by any of his Creatures to alter his purposes, which are all eternal and unchangeable, and especially by Satan, as if God would gratifie him by granting his desires; but the design of these words is to signifie both the Devils restless Malice in promoting mans misery, and Gods permission of it for his own wise and holy Ends.

i. e. Without any special provocation, whereby he, more than others, deserved such heavy punishments. Which also Iob himself oft alledgeth for his Justification; although he doth not deny himself to be a sinner, as is apparent from Ch. 7. 20, 21. and 9. 2. and 13. 23, 26. Nor that sin deserves Judgments: Or without any such cause as thou didst alledge, which was his Hypocrisie: Or, in vain, as this word is used Prov. 1. 17. Ezek. 6. 10. and elsewhere. So it is not referred to God's destroying him, but to Satan's moving God so to do. And so this place may be thus rendred exactly according to the Hebrew, And thou hast moved me to destroy him in vain, or without effect, or to no purpose. i. e. Thou hast lost thy Design and Expectation therein, which was to take away his Integrity, which in spight of all thy Art and Malice he still holdeth fast.

Marginal references: Chap. 1. 8.; [illegible: 1+ letters]eb▪ to [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] ▪ Chap. 19. 10.

4. And Satan answered the LORD, and said, [Skin for Skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his Life :]

The design of these words is plain, which is to detract from Iob, and to diminish that Honour and Praise which God gave to Iob, by pretending that he had done no more than the meanest men commonly do by the Law of Self-preservation. And it is as clear that this was a proverbial Speech then in use, wherein if there be some difficulty to understand it at this distance of time, it is no more than the common lot of many other Proverbs, the sense, and especially the grounds whereof are frequently unknown to persons of other Nations, and of after Times. Moreover it is known, that in those ancient times, though they had some Mony, yet the main of their Estate lay in Cattle, of which the skins were a considerable part, and their chief Traffique lay in the Exchange of one commodity for another, and, among other things, it cannot be questioned, but that they did commonly exchange skins of one kind for skins of another sort, according to their several Inclinations or occasions. So the meaning may be this, As men willingly and commonly give one Skin in Exchange for another Skin, and one Commodity for another, so (the Hebrew particle, Vau, being oft so used as a note of comparison, as it is Prov. 17. 3. and 25. 3, 23, 25, 27.) all that a man hath, his House, Cattle, Children, will he give, and that most willingly, for his Life: i. e. To redeem or save his own Life: Or rather thus, Skin for Skin, might then be a Proverb like that of ours, Body for Body, when one man is so far obliged for another. And we have some such Expressions among us; as when we say of a man, who doth some dangerous Action. His Skin, i. e. his Body will pay for it, i. e. It may cost him his Life. And this Proverb might be taken, 1. From Sacrifices, in which there was Skin for Skin; i. e. the skin of a Beast for, or instead of, the skin or body of the Man, which deserved to be used as the Beast was, and which was saved or preserved by the suffering of the Beast, which was accepted by God instead of the Man, and by which the Mans sins were expiated. Or, 2. From Hostages or Ransomes, wherein one man was given for, or instead of another. So now the sense may be this, Any man will give Skin for Skin, i. e. the Skin, or Body, or Life, of another, whether Man or Beast, to save his own; yea, all that a man hath, whether Goods or Persons, such as Iob hath lost, will he give for his Life. Iob is not much hurt nor concerned so long as his own skin is whole and safe. Others thus: Skin upon (for so the Hebrew particle, Behad, is somtimes used, as 2 Kin. 4. 5. Amos 9. 10. As also the Greek particle, Anti, which answers to it, is understood Ioh. 1. 16. Grace for Grace, i. e. Grace upon Grace, or all kinds or degrees of Grace) Skin, and all that a man hath (so all these words belong to the price which a man pays: now follows what he hath or expecteth to have for it:) will he give for his Life; i. e. in exchange for his Life▪ or to save his Life. This also is a plausible Interpretation, only it is not very probable, that the same Hebrew particle, B[illegible: 1+ letters]had, should be used in two so differing senses in the same verse, in the former part to signifie upon, (which if this sacred Writer had meant, he would likely have expressed it rather by that other Hebrew particle, Al, which is commonly so used, than by this which is so ambiguous, and seldom so taken, and otherwise used in this very Verse) and in the latter to signifie for, or instead of. However the sense is plainly this, This is so far from being an Evidence of Iob's sincere and generous Piety, that it is only an Act of deeper Hypocrisie, and meer Self-love; he is well enough contented with the loss of his Estate, and Children too, so long as he sleeps in a whole skin; and he is well pleased, that thou wiltst accept of all these as a Sacrifice or Ransom in his stead; and it is not true Patience and Humility which makes him seem to bear his Crosses so submissively, as depth of policy, that by his feigned-carriage he may appease thy Wrath against him, and prevent those further Plagues which, for his Hypocrisy and other sins, of which he is conscious, he fears thou wiltst otherwise bring upon his own Carkass; as will plainly appear upon further Trial.

5. But put forth thine Hand now, and [touch his Bone and his Flesh ,] and he will curse thee to thy Face.

Touch, i. e. smite him, not sleightly, but to the quick, and to the Bones and Marrow, so as he may feel Pain and Anguish indeed, which is oft expressed by reaching to the Bones, as Psal. 6. 2. and 32. 3. and 51. 8.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word].

6. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold he is in thine Hand, [ but save his Life ]

Do not attempt to take away his Life, which I will not suffer thee to do.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]

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 .]

[illegible: 1+ letters]ke those inflicted upon the Egyptians, which are expressed by the same word, and threatning to Apostate Israelites, Deut. 28. 27. whereby he was made loathsom to himself, and to his nearest Relations [illegible: 1 word]. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. 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.

In all the outward parts of his Body. His Tongue he spared, that it might be capable of [illegible: 1+ letters]nting those Blasphemies against God which he expected and desired.

8. And [he took him a Potsherd ] to scrape himself withal; and [he sat down among the ashes .]

Partly to allay the Itch which his Ulcers caused: and partly to squeeze out, or take away that purulent matter which was under them, or flowed from them, and was the great cause of his Torment. And this he did not with soft Linnen Cloaths, either because he had not now a sufficient quantity of them for so much use; or because therein he must have had the help of others who abhorred to come near him, Ch. 1[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ 13, 14, 15. Nor with his own Hands or Fingers which were also ulcerous, and so unfit for that use, and besides he loathed to touch himself; but with Potsherds, either because they were next at hand, and ready for his present use; or in token of his Repentance and deep Humiliation under Gods heavy hand, which made him decline all things which favoured of tenderness and delicacy,

Heb. In dust or ashes, as Mourners used to do: Of which see Iob 42. 6. Ionah. 3. 6. Mat. 11. 21.

9. Then said [his Wife ] unto him, [Dost thou still retain thine Integrity ?] [ curse God and die ]

Whom the Devil spared with cruel intent to be the Instrument of his Temptations, and the aggravation of Iob's misery by unnatural unkindness to him, which is declared Ch. 19. 17. and elsewhere.

Art thou yet so weak to persist in the practice of Piety, when it is not only unprofitable to thee, but the chief occasion of all these thy insupportable miseries, and when God himself not only forsakes and leaves thee in this helpless and hopeless condition, but is turned to be thy greatest Enemy?

Seeing thy blessing of God availeth thee so little, it is time to change thy note, Curse God and die, i. e. reproach him to his face, and tell him of his Injustice, and Unkindness to thee, and that he loves his Enemies, and hates his Friends, and that will provoke him to take away thy Life, and so end thy Torments. Or, curie God, though thou die for it: But although this word somtimes signifies cursing, as Iob 1. 11. and 1 King. 21. 10. yet most properly and generally it signifies blessing, and so it may very well be understood here as a Sarcastical or Ironical Expression, such as there are many in Scripture, as Eccles. 11. 9. Lam. 4. 21. and in all Authors. And so the fence may be this, Bliss God and die; i. e. I see thou art set upon blessing of God, thou blessest God for giving, and thou blessest God for taking away, and thou art still blessing of God for thy loathsom and tormenting Diseases, and he rewards thee accordingly, giving thee more and more of that kind of Mercy for which thou blessest and praisest him. Go on therefore in this thy pious and generous course, and die as a Fool dieth, and carry this Reputation to thy Grave, that thou hadst not common sense in thee to discern between good and evil, between thy Friends and thy Foes. Or rather awake out of this stupidity and Lethargy, and give over this absurd and unreasonable practise, and as God gives thee no Help nor Comfort, let him lose thy Praises and Service. And this being her sense, it is not strange he reproveth her so sharply for it. And yet it seems hard to think that Iob's Wife should arrive at that height of Impudence and Impiety, as in plain terms to bid him, curse God.

Marginal references: Heb. bless. 1 Kin. 21. 10. 13.

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. ]

i. e. Like a rash, and inconsiderate, and weak person, that dost not understand, nor mind what thou sayest. Or, like a wicked and most prophane person; for such are frequently called Fools in Scripture, as Psal. 14. 1. and 74. 18. and every where in the Proverbs.

Shall we poor Worms give Laws to our Supream Lord and Governour, and oblige him always to bless and favour us, and never to afflict us? And shall not those great and manifold, and long-continued Mercies which from time to time God hath freely and graciously given us, compensate for these short afflictions? Ought we not to bless God for those Mercies which we did not deserve, and contentedly to bear those Corrections which we deserve, and need: and (if it be not our own fault) may get much good by.

By any Reflections upon God, by any impatient or unbecoming Expressions.

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.

Which were Persons then eminent for Birth and Quality, for Wisdom and Knowledge, and for the Profession of the true Religion, being probably of the posterity of Abraham, and akin to Iob, and living in the same Country with him.

12. And [when they lift up their Eyes afar off, ] and [knew him not, ] they lift up their voice, and wept, and they rent every one his Mantle, and [sprinkled Dust upon their Heads toward Heaven. ]

To wit, at some convenient distance from him: whom they found sitting upon the ground, either in the open Air, or within his own House.

His Countenance being so fearfully changed and disfigured by his Boils.

Either upon the upper part of their Heads, which looks towards Heaven: or cast it up into the Air so as it should fall upon their Heads; as they did Act. 22. 23. See Ios. 7. 6. Nehem. 9. 1. Lam. 2. 10.

13. So [they sat down with him upon the ground ] [Seven Days, and Seven Nights, ] and [none spake a word to him:] for they saw that his Grief was very great.

In the posture of Mourners condoling with him.

Which was the usual time of mourning for the Dead, Gen. 50. 10. 1 Sam. 31. 13. and therefore proper both for Iob's Children who were dead, and for Iob himself, who was in a manner dead whilst he lived: But we must not fancy that they continued in this place and posture so long together, which no Laws of Religion or Civility required of them, and the necessities of Nature could not bear; but only that they spent a great, or the greatest part of that time in sitting with him, and silent Mourning over him. And so such General Expressions are frequently understood▪ as Luke 2. 37. and 24. 53. Acts 20. 31. Either 1. About any thing. Or rather, 2. About his Afflictions and the causes of them. The Reason of this silence was partly the greatness of their grief for him, and their surprize and astonishment at his Condition▪ partly because they thought it convenient to give him some further time to vent his own Sorrows, and partly because as yet they knew not what to say to him: for though they had ever esteemed him to be a truly wise and godly Man, and came with full purpose to comfort him, yet the prodigious greatness of his Miseries, and that Hand and Displeasure of God which they manifestly perceived in them, made them at a stand, and to question Iob's Sincerity, so that they could not comfort him as they had intended, and yet were loth to grieve him with those Convictions and Reproofs which they thought he greatly needed. And here they stuck till Iob gave them occasion to speak their Minds.

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

The clause expressive of the purpose of their appearing is here repeated in connection with Satan (comp. on the contrary, Job 1:6), for this time he appears with a most definite object. Jehovah addresses Satan as He had done on the former occasion.

Job 2:2 2  And Jehovah said to Satan, Whence comest thou? And Satan answered Jehovah, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and wandering up and down in it.

Instead of מאין, Job 1:7, we have here the similar expression מזּה אי (Ges. §150, extra). Such slight variations are also frequent in the repetitions in the Psalms, and we have had an example in Job 1 in the interchange of עוד and עד. After the general answer which Satan givers, Jehovah inquires more particularly.

Job 2:3 3  Then Jehovah said to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, fearing God and eschewing evil; and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou hast moved me against him, to injure him without cause.

From the foregoing fact, that amidst all his sufferings hitherto Job has preserved and proved his תּמּה (except in the book of Job, only Pro 11:3), the fut. consec. draws the conclusion: there was no previous reason for the injury which Satan had urged God to decree for Job. הסית does not signify, as Umbreit thinks, to lead astray, in which case it were an almost blasphemous anthropomorphism: it signifies instigare, and indeed generally, to evil, as e.g., 1Ch 21:1; but not always, e.g., Jos 15:18 : here it is certainly in a strongly anthropopathical sense of the impulse given by Satan to Jehovah to prove Job in so hurtful a manner. The writer purposely chooses these strong expressions, הסית and בּלּע. Satan’s aim, since he suspected Job still, went beyond the limited power which was given him over Job. Satan even now again denies what Jehovah affirms.

Job 2:4-5 4, 5  And Satan answered Jehovah, and said, Skin for skin, and all that man hath will he give for his life: stretch forth yet once Thy hand, and touch his bone, and his flesh, truly he will renounce Thee to Thy face.

Olshausen refers עזר בּעד עזר to Job in relation to Jehovah: So long as Thou leavest his skin untouched, he will also leave Thee untouched; which, though it is the devil who speaks, were nevertheless too unbecomingly expressed. Hupfeld understands by the skin, that skin which is here given for the other, - the skin of his cattle, of his servants and children, which Job had gladly given up, that for such a price he might get off with his own skin sound; but בּעד cannot be used as Beth pretii: even in Pro 6:26 this is not the case. For the same reason, we must not, with Hirz., Ew., and most, translate, Skin for skin = like for like, which Ewald bases on the strange assertion, that one skin is like another, as one dead piece is like another. The meaning of the words of Satan (rightly understood by Schlottm. and the Jewish expositors) is this: One gives up one’s skin to preserve one’s skin; one endures pain on a sickly part of the skin, for the sake of saving the whole skin; one holds up the arm, as Raschi suggests, to avert the fatal blow from the head. The second clause is climacteric: a man gives skin for skin; but for his life, his highest good, he willingly gives up everything, without exception, that can be given up, and life itself still retained. This principle derived from experience, applied to Job, may be expressed thus: Just so, Job has gladly given up everything, and is content to have escaped with his life. ואולם, verum enim vero, is connected with this suppressed because self-evident application. The verb ננע, above, Job 1:11, with בּ, is construed here with אל, and expresses increased malignity: Stretch forth Thy hand but once to his very bones, etc. Instead of על־פּניך, Job 1:11, על־פּ is used here with the same force: forthwith, fearlessly and regardlessly (comp. Job 13:15; Deu 7:10), he will bid Thee farewell.

Job 2:6

The Grant of New Power: 6  And Jehovah said to Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; only take care of his life.

Job has not forfeited his life; permission is given to place it in extreme peril, and nothing more, in order to see whether or not, in the face of death, he will deny the God who has decreed such heavy affliction for him. נפשׁ does not signify the same as חיּים; it is the soul producing the spirit-life of man. We must, however, translate “life,” because we do not use “soul” in the sense of ψυχή, anima.

Job 2:7-8

The Working Out of the Commission: 7, 8  Then Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah, and smote Job with sore boils, from the sole of his foot to his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself with, and sat in the midst of ashes.

The description of this disease calls to mind Deu 28:35 with Deu 28:27, and is, according to the symptoms mentioned further on in the book, elephantiasis so called because the limbs become jointless lumps like elephants’ legs), Arab. jḏâm , ‛gudhâm , Lat. lepra nodosa, the most fearful form of lepra, which sometimes seizes persons even of the higher ranks. Artapan (C. Müller, Fragm. iii. 222) says, that an Egyptian king was the first man who died of elephantiasis. Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, was afflicted with it in a very dangerous form.Vid., the history in Heer, De elephantiasi Graecorum et Arabum, Breslay, 1842, and coloured plates in Traité de la Spédalskhed ou Elephantiasis des Grecs par Danielssen et Boeck, Paris, 1848, translated from the Norwegian; and in Hecker, Elephantiasis oder Lepra Arabica, Lahr, 1858 (with lithographs). “The means of cure,” says Aretâus the Cappadocian (vid., his writings translated by Mann, 1858, S. 221), “must be more powerful than the disease, if it is to be removed. But what cure can be successfully applied to the fearful evil of elephantiasis? It is not confined to one part, either internally or externally, but takes possession of the entire system. It is terrible and hideous to behold, for it gives a man the appearance of an animal. Every one dreads to live, and have any intercourse, with such invalids; they flee from them as from the plague, for infection is easily communicated by the breath. Where, in the whole range of pharmacy, can such a powerful remedy be found?”

The disease begins with the rising of tubercular boils, and at length resembles a cancer spreading itself over the whole body, by which the body is so affected, that some of the limbs fall completely away. Scraping with a potsherd will not only relieve the intolerable itching of the skin, but also remove the matter. Sitting among ashes is on account of the deep sorrow (comp. Jon 3:6) into which Job is brought by his heavy losses, especially the loss of his children. The lxx adds that he sat on a dunghill outside the city: the dunghill is taken from the passage Psa 113:7, and the ”outside the city” from the law of the מצרע. In addition to the four losses, a fifth temptation, in the form of a disease incurable in the eye of man, is now come upon Job: a natural disease, but brought on by Satan, permitted, and therefore decreed, by God. Satan does not appear again throughout the whole book. Evil has not only a personal existence in the invisible world, but also its agents and instruments in this; and by these it is henceforth manifested.

Job 2:9

First Job’s Wife (who is only mentioned in one other passage (Job 19:17), where Job complains that his breath is offensive to her) Comes to Him: 9  Then his wife said to him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce God, and die.

In the lxx the words of his wife are unskilfully extended. The few words as they stand are sufficiently characteristic. They are not to be explained, Call on God for the last time, and then die (von Gerl.); or, Call on Him that thou die (according to Ges. §130, 2); but בּרך signifies, as Job’s answer shows, to take leave of. She therefore counsels Job to do that which Satan has boasted to accomplish. And notwithstanding, Hengstenberg, in his Lecture on the Book of Job (1860),Clark’s Foreign Theological Library. defends her against the too severe judgment of expositors. Her desperation, says he, proceeds from her strong love for her husband; and if she had to suffer the same herself, she would probably have struggled against despair. But love hopeth all things; love keeps its despondency hidden even when it desponds; love has no such godless utterance, as to say, Renounce God; and none so unloving, as to say, Die. No, indeed! this woman is truly diaboli adjutrix (August.); a tool of the temper (Ebrard); impiae carnis praeco (Brentius). And though Calvin goes too far when he calls her not only organum Satanae, but even Proserpinam et Furiam infernalem, the title of another Xantippe, against which Hengstenberg defends her, is indeed rather flattery than slander. Tobias’ Anna is her copy.She says to the blind Tobias, when she is obliged to work for the support of the family, and does not act straightforwardly towards him: ποῦ εἰσὶν αἱ ἐλεημοσύναι σου καὶ αἱ δικαιοσύναι σου, ἰδοὺ γνωστὰ πάντα μετὰ σοῦ, i.e., (as Sengelmann, Book of Tobit, 1857, and O. F. Fritzsche, Handbuch zu d. Apokr. Lief. ii. S. 36, correctly explain) one sees from thy misfortunes that thy virtue is not of much avail to thee. She appears still more like Job in the revised text: manifeste vana facta est spes tua et eleemosynae tuae modo apparuerunt, i.e., thy benevolence has obviously brought us to poverty. In the text of Jerome a parallel between Tobias and Job precedes this utterance of Tobias’ wife.

What experience of life and insight the writer manifests in introducing Job’s wife as the mocking opposer of his constant piety! Job has lost his children, but this wife he has retained, for he needed not to be tried by losing her: he was proved sufficiently by having her. She is further on once referred to, but even then not to her advantage. Why, asks Chrysostom, did the devil leave him this wife? Because he thought her a good scourge, by which to plague him more acutely than by any other means. Moreover, the thought is not far distant, that God left her to him in order that when, in the glorious issue of his sufferings, he receives everything doubled, he might not have this thorn in the flesh also doubled.The delicate design of the writer here must not be overlooked: it has something of the tragi-comic about it, and has furnished acceptable material for epigrammatic writers not first from Kästner, but from early times (vid., das Epigramm vom J. 1696, in Serpilius’ Personalia Iobi). Vid., a Jewish proverb relating thereto in Tendlau, Sprüchw. u. Redensarten deutsch-jüd. Vorzeit (1860), S. 11.

What enmity towards God, what uncharitableness towards her husband, is there in her sarcastic words, which, if they are more than mockery, counsel him to suicide! (Ebrard). But he repels them in a manner becoming himself.

Job 2:10 10  But he said to her, As one of the ungodly would speak, thou speakest. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not also receive evil?

The answer of Job is strong but not harsh, for the אחת (comp. 2Sa 13:13) is somewhat soothing. The translation “as one of the foolish women” does not correspond to the Hebrew; נבל is one wxo thinks madly and acts impiously. What follows is a double question, גּם for הגם. The גּם stands at the beginning of the sentence, but logically belongs to the second part, towards which pronunciation and reading must hurry over the first, - a frequent occurrence after interrogative particles, e.g., Num 16:22; Isa 5:4; after causal particles, e.g., Isa 12:1; Pro 1:24; after the negative פּן, Deu 8:12., and often. Hupfeld renders the thought expressed in the double question very correctly: bonum quidem hucusque a Deo accepimus, malum vero jam non item accipiemus? גּם is found also elsewhere at the beginning of a sentence, although belonging to a later clause, and that indeed not always the one immediately following, e.g., Hos 6:11; Zec 9:11; the same syntax is to be found with אף, אך, and רק. קבּל, like תּמּה, is a word common to the book of Job and Proverbs (Pro 19:20); besides these, it is found only in books written after the exile, and is more Aramaic than Hebraic. By this answer which Job gives to his wife, he has repelled the sixth temptation. For 10b In all this Job sinned not with his lips. 10 b  In all this Job sinned not with his lips.

The Targum adds: but in his thoughts he already cherished sinful words. בּשׂפתיו is certainly not undesignedly introduced here and omitted in Job 1:22. The temptation to murmur was now already at work within him, but he was its master, so that no murmur escaped him.

Job 2:11

After the sixth temptation there comes a seventh; and now the real conflict begins, through which the hero of the book passes, not indeed without sinning, but still triumphantly. 11  When Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz from Teman, and Bildad from Shuach, and Zophar from Naama: for they had made an appointment to come together to go and sympathize with him, and comfort him. אליפז is, according to Gen 36, an old Idumaean name (transposed = Phasaël in the history of the Herodeans; according to Michaelis, Suppl. p. 87; cui Deus aurum est, comp. Job 22:25), and תּימן a district of Idumaea, celebrated for its native wisdom (Jer 49:7; Bar. 3:22f.). But also in East-Hauran a Têmâ is still found (described by Wetzstein in his Bericht über seine Reise in den beiden Trachonen und um das Hauran-Gebirge, Zeitschr. für allg. Erdkunde, 1859), and about fifteen miles south of Têmâ, a Bûzân suggestive of Elihu’s surname (comp. Jer 25:23). שׁוּח we know only from Gen 25 as the son of Abraham and Keturah, who settled in the east country. Accordingly it must be a district of Arabia lying not very far from Idumaea: it might be compared with trans-Hauran Schakka, though the sound, however, of the word makes it scarcely admissible, which is undoubtedly one and the same with Dakkai'a, east from Batanaea, mentioned in Ptolem. v. 15. נעמה is a name frequent in Syria and Palestine: there is a town of the Jewish Shephêla (the low ground by the Mediterranean) of this name, Jos 15:41, which, however, can hardly be intended here. הבּאה is Milel, consequently third pers. with the art. instead of the relative pron. (as, besides here, Gen 18:21; Gen 46:27), vid., Ges. §109 ad init. The Niph. נועד is strongly taken by some expositors as the same meaning with נועץ, to confer with, appoint a meeting: it signifies, to assemble themselves, to meet in an appointed place at an appointed time (Neh 6:2). Reports spread among the mounted tribes of the Arabian desert with the rapidity of telegraphic despatches.

Job 2:12

Their Arrival: 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 threw dust upon their heads toward heaven.

They saw a form which seemed to be Job, but in which they were not able to recognise him. Then they weep and rend their outer garments, and catch up dust to throw up towards heaven (1Sa 4:12), that it may fall again upon their heads. The casting up of dust on high is the outwards sign of intense suffering, and, as von Gerlach rightly remarks, of that which causes him to cry to heaven.

Job 2:13

Their Silence: 13  And they sat with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights; and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his pain was very great.

Ewald erroneously thinks that custom and propriety prescribed this seven days’ silence; it was (as Eze 3:15) the force of the impression produced on them, and the fear of annoying the sufferer. But their long silence shows that they had not fully realized the purpose of their visit. Their feeling is overpowered by reflection, their sympathy by dismay. It is a pity that they let Job utter the first word, which they might have prevented by some word of kindly solace; for, becoming first fully conscious of the difference between his present and former position from their conduct, he breaks forth with curses.

Satan Again Permitted to Afflict Job. (b. c. 1520.)

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 . 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. 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. 4 And Satan answered the Lord , and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. 5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. 6 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Satan, that sworn enemy to God and all good men, is here pushing forward his malicious prosecution of Job, whom he hated because God loved him, and did all he could to separate between him and his God, to sow discord and make mischief between them, urging God to afflict him and then urging him to blaspheme God. One would have thought that he had enough of his former attempt upon Job, in which he was so shamefully baffled and disappointed; but malice is restless: the devil and his instruments are so. Those that calumniate good people, and accuse them falsely, will have their saying, though the evidence to the contrary be ever so plain and full and they have been cast in the issue which they themselves have put it upon. Satan will have Job's cause called over again. The malicious, unreasonable, importunity of that great persecutor of the saints is represented (Rev. xii. 10) by his accusing them before our God day and night, still repeating and urging that against them which has been many a time answered: so did Satan here accuse Job day after day. Here is,

I. The court set, and the prosecutor, or accuser, making his appearance (v. 1, 2), as before, ch. i. 6, 7. The angels attended God's throne and Satan among them. One would have expected him to come and confess his malice against Job and his mistake concerning him, to cry, Pecavi—I have done wrong, for belying one whom God spoke well of, and to beg pardon; but, instead of that, he comes with a further design against Job. He is asked the same question as before, Whence comest thou? and answers as before, From going to and fro in the earth; as if he had been doing no harm, though he had been abusing that good man.

II. The judge himself of counsel for the accused, and pleading for him (v. 3): "Hast thou considered my servant Job better than thou didst, and art thou now at length convinced that he is a faithful servant of mine, a perfect and an upright man; for thou seest he still holds fast his integrity?" This is now added to his character, as a further achievement; instead of letting go his religion, and cursing God, he holds it faster than ever, as that which he has now more than ordinary occasion for. He is the same in adversity that he was in prosperity, and rather better, and more hearty and lively in blessing God than ever he was, and takes root the faster for being thus shaken. See, 1. How Satan is condemned for his allegations against Job: "Thou movedst me against him, as an accuser, to destroy him without cause." Or, "Thou in vain movedst me to destroy him, for I will never do that." Good men, when they are cast down, are not destroyed, 2 Cor. iv. 9. How well is it for us that neither men nor devils are to be our judges, for perhaps they would destroy us, right or wrong; but our judgment proceeds from the Lord, whose judgment never errs nor is biassed. 2. How Job is commended for his constancy notwithstanding the attacks made upon him: "Still he holds fast his integrity, as his weapon, and thou canst not disarm him—as his treasure, and thou canst not rob him of that; nay, thy endeavours to do it make him hold it the faster; instead of losing ground by the temptation, he gets ground." God speaks of it with wonder, and pleasure, and something of triumph in the power of his own grace; Still he holds fast his integrity. Thus the trial of Job's faith was found to his praise and honour, 1 Pet. i. 7. Constancy crowns integrity.

III. The accusation further prosecuted, v. 4. What excuse can Satan make for the failure of his former attempt? What can he say to palliate it, when he had been so very confident that he should gain his point? Why, truly, he has this to say, Skin for skin, and all that a man has, will he give for his life. Something of truth there is in this, that self-love and self-preservation are very powerful commanding principles in the hearts of men. Men love themselves better than their nearest relations, even their children, that are parts of themselves, will not only venture, but give, their estates to save their lives. All account life sweet and precious, and, while they are themselves in health and at ease, they can keep trouble from their hearts, whatever they lose. We ought to make a good use of this consideration, and, while God continues to us our life and health and the use of our limbs and senses, we should the more patiently bear the loss of other comforts. See Matt. vi. 25. But Satan grounds upon this an accusation of Job, slyly representing him, 1. As unnatural to those about him, and one that laid not to heart the death of his children and servants, nor cared how many of them had their skins (as I may say) stripped over their ears, so long as he slept in a whole skin himself; as if he that was so tender of his children's souls could be careless of their bodies, and, like the ostrich, hardened against his young ones, as though they were not his. 2. As wholly selfish, and minding nothing but his own ease and safety; as if his religion made him sour, and morose, and ill-natured. Thus are the ways and people of God often misrepresented by the devil and his agents.

IV. A challenge given to make a further trial of Job's integrity (v. 5): "Put forth thy hand now (for I find my hand too short to reach him, and too weak to hurt him) and touch his bone and his flesh (that is with him the only tender part, make him sick with smiting him, Mic. vi. 13), and then, I dare say, he will curse thee to thy face, and let go his integrity." Satan knew it, and we find it by experience, that nothing is more likely to ruffle the thoughts and put the mind into disorder than acute pain and distemper of body. There is no disputing against sense. St. Paul himself had much ado to bear a thorn in the flesh, nor could he have borne it without special grace from Christ, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9.

V. A permission granted to Satan to make this trial, v. 6. Satan would have had God put forth his hand and do it; but he afflicts not willingly, nor takes any pleasure in grieving the children of men, much less his own children (Lam. iii. 33), and therefore, if it must be done, let Satan do it, who delights in such work: "He is in thy hand, do thy worst with him; but with a proviso and limitation, only save his life, or his soul. Afflict him, but not to death." Satan hunted for the precious life, would have taken that if he might, in hopes that dying agonies would force Job to curse his God; but God had mercy in store for Job after this trial, and therefore he must survive it, and, however he is afflicted, must have his life given him for a prey. If God did not chain up the roaring lion, how soon would he devour us! As far as he permits the wrath of Satan and wicked men to proceed against his people he will make it turn to his praise and theirs, and the remainder thereof he will restrain, Ps. lxxvi. 10. "Save his soul," that is, "his reason" (so some), "preserve to him the use of that, for otherwise it will be no fair trial; if, in his delirium, he should curse God, that will be no disproof of his integrity. It would be the language not of his heart, but of his distemper." Job, in being thus maligned by Satan, was a type of Christ, the first prophecy of whom was that Satan should bruise his heel (Gen. iii. 15), and so he was foiled, as in Job's case. Satan tempted him to let go his integrity, his adoption (Matt. iv. 6): If thou be the Son of God. He entered into the heart of Judas who betrayed Christ, and (some think) with his terrors put Christ into his agony in the garden. He had permission to touch his bone and his flesh without exception of his life, because by dying he was to do that which Job could not do—destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

Job Smitten with Disease; The Affliction of Job. (b. c. 1520.)

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. 8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. 9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse 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.

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. iii.), 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, v. 7, 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.

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, Luke xiii. 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, v. 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, ch. xix. 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, ch. xlii. 6; Isa. lviii. 5; Jonah iii. 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 (ch. vii. 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 LXX. 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, v. 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, v. 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 (ch. xix. 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 are 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. viii. 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. ii. 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. iii. 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. xlv. 7, Lam. iii. 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?" 1 Pet. iv. 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 (Phil. i. 29), accepting them as punishments of our iniquity (Lev. xxvi. 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, Phil. iv. 12. When the heart is humbled and weaned, by humbling weaning providence, then we receive correction (Zeph. iii. 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? 2 Cor. xii. 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. xii. 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. xii. 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 (Prov. xxx. 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. iii. 2; Ps. xvii. 3.

Job Visited by His Friends. (b. c. 1520.)

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. 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. 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.

We have here an account of the kind visit which Job's three friends paid him in his affliction. The news of his extraordinary troubles spread into all parts, he being an eminent man both for greatness and goodness, and the circumstances of his troubles being very uncommon. Some, who were his enemies, triumphed in his calamities, ch. xvi. 10; xix. 18; xxx. 1, &c. Perhaps they made ballads on him. But his friends concerned themselves for him, and endeavoured to comfort him. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Three of them are here named (v. 11), Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. We shall afterwards meet with a fourth, who it should seem was present at the whole conference, namely, Elihu. Whether he came as a friend of Job or only as an auditor does not appear. These three are said to be his friends, his intimate acquaintance, as David and Solomon had each of them one in their court that was called the king's friend. These three were eminently wise and good men, as appears by their discourses. They were old men, very old, had a great reputation for knowledge, and much deference was paid to their judgment, ch. xxxii. 6. It is probable that they were men of figure in their country-princes, or heads of houses. Now observe,

I. That Job, in his prosperity, had contracted a friendship with them. If they were his equals, yet he had not that jealousy of them—if his inferiors, yet he had not that disdain of them, which was any hindrance to an intimate converse and correspondence with them. To have such friends added more to his happiness in the day of his prosperity than all the head of cattle he was master of. Much of the comfort of this life lies in acquaintance and friendship with those that are prudent and virtuous; and he that has a few such friends ought to value them highly. Job's three friends are supposed to have been all of them of the posterity of Abraham, which, for some descents, even in the families that were shut out from the covenant of peculiarity, retained some good fruits of that pious education which the father of the faithful gave to those under his charge. Eliphaz descended from Teman, the grandson of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 11), Bildad (it is probable) from Shuah, Abraham's son by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 2. Zophar is thought by some to be the same with Zepho, a descendant from Esau, Gen. xxvi. 11. The preserving of so much wisdom and piety among those that were strangers to the covenants of promise was a happy presage of God's grace to the Gentiles, when the partition-wall should in the latter days be taken down. Esau was rejected; yet many that came from him inherited some of the best blessings.

II. That they continued their friendship with Job in his adversity, when most of his friends had forsaken him, ch. xix. 14. In two ways they showed their friendship:—

1. By the kind visit they paid him in his affliction, to mourn with him and to comfort him, v. 11. Probably they had been wont to visit him in his prosperity, not to hunt or hawk with him, not to dance or play at cards with him, but to entertain and edify themselves with his learned and pious converse; and now that he was in adversity they come to share with him in his griefs, as formerly they had come to share with him in his comforts. These were wise men, whose heart was in the house of mourning, Eccl. vii. 4. Visiting the afflicted, sick or sore, fatherless or childless, in their sorrow, is made a branch of pure religion and undefiled (Jam. i. 27), and, if done from a good principle, will be abundantly recompensed shortly, Matt. xxv. 36.

(1.) By visiting the sons and daughters of affliction we may contribute to the improvement, [1.] Of our own graces; for many a good lesson is to be learned from the troubles of others; we may look upon them and receive instruction, and be made wise and serious. [2.] Of their comforts. By putting a respect upon them we encourage them, and some good word may be spoken to them which may help to make them easy. Job's friends came, not to satisfy their curiosity with an account of his troubles and the strangeness of the circumstances of them, much less, as David's false friends, to make invidious remarks upon him (Ps. xli. 6-8), but to mourn with him, to mingle their tears with his, and so to comfort him. It is much more pleasant to visit those in affliction to whom comfort belongs than those to whom we must first speak conviction.

(2.) Concerning these visitants observe, [1.] That they were not sent for, but came of their own accord (ch. vi. 22), whence Mr. Caryl observes that it is good manners to be an unbidden guest at the house of mourning, and, in comforting our friends, to anticipate their invitations. [2.] That they made an appointment to come. Note, Good people should make appointments among themselves for doing good, so exciting and binding one another to it, and assisting and encouraging one another in it. For the carrying on of any pious design let hand join in hand. [3.] That they came with a design (and we have reason to think it was a sincere design) to comfort him, and yet proved miserable comforters, through their unskilful management of his case. Many that aim well do, by mistake, come short of their aim.

2. By their tender sympathy with him and concern for him in his affliction. When they saw him at some distance he was so disfigured and deformed with his sores that they knew him not, v. 12. His face was foul with weeping (ch. xvi. 16), like Jerusalem's Nazarites, which had been ruddy as the rubies, but were now blacker than a coal, Lam. iv. 7, 8. What a change will a sore disease, or, without that, oppressing care and grief, make in the countenance, in a little time! Is this Naomi? Ruth i. 19. So, Is this Job? How hast thou fallen! How is thy glory stained and sullied, and all thy honour laid in the dust! God fits us for such changes! Observing him thus miserably altered, they did not leave him, in a fright or loathing, but expressed so much the more tenderness towards him. (1.) Coming to mourn with him, they vented their undissembled grief in all the then usual expressions of that passion. They wept aloud; the sight of them (as is usual) revived Job's grief, and set him a weeping afresh, which fetched floods of tears from their eyes. They rent their clothes, and sprinkled dust upon their heads, as men that would strip themselves, and abase themselves, with their friend that was stripped and abased. (2.) Coming to comfort him, they sat down with him upon the ground, for so he received visits; and they, not in compliment to him, but in true compassion, put themselves into the same humble and uneasy place and posture. They had many a time, it is likely, sat with him on his couches and at his table, in his prosperity, and were therefore willing to share with him in his grief and poverty because they had shared with him in his joy and plenty. It was not a modish short visit that they made him, just to look upon him and be gone; but, as those that could have had no enjoyment of themselves if they had returned to their place while their friend was in so much misery, they resolved to stay with him till they saw him mend or end, and therefore took lodgings near him, though he was not now able to entertain them as he had done, and they must therefore bear their own charges. Every day, for seven days together, at the house in which he admitted company, they came and sat with him, as his companions in tribulation, and exceptions from that rule, Nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes—Those who have lost their wealth are not to expect the visits of their friends. They sat with him, but none spoke a word to him, only they all attended to the particular narratives he gave of his troubles. They were silent, as men astonished and amazed. Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent—Our lighter griefs have a voice; those which are more oppressive are mute. So long a time they held their peace, to show A reverence due to such prodigious woe. Sir R. Blackmore . They spoke not a word to him, whatever they said one to another, by way of instruction, for the improvement of the present providence. They said nothing to that purport to which afterwards they said much—nothing to grieve him (ch. iv. 2), because they saw his grief was very great already, and they were loth at first to add affliction to the afflicted. There is a time to keep silence, when either the wicked is before us, and by speaking we may harden them (Ps. xxxix. 1), or when by speaking we may offend the generation of God's children, Ps. lxxiii. 15. Their not entering upon the following solemn discourses till the seventh day may perhaps intimate that it was the sabbath day, which doubtless was observed in the patriarchal age, and to that day they adjourned the intended conference, because probably then company resorted, as usual, to Job's house, to join with him in his devotions, who might be edified by the discourse. Or, rather, by their silence so long they would intimate that what they afterwards said was well considered and digested and the result of many thoughts. The heart of the wise studies to answer. We should think twice before we speak once, especially in such a case as this, think long, and we shall be the better able to speak short and to the purpose.

CHAP. II. Verſe 1. Again there was a day]

WHether the next day, or the next Sabbath day, or the next firſt day of the year, (which is Gods day of general Audit, as the Rabbines will have it) we have not to ſay. God, as he hath in his eternal counſell fore-appointed every thing that is done; ſo he hath ſet the times wherein, Eccleſ. 3.1. ſuch as the creature can neither alter, nor order. This is a comfortable conſideration.

When the Sons of God &c.] See chap. 1.6.

And Satan came alſo among them] Whether ſummoned to give an account, or of his own accord to ſue out a new Commiſſion againſt Job, it skilleth not. Reſtleſſe he is; and it behooveth us to be vigilant: not ignorant of his wiles, nor unmindful of his inveterate envy and enmity.

Verſe 2. And the Lord ſaid unto Satan, &c.] See chap. 1.7.

From going to and fro in the earth] In heaven he comes not; into that earthly paradiſe he could ſcrue himſelf, not ſo into the heavenly. No dirty dog ever trampled on that golden pavement; thoſe that are there, are ex[illegible: 1 letter]ra jactum out of Satans gun-ſhot; but whileſt here, he will ever and anon have a bout with the beſt; hee walks about for the nonce, ſpying advantages.

And from walking up and down in it] Doing his feates, and carrying newes. It might very well be he, who when Domitian the Emperour was ſlain by his own ſervants at Rome, informed Apollonius Tyaneus thereof at Epheſus, where he is ſaid to have cryed out the ſame time; To him Stephan; ſtrike him, kill him. But what a vain-glorious vaunt of an impudent caytiffe was this, that though vanquiſhed as he had been by Job, and beaten on his own dunghill, he ſhould take upon him ſtill in this ſort, that he had been walking up and down as a Conqueror or Emperour of this preſent world? Surely as Job ſtill retained his integrity, ſo did Satan his vanity; boaſting that he came now from viſiting his eſtate;Sc[illegible: 1 letter]a[illegible: 1 letter]lt. and that nothing rendred hm more glorious then the great number of his ſubjects which depended upon his will.

Verſe 3. And the Lord ſaid unto Satan] Before he would condemn him, he thus interrogateth him (which he would not vouchſafe to doe, when he had deceived our firſt parents, Gen. 3.14.) but with a very bitter taunt and ſharp reprehenſion; as if God ſhould have ſaid, Beza. Art thou not aſhamed Satan, thus to anſwer me, as if I had forgotten what I granted thee in our laſt aſſembly, and thus in my preſence to diſſemble &c?

Haſt thou conſidered my ſervant Job] See chap. 1.8.

One that feareth God &c.] This he did not without God (according to that clauſe in the new covenant, I will put my fear into their hearts. Jer. 31.40. I, is emphaticall and excluſive, q. d. I, and I alone) yet God giveth him the honour of it: as if he himſelf had been the ſole doer. Certum eſt, nos facere quod facimus; ſed ille facit ut faciamus, ſaith Auſtin; Sure it is, that we do what good we doe; but as ſure it is, that God doth all our works in us and for us, Iſai. 26.12.

And ſtill be holdeth faſt his integrity] which thou haſt ſtriven quaſi [illegible: 1 letter]icedulà extorquere, by wrinch and wile to get from him; but he hath hitherto held it faſt as with tooth and naile. This was a ſingular commendation, and that's a rare faith, which being long tryed, doth not flag and hang the wing. By reaſon of the overflow of iniquity the love of many ſhall wax cold, (ſaith our Saviour) but he that endureth to the end ſhall be ſaved, Ma[illegible: 1 letter]th. 24.12, 13. Lo, it is but a He, a ſingle man that retaineth his integrity; when Many loſe their firſt love, and fall from their former ſtedfaſtneſſe, as faſt as leaves fall in Autumne. Job would not part with his integrity to dye for it: when all was taken away, he laid faſt hold on that, and reſolved to let go his life ſooner. Chriſt he ſaw ſtanding over him (as once Steven did) and ſaying, Revel. 3.11. Hold faſt that thou haſt, that no one take thy crown from thee. Omnia perdidit qui fidem amiſit, ſaith Seneca. In a common combuſtion, a man will be ſure to ſecure his jewels, what ever become of his lumber.

Although thou movedſt me againſt him] That is, againſt his perſonall eſtate, and his children, which are called himſelf; againſt theſe Satan is ſaid to have moved the Lord, to have incited and inſtigated him, ſtirring him up with reaſons and arguments; as he is an excellent Orator, if he may but have audience. But that the Lord was hereby moved to do ought againſt Job, muſt be wiſely and rightly underſtood; for God is immutable and unmoveable: neither can he be drawne to do any thing, but what he hath decreed to do from before all beginnings: but here he ſpeaketh after the manner of men, as if he were prevailed with by Satans ſollicitations.

To deſtroy him] So Satan would have had it, when God meant to try him only. See the like, Rev. 2.10.

Without cauſe] or for nothing (as the word ſignifieth, chap. 1.10. Doth Job fear God for nought?) without any provocation or cauſe on his part procuring it. Not but that there is cauſe enough in the beſt, why God ſhould afflict them: But as there was no peccatum flagrans in Jacob, Numb. 23.21. No foule ſin of that people, flaming at that time in the eyes of God, or ſtinking in his noſtrels; and therefore Bala[illegible: 2 letters] (the divels Spel-man) could do nought againſt them by his inchantments, verſe 23.Job non erat flagitioſus, Lavat. So there was not in Job that groſſe hypocriſie, wherewith Satan had falſely charged him: he was not that mercenary that Satan would have made of him. In vaine did that arch-ſlandere[illegible: 1 letter] and accuſer of the Saints move the Lord againſt Job, Gratis, id eſt, Fruſtra, ſaith Lyra; in vaine did he aſſault this ſtout champion, &c.

Verſe 4. And Satan anſwered the Lord &c.] This impudent adverſary had yet an anſwer in his mouth, and would not be ſo ſet down. Of him and his agents (thoſe falſe teachers, as the Apoſtle calleth them) it may be truly ſaid, — Nihil eſt audacius illis. Juvenal.

Deprenſis: iram atque animes ex crimine ſumunt.

Skin for skin.] Any skin for his own, cattel, ſervants, children may be eaſily parted with by him, to ſave himſelf in a whole skin, to keep himſelfe whole: others read it, skin after skin, or skin upon skin: both the Cutis and the Pellis ſhall go, ſo that life may be preſerved: as a man will hold up his arm to ſave his head, or ſuffer the loſſe of a limb to ſave his life. Ʋt corpus redimas; ferrum patieris & ignes. Job is ſtill integrâcu[illegible: 1 letter]e, skin-whole, ſaith Satan; and ſo long there is little trial of him: that man is rich [illegible: 1 letter]nough who is well. I read of one, who being asked how old he was, anſwered, that he was in health: and to another that asked how, rich he was, anſwered, that he was not in debt, q. d. He is young enough that is in health; and rich enough that is not in debt. Now all this Job was yet, and therefore Satan ill apaid and unſatisfied.

And all that he hath will a man give for his life] Life is ſweet, we ſay: [non-Latin text not transcribed] Aeſop. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Ariſt. and man is a life-loving creature, ſaith the Heathen; fond of life, and afraid of death, which is Natures ſlaughterman, and therefore the moſt Terrible of Terribles, as Aristotle ſtileth it. The Gibeonites refuſed not to be perpetuall ſlaves, ſo they might but live. Thoſe that are overcome in battle, are content to be ſtript of all, ſo they may have quarter for their lives. Marriners in a tempeſt, caſt their lading into the ſea, though never ſo precious, in hope of life. If Job may eſcape with the skin of his teeth, it is ſome favour: he may not think much to ſacrifice all that he hath to the ſervice of his life, his conſcience only excepted. Some good people have ſtrained that too for love of life: as when Abraham denyed his wife; David changed his behaviour;Camd. Eliſ. fol. 325. Peter denyed his Maſter; Qu. Elizabeth (though afterwards ſhe could ſay, When I call to mind things paſt, behold things preſent, and expect things to come, I hold them happieſt, that go hence ſooneſt; yet) in Queen Maries time, ſhee ſometimes heard divine ſervice after the Romiſh religion, and was often confeſſed; yea, at the rigorous ſollicitation of Cardinall Pool, ſhee profeſſed her ſelf a Romiſh Catholick; yet did not Queen Mary believe her (ſaith mine Author) remembring that ſhee her ſelf, for feare of death, had by Letters written with her own hand to her father, both renounced for ever the Biſhop of Romes authority,Ibid. Introd. and withall acknowledged her father to be ſupreme head of the Church of England under Chriſt, and her Mothers marriage to have been inceſtuous and unjuſt. Thoſe good ſoules did better, that loved not their lives unto death, Rev. 12.11. that by loſing their lives ſaved them, Matth. 10.39. that held with that Martyr,Julius Palmer. that life is ſweet only to ſuch as have their ſouls linked to their bodies, as a thiefs foot is in a pair of fetters.

Verſe 5. But put forth thy hand now] See notes on chap. 1.11. This God did at Satans motion, yet non ad exitium Jobi, ſed ad exercitium; Jobs temptation is of Satan, but his triall and invincible conſtancy is of god. God in a ſenſe tempted Job. Satan alſo: even as the dog may be ſaid to bait the beaſt, and the owner of the beaſt too, that ſuffered him to be baited.

And touch his bone and his fleſh] pinch him to the quick, that not his fleſh onely may feel it, but the marrow alſo in his bones, Pſal. 6.2. and 32.3. and 51.8. The bone and fleſh are the chief materials of mans body, which is fitly compared to a fabrick, wherein the bones are the timber-work, the head the upper-lodging, the eyes as windowes, the eye-lids as caſements, the browes as pent-houſes, the ears as watch-towers, the mouth as a door, to take in that which ſhall uphold the building, and keep it in reparations; the ſtomack as a kitchin, to dreſſe that which is conveyed into it: the guts and baſer parts as ſinks belonging to the houſe &c. as one maketh the compariſon. Now in all theſe and the reſt of his parts of body, Satan would have Job to be ſmitten: and then he made no queſtion of a conqueſt. Paine is a piercing ſhaft in Satans quiver of temptations: hence he ſtirred up his agents to tympanize and torment the Martyrs with as much cruelty as the wit of malice could deviſe; but all in vain. Heb. 11.35, 36. Apollonia had all her teeth pulled out of her head (hence Papiſts make her the Saint for tooth-ach.) Blandina tired thoſe that tortured her. Theodorus was cruelly whipped, racked,Scerat. Theodor. and ſcraped with ſharp ſhells, by the command of Julian, but yeilded not. Roſe Allen had her hand-wriſt burnt by Juſtice Tyrrell, who held a candle under it till the ſinews brake that all the houſe heard them; and then thruſting her from him, violently ſaid, ah ſtrong whore, wilt thou not cry? thou ſhameleſſe whore, thou beaſtly whore, &c. But ſhe quietly ſuffering his rage for the time, at the laſt ſaid, Sir,Acts & Mon. 1820. have you done what you will doe? and he ſaid yea; and if thou think it not well, then mend it. Mend it, ſaid ſhe? nay, the Lord mend you, and give you repentance, if it be his will. And now, if you think it fit, begin at the feet, and burn the head alſo; for he that ſet you a work, ſhall pay your wages one day, I warrant you. As little got the divel by theſe worthies, as he did by Jobs biles and carbuncles. We are aſhamed, (ſaid one of Julians Nobles to him) we are Aſhamed, O Emperour, the Chriſtians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more reſolute.

And he will curſe thee to thy face] Heb. If he curſe thee not to thy fade, q. d. then damne me, ſend me to hell preſently. This Satan holds in by an Apoſiopeſis, being therein more modeſt then our deſperate and deteſtable God-damn-mee's; let them ſee how they gratifie the divel, who curſe and blaſpheme, or proteſt openly what they know to be falſe. This the divel did not.

Verſe 6. And the Lord ſaid unto Satan] who hath his requeſt: it is not alwayes a mercy to have what we wiſh. Deus ſaepè dat iratus, quod negat propitius. Be ſure we bring lawful petitions, and true hearts, Heb. 10.22. and then we ſhall have good things, and for our greateſt good.

Behold he is in thine hand] Here God puts his child into his ſlaves hand to correct, but not to deſtroy. And ſurely, if we give reverence to the fathers of our fleſh, who correct us for their own pleaſure, ſhall we not much more be in ſubjection unto the Father of Spirits,Heb. 12 9, 10. Buſbeq. chaſtning us for our profit, and live? The Turks, though cruelly laſht, are yet compelled to return to him that commanded it, to kiſſe his hand, and to give him thanks, and to pay the officer that whipt them. This laſt we need not do, but the former we ought, taking Gods part againſt our ſelves, and reſting contented; though as Paul delivered up ſome to Satan, that they might learn not to blaſpheme, ſo God deliver us up to him and his agents (ſuch as Satanically hate us, and are divelliſhly bent againſt us, Pſal. 32.21.) cauſing us to ſuffer more then any ever did out of hell; that we may learn not to be proud, ſecure, ſenſuall, and may preach forth the vertues of him who hath brought us out of darkneſſe into his marvellous light, 1 Pet. 2.9. Let us not ſay, if God would take the rod into his own hand, I could better beare it: but the tender mercies of that wicked one and his imps are meer cruelties. For 1. this is as if the child ſhould ſay, If I might chooſe my rod, I would not care to be whipt: or the condemned Noble-man, If I might chuſe mine executioner, I would not care to loſe mine head. 2. It is but one hand, and many inſtruments that God ſmiteth us with. Our enemies are but the men of Gods hand, Pſal. 17.14. that can do no more then is given them from above, John [illegible: 1 letter]9.[illegible: 2 letters]. Gods Maſons, to hew us here in the Mount, that we may be as the poliſhed corners of the Temple, Pſal. 144.12. Gods ſcullions, to ſcowre up the veſſels of his houſhold, that they may ſhine upon the celeſtiall ſhelf, as that Martyr ſaid. 3. God ever reſerveth to himſelf the royaltie of ſetting them their task, limiting them their time, and letting out their [illegible: 1 letter]edder; hitherto ye ſhall go, and no further. 4. If they exceed their commiſſion (as they are apt), Gods jealouſie will ſmoke againſt them, Zech. 1.14.

But ſave his life] Heb. his ſoule; put oft for the life, the cauſe for the effect: Satan ſhook his chain at Jobs ſoul, and would have deſtroyed it; but that he might not do: ſcratch him he might with his pawes, but not faſten his fangs in him. Job could ſay (for a ſeaſon at leaſt) as that dying Saint did, My body is weak, my ſoul is well. His afflictions, as afterwards St. Pauls, reached but to his fleſh, Col. 1.24. And ſee that thou ſave his life too, ſaith God: (ſee how he chaineth up the divel, who would faine have been ſucking Jobs blood, and ſwallowing him down his wide gullet;Iſa. 57.16. 1 Pet. 5.8.) Save it, that is, ſpare it; ſee that the Spirit faile not before me, and the ſoul that I have made; I have yet ſome further uſe of him, though a lamentable Lazar.Gal. 4.13, 14. You know how through infirmity of the fleſh; that is, notwithſtanding the infirmity and weakneſſe of my body, I preached the Goſpel, ſaith Paul. and my temptation which was in my fleſh you deſpiſed not. Daniel, though ſick, yet did the Kings buſineſſe; and Job, though ſcabbed all over, was yet of great uſe, and reſerved to great honour: therefore Save his life, ſaith God: and the divel, ſay the Rabbines, was as much vexed and wounded with this reſtraint, as Job was with all his wounds and ulcers. It is ſurely a vexation to malice, not to do its utmoſt.

Verſe 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 indited in this form. For that thou, not having God before thine eyes, but moved by the inſtigation of the divel, didſt—.

And ſmote Job] He pretended to touch him only, verſe 5. but let every good man bleſſe himſelf out of Satans bloody fingers: his iron entred into Joſephs ſoule, his ſtroke was very vehement upon Jobs body, making totum pro vulnere corpus: For he ſmote Job

With ſore boiles] hot boyling boyles, ſuch as the Sorcerers of Egypt were ſmitten with, Exod. 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 mattery (why elſe ſhould he ſo ſcrape himſelfe with a potſheard, as verſe 8.) ſuch as whoſe ſharp and pricking humour penetrated the very bone, and put him to exquiſite paine, being worſe to him then Augustus his tres vomicae briae carcinomata, above-mentioned: or Philip the ſecond of Spain his loathſome and louſie diſeaſe, whereof he died Anno 1598.Inſtit. princip. cap. 20. Carolus Scribanius thus deſcribeth it. This potent Prince for a long time endured ulcerum magnitudinem, multitudinem, acerbitatem, foetorem &c. i. e. Many great, ſharp and ſtinking ulcers, which faſtned him to his bed, as to a croſſe, for a whole yeare before his death; beſides ſix years torture by the Gout, an hectick fever with a double tertian for two yeers ſpace feeding upon his bowels, and the very marrow of his bones; beſides a moſt grievous flux for two and twenty dayes, a continual nauſeouſneſſe of his ſtomack, an unſatisfiable thirſt, a continuall paine of his head and eyes, abundance of matter working out of his ulcets, quae binas indies ſcutellas divite paedore impleret: beſides a moſt loathſome ſtench that took away his ſleep &c.Alſted. Chron. pag. 314. thus he. Think the ſame, and worſe of Job, the object of Satans utmoſt malice, and that for a whole year, ſay the Hebrewes; for ſeven whole years, ſaith Suidas. chryſoſt. de Laz. Chryſoſtome compareth him with Lazarus▪ and maketh him to be in a farre worſe condition. Pineda ſheweth, that his ſufferings were a great deal worſe then thoſe of the wicked Egyptians under all their ten plagues; this was a boile, an evil boile, 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 the feet, unto his crown] It was all but one continued ſore, univerſall, as the leproſie, and therefore incurable; threatned as an utmoſt plague, an evil, an only evil, D[illegible: 1 letter]ut. 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 chap. 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.

Verſe 8. And he took him a pot ſheard] a piece of a broken pot, for want of better: oyntments he had none, nor baths to lenifie his ſoreneſſe. Phyſicians and friends were farre from him. He looked on his right hand, and beheld, Pſal. 14.2.4 Beza. but there was no man that would know him: refuge failed and periſhed from him; no man cared for his ſoule. He had ſtill a wife and ſervants, and (as ſome think) his houſhold-ſtuffe left him. He ſhould therefore by them have been helped; but they helped on his miſery, jeering him, and jeſting at him, as he afterwards complaineth. Himſelf therefore in this neceſſity, taketh a potſheard, a piece of an earthen-pot, thereby to mind himſelf, ſaith Gregory, that he was of the earth, earthy. For which cauſe alſo

He ſate down among the aſhes] or duſt, as repenting in duſt and aſhes, chap. 42.6. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. So Jonah 3.6. Matth. 11.22. The Septuagint ſay, that he ſat upon the dirt or dung, for want of a better cuſhion, and that he was laid without the City, as if for the ſtink and ill ſavour that came from him, he was not ſuffered to be in the City: as Ʋzziah afterwards being a Leper, dwelt in a houſe by himſelf alone, 2 Chron. 26.21. Diſce hîc, ſi aegrotas, ſaith Lanater, Learn here, if thou be ſick, and have help about thee, of friends, food, phyſick, clean linnen, and the like,In loc. to ſhew thy ſelf patient: poor Job had none of all this. Nay, the Lord Chriſt had not whereon to reſt his head. Sin autem omni curâ & ſolatio es deſtitutus, ſaith he. But ſay thou be deſtitute of all cure and comfort, forced to lie without doors, and upon the hard ground; ſay thou be in ſuch a condition, that thou canſt neither ſtand nor go, nor ſit, nor lie, nor eat (either for want of meat, or want of ſtomack): comfort thy ſelf with this, and the like examples of the Saints. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and what end the Lord made, James 5.11. He raiſeth the poor out of the duſt, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to ſet them among Princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory, 1 Sam. 2.8. Againe, let no man truſt to his preſent proſperity: Job, who heretofore ſpake not to his ſubjects but from his throne, was now ſeated upon a dung-hill: and his hands accuſtomed to bear the Scepter, were employed to wipe the matter which diſtilled from his ſores, as the French Paraphraſt hath it.

Verſe 9. Then ſaid his wife] Was this Dinah, Jacobs onely daughter? ſo the Jew-Doctors ſay; and that Job had a fair daughter by her, whom Potipher married; and that of her came Aſenaz whom Joſeph married. They tell us alſo (but who told them all this?) that ſhe was hitherto ſpared, when all Jobs outward comforts were taken away, for Jacob her fathers ſake. Moreover, the Septuagint here help her to ſcold, adding a whole verſe of female paſſion, I muſt now, ſaith ſhe, go wander, and have no place to reſt in, &c. Job ſaid nothing all this while; not becauſe he was either inſenſible or ſullen; but becauſe it was God that did it, Pſalm 39.2. and he had well deſerved it, Mic. 7.9. I will bear (thinks he) the indignation of the Lord, becauſe I have ſinned againſt him. Yet my ſoul be ſilent to Jehovah &c. Pſal. 12.1. Satan therefore (who waited for his curſing of God, as a dog waiteth for a bone, but was defeated) cunningly ſetteth his wife awork, by her venemous words, to make him ſpeak at leaſt, and by her unſeemly and ſinful counſel, to draw him to do wickedly. Some think, ſaith Chryſoſtome, that the divel in the ſhape of Jobs wife, ſpake thus unto him; and ſurely their words agree; He will curſe thee to thy face, ſaith he; Curſe God and die, ſaith ſhee. Chryſostome himſelf thinketh, that the divel (if he ſpake not in her, yet) ſpake by her, as he did once to Eve by the Serpent, and that he borrowed her mouth, uſing her as a ſtrong Engine, to a wall of adamant, as the choiceſt arrow in his quiver, to wound Jobs righteous ſoule; and as a ſcaling-ladder, whereby to get up into this impregnable tower, as Gregory hath it.Per coſtam tanquam ſer ſcalam ad cor Adami aſcendit. Greg. Moral. l. 3. c. 3. He had tried this courſe before with Adam, and had ſingular ſucceſſe, Gen. 3.6. he had by his rib (as by a ladder) gotten up to his heart; yea, with his rib broken his head, as one phraſeth it, darting in death at the windowes of his ears. This he aſſayed upon Job, but without effect: his ears were waxed up, his heart fixed &c. although he could not but be vexed that his wife ſhould do it; eſpecially ſince hereby his ſervants and friends would be encouraged to do the like. O wives, ſaith one! the ſweeteſt poyſon, the moſt deſired evil &c. Sir Thomas Moore was wont to ſay, that men commit faults often, women only twice, that they neither ſpeak well, nor do well. This may be true of bad wives, ſuch as Jezebel who ſtirred up Ahab (of himſelf forward enough) to do wickedly with both hands earneſtly, 1 King. 21.25. This in Jobs wiſe might be a particular failing, though a foul one. Women are the weaker veſſels, and naturally more paſſionate: they muſt have their allowance, as light gold hath. Shee in the text had no ſmall trials, and he is a perfect man that offendeth not with his tongue.

Doſt thou ſtill retain thine integrity?] Cuibono, as he ſaid: what getteſt thou by it? Is not this thy fear, thy confidence; the uprightneſſe of thy wayes, and thy hope? Lo Eliphaz (who ſhould have had more grace and government of his tongue then Jobs wife) ſcoffeth religious Job. as ſome ſenſe that text, chap, 4.6. rendring the words thus; Is not thy fear (or religion) become thy folly? Where is now thine uprightneſſe, and hope of reward? It is an ancient and an ordinary ſlurre and ſlander caſt upon the waies of God, as if they were unprofitable, as if God were an auſtere man, an illiberall Lord: as if there were no gain in godlineſſe, nothing to be got by it but knocks, croſſes, loſſes, &c. whereas God is a rewarder of all thoſe that diligently ſeek him, Heb. 11.6. He recompenſeth the loſſes of his people, as the King of Poland did his noble ſervant Zeliſlaus, to whom having loſt his hand in his warrs, he ſent a golden hand inſtead thereof. He rewardeth the ſufferings of his Saints, as Caius the Emperour did Agrippa, who had ſuffered impriſonment for wiſhing him Emperour. The Hiſtory ſaith, that when he came afterwards to the Empire, the firſt thing he did, was to preferre Agrippa, and gave him a chaine of gold, as heavy as the chaine of iron that was upon him in priſon. The divel could have told this peeviſh woman, that Job did not ſerve God for nought, chap 1.9. See Mal. 1.10. and 3.14. with the Notes.

Curſe God and die] What curſed counſel was this? and from her who ſhould have adminiſtred conjugal help to him? How well might Job have turned her off with Get thee behind me Satan, thou art an offence unto me? Theſe were the divels words and not the womans, ſaith Chryſostome; it was her tongue, but the divel tuned it, ſaith Origen. Curſe God and die, for he will not endure thee to live, having once ſo ſet thy mouth againſt heaven, but will quickly ſet thee packing by a viſible vengeance: or, Curſe God, and then dye by thine own hands; having firſt ſpit thy venome in his face for having handled thee ſo hardly, after ſo good ſervice done him. Hacket did thus at the gallows, Anno 1591. threatning to ſet fire on heaven,Camd. Eli. 403 to pluck God out of his Throne, if he would not ſhew ſome miracle out of the clouds to convert thoſe infidels that brought him to execution, and to deliver him from his enemies: having the rope about his neck, he life his eyes to heaven, and grinning, ſaid, Doſt thou repay me this for a Kingdome beſtow'd? I come to revenge it &c. O wretch I By the way obſerve, that Satan is a [non-Latin text not transcribed] (as Hegeſias the Philoſopher was called) a perſwader of people, that death is an end, at leaſt an eaſe of outward troubles, when as to the wicked death is but a trap-door to hell: we ſilly fiſh, ſee one another jerked out of the pond of life, but we ſee not the fire, and the frying-pan whereunto thoſe are caſt that die in their ſins, to whom all the ſufferings of this life are but a typicall hell, the beginning of thoſe terrors and torments which they ſhall hereafter ſuffer, without any the leaſt hope of ever either mending or ending.

Verſe 10. But he ſaid unto her] He did not ſtart up, and lay upon her with his unmanly fiſt, (Chryſostome ſaith, it is the greateſt reproach in the world for a man to beat his wife) but he reproveth her, and that ſharply, as ſhe deſerved: and ſo did Jacob his beſt beloved Rachel, when the offence was againſt God, Gen. 30.2. A wiſe husband, ſaith Marcus Aurelius, muſt often admoniſh, never ſmite, and but ſeldome reprove, and that with the ſpirit of meekneſſe too, Gal. 6.1. Meekneſſe of wiſedome, Jam. 3.13. That was wonderful patience that was exerciſed by D. Youngs Benef. of Afflict. 153. Cowper Biſhop of Lincoln, who, when his wife had burnt all his Notes which he had beene eight years in gathering, left he ſhould kill himſelf with overmuch ſtudy (for ſhe had much ado to get him to his meales) ſhewed not the leaſt token of paſſion, but only replyed, Indeed wife, it was not well done; ſo falling to work again, he was eight years in gathering the ſame Notes, wherewith he compoſed his Dictionary. Job, though ſomewhat more tart, as reaſon required, the offence being of ſo high a nature; yet he breaks not out into fierce and furious language: he ſaith not, Go, go, thou art an arrant fool, a wicked woman, an abominable wretch, but

Thou ſpeakeſt like one of the fooliſh women] like one of the women of Idumea that have no ſap of wiſdome or goodneſſe in them, but do whip their gods, (as the Chinois are ſaid to do at this day) when they cannot have what they would have of them, and revile them for neglecting their worſhippers. Note here, that Jobs wife might be a good woman for the main, though in this particular ſhe did amiſſe: but it is a fault in Gods people, when it ſhall be ſaid unto them, Are ye not carnal, and walk, as men? when it ſhall be ſaid of Gods daughters, that they ſpeak or act like one of the fooliſh women. Davids daughters were known by their party-coloured garments, ſo ſhould Gods by the law of wiſdome in their lips and lives, by their patient minde made known to all men, by their eximious and exemplary holineſſe. What ſhould Jobs wife, the Governeſſe of ſuch a religious Family, the yoak-fellow of ſuch an holy Husband, be talking of curſing God? be ſpeaking after the rate of profane Edomites? The Heathen Comedian can ſay, that ſhe is a wiſe woman who can be well content to ſuffer hardſhip; and not repine, that it is now worſe with her then formerly it hath been: Job would fain bring his wife to this,Quae aquo animo pati poteſt ſibi eſſe pejus quam fuit. and therefore addeth,

What? ſhall we receive good &c] He ſeeketh to ſet her down, not with rage, but with reaſon: and that indeed is the right way of backing a reproof: wherein as there muſt be ſome warmth, ſo it may not be ſcalding hot. Words of reviling and diſgrace, they ſcald, as it were: But words that tend to convince the judgment, and to ſtir up the conſcience to a due conſideration of the fault, they be duely warm, and tend to make the phyſick work the more kindly.

Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and not evill?] Shall we not eat the cruſt with the crumbs? drink the ſowr with the ſweet? bleſſe God as well for taking away, as for giving; accept of the chaſtiſement of our iniquity? receive it patiently, thankfully, fruitfully? Shall we be all for comforts, and nothing at all for croſſes? Is it not equall that we ſhould ſhare in both, ſith it is the Lords mercy that we are not conſumed? Gen. 49.28. Jacob is ſaid to have bleſſed all his ſonnes. Now he ſeemed rather to curſe Reuben, Simeon and Levi; for he ſpeaks only of evill to them: But becauſe they were not rejected from being among Gods people, becauſe they were not cut out of the liſt (as Dan afterwards was, 1 Chron. 7. Revel. 7.7.) though they were under great and ſore afflictions, they are counted bleſſed. Doles quòd amiſiſti? gaude quòd [illegible: 1 letter] vaſiſti, ſaith Seneca: Grieveſt thou at thy loſſes? be glad that thy ſelf art eſcaped. Be ready at all hours, to ſend God home again the bleſſings which he lent us, with thankfulneſſe. There is a complaint of ſome men, ſo ungratefull, that if you do them nineteen courteſies,Auſon. and then deny them the twentieth, you loſe all your thank with them: Carry them on your back to the very ſuburbs of Rome, and not into the City it ſelf, you do nothing for them. God is not to be thus dealt with; eſpecially, ſince he altereth the property of thoſe evils and croſſes which he layeth upon us, turning them to our greateſt good, Rom. 8.28. like as the skilfull Apothecary turneth a poyſonfull Viper into a wholeſome Triacle. Good therefore and worthy of all acceptation is that counſell of the Wiſe-man, In the day of proſperity be joyfull, but in the day of adverſity conſider. Conſider? What? This, that God alſo hath ſet the one over againſt the other, Eccleſ. 7.14. and therefore thou muſt take the one as well as the other: that's but reaſonable and equitable. Plato ſaith, that God doth alwayes [non-Latin text not transcribed], act the Geometrician, do and diſpoſe of all things in number weight and meaſure: ſuch an order and viciſſitude he hath ſet of good and evill in the life of man, that they are as it were interwoven. Accept them therefore, and acquieſce in them both, as the Hebrew word here ſignifieth.

In all this Job ſinned not with his lips.] Hitherto he did not, though in a pitifull pickle, and much provoked by the wife of his boſome. He did not murmure againſt God, nor let fly at his wife; he did not threaten her as Lamech, nor fall out with the whole ſex, as he that ſaid, Foemina nulla bona est. He doth not wiſh himſelf ſingle againe,Sylla foelix, ſi non habuiſſes uxorem. Chaldaus Paraphraſtes & Talmudici. as Auguſtus did, or hold himſelf therefore onely unhappy becauſe married, as Sylla did. No ſuch unſavoury ſpeech falls from Jobs lips, as the Divel wiſhed and waited for it. Neither doth it follow (as ſome Rabbines would inferre from this Text) that Job ſinned in his heart, though not with his lips: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth would have ſpoken. Look what water is in the Well, the like will be in the Bucket: and what ſtuff is in the ware-houſe, the like will be in the ſhop. If his heart had been exulcerate, he would not meekly and wiſely have withſtood his Wives motion to blaſpheme. Hitherto certainly, God had helped him. It was the uncouth and unkind carriage of his friends concurring with the increaſe of his bodily paine, beſides the eclipſe of inward comforts, that drew from him thoſe paſſionate expreſſions, chap. 3.

Ver. 11. And when Jobs three friends] His familiar friends, that did eat of his bread, as Pſal. 49.9. that were as his own ſoul, Deut. 13.6. his boſome friends, and therefore precious Jewels, ſuch as could both keep counſel, and give counſel. Of ſuch there are but few to be found. Friends, there is no friend, ſaid Socrates. Faithfull friends, [non-Latin text not transcribed] ſaith Another, are in this age all for the moſt part gone in pilgrimage, and their return is uncertain. A Friend is a changeable creature, ſaith a Third; all in changeable colours like the Peacock, as often changed as moved. Job complaineth of theſe his chief and choice friends, that they were miſerable Comforters, Phyſicians of no value,chap. 16.2. &c. Amicitia ſit tantùm inter binos, eóſque bonos; ſuch as were Jonathan and David. Corporibus geminis ſpiritus unus erat.

Heard of all this evil] Whether by the miniſtry of the good or bad Angels, or of neither, it skilleth not. Ill newes is ſwift of foot, ſaith the Greek Proverb; and like ill weather, [non-Latin text not transcribed] which comes ere it be ſent for. The ſins and miſeries of good people are much talked of, and ſoon bruited abroad. The Chaldee Paraphraſt here telleth of ſtrange buſineſſes, viz. that theſe three here mentioned (beſides the report they heard of Jobs calamity) were moved to viſit him by the wonders that fell out with them at the ſame time: for their trees ſuddenly withered in their Ort-yards, their bread at their table was turned into raw fleſh, their wine into bloud, &c. But this may well paſſe for a Jewiſh fable: The Author of that Paraphraſe was R. Joſeph Cacus, nothing ſo ancient or authentick as he who paraphraſeth upon the hiſtorical books, but exceeding full of miſtakes, and ſeldome cometh he near the right meaning of the Text, all along the Hagiographa.

They came every one from his own place] More then theſe came to ſuch a ſight, no doubt: but theſe out of a deſire and deſigne to condole with him, and comfort him. But it fel out far otherwiſe: for they tormented Job well nigh as much as Satan himſelf, though it were of ignorance, and unwittingly, rather then of ill will, or malice fore-thought. Their very ſilence and geſture before ever they ſpake a word, did ſo torment his mind, that at laſt he cryes out in that bitter manner, as chap. 3. like a frantick man, which through ſome grievous ſickneſſe hath loſt his wits.

Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhitt &c. Idumeans all (likely) and men of much eſtimation for wiſdome (Jer. 49.7. Is Wiſdom no more in Teman?) and godlineſſe, as deſcended all of Abraham, whoſe care was to catechiſe his whole Family, and to teach them the wayes of God, Gen. 18.19. Their following diſputations ſhew as much, wherein they admoniſh him to repent, aſſuring him, that he could be no leſſe then a groſſe ſinner, and an hypocrite, becauſe ſo grievouſly afflicted. Job anſwereth their ſeverall ſpeeches, tormented in body, perplexed in mind, but ſtoutly defending his own innocency, and ſeeming to tax the Lord alſo; like as dogs in a chaſe bark at their own Maſters. To this, his friends reply ſharply from chap. 15. to 22. and he anſwereth them again with greater boldneſſe and courage then before. Hereupon they begin a ſecond reply, and here Eliphaz and Bildad onely ſpake: The third man fainted and ſpake no more, for that Job was invincible &c. till at length Elihu moderateth, cenſuring both parties; and God determineth, to Jobs conviction and finall commendation.

For they had made an appointment together to come] Not by accident, or at adventure, as Origen will needs have it againſt the Text; but by ſolemn agreement; it was a pitcht meeting. Neither ſtaid they till they were ſent for, but came (as friends) to do Job all friendly offices: like as in a fright, the blood and ſpirits run to the heart to relieve it. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adverſity, Prov. 17.17. See the Note there.

To mourn with him] Heb. To ſhake the head, or other parts of the body, in token of commiſeration: to bewail his condition, as Cyprian did the perſecuted Saints of his time, Cum ſingulis pectus meum copulo, ſaith he: Moeroris pondera luctuoſa participo, &c. Who is offended, and I burn not? 2 Cor. 11.29.

And to comfort him] This they intended, but proved miſerable comforters too, by reaſon of the deceitfulneſſe of their hearts, fitly therefore compared to a broken or a deceitfull bow, that carrieth the arrow a clean contrary way. So Jonah prayed unto the Lord. chap. 4.2. He thought to have prayed, but it proved that he brawled:Pſal. 78.57 The word rendred to comfort, ſignifieth likewiſe to mourn with the mourning of repentance, to teach us here to begin our pity to others, to bewail their and our owe ſins. ſee the Note there. Theſe mens words were as a murthering weapon in Jobs bones; pious they were, and divine all along, but much miſ-applied. It is ſaid of them, that they handled an ill matter well, and Job a good cauſe as ill, eſpecially when once he came to be wet through.

Verſe 12. And when they lift up their eyes afarre off] Hence ſome conclude that Job lay abroad, as lepers uſed.

And knew him not] for they had never ſeen him before, but in a ſplendidous faſhion; now then to ſee him in ſuch a pickle, that he hàd loſt all form and faſhion, more like a dead beaſt, then a living man; this amazed and amuſed them; they might alſo by this ſo ſad a ſpectacle, be admoniſhed of their own mutable and miſerable condition (Aut ſumus, aut fuimus, aut poſſumus eſſe quod hic eſt) and have the ſame thoughts, as the Pſalmiſt afterwards had, Man being in honour, abideth not; Pſal. 45.12▪ he is like the beaſts that periſh, pecoribus morticinis, ſaith Tremellius, the beaſts that die of the murraine, and ſo become carrion, and are good for nothing. Job was now no otherwiſe to be ſeene, then as a ſtinking carcaſſe full of ſores, more like then a living man, as he painteth out himſelf in moſt lively colours.

They lifted up their voice and wept] Good men are apt to do ſo, ſaith the Poet, & faciles motus mens generoſa capit; we are bound to weep with thoſe that weep, and to be both pitifull and courteous, 1 Pet. 3. To him that is in miſery, pity ſhould be ſhewed from his friend. (it was ſo to Job here at firſt) but he forſaketh the fear of the Lord, Job 6.14. Jobs friends did ſo, when amazed with the greatneſſe of his calamity, they therehence concluded him an arrant hypocrite, unworthy of any one word of comfort.

And they rent every one his mantle] His ſtately mantle, his robe of ſtate, ſuch as men of great honour uſed to weare, Stolam regiam. Some Hebrewes and Jeſuites will have theſe three friends of Job to have been Kings; ſuch I believe they were as the three Kings of Collen, ſo the Papiſts call thoſe wiſe men, Matth. 1.2. be they what they will; they rent every man his mantle in token of greateſt ſorrow at their friends calamity, a ceremony not unuſual among other Nations, then thoſe of the Eaſt. Suetonius telleth us, that Julius Caeſar, when he had paſſed his Army th River Rebican, In vita C. Jul Caeſar. and was marching toward Rome, he made a ſpeech to his Souldiers, weeping and rending his garment: that thereby he might teſtifie to them what a grief it was to him to fight againſt his Country: which he would never have done, had there not been a neceſſity.

And ſprinkled duſt upon their heads toward heaven] They ſo threw it up into the air, that it might fall upon their heads: to import 1. That all things were full of ſorrowful confuſion, as here earth and air were mingled. 2. That themſelves and all mortals were but duſt, Gen. 18. a little dirt neatly made up) and to duſt they ſhould return, Gen. 3 little deſerving in the mean while to tread upon the earth, or to be above ground, Joſh. 7.6. See chap. 1.16.

Verſe 13. So they ſat down with him upon the ground] Though his ſent and loathſomeneſs were intolerable, yet they bare him company: this was love and ſympathy, thus to ſit by him on the ground, then when every one loathed him, and would not lend him a hand to help to ſcrape him.

Seven dayes and ſeven nights] Not all this time, but the moſt part of it, without giving almoſt any regard to their ordinary reſt, and neceſſary ſuſtenance. Origen ſaith, they were ſuſtained and preſerved all that while without ſleep and meat, by a miracle: Others holding it a thing impoſſible, have therefore judged this whole book to be a parable only.

And none ſpake a word unto him] So great was their grief; Curae leves l[illegible: 1 letter] quuntur, ingentes ſtupent. Calvin thinks they were too blame, to be ſo long ſilent. Belike, they were loth to be troubleſome, and waited a fit opportunity; looking that he ſhould ſpeak firſt, and harbouring hard conceits of him.

For they ſaw that his grief was very great] His paine was extreme, and therefore no time to talk with him. Beſides, though they came prepared, yet altering their opinions of him, they doubted how, and what to ſpeak, till at length they became Satans advocates.