A verse by verse commentary on Job 2 dealing with Job's second test and his three friends.

1. JOB 2 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1 On another day the angels[a] came to present
themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came
with them to present himself before him.
BAR ES, "Again there was a day ... - See the notes at Job_1:6. These seasons are
represented as periodical, when the angels came, as it were, to make report to God of
what they had observed and done. The Chaldee renders this, “And there was a day of the
great judgment (‫רבא‬ ‫דינא‬ ‫יום‬ yôm dıynā' rābā'), a day of the remission of sins (‫שבוק‬ ‫יום‬
‫)סרחניא‬ and there came bands (‫)כתי‬ of angels.”
To present himself before the Lord - This does not occur in the former statement
in Job_1:6. It here means that he came before the Lord after he had had permission to
afflict; Job. The Chaldee renders it “that he might stand in judgment ‫דין‬ dıyn before the
Lord.”
CLARKE, "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.
GILL, "Again, there was a day, when the sons of God came to present
themselves before the Lord,.... When good men, professors of religion, met together
by agreement to worship the Lord; the Targum calls them companies of angels,
interpreting the words of them, and of their standing before the Lord, as most

2. interpreters do; how long this time of their meeting was from the former cannot be said,
probably but a few days, a week or fortnight at most; the Targum says, it was on the day
of the great judgment, and which, as in Job_1:6; was at the beginning of the year; so that
according to this, and other Jewish writers, there was a whole year between this and the
former meeting, and so between the first and second trial of Job; but this is not likely,
since Satan would never give him so much breathing time; nor can it be thought that
Job's friends should stay so long before they paid him a visit, which was not till after this
day:
and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord; being
either obliged to it upon a summons to appear before God, and give an account of what
he had been doing on the earth, and especially to Job; or rather he came willingly,
seeking an opportunity to continue his charge against Job, and to accuse him afresh, and
get his commission enlarged to do him more mischief, which he could not do without a
fresh grant.
HE RY 1-2, "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_12:10) 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 (Job_2:1,
Job_2:2), as before, Job_1:6, Job_1:7. 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, Peccavi - 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.
JAMISO ,"Job_2:1-8. Satan further tempts Job.
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.
K&D, "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

3. 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.
PULPIT, "This chapter concludes the "Introductory section." It consists of three parts.
Job 2:1-6 contain an account of Satan's second appearance in the courts of heaven, and
of a second colloquy between him and the Almighty. Job 2:7-10 contain the sequel to this
colloquy, viz. Satan's further affliction of Job, and his conduct under it. Verses 11-13
contain an account of the arrival of Job's three special friends to mourn with him and to
comfort him; and of their behavior during the first seven days after their arrival
Job 2:1
Again there was a day when the sons of God same to present themselves before the
Lord, and Satan came also among them. There is no "again" in the original. The words
used are an exact repetition of those contained in Job 2:6 of Job 1:1-22. But they mark,
no doubt, a second occasion on which the angelic host came to present themselves
before the throne of God, and Satan came with them. To present himself before the
Lord. These words are additional to those used in the former passage. We may gather
from them, that, whereas on the former occasion Satan came only to observe, and with
no intention of drawing God's special attention to himself, he now had such intention,
and looked forward to a colloquy. He anticipated, doubtless, that the circumstances of
Job's probation would be referred to, and he had prepared himself to make answer.
BI 1-10, 'And Satan came also among them.
Spiritual agencies, good and evil, in sickness
This is one of those mysterious chapters of Holy Scripture wherein God hath graciously
vouchsafed, for the strengthening of our faith and loving trust in Him, a brief glimpse of
that which is continually going on, day by day, in regions mysterious to mortal vision,
and in which, could we but at all times feel it, we are so greatly concerned. Scripture is
consistent in its testimony throughout—that there is a prince of darkness, a fallen angel,
whose constant aim it is to effect our eternal ruin. In this case the evil messenger is
permitted by the Most High to afflict one of His own righteous servants with grievous
losses and poverty and sore disease, for the trial and purification of his faith.
I. Satan is from time to time allowed to move the Lord to afflict even his most faithful
people in various ways. The Lord’s ways toward His people, and indeed toward all men,
are most mysterious, but from the analogy of His dealings with the patriarch Job we may
safely conclude that they are full of secret love and mercy towards them, and designed to
promote their everlasting happiness.
II. The Lord gives Satan only a limited power over His own people. As the Lord said,
“He is in thine hand, but save his life,” so in your case He may have given him liberty to
proceed just so far, and no further, with you.
III. Faith untried is faith not proved acceptable. Many a man deceives himself with the

4. empty counterfeit of faith. Hence an ordeal is requisite in which numbers fall away,
whilst the faith of others is brought out as pure gold refined from the furnace of
affliction. God graciously keep you from falling away in this your season of trial.
IV. Satan is most frequently the Lord’s agent in the infliction of disease and other trials.
But Satan defeats his own purposes in afflicting God’s people, because their faith,
through God’s grace, is thereby strengthened. In order the better to strengthen his
position in attacking believer’s faith, Satan will often incite his nearest and dearest
relatives to seek to withdraw his heart’s allegiance from God. He did this in the case of
Job. In the moments of his fancied triumph Satan moved Job’s wife to assist him in the
deadly warfare. But God had not forsaken him. (J. C. Boyce, M. A.)
The afflictions of Job
In language of the most stately and beautiful kind there is set before us the mystery of
Providence. This passage is but one step in the development of a sublime moral lesson,
but it has nevertheless a certain completeness of its own.
I. The character of temptation.
1. God is not the author of it. In temptation there are three parts.
(1) The external conditions which tend to bring it about. God may be the author
of these conditions.
(2) The state of heart which makes temptation tempting to us. God is not the
author of this.
(3) There is the special thought in the mind, the suggestion to do the deed, which
is the focusing of the pre-existing and undeveloped feelings of the heart. Satan is
the author of this.
2. But God permits us to be tempted. He allows natural laws to work about us, and
historical events to shape themselves, and persons and things to come into contact
with us, in such ways that temptation arises. Whatever is, is by His permission.
3. God permits temptation for our good. In our lesson we see that it was permitted in
Job’s case in order to bring out clearly the stability of his faith in God. God is not
careless or thoughtless in His permission of our trial.
4. Our friends sometimes unwittingly make temptation harder to us. Job’s wife
spoke to him in sympathy. “Renounce God and die” is not a fling of sarcasm, but a
weak and honest attempt to give comfort.
5. Temptation is never necessarily successful. It was not so in Job’s case.
II. Bearing temptation. Job’s example gives some practical lessons.
1. See the solitude of the tempted soul. The barriers of the soul cannot be passed.
There alone we each must confront temptation and have our fight with it.
2. Job rightly says to his wife that to renounce God would be foolish. If Job had
renounced God he would have been irrational, because he would have given up the
only source of help possible.
3. Job shows us that faith is the only reasonable attitude of man towards God. (D. J.
Burrell, D. D.)

5. The afflictions of Job
The trial of Job, as it is portrayed, suggests three truths.
I. Satan is a personal being. That this is the old doctrine no one denies; but it is asked by
many, whether such belief has not been outgrown with all our progress in theological
thought. Over against all speculative opinion we have to set the plain teaching of God’s
Word. The language here is figurative, but it must mean something. Satan is not an
abstraction. Observe that Satan here is called the accuser. Milton’s story of the fallen
angels is only a human invention. The interpretation which makes him a mere
personification of evil would make Jesus Christ a mere personification of goodness.
II. God permits Satan to tempt believers. The great enemy of the soul in its race toward
heaven is Satan.
III. God sets a limit to the power of Satan. “Behold, he is in thine hand; only spare his
life.” The tempter could go no further than he was permitted to. But the mystery to Job
was that such permission was given at all. If his troubles had come from an enemy, or
even from his “miserable comforters,” he could have borne them more easily; but that
they should have fallen from his Father’s hand, that puzzled him. That is the puzzle of
human life. Our best relief is that Satan’s power has a limit; it cannot go beyond God’s
permission. No soul needs to be under the control of temptation—it cannot hold the
human will; it is not the supreme force in the world. One thing is stronger: the power of
God in Jesus Christ, and that power is pledged to every soul in its fight with sin. (T. J.
Holmes.)
COFFMAN 1-6, "This paragraph is virtually identical with the first paragraph of Job 1;
and our exegesis of that paragraph applies equally here. The sons of God are not "the
angels." We believe that the Holy Spirit knew the word angels; and that if he had meant
angels here he would thus have designated them. All that Christians do upon earth is
done "before the Lord." The usual meaning of "sons of God" is simply, "men who
worship God" (Romans 8:14).
"Skin for skin" (Job 2:4). "There is a riddle here. No one knows for sure the meaning of
this cryptic proverb."[1] None of the scholarly guesses we have read is worth repeating.
Whatever it means, Satan's allegation is clear enough. He still believed that if Job's body
was tortured, he would renounce God. The bitter hatred of all men by Satan is starkly
revealed.
"Put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh" (Job 2:6). This was Satan's
request; and God had already stated that in the previous trial Satan had "Moved God
against Job without cause" (Job 2:3), thus establishing the truth that whatever God
allows, God does, in the Biblical sense. "And again it is Satan who is the agent; and God
gave him authority to do as he pleased with Job, short of taking his life."[2]

6. "Only spare his life" (Job 2:6). "If God did not chain up the roaring lion, how soon would
he devour us!"[3]
EBC, "THE DILEMMA OF FAITH
Job 2:1-13
As the drama proceeds to unfold the conflict between Divine grace in the human soul
and those chaotic influences which hold the mind in doubt or drag it back into denial,
Job becomes a type of the righteous sufferer, the servant of God in the hot furnace of
affliction. All true poetry runs thus into the typical. The interest of the movement
depends on the representative character of the life, passionate in jealousy, indignation,
grief, or ambition, pressing on exultantly to unheard of success, borne down into the
deepest circles of woe. Here it is not simply a man’s constancy that has to be established,
but God’s truth against the Adversary’s lie; the "everlasting yea" against the negations
that make all life and virtue seem the mere blossoming of dust. Job has to pass through
profoundest trouble, that the drama may exhaust the possibilities of doubt, and lead the
faith of man towards liberty.
Yet the typical is based on the real; and the conflict here described has gone on first in
the experience of the author. Not from the outside, but from his own life has he painted
the sorrows and struggles of a soul urged to the brink of that precipice beyond which lies
the blank darkness of the abyss. There are men in whom the sorrows of a whole people
and of a whole age seem to concentrate. They suffer with their fellow men that all may
find a way of hope. Not unconsciously, but with the most vivid sense of duty, a Divine
necessity brought to their door, they must undergo all the anguish and hew a track
through the dense forest to the light beyond. Such a man in his age was the writer of this
book. And when he now proceeds to the second stage of Job’s affliction every touch
appears to show that, not merely in imagination, but substantially he endured the trials
which he paints. It is his passion that strives and cries, his sorrowful soul that longs for
death. Imaginary, is this work of his? Nothing so true, vehement, earnest, can be
imaginary. "Sublime sorrow," says Carlyle, "sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody
as of the heart of mankind." But it shows more than "the seeing eye and the mildly
understanding heart." It reveals the spirit battling with terrible enemies, doubts that
spring out of the darkness of error, brood of the primaeval chaos. The man was one who
"in this wild element of a life had to struggle onwards; now fallen, deep abased; and ever
with tears, repentance, with bleeding heart, rise again, struggle again, still onwards." Not
to this writer, any more than to the author of "Sartor Resartus," did anything come in his
dreams.
A second scene in heaven is presented to our view. The Satan appears as before with the
"sons of the Elohim," is asked by the Most High whence he has come, and replies in the
language previously used. Again he has been abroad amongst men in his restless search
for evil. The challenge of God to the Adversary regarding Job is also repeated; but now it
has an addition: "Still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against

7. him, to destroy him without cause." The expression "although thou movedst me against
him" is startling. Is it an admission after all that the Almighty can be moved by any
consideration less than pure right, or to act in any way to the disadvantage or hurt of His
servant? Such an interpretation would exclude the idea of supreme power, wisdom, and
righteousness which unquestionably governs the book from first to last. The words really
imply a charge against the Adversary of malicious untruth. The saying of the Almighty is
ironical, as Schultens points out: "Although thou, forsooth, didst incite Me against him."
He who flings sharp javelins of detraction is pierced with a sharper javelin of judgment.
Yet he goes on with his attempt to ruin Job, and prove his own penetration the keenest
in the universe.
And now he pleads that it is the way of men to care more for themselves, their own
health and comfort, than for anything else. Bereavement and poverty may be like arrows
that glance off from polished armour. Let disease and bodily pain attack himself, and a
man will show what is really in his heart. "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he
give for himself. But put forth Thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he
will renounce Thee openly."
The proverb put into Satan’s mouth carries a plain enough meaning, and yet is not
literally easy to interpret. The sense will be clear if we translate it "Hide for skin, yea, all
that a man hath will he give for himself." The hide of an animal, lion or sheep, which a
man wears for clothing will be given up to save his own body. A valued article of
property often, it will be promptly renounced when life is in danger; the man will flee
away naked. In like manner all possessions will be abandoned to keep one’s self
unharmed. True enough in a sense, true enough to be used as a proverb, for proverbs
often express a generalisation of the earthly prudence not, of the higher ideal, the saying,
nevertheless, is in Satan’s use of it a lie-that is, if he includes the children when he says,
"all that a man hath will he give for himself." Job would have died for his children. Many
a father and mother, with far less pride in their children than Job had in his, would die
for them. Possessions indeed, mere worldly gear, find their real value or worthlessness
when weighed against life, and human love has Divine depths which a sneering devil
cannot see. The portraiture of soulless human beings is one of the recent experiments in
fictitious literature, and it may have some justification; when the design is to show the
dreadful issue of unmitigated selfishness, a distinctly moral purpose. If, on the other
hand, "art for art’s sake" is the plea, and the writer’s skill in painting the vacant ribs of
death is used with a sinister reflection on human nature as a whole, the approach to
Satan’s temper marks the degradation of literature. Christian faith clings to the hope
that Divine grace may create a soul in the ghastly skeleton. The Adversary gloats over the
lifeless picture of his own imagining and affirms that man can never be animated by the
love of God. The problem which the Satan of Job long ago presented haunts the mind of
our age. It is one of those ominous symptoms that point to times of trial in which the
experience of humanity may resemble the typical affliction and desperate struggle of the
man of Uz.
A grim possibility of truth lies in the taunt of Satan that, if Job’s flesh and bone are
touched, he will renounce God openly. The test of sore disease is more trying than loss of
wealth at least. And, besides, bodily affliction, added to the rest, will carry Job into yet
another region of vital experience. Therefore it is the will of God to send it. Again Satan

8. is the instrument, and the permission is given, "Behold, he is in thine hand: only save his
life-imperil not his life." Here, as before, when causes are to be brought into operation
that are obscure and may appear to involve harshness, the Adversary is the intermediary
agent. On the face of the drama a certain formal deference is paid to the opinion that
God cannot inflict pain on those whom He loves. But for a short time only is the
responsibility, so to speak, of afflicting Job partly removed from the Almighty to Satan.
At this point the Adversary disappears; and henceforth God is acknowledged to have
sent the disease as well as all the other afflictions to His servant. It is only in a poetic
sense that Satan is represented as wielding natural forces and sowing the seeds of
disease; the writer has no theory and needs no theory of malignant activity. He knows
that "all is of God."
Time has passed sufficient for the realisation by Job of his poverty and bereavement.
The sense of desolation has settled on his soul as morning after morning dawned, week
after week went by, emptied of the loving voices he used to hear, and the delightful and
honourable tasks that used to engage him. In sympathy with the exhausted mind, the
body has become languid, and the change from sufficiency of the best food to something
like starvation gives the germs of disease an easy hold. He is stricken with elephantiasis,
one of the most terrible forms of leprosy, a tedious malady attended with intolerable
irritation and loathsome ulcers. The disfigured face, the blackened body, soon reveal the
nature of the infection; and he is forthwith carried out according to the invariable
custom and laid on the heap of refuse, chiefly burnt litter, which has accumulated near
his dwelling. In Arab villages this mezbele is often a mound of considerable size, where,
if any breath of wind is blowing, the full benefit of its coolness can be enjoyed. It is the
common playground of the children, "and there the outcast, who has been stricken with
some loathsome malady, and is not allowed to enter the dwellings of men, lays himself
down, begging alms of the passers by, by day, and by night sheltering himself among the
ashes which the heat of the sun has warmed." At the beginning Job was seen in the full
stateliness of Oriental life: now the contrasting misery of it appears, the abjectness into
which it may rapidly fall. Without proper medical skill or appliances, the houses no way
adapted for a case of disease like Job’s, the wealthiest pass like the poorest into what
appears the nadir of existence. Now at length the trial of faithfulness is in the way of
being perfected. If the helplessness, the torment of disease, the misery of this abject state
do not move his mind from its trust in God, he will indeed be a bulwark of religion
against the atheism of the world.
But in what form does the question of Job’s continued fidelity present itself now to the
mind of the writer? Singularly, as a question regarding his integrity. From the general
wreck one life has been spared, that of Job’s wife. To her it appears that the wrath of the
Almighty has been launched against her husband, and all that prevents him from finding
refuge in death from the horrors of lingering disease is his integrity. If he maintains the
pious resignation he showed under the first afflictions and during the early stages of his
malady, he will have to suffer on. But it will be better to die at once. "Why," she asks,
"dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? Renounce God, and die." It is a different note
from that which runs through the controversy between Job and his friends. Always on
his integrity he takes his stand; against his right to affirm it they direct their arguments.
They do not insist on the duty of a man under all circumstances to believe in God and
submit to His will. Their sole concern is to prove that Job has not been sincere and
faithful and deserving of acceptance before God. But his wife knows him to have been

9. righteous and pious; and that, she thinks, will serve him no longer. Let him abandon his
integrity; renounce God. On two sides the sufferer is plied. But he does not waver.
Between the two he stands, a man who has integrity and will keep it till he die.
The accusations of Satan, turning on the question whether Job was sincere in religion or
one who served God for what he got, prepare us to understand why his integrity is made
the hinge of the debate. To Job his upright obedience was the heart of his life, and it
alone made his indefeasible claim on God. But faith, not obedience, is the only real claim
a man can advance. And the connection is to be found in this way. As a man perfect and
upright, who feared God and eschewed evil, Job enjoyed the approval of his conscience
and the sense of Divine favour. His life had been rooted in the steady assurance that the
Almighty was his friend. He had walked in freedom and joy, cared for by the providence
of the Eternal, guarded by His love, his soul at peace with that Divine Lawgiver whose
will he did. His faith rested like an arch on two piers-one, his own righteousness which
God had inspired; the other, the righteousness of God which his own reflected. If it were
proved that he had not been righteous, his belief that God had been guarding him,
teaching him, filling his soul with light, would break under him like a withered branch. If
he had not been righteous indeed, he could not know what righteousness is, he could not
know whether God is righteous or not, he could not know God nor trust in Him. The
experience of the past was, in this case, a delusion. He had nothing to rest upon, no faith.
On the other hand, if those afflictions, coming why he could not tell, proved God to be
capricious, unjust, all would equally be lost. The dilemma was that holding to the belief
in his own integrity, he seemed to be driven to doubt God; but if he believed God to be
righteous he seemed to be driven to doubt his own integrity. Either was fatal. He was in
a narrow strait between two rocks, on one or other of which faith was like to be
shattered.
But his integrity was clear to him. That stood within the region of his own
consciousness. He knew that God had made him of dutiful heart and given him a
constant will to be obedient. Only while he believed this could he keep hold of his life. As
the one treasure saved out of the wreck, when possessions, children, health were gone, to
cherish his integrity was the last duty. Renounce his conscience of goodwill and
faithfulness? It was the one fact bridging the gulf of disaster, the safeguard against
despair. And is this not a true presentation of the ultimate inquiry regarding faith? If the
justice we know is not an adumbration of Divine justice, if the righteousness we do is not
taught us by God, of the same kind as His, if loving justice and doing righteousness we
are not showing faith in God, if renouncing all for the right, clinging to it though the
heavens should fall, we are not in touch with the Highest, then there is no basis for faith,
no link between our human life and the Eternal. All must go if these deep principles of
morality and religion are not to be trusted. What a man knows of the just and good by
clinging to it, suffering for it, rejoicing in it, is indeed the anchor that keeps him from
being swept into the waste of waters.
The woman’s part in the controversy is still to be considered; and it is but faintly
indicated. Upon the Arab soul there lay no sense of woman’s life. Her view of providence
or of religion was never asked. The writer probably means here that Job’s wife would
naturally, as a woman, complicate the sum of his troubles. She expresses ill-considered
resentment against his piety. To her he is "righteous over much," and her counsel is that

10. of despair. "Was this all that the Great God whom he trusted could do for him?" Better
bid farewell to such a God. She can do nothing to relieve the dreadful torment and can
see but the one possible end. But it is God who is keeping her husband alive, and one
word would be enough to set him free. Her language is strangely illogical, meant indeed
to be so, -a woman’s desperate talk. She does not see that, though Job renounced God,
he might yet live on, in greater misery than ever, just because he would then have no
spiritual stay.
Well, some have spoken very strongly about Job’s wife. She has been called a helper of
the Devil, an organ of Satan, an infernal fury. Chrysostom thinks that the Enemy left her
alive because he deemed her a fit scourge to Job by which to plague him more acutely
than by any other. Ewald, with more point, says: "Nothing can be more scornful than her
words which mean, ‘Thou, who under all the undeserved sufferings which have been
inflicted on thee by thy God, hast been faithful to Him even in fatal sickness, as if He
would help or desired to help thee who art beyond help, - to thee, fool, I say, Bid God
farewell, and die!"’ There can be no doubt that she appears as the temptress of her
husband, putting into speech the atheistic doubt which the Adversary could not directly
suggest. And the case is all the worse for Job that affection and sympathy are beneath
her words. Brave and true life appears to her to profit nothing if it has to be spent in pain
and desolation. She does not seem to speak so much in scorn as in the bitterness of her
soul. She is no infernal fury, but one whose love, genuine enough, does not enter into the
fellowship of his sufferings. It was necessary to Job’s trial that the temptation should be
presented, and the ignorant affection of the woman serves the needful purpose. She
speaks not knowing what she says, not knowing that her words pierce like sharp arrows
into his very soul. As a figure in the drama she has her place, helping to complete the
round of trial.
The answer of Job is one of the fine touches of the book. He does not denounce her as an
instrument of Satan nor dismiss her from his presence. In the midst of his pain he is the
great chief of Uz and the generous husband. "Thou speakest," he mildly says, "as one of
the foolish, that is, godless, women speaketh." It is not like thee to say such things as
these. And then he adds the question born of sublime faith, "Shall we receive gladness at
the hand of God, and shall we not receive affliction?"
One might declare this affirmation of faith so clear and decisive that the trial of Job as a
servant of God might well close with it. Earthly good, temporal joy, abundance of
possessions, children, health, -these he had received. Now in poverty and desolation, his
body wrecked by disease, he lies tormented and helpless. Suffering of mind and physical
affliction are his in almost unexampled keenness, acute in themselves and by contrast
with previous felicity. His wife, too, instead of helping him to endure, urges him to
dishonour and death. Still he does not doubt that all is wisely ordered by God. He puts
aside, if indeed with a strenuous effort of the soul, that cruel suggestion of despair, and
affirms anew the faith which is supposed to bind him to a life of torment. Should not this
repel the accusations brought against the religion of Job and of humanity? The author
does not think so. He has only prepared the way for his great discussion. But the stages
of trial already passed show how deep and vital is the problem that lies beyond. The faith
which has emerged so triumphantly is to be shaken as by the ruin of the world.

11. Strangely and erroneously has a distinction been drawn between the previous afflictions
and the disease which, it is said, "opens or reveals greater depths in Job’s reverent
piety." One says: "In his former trial he blessed God who took away the good He had
added to naked man; this was strictly no evil: now Job bows beneath God’s hand when
he inflicts positive evil." Such literalism in reading the words "shall we not receive evil?"
implies a gross slander on Job. If he had meant that the loss of health was "evil" as
contrasted with the loss of children, that from his point of view bereavement was no
"evil," then indeed he would have sinned against love, and therefore against God. It is
the whole course of his trial he is reviewing. Shall we receive "good"-joy, prosperity, the
love of children, years of physical vigour, and shall we not receive pain-this burden of
loss, desolation, bodily torment? Herein Job sinned not with his lips. Again, had he
meant moral evil, something involving cruelty and unrighteousness, he would have
sinned indeed, his faith would have been destroyed by his own false judgment of God.
The words here must be interpreted in harmony with the distinction already drawn
between physical and mental suffering, which, as God appoints them, have a good
design, and moral evil, which can in no way have its source in Him.
And now the narrative passes into a new phase. As a chief of Uz, the greatest of the Bene-
Kedem, Job was known beyond the desert. As a man of wisdom and generosity he had
many friends. The tidings of his disasters and finally of his sore malady are carried
abroad; and after months, perhaps (for a journey across the sandy waste needs
preparation and time), three of those who know him best and admire him most, "Job’s
three friends," appear upon the scene. To sympathise with him, to cheer and comfort
him, they come with one accord, each on his camel, not unattended, for the way is beset
with dangers.
They are men of mark all of them. The emeer of Uz has chiefs, no doubt, as his peculiar
friends, although the Septuagint colours too much in calling them kings. It is, however,
their piety, their likeness to himself, as men who fear and serve the True God, that binds
them to Job’s heart. They will contribute what they can of counsel and wise suggestion to
throw light on his trials and lift him into hope. No arguments of unbelief or cowardice
will be used by them, nor will they propose that a stricken man should renounce God
and die. Eliphaz is from Teman, that centre of thought and culture where men
worshipped the Most High and meditated upon His providence. Shuach, the city of
Bildad, can scarcely be identified with the modern Shuwak, about two hundred and fifty
miles southwest from the Jauf near the, Red Sea, nor with the land of the Tsukhi of the
Assyrian inscriptions, lying on the Chaldaean frontier. It was probably a city, now
forgotten, in the Idumaean region. Maan, also near Petra, may be the Naamah of
Zophar. It is at least tempting to regard all the three as neighbours who might without
great difficulty communicate with each other and arrange a visit to their common friend.
From their meeting place at Teman or at Maan they would, in that case, have to make a
journey of some two hundred miles across one of the most barren and dangerous deserts
of Arabia, clear enough proof of their esteem for Job and their deep sympathy. The fine
idealism of the poem is maintained in this new act. Men of knowledge and standing are
these. They may fail; they may take a false view of their friend and his state; but their
sincerity must not be doubted nor their rank as thinkers. Whether the three represent
ancient culture, or rather the conceptions of the writer’s own time, is a question that may
be variously answered. The book, however, is so full of life, the life of earnest thought

12. and keen thirst for truth, that the type of religious belief found in all the three must have
been familiar to the author. These men are not, any more than Job himself,
contemporaries of Ephron the Hittite or the Balaam of Numbers. They stand out as
religious thinkers of a far later age, and represent the current Rabbinism of the post-
Solomonic era. The characters are filled in from a profound knowledge of man and
man’s life. Yet each of them, Temanite, Shuchite, Naamathite, is at bottom a Hebrew
believer striving to make his creed apply to a case not yet brought into his system, and
finally, when every suggestion is repelled, taking refuge in that hardness of temper which
is peculiarly Jewish. They are not men of straw, as some imagine, but types of the culture
and thought which led to Pharisaism. The writer argues not so much with Edom as with
his own people.
Approaching Job’s dwelling the three friends look eagerly from their camels, and at
length perceive one prostrate, disfigured, lying on the mezbele, a miserable wreck of
manhood. "That is not our friend," they say to each other. Again and yet again, "This is
not he; this surely cannot be he." Yet nowhere else than in the place of the forsaken do
they find their noble friend. The brave, bright chief they knew, so stately in his bearing,
so abundant and honourable, how has he fallen! They lift up their voices and weep; then,
struck into amazed silence, each with torn mantle and dust-sprinkled head, for seven
days and nights they sit beside him in grief unspeakable.
Real is their sympathy; deep too, as deep as their character and sentiments admit. As
comforters they are proverbial in a bad sense. Yet one says truly, perhaps out of bitter
experience, "Who that knows what most modern consolation is can prevent a prayer that
Job’s comforters may be his? They do not call upon him for an hour and invent excuses
for the departure which they so anxiously await; they do not write notes to him, and go
about their business as if nothing had happened; they do not inflict upon him
meaningless commonplaces." It was their misfortune, not altogether their fault, that
they had mistaken notions which they deemed it their duty to urge upon him. Job,
disappointed by and by, did not spare them, and we feel so much for him that we are apt
to deny them their due: Yet are we not bound to ask, What friend has had equal proof of
our sympathy? Depth of nature; sincerity of friendship; the will to console: let those
mock at Job’s comforters as wanting here who have travelled two hundred miles over the
burning sand to visit a man sunk in disaster, brought to poverty and the gate of death,
and sat with him seven days and nights in generous silence.
PARKER, "The Assaults of Satan
Job 2
Remember that the man spoken about is "a perfect man and an upright, one that feared
God and eschewed evil." The speaker is Satan, who came with the sons of God on the
first occasion, and said, "Touch all that Job hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." He
was allowed to touch Job"s property, and he failed in his purpose. On another occasion
the same devil came back with the sons of God, and enlarged his proposition. He said,

13. "Touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face."
We are fully agreed that there is no devil. That may be taken for granted. It is impossible
for us to believe that there is a devil, and for this reason. Simply because there is nothing
devilish, therefore how can we believe that there is a devil? Everybody is so good,
everybody is so honest; all our habits, and practices, and customs are so transparently
and beautifully moral, that it is utterly impossible for us to believe that there is a devil.
Why do we speak of the existence of the devil? Because there is so much devilishness.
The best way to prove that there is no devil is to get rid of the devilishness. When we
have cleansed that out of the way we shall make it exceedingly difficult to believe either
in a personal or an impersonal devil. But when persons are so dishonest, so quick in
sharp practice, so malign, so cruel, so ready to take advantage, so prepared to oppress
the weak and to mislead the ignorant, it becomes quite easy for us to believe that
perhaps there is a devil!
In this incident it will be our privilege to see the devil twice wrong. Here is a man called
Job who is chosen as the battlefield. In all lines and spheres of life some particular
persons are called upon to illustrate universal truths and confer universal blessings. It is
necessarily and unchangeably true that one man must die for the people. The great
contest before us is God against the devil, and up to this time we have never seen that
battle so sharply defined. We have always felt that there was a contest going on, but we
never saw them face to face, hand against hand, mouth against mouth, before. It will be
interesting to watch the encounter. We do not know that the devil has ever made this
high challenge before. He has always been walking and working in the dark: he has been
moving about stealthily and taking advantage where he could—but we are not aware that
he has ever with undisguised audacity actually challenged the Almighty to fight it out in
one particular case. At last the challenge has been given; it has been accepted, Job is the
battlefield, and on the result will depend the veracity either of God or of the devil. But
what of Job in that case? had he no compensations? was it all battle, and suffering, and
pain, and humiliation on his part? Was there nothing on the other side? Does God
simply afflict some men and leave them with their afflictions—does he simply gather his
clouds over some heads and cause them to discharge their pitiless storms without setting
the rainbow on the cloud-laden sky? It is easy for us who have endured but the
secondary pains and ills of life to suggest compensations to those who are our leaders in
suffering and our veterans in bearing the chastisements, the penalties, and visitations of
God. Still, it is surely something to be God"s proof- Prayer of Manasseh , to be called out
as the particular man on whose character, intelligence, grace, patience, fortitude—great
results are staked. Surely God will not call a man to endure all the devil can inflict upon
him without secretly giving that man sustenance, and at the end throwing upon his
devastated life a fuller and gentler light than ever has illumined its yesterdays.
That is the view which we should take of our afflictions; that is to say, we should feel that
perhaps we are made the medium through which God is answering the devil"s challenge.
The devil may have been saying to the Almighty concerning this man or that: "Take his
health away, take his trade away, touch his bone and his flesh, subtract considerably
from the sum total of his indulgences, and his enjoyments, and then he will curse thee to
thy face." That is the view every man and woman should take of personal sorrow and
individual trial. The devil may have said, "Take his only son away, and thou wilt take his

14. religion away," and God has allowed that dear boy to be removed—how dost thou bear?
There are great stakes pending: God said, "He will bear it well, with the grace of a
sanctified hero." The devil said, "He will burn his Bible and cast down his family altar."
Who is right? If thou art bearing that heavy loss well, bowing thy poor old knees at the
same altar, and saying, with a choking in thy throat, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord," thou hast enabled God to strike the devil
on the face. The Lord help thee: it is bitter suffering; there is a hard stress upon thy poor
life; thou needest all the grace treasured in the immeasurable heart of Christ; but his
grace is sufficient for thee—draw heavily upon it, and the more thou dost yearn for that
healing grace, the more shall it be given thee to overflow; it cannot be given to satisfy.
Could Job now look over the ages that have been healed and comforted by his example,
stimulated to bear the ills of life by the grateful memory of his invincible patience, surely
even now in heaven he would be taking in the reward of his long-continued and noble
endurance of the divine visitation. It may be so with thee, poor Prayer of Manasseh ,
poor woman: thou dost not get all the sweet now: this shall be a memory to thee in
heaven, long ages hence: the wrestling thou hast now may minister to thee high delight,
keen enjoyment, rapture pure and abiding. Who can tell when God"s rewards end—who
will venture to say, "This is the measure of his benediction?" He is able to give and to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. When, therefore, persons inquire of
thee, What compensation hast thou? say, "It is given by instalments, today, tomorrow, in
death, in the resurrection, all through the ages of eternity. Ask me thousands of ages
hence, and I will reply to thy question concerning compensation." Life is not limited by
the cradle and the tomb, and it is not between these two mean and near points that great
questions are to be discussed or determined.
Job has been read by countless readers. His, of course, was a public trial, a tragedy that
was wrought out for the benefit of multitudes in all generations. Nevertheless it is
literally and pathetically true that every Prayer of Manasseh , the very obscurest, has his
readers, fewer in number it may be, but equally earnest in attention. Think you that your
children are not taking notice of you, seeing how you bear your temptations, and
difficulties, and anxieties? Think you not that your eldest boy is kept away from the table
of the Lord because you are as atheistic in sorrow as ever Voltaire was? Do you know
that your daughter hates church because her pious father Is only pious in the three
summer months of the year? He curls under the cold and biting wind as much as any
mean atheist ever did: therefore the girl saith, "He is a sham and a hypocrite—my father
in the flesh—no relative of mine in the spirit." You have your readers: the little Bible of
your life is read in your kitchen, in your parlour, in your shop, and in your warehouse;
and if you do not bear your trials, anxieties, and difficulties with a Christian chivalry and
heroism, what is there but mockery on earth and laughter in hell? God give us grace to
bear the chastisement nobly, serenely; bless us with the peace which passeth
understanding, with the quietness kindred to the calm of God; and help us when death is
in the house, and poverty on the hearthstone, and when there is a storm blinding the one
poor small window we have, to say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. If I perish
I will pray, and perish only here." That is Christianity—not some clever chatter and able
controversy about metaphysical points, but noble temper, high behaviour, faultless
constancy, invincible fortitude in the hour of trial and in the agony of pain.

15. Let us give the devil his due. We admit that the devil had but too much reason to believe
that his propositions concerning Job were right. He did not speak without book. He had
at his girdle many proofs that strong men had fallen under his stroke. The devil,
therefore, may have reasoned that if so many had yielded to his ministry, Job , the
mightiest and brightest of all, might yield as well. Why might he not? Name his
victories—Adam, Cain, Saul, and a hundred others was he not, therefore, entitled to
reason inductively from a very considerable basis and area of fact that Job would fall
too? Where was he wrong? He was wrong in supposing that Adam, Cain, or Saul were
godly men, that they had in them the divine and imperishable seed of truth. We
altogether exaggerate Adam. What was he? He never was a boy—he never had anybody
to speak to up to a considerable period of his life—he had no intellectual friction, no
ambition, no opportunity of developing and growing strong by contest and antagonism.
He was innocent in a negative way: he had done nothing, and so far he was good
enough—but he had to be tried as every man has to be tried, and he fell. And Saul,
mighty king but weak in heart, he was not a godly man. The true belief of the sons of God
was not in that Prayer of Manasseh , and therefore he fell He was nominally right—
officially right—called outwardly to a certain position, but the seed of God was not in
him, and where the seed of God is not found in the heart, no matter what the intelligence
may be, or the official influence, the man must fall.
Now the devil came upon a distinctively different man: he assailed Job , who was a
perfect man and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil—that is the man to
fight, then. If the devil conquers there, he will tear the heavens to pieces, he will break up
the throne of God, he will disband the angels, he will scatter the baleful fires of perdition
upon the walls and floors of heaven"s city. It Isaiah , therefore, a great fight—it is a
critical battle; everything depends upon the issue, for God has given permission to assail
this perfect Prayer of Manasseh , and therefore he has put perfectness of character to the
test. No godly man has ultimately fallen. No man in whom is the seed of the divine life
can fall finally, for he hath the seed, the life, the Spirit of God abiding in him. Slips
enough—alas! too many. Crimes too: see David, see Peter, for appalling proof. Falls
daily—though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down. This is what we mean by the final
perseverance of the saints: this is what we mean by the triumph of the grace of God in a
poor human life. No man knows better than the true child of the Almighty how possible
it is to sin in thought, in word, in deed, and to sin daily, yet under all the sin to have an
inextinguishable love. Whoever has the true root in him shall be found at last to the
praise and glory of God. Is this a dangerous doctrine to preach? Only because all
doctrine is dangerous in some cases and in some circumstances; but this is our joy, our
strength, our hope: if we have to be saved because we are always doing the right thing in
the right way, accomplishing all our purposes, fulfilling all our duties—we never shall be
saved. We are today no further than the publican was when he said, "God be merciful to
me a sinner." But we know that, bad as we are, foul with many crimes, deep in the heart
is love to Christ, and that inexplicable presence in the soul of divine elements and divine
faculties comes up through all the superincumbent guilt, and shines at the top of it an
inextinguishable light.
Even in Job himself we have complaint enough, murmuring enough, but in Job we have
the true life, and therefore at the last he is more than conqueror. In this case we see
really all that the devil can do. What is it in his power, as given by God, to inflict?
Bereavement, poverty, pain, humiliation. God has given him these four great dogs to set

16. upon our life: they will bite and gnaw us, but they cannot kill the true child of God. The
devil has only one soliloquy: his is really the poorest intellect in the universe. He says, "I
have got Job on my hands, what shall I do? Let me see: I will kill his sons and his
daughters, and will take away his flocks and his herds, and I will give him boils; I will
cover him with loathsome disease, and I will make his life disagreeable, and in every way
I will plague him and torment him, and I will do it now." That is the devil"s brief
programme: he cannot add a line to it if he could fill his hell by the doing of it. Beyond
his chain he cannot go. Thou knowest, poor soul, what he can do—bereavement, poverty,
pain, humiliation; sit down, count the cost, add it up line by line, item by item, and when
thou hast done Song of Solomon , know the sum total, and ask whether the grace of God
is sufficient to meet an exigency such as that result brings before thy view.
How afflictions may be made to show God"s grace! Let us try to take that view of our
difficulties, cares, and sorrows. Great battles may be fought in our little lives: let us
therefore every day think that God is fighting out some case along the line of our
experience, and that our behaviour may have something to do with God"s own
satisfaction. We have been managing our own affairs for many years and have failed: let
us resign the administration of our lives and ask the Almighty to work his will in and
through us without any suggestion, much less any interposition, from our side. The
sorrow, it is bitter: it must have been soaked—soaked in the bitterest aloes that the devil
could pluck from the foulest trees; but God"s grace is sufficient for us.
What is our special difficulty? Is it a home difficulty? Angels are waiting there, saying,
"We have a great fight going on in this house: here is a poor life worried—worried—and
we are waiting to see whether the devil"s poison or God"s grace shall get the better." Is it
a business difficulty? Things have got twisted, honest, honourable man though you be,
and you cannot disentangle them. God is saying, "I tied the knot—I allowed the devil to
tie it—and we are both waiting to see the result of thy fingering." Try, wait, try again:
pray, hope—ah, there! a touch did it at last: and the unravelled string lies out before
thee, a straight line. Whatever our difficulties or sorrows, a great battle is being fought
out in our lives; let us fight it sedulously, daily, constantly, lovingly. We have heard of
the patience of Job: may the memory of that patience encourage us to toil on, suffer on;
under the consciousness that on the third day, in our degree, we shall be perfected.
GUZIK, "A. The second act of the heavenly scene.
1. (Job 2:1-3) God boasts again over His servant Job.
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. And the
LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and
said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Then
the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like
him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And
still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him

17. without cause.”
a. Again there was a day when the sons of God came: This again indicates that Satan and
certain angelic beings (fallen as well as faithful) have somewhat open access to God’s
presence in heaven.
b. And the LORD said to Satan: The dialogue recorded here was completely unknown to
Job; though perhaps, if he was the author of the book, at a later time God revealed this
heavenly behind-the-scenes conversation to him.
i. From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it: “Surely as
Job still retained his integrity, so did Satan his vanity; boasting that he came now from
visiting his estate.” (Trapp)
c. And still he folds fast to his integrity: Up to this point, this second recorded dialogue
followed the same pattern shown in Job 1:6-8. God used the repetition to impress upon
Satan the futility of his first attack against Job.
i. And still he holds fast to his integrity: The idea “indicates a strengthening of the grip
he already had.” (Smick)
d. Although you incited Me against him: This shows that both God and Satan
understood that the attack could only come to Job because God allowed it. Although God
did not actively send the Sabeans, the Chaldeans, the fire, or the wind, they could only
come by His permission.
e. To destroy him without cause: The idea is not that cause was absent in either God or
Satan; they both had something they wanted to prove and establish in the whole
account. However, there was no sinful cause in Job that prompted the calamities that
befell him.
2 And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you
come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming

18. throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
GILL, "And the Lord said unto Satan, whence camest thou?.... The same
question is put to him, and the same answer is returned by him; See Gill on Job_1:7.
K&D, "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 ‫ן‬ִ‫י‬ፍ ֵ‫,מ‬ Job_1:7, we have here the similar expression ‫ה‬ֶ ִ‫מ‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫א‬ (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 ‫ּוד‬‫ע‬ and ‫ד‬ ַ‫.ע‬ After the general answer which
Satan givers, Jehovah inquires more particularly.
I agree with those who see this person of Satan as an angel assigned to explore the
earth and look for problems and report back to God. He is a valid servant and not
the arch enemy of God. God does not make deals with the devil, and would not
allow the fallen Lucifer to come trapseing back into heaven any time he felt like it.
He is not condemned in the least in this book and is not portrayed as evil, but one
with a ligitimate doubt about the purity of Job's faith. That was his job. The real
Satan does this roaming seeking whom he may devour also, and possible this was
one of his jobs before he fell, but this Satan has a focus on Job and not all mankind
as does the fallen Lucifer.
Dr. Julie Ruth Harley "At the time of this writing 2,500 years ago, Satan was not
the demonic figure he has become today. In the book of Job, Satan was a member
of the heavenly host, one of God’s helpers assigned to patrol the earth. God has a
conversation with Satan about what he has witnessed during his walks up and down
on the earth, and God praises Job as the greatest person ever created--blameless and
upright, who fears God and turns away from evil. Satan says that Job is only
faithful because his life is so good. If anything bad ever happened to Job, Satan
says, he would change his tune.
God believes so strongly in Job that he says to Satan, “Do everything in your
power to see if you can make him lose his faith, only do not take his life.” So Satan
takes the challenge, and he sends the four messengers of doom. Job’s bad luck is the

19. result of a divine conspiracy he knows nothing about!
La Juana Morris, "God and his board members were in the midst of a meeting and
the angels were giving their reports when lo and behold, in walks Satan, late. Doing
research, it appears that Satan considered himself the tattletale or the secret agent
to bring back reports of failure and destruction. He could be considered a CIA
agent - Chaotic Indiscretion Accuser. One could say he was a master spy on the road
to becoming a hostile agent. After arriving in his flamboyant manner, disrupting the
meeting in progress, God stopped and asked him where had he been and what had
he been doing. After giving the response of how he was out and about causing stress
and duress, God challenged him to attempt to tempt his faithful servant Job. Job a
man of wealth and prestige. Job, a father, a husband. Job owner of land and cattle
and servants. Job a prosperous man. Job a man of great faith. Satan, one who is
indeed full of self; wanted an edge. He replied to the wager with an allegation, as he
was miffed at the fact that Job was protected or shielded by God; thusly he begins
accusing God of placing a hedge about him.
God informs Satan he will remove his hand from his servant, and Satan is cocky
enough to believe that this is a wager he was going to win. I imagine giggling with
glee as he anticipated this so called great man finally turning on God after he had
suffered afflictions and infections.
Let us look at the definition of Satan or Devil or Lucifer: which literally means, an
adversary, antagonist, or accuser, prosecutor, persecutor, one who distresses or
oppresses. In Zechariah 3:1-2 the title adversary is given. We find it to mean,
destroyer, one to cause demise, one who devours and demolishes. His purpose is to
dissolve and diminish the faith of God’s children to decapitate their trust and to
cause their hope to die. He has distinct characteristics that all indicate one who is
determined to delete those who love God. Satan’s job description indicates one who
is out to cause chaos and confusion. So when adversity intrude in your life, it is
necessary for you to understand, Satan will attack those who love the Lord, simply
because he already owns those who refuse to acknowledge God. Why go after what
you already own?
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you
considered my servant Job? There is no one on
earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man

20. who fears God and shuns evil. And he still
maintains his integrity, though you incited me
against him to ruin him without any reason.”
BAR ES, "Hast thou considered - Notes, Job_1:8.
That there is none like him in the earth - The same addition is made here by the
Septuagint which occurs in Job_1:1; see the notes at that verse.
And still he holdeth fast his integrity - Notwithstanding all the efforts made to
show that his piety was the result of mere selfishness. The word “integrity” here ‫תמה‬
tûmmâh means “perfection;” another form of the word which is rendered “perfect” in
Job_1:1; see the notes at that verse.
Although thou movedst me - The word rendered “movedst” ‫סוּת‬ sûth means to
incite, to impel, to urge, to irritate against anyone; Jos_15:18; Jdg_1:14; 2Ch_18:2; 1Sa_
26:19; Jer_43:3. The Septuagint renders this in a special manner, “And thou hast
ordered (εᅼπας eipas) his property to be destroyed in vain” (διακενᇿς diakenēs), that is,
without accomplishing the purpose intended.
To destroy him - The word used here (from ‫בלע‬ bela‛) means properly to swallow, to
devour, with the idea of eagerness or greediness. It is then used in the sense of to
consume, or destroy; compare Job_20:18; Pro_1:12; Num_16:30; Psa_69:15. In the
margin it is rendered “swallow him up.”
Without cause - Without any sufficient reason. The cause assigned by Satan Job_
1:9-11 was, that the piety of Job was selfish, and that if God should remove his
possessions, he would show that he had no true religion. God says now that it was
demonstrated that there was no reason for having made the trial. The result had shown
that the charge was unfounded, and that his piety still remained, though he was stripped
of all that he had. This passage may remind us of the speech of Neptune in favor of
Aeneas, Iliad v. 297:
And can ye see this righteous chief atone
With guiltless blood for vices not his own?
To all the gods his constant vows were paid;
Sure though he wars for Troy he claims our aid.
Fate wills not this - Pope
CLARKE, "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

21. the preceding chapter: “Your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may Devour; ζητων, τινα καταπιᇽ, seeking whom he may Swallow or Gulp
Down. See the note on 1Pe_5:8.
GILL, "And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one
that feareth God, and escheweth evil?.... The same with this is also before put unto
Satan, and the same character given of Job, which is here continued and confirmed, with
an addition to it; for Job was no loser, but a gainer in his character by his afflictions and
trials:
and still he holdeth fast his integrity. The first man Adam was made upright, but
by sinning he lost his integrity, and since the fall there is none in man naturally; it is only
to be found in regenerate and renewed persons, who have right spirits renewed in them;
by which principle of grace wrought in them they become upright in heart, and walk
uprightly. The word used signifies "perfection" (o), which Job had not in himself, but in
Christ; though it may denote the truth and sincerity of his grace, and the uprightness of
his walk, and the simplicity of his conversation, the bias of his mind, and the tenor of his
conduct and behaviour towards God and men; this principle he retained, this frame and
disposition of soul continued with him, and he acted up to it in all things; he held fast his
faith and confidence in the Lord his God, and he professed his cordial love and sincere
affection for God, and his filial fear and reverence of him; and this he did still,
notwithstanding all the assaults and temptations of Satan, and all the sore afflictions and
trials he met with; an instance this of persevering grace, and of the truth of what Job
after expresses, Job_17:9; and this he did, even says the Lord to Satan:
although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause; not
that Satan could work upon God as he does upon men, both good and bad, especially the
latter; nor could he so work upon him as to cause him to change his mind and will, who
is unchangeable in his nature and purposes; but the sense is, he made a motion to him,
he proposed it, requested and entreated, and did not barely propose it, but urged it with
importunity, was very solicitous to have it done; and he prevailed and succeeded
according to God's own determinate counsel and will, though only in part; for he moved
him to "destroy him", himself, his body, if not his soul; for this roaring lion seeks to
devour men, even the sheep and lambs of Christ's flock: or "to swallow him up" (p), as
the word signifies; that he might be delivered to him, who would make but one morsel of
him, swallow him up alive, as a lion any creature, or any other beast of prey. Mr.
Broughton renders it, "to undo him"; and we say of a man, when he has lost his
substance, that he is undone; and in this sense Job was destroyed or undone, for he had
lost his all: and this motion was made "without cause", there was no just reason for it;
what Satan suggested, and the calumny he cast upon Job, was not supported by him, he
could give no proof nor evidence of it; and it was in the issue and event "in vain", as the
word (q) may be rendered; for he did not appear, notwithstanding all that was done to
him, to be the man Satan said he was, nor to do the things, or say the words, Satan said
he would.
HE RY, "II. The judge himself of counsel for the accused, and pleading for him

22. (Job_2:3): “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, 2Co_4:9. 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, 1Pe_1:7.
Constancy crowns integrity.
JAMISO ,"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.
K&D, "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 ‫ה‬ ָ ֻ (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. ‫ית‬ ִ‫ס‬ ֵ‫ה‬ 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, ‫ית‬ ִ‫ס‬ ֵ‫ה‬ and
ַ‫ע‬ ֵ ִ . 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.
BE SO , "Job 2:3. Hast thou considered, &c. — Hebrew, ‫לבְך‬ ‫,השׁמת‬ hashamta
libbecha, Hast thou set thy heart on my servant? &c. And still he holdeth fast his

23. integrity — otwithstanding all his trials and tribulations, and thy malicious
suggestion to the contrary, he continues to be the same perfect and upright man he
was before; and all thy efforts to wrest from him his integrity, and draw him into
sin, have been fruitless. Although thou movedst me, &c. — It is justly observed by a
late writer, that the translation of this verse will be more agreeable to the Hebrew,
if, with the vulgar Latin, we place the interrogation after the word integrity;
namely, Timens Deum, et recedens a malo, et adhuc retinens innocentiam? Fearing
God, departing from evil, and still holding fast his integrity? For thus do the three
participles in Hebrew follow one another. Instead then of rendering the next word,
although thou movedst me; he proposes reading, And yet thou movest me; or, to
continue the interrogation, namely, And dost thou, or, wilt thou, move me against
him to destroy him without cause? This, and the rest of this representation,
respecting Satan’s moving, that is, persuading and prevailing with God, to bring, or
to suffer this his enemy to bring, these grievous calamities upon Job, is not to be
understood literally; as if God could be moved by any of his creatures, especially by
Satan, to alter or depart from his own wise and holy purposes, which are all eternal
and unchangeable, to gratify that evil spirit by granting his desires: but the design is
simply to signify the devil’s restless malice, in promoting man’s misery, and God’s
permission of it, for his own glory. To destroy him without cause — Without any
signal guilt or special provocation, whereby he, more than others, deserved to be
chastised by such heavy calamities; not but that there might be other very weighty
causes for them: for the divine wisdom, we may be sure, neither does nor suffers any
thing without cause; that is, without a sufficient reason. That good men are
sometimes extremely afflicted, and that not only in their outward estate, but in their
persons, as Job was, is too plain to be denied; (see John 9:3 ;) and, whether God
permits wicked spirits, or wicked men, or any thing else, to be the immediate
instrument of a good man’s sufferings, makes no alteration as to the nature or
degree of his sufferings. But the word ‫חנם‬ chinnam, here rendered, without cause,
may, with equal propriety, be translated, as it is Proverbs 1:17; Ezekiel 6:10, and
elsewhere, in vain; and be referred, not to God’s destroying him, but to Satan’s
moving God so to do. And then the reading will be, Thou hast in vain moved, or
dost, or wilt, in vain move me to destroy him; that is, without effect, or to no
purpose; for thou art not able to take away his integrity, which, in spite of all thy art
and malice, he still holds fast. Thus Junius and Tremellius translate the words: Hast
thou considered my servant Job — that he still retains his integrity? and, in vain
hast thou excited me to destroy him: and Houbigant, He still retains his integrity,
after thou hast excited me against him, that I might trouble him, in vain.
COKE, "Job 2:3. To destroy him without cause— The most that can be meant by this
expression is, without his desert, (according to the usual way of speaking, for, strictly
speaking, we all deserve hell;) or without any signal guilt to draw upon him so signal a
calamity: not but that there might be other very weighty causes for it; for the divine
wisdom, we may be sure, neither does nor suffers any thing without cause, i.e. without a
sufficient reason. That good men are sometimes extremely afflicted, and that not only in
their outward estate, but in their persons, as Job was, is a fact too obvious to be denied;
(see John 9:3.) and whether God permits wicked spirits or wicked men, or any thing else,

24. to be the immediate instrument of a good man's sufferings, it makes no alteration in the
thing itself. To all this it may be added, that the words will bear a different construction.
They are translated by Junius and Tremellius, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that
he still retains his integrity? and in vain hast thou excited me to destroy him: and by
Houbigant, He still retains his integrity, after thou hast excited me against him, that I
might trouble him in vain. See Peters.
PULPIT, "And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou conquered 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? Thus far is identical with Job 1:1 (quod vide). The rest of the verse is additional, having
reference to the conduct of Job under his earlier trials (Job 1:20-22). And still he holdeth fast his
integrity. This has been justly called "the key-note of the whole book" (Cook). Satan had declared
that Job's integrity rested on no solid basis, and would easily be overthrown and disappear. God,
confident in his servant's faithfulness and truth, had allowed him to assail it. What was the result?
God declares it with his own mouth. Job's "integrity" had not been wrested from him; he still
maintained it (Job 1:21, Job 1:22), as he was about to do till the end (Job 42:1-6). Compare the
ideal "just man" of Horace—
"Justum et tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranny
Menta quatit solida, neque Anster,
Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae ….
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae."

25. ('Od.,' 3.3.)
Although thou movedst me against him (see Job 1:9-11), to destroy him; literally, to swallow
him up; i.e. to ruin him, overwhelm him with calamities. Without cause; i.e. "when he had done
nothing to deserve such treatment."
4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give
all he has for his own life.
BAR ES, "Skin for skin - This is a proverbial expression, whose origin is
unknown, nor is its meaning as “a proverb” entirely clear. The general sense of the
passage here is plain, for it is immediately explained that a man would give everything
which he had to save his life; and the idea here is, that if Job was so afflicted in his body
that he was likely to die, he would give up all his religion in order to purchase life. His
religion, which had berne the comparatively trifling test before applied to it, would not
bear the severer trial if his life was endangered. In regard to the proverb itself, a great
variety of explanations has been given. The ancient versions throw no light on it. The
Vulgate renders it, “Pellem pro pelle.” The Septuagint ∆έρµα ᆓπέρ δέρυατος derma huper
dermatos - skin for, or instead of, skin. The Chaldee renders it, “member for member,”
‫אברא‬ ‫אמטול‬ ‫אברא‬ - and the author of that paraphrase seems to have supposed that it
means that a man would give the members of his body or his limbs to preserve his life.
Parkhurst renders it, “skin after skin,” meaning, as he explains it, that a man may bear to
part with all that he has, and even to have his skin, as it were, stripped off again and
again, provided only that his life is safe. Noyes supposes that it means that any man will
give the skin or life of another, whether animal or man, to save his own; and that: Job
gave up all, without complaint, from the selfish fear of exposing his own life to danger.
Dr. Good remarks on the passage, that the skins or spoils of beasts, in the rude and early
ages of man, were the most valuable property he could acquire, and that for which he
most frequently combated. Thus, Lucretius says,
Tam igitur “pelles,” nunc aurum et purpura, curis
Exercent hominum vitam, belloque fatigant.
v. 1422.
“Then man for “skins” contended; purple now,

26. And gold, forever plunge him into war.”
In various parts of the book of Job, however, Dr. Good remarks, the word skin imports
the “person” of a man as well as his “property,” the whole living body which it envelopes,
as in Job_18:13; Job_19:26. “It is,” says he, “upon the double meaning of the same term,
and the play which is here given to it, by employing the term first in one sense and then
in the other, that the gist of the proverb, as of a thousand others similarly constructed,
depends. ‘Skin for skin’ is in this view, in plain English, ‘property for person,’ or ‘the skin
forming property for the skin forming person.’” See a somewhat similar view presented
by Callaway, in Bush’s Illustrations, “in loco.” The editor of the Pictorial Bible coincides
mainly with this view, and supposes that the reference is to the time when trade was
conducted by barter, and when the skins of animals, being a most frequent and valuable
commodity, were used to represent property.
Tributes, ransoms, etc., he observes, were paid in skins. According to this, it means
that a man would give “skin upon skin;” that is, would pile one piece of property upon
another, and give “all” that he had, in order to save his life. It refers to the necessity of
submitting to one great evil rather than incur a greater, answering to the Turkish
proverb, “We must give our beards to save our heads.” According to Gesenius, it means
“life for life.” Drusius explains it as meaning, that he would give the skin of others, as of
his sons, to save his own; that is, that he was unmoved so long as his own skin or life was
safe. The same view is given by Ephrem the Syrian. “Skin for skin; the skin not only of
flocks, but even of his sons will he give, in order to save his own.” This view also is
adopted by Urnbreit. That is, his religion was supremely selfish. The loss of property and
even of children he could bear, provided his person was untouched.
His own health, and life; his own skin and body were dearer to him than anything else.
Other people would have been afflicted by the loss of children and property. But Job was
willing to part with any or all of these, provided he himself was safe. Rosenmuller
supposes that the word skin here is used for the whole body; and says that the sense is,
that he would give the body of another for his own, as in Exo_21:23. “The meaning of
this proverbial formula,” says he, “is, that any one would redeem his own safety by the
skin of others; that is, not only by the skins or lives of oxen, camels, servants, but even of
his own children.” Schultens supposes it means that a man would submit to any
sufferings in order to save his life; that he would be willing to be flayed alive; to be
repeatedly excoriated; to have, so to speak. one skin stripped off after another, if he
might save his own life.
According to this, the idea is, that the loss of life was the great calamity to be feared,
and that a man would give “any” thing in order to save it. Umbreit says, “there is nothing
so valuable to a man that he will not exchange it - one thing for another; one outward
good for another, ‘skin for skin.’ But life, the inward good, is to him of no value that can
be estimated. That he will give for nothing; and much more, he will offer everything for
that.” Another solution is offered in the Biblische Untersuchungen ii. Th. s. 88. “Before
the use of gold, traffic was conducted chiefly by barter. Men exchanged what was
valuable to themselves for what others had which they wanted. Those who hunted wild
beasts would bring their skins to market, and would exchange them for bows and
arrows. Since these traffickers were exposed to the danger of being robbed, they often
took with them those who were armed, who agreed to defend them on condition that
they should have a part of the skins which they took, and in this way they purchased
their property and life.”
That is, they gave the skins of animals for the safety of their own; all that they had they
would surrender, in order that their lives might be saved. See Rosenmuller’s

27. Morgenland, “in loc.” None of these solutions appear to me perfectly satisfactory, and
the proverb is involved in perplexity still. It seems to refer to some kind of barter or
exchange, and to mean that a man would give up one thing for another; or one piece of
property of less value in order to save a greater; and that in like manner he would be
willing to surrender “everything,” in order that his life, the most valuable object, might
be preserved. But the exact meaning of the proverb, I suspect, has not yet been
perceived.
Yea, all that a man hath - This is evidently designed to express the same thing as
the proverb, “skin for skin,” or to furnish an illustration of that. The meaning is plain. A
man is willing to surrender all that he has, in order to preserve his life. He will part with
property and friends, in order that he may be kept alive. if a man therefore is to be
reached in the most tender and vital part; if any thing is to be done that shall truly reveal
his character, his life must be put in danger, and his true character will then be revealed.
The object of Satan is to say, that a test had not been applied to Job of sufficient severity
to show what he really was. What he had lost was a mere trifle compared with what
would be if he was subjected to severe bodily sufferings, so that his life would be in peril.
it is to be remembered that these are the words of Satan, and that they are not
necessarily true.
Inspiration is concerned only in securing “the exact record” of what is said, not in
affirming that all that is said is true. We shall have frequent occasion to illustrate this
sentiment in other portions of the book. In regard to the sentiment here expressed,
however, it is in general true. Men will surrender their property, their houses, and lands,
and gold, to save their lives. Many, too, would see their friends perish, in order that they
might be saved. It is not universally true, however. It is possible to conceive that a man
might so love his property as to submit to any torture, even endangering life, rather than
surrender it. Many, too, if endangered by shipwreck, would give up a plank in order to
save their wives or children, at the risk of their own lives. Many will give their lives
rather than surrender their liberty; and many would die rather than abandon their
principles. Such were the noble Christian martyrs; and such a man was Job. Satan urged
that if his life were made wretched, he would abandon his integrity, and show that his
professed piety was selfish, and his religion false and hollow. The Syriac and Arabic add,
“that he may be safe.”
CLARKE, "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.
GILL, "And Satan answered the Lord, and said,.... Satan would not as yet own
that Job was the man the Lord had described; but still would suggest, that he was a
selfish and mercenary man, and that what had been done to him was not a sufficient trial

28. of his integrity; the thing had not been pushed far and close enough to discover him; he
had lost indeed his substance, and most of his servants, and all his children, but still he
had not only his own life, but his health and ease; and so long as he enjoyed these he
would serve God, though only for the sake of them: and therefore, says he, as it is usually
and proverbially said:
skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life; the Targum
is,"member for member;''which the Jewish commentators, many of them, explain thus,
that if a man's head or his eyes are in danger, he will lift up his hand or his arm, and
expose that in order to save the other; but the word is generally used of the skin, and so
it may in this sense; and mean the skin of his hand, as a shield for the skin of his head or
eye, as Gussetius observes (r): some understand it of the skins of others for his own skin,
which he will part with, that he may keep that; nay, he will give all that he is possessed of
for the preservation of his life, so dear is that unto him; meaning either the skins of
beasts, in whom the principal substance of men consisted in those times and countries,
and whose skins slain for food, and in sacrifice, might be of worth and value, and used in
traffic; or, as others think, money cut out of leather made of skins is meant, which a man
would part with, even all such money he had in the world, and even his "suppellex", or
all the goods of his house, for to save his life: or the sense is, that Job would not only give
the skins of his beasts, even of all that he had, for his own skin, but the skins of his
servants, nay, of his own children, provided he could but keep his own skin; and hereby
Satan suggests, that Job did not regard the loss his cattle, nor of his servants, nor even of
his children, so long as he had his own life and health; and thus represents him as a lover
of himself, and as cruel and hardhearted, and without natural affections to his children;
the contrary to which is very manifest from Job_1:5; or rather this designs his own skin,
and may be rendered, "skin upon skin", or "skin even unto skin", or "skin within skin"
(s); for man has two skins, an inward and an outward one, called the "cutis" and
"cuticula", "derma" and "epidermis"; the latter is of a whitish colour, and is properly the
covering of the skin, is very thin, and void of sensation (t), which may be raised up by a
blister, and taken off without pain; but the other is reddish, and very sensible of pain,
and cannot be taken off without putting a man to the most exquisite misery; and yet a
man will part with both skins, and if he had ever so many, or he willing to be put to the
greatest torment, rather than part with his life: and to this one point all the above
senses, and others given by interpreters, tend, namely, to observe how precious the life
of man is to him; and if this was all that Satan meant, it is very trite; but he seems to
insinuate something more, and that is, that any man, and so Job though reckoned a
good man, would not only part with all the skins he had, and the substance he was
possessed of, to save his life, but he would part with his God, and his religion, and the
profession of it, for the sake of it, which is false; for there is something more valuable
than life to good men; they reckon the loving kindness of God better than life, and would
sooner lose their lives than risk the danger of losing their interest in it; and are willing to
part with their lives for the sake of God and true religion, for the sake of Christ and his
Gospel, and for his cause and interest, as many have done.
HE RY, "III. The accusation further prosecuted, Job_2:4. 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

29. 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 Mat_6:25. 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.
JAMISO ,"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, etc., 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 Exo_
21:28.
K&D, "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 ‫ּזר‬‫ע‬ ‫ד‬ ַ‫ע‬ ְ ‫ּזר‬‫ע‬ 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 ‫ד‬ ַ‫ע‬ ְ 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

30. 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 ‫ע‬ַ‫נ‬ָ‫,נ‬ above, Job_1:11, with ְ , is construed here with ‫ל‬ ֶ‫,א‬
and expresses increased malignity: Stretch forth Thy hand but once to his very bones,
etc. Instead of ָ‫יך‬ֶ‫נ‬ ָ ‫ל־‬ ַ‫,ע‬ Job_1:11, ‫ל־‬ ֵ‫ע‬ is used here with the same force: forthwith,
fearlessly and regardlessly (comp. Job_13:15; Deu_7:10), he will bid Thee farewell.
BE SO , "Job 2:4. Skin for skin, &c. — The design of these words is plain,
which was to detract from Job, and to diminish that honour and praise which God
gave him, by pretending that he had done no more than the meanest men commonly
do by the law of self-preservation. And it is equally clear that this was a proverbial
speech then in use, to denote the great value in which life is held, insomuch that, to
preserve it, a man would suffer even his skin to be torn off. It may signify also that a
man, in order to save his life, would willingly suffer himself to be stripped of all his
property. But the words ‫נפשׁו‬ ‫בעד‬ begnad naphsho, rendered here, for his life, ought
rather to be rendered, for his person. For the question was not about his life, which
Satan had not the impudence to desire; nor indeed could the trial be made, by
taking away his life, whether he would hold fast his integrity; but rather by smiting
him in his bone, and in his flesh. And Satan, in these words, insinuates that severe
bodily pain was much more grievous to the human nature, and would be less
patiently borne by Job, than any outward calamities which did not affect his own
person. It is as if he had said, How dear soever a man’s goods, or servants, or
children, may be to him, yet still his own person is dearer; and seeing that Job is still
under no pain of body, and in no danger of losing his life, his constancy is not to be
boasted of: nor is his holding fast his integrity amidst his losses, nor his patience
under them, an evidence of his sincere and generous piety, but these things are
rather effects of mere self-love: he is content with the loss of his estate, and even of
his children too, so long as he sleeps in a whole skin; and is well pleased that thou
wilt accept of these as a ransom in his stead. And it is not true patience which makes
him seem to bear his troubles so submissively, but rather policy, that he may in this
way appease thy wrath against him, and prevent those further plagues, which, for
his hypocrisy, he fears thou wouldst otherwise bring upon his body.
COKE, "Job 2:4. Skin for skin— A proverbial expression, to denote the great
value in which life is held; insomuch that a man, to preserve it, would suffer even his
skin to be torn off. It may signify also, that a man, in order to save his life, would
willingly suffer himself to be stripped of all his fortunes. The words ‫בעד‬ ‫נפשׁו‬ bead
napsho, rendered for his life, might be more properly rendered, for his person. The
question here was not about his life; Satan had not the impudence to desire his life;
but only to smite him in his bone, and in his flesh; and accordingly, the permission

31. given him in the 6th verse implies this restriction, beware thou touch not his life.
The rendering the word ‫נפשׁ‬ nepesh, by person, is not unusual, as may be seen by
any one who will consult the Concordances. See Heath and Schultens.
ELLICOTT, "(4) Skin for skin.—This is a more extreme form of the insinuation
of Job 1:9. He means Job takes care to have his quid pro quo; and if the worst come
to the worst, a man will give up everything to save his life. If, therefore, Job can save
his life at the price of subservience to God, he will willingly pay that price rather
than die; but his service is worth no more than that selfish object implies.
GUZIK, "2. (Job 2:4-6) Satan’s reply.
So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he
will give for his life. But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his
flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the LORD said to Satan,
“Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”
a. Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life: Satan here
asserted that Job failed to curse God only because he was afraid that if he did, it
would bring personal punishment from God. Satan argued that the problem with
the prior attacks was that none of the previous attacks touched Job directly, but
only things next to or outside of Job (his family and his possessions).
i. “In Job’s ancient culture, ‘skin for skin’ was a bartering term meaning to trade
one skin for another. The Devil is accusing Job of being willing to risk the skin of his
children and livestock in order to protect his own skin.” (Lawson)
ii. “Any skin for his own; cattle, servants, children may be easily parted with by
him, to save himself in a whole skin, to keep himself whole.” (Trapp)
iii. When it came down to it, Abraham betrayed his wife to save his life. David
forsook his sanity to save his life. Peter denied Jesus to save his own life. There is
certainly some truth to the statement, all that a man has he will give for his life.
b. Touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face! Satan
insisted that if the attack were made against Job directly – if some calamity came
upon Job’s body – then Job would certainly curse God.
i. “Satan suggested to God a new test for Job. Physical suffering. Pain can weaken
our resistance and make everything look and feel worse than it really is. More than