Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
In Job 2 the Satan afflicts Job with severe boils in order to test his piety. Although Job’s wife begs her husband to blaspheme God and die, Job accepts his fate with integrity. At the end of the chapter Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar come to visit him in his suffering.

II. Photo
Vv. 7-8 describe Job’s affliction and his response, “The Satan departed from the presence of the LORD and inflicted a severe inflammation on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. [Job] took a potsherd to scratch himself as he sat in ashes.”

III. Important Verses
vv. 3-6: The LORD said to the Adversary, “Have you noticed My servant Job? There is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil. He still keeps his integrity; so you have incited Me against him to destroy him for no good reason.” The Adversary answered the LORD, “Skin for skin — all that a man has he will give up for his life. But lay a hand on his bones and his flesh, and he will surely blaspheme You to Your face.” So the LORD said to the Adversary, “See, he is in your power; only spare his life.”
vv. 9-10: His wife said to him, “You still keep your integrity! Blaspheme God and die!” But he said to her, “You talk as any shameless woman might talk! Should we accept only good from God and not accept evil?” For all that, Job said nothing sinful.
v. 13: [Job’s three friends] sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights. None spoke a word to him for they saw how very great was his suffering.

IV. Outline
1-6. God allows the Satan to afflict Job’s body
7-8. Job is afflicted
9-10. Job maintains his piety
11-13. Job’s three friends come to comfort him

V. Comment
Job 2 consists of three scenes. In the first scene (vv. 1-6) God allows Satan to afflict Job in order to see if he will blaspheme God. The second scene (vv. 7-10) depicts Job’s suffering and relates how he doesn’t abandon his piety. The final scene introduces Job’s three friends who will comment on his fate in the coming chapters. In terms of structure, Job 2 employs repetition: vv. 1-4a are nearly identical to 1:6-9.

In v. 3 God tells the Satan, “so you have incited Me against [Job] to destroy him for no good reason (chinam).” The word chinam makes it clear Job did not bring any of his suffering upon himself. Clines points out (pp. 42-43), “The experiment, however, has even by this inconclusive stage brought into the open—at least to the observant reader—one striking fact about the moral universe as perceived by the narrator: it is indeed possible for a righteous person to suffer gratuitously.” Indeed, while the book of Proverbs guarantees many things to the righteous/wise person, it also recognizes that piety does not necessarily result in prosperity: “Do not reject the discipline of the LORD, my son; Do not abhor His rebuke. For whom the LORD loves, He rebukes, As a father the son whom he favors.” (Prov. 3:11-12, see comment there)

In v. 9 we are introduced to Job’s wife: “His wife said to him, ‘You still keep your integrity! Blaspheme God and die!’” While many view her as the devil’s advocate (much like Eve in the creation narrative), Clines points out that she was under immense stress. He writes (p. 51), “Rarely has the scene been viewed through her eyes… Through no fault of her own, but solely because of the social structures of her time, her own well-being has been wholly dependent on Job’s. She has relied on him for her economic existence, for her social status, and for her moral standing in the community. But now, at a stroke, she has lost everything. Her income is gone, now that the cattle and servants have been destroyed, her position as matriarch and wife of a prince has been lost, and she is open to the obloquy of guilt by association. All this in addition to the sudden loss of her ten children. And who is to blame? No one but her husband.” Indeed, the Septuagint (v. 9) considerably lengthens her speech in order to give voice to her own suffering: “And when much time had passed, his wife said to him, How long wilt thou hold out, saying, Behold, I wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my deliverance? for, behold, thy memorial is abolished from the earth, even thy sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb which I bore in vain with sorrows; and thou thyself sittest down to spend the nights in the open air among the corruption of worms, and I am a wanderer and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, that I may rest from my labours and my pangs which now beset me; but say some word against the Lord, and die.”

Job responds in v. 10, “But he said to her, ‘You talk as any shameless woman (nevalos) might talk! Should we accept only good from God and not accept evil?’ For all that, Job said nothing sinful.” The term naval seems to be the opposite of chakham “wise one” (see Deut 32:6). What’s to be made of the statement “For all that, Job said nothing sinful”? While Job remains steadfast in his piety, this phrase seems to foreshadow the different approach Job will take in the next chapter (Ibn Ezra). Psalm 39 comes to mind: “I resolved I would watch my step lest I offend by my speech; I would keep my mouth muzzled while the wicked man was in my presence. I was dumb, silent; I was very still while my pain was intense.”

In vv. 11-13 we are introduced to Job’s three friends, and they practice many of the mourning rites found throughout Tanach: “When they saw him from a distance, they could not recognize him, and they broke into loud weeping; each one tore his robe and threw dust into the air onto his head. They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights. None spoke a word to him for they saw how very great was his suffering.” (vv. 12-13) The notion of friends consoling mourners can be found in Gen. 37:35 and 2 Sam. 10:2. The three friends sit for seven days before speaking, and a seven day mourning period is attested to in Gen. 50:10, 1 Sam. 31:13, Judith 16:24, and Ben Sira 22:12 which says “Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead; but for a fool and an ungodly man all the days of his life.” The friends also throw ashes on their heads, a practice described in Josh 7:6, 1 Sam 4:12, 2 Sam 13:19, 15:32, Ezek 27:30, Lam 2:10, Esth 4:1, and Dan 9:3.

It was seen in  the last chapter that Job probably lived in Northwest Arabia near the land of Edom. The names and locations of the three friends also lend support to this theory. The first friend, Eliphaz the Temanite, is most strongly associated with Edom: the city of Teman represents Edom (cf. Amos 1:12, Obad 9, Jer 49:7), and the name Eliphaz is found in Gen 36 as a son of Esau. Bildad the Shuhite also has an association: Gen. 25:1-6 describes how Shuah was one of Abraham’s sons by Keturah and that he lived in the “east country.” Also, the beginning of the name Bildad is similar to other people from that area such as Balaam and Balaak. The last friend, Zophar the Naamathite, has a name similar to Zipor (the father of Balaak, cf. Num. 22:2) and Zophu (one of Esau’s descendents listed in Genesis 36:11, 15).

In regards to the probable Edomite location for the book of Job, it is important to note that portions of Tanach speak of Edom’s “wisdom.” Jer. 49:7 says, “Concerning Edom. Thus said the LORD of Hosts: Is there no more wisdom in Teman? Has counsel vanished from the prudent? Has their wisdom gone stale?” Similarly, Obad. 1:8 says, “In that day — declares the LORD — I will make the wise vanish from Edom, Understanding from Esau’s mount.” Thus, it makes sense that a place renowned for its wisdom (much like Egypt and Mesopotamia) should serve as the setting for the book of Job.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

Clines, Job 1-20 (Word Biblical Commentary)

Photo taken from http://www.carlo-bergmann.de/ex2005-6/manu%2010%20Endfassung-Dateien/image079.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Job 1 recounts how Job, a pious and wealthy man, is tested in order to see if his piety is a result of his prosperity. God allows the Satan to kill Job’s children and liquidate his possesions, but Job nevertheless remains faithful.

II. Photo
Messengers tell Job about the calamities that have befallen him: “This one was still speaking when another [messenger came to Job] and said, ‘Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother when suddenly a mighty wind came from the wilderness. It struck the four corners of the house so that it collapsed upon the young people and they died; I alone have escaped to tell you.’” (vv. 18-19)

III. Important Verses
v. 1: There was a man in the land of Uz named Job. That man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
vv. 8-11: The LORD said to the Adversary, “Have you noticed My servant Job? There is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil!” The Adversary answered the LORD, “Does Job not have good reason to fear God? Why, it is You who have fenced him round, him and his household and all that he has. You have blessed his efforts so that his possessions spread out in the land. But lay Your hand upon all that he has and he will surely blaspheme You to Your face.”
vv. 20-22: Then Job arose, tore his robe, cut off his hair, and threw himself on the ground and worshiped. He said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” For all that, Job did not sin nor did he cast reproach on God.

IV. Outline
1. Job’s piety
2-3. Job’s good fortune
4-5. Job’s piety
6-12. The wager between God and Satan
13-19. Job’s wealth and family is destroyed
20-22. Job accepts the decree and praises God

V. Comment
The book of Job is made up of 39 chapters of poetic discourse (3:1-42:6) framed by three chapters of prosaic narrative (1:1-2:13, 42:7-17). The first chapter alternates its setting between earth, where Job is at first prosperous and later punished, and heaven, where God and the Satan decide to test Job’s piety. In terms of structure, many of the scenes are introduced by the words wayehi hayom “one day…” (see vv. 6, 13, 2:1), vv. 14-19 use uniform phraseology, and vv. 1, 8 describe Job in the same way.

Clines writes (p. 8), “In the prologue, the two fundamental data indispensable for the book as a whole are presented. First, Job is a righteous man; second, he is suffering undeservedly, and that at God’s hand, or at least with God’s permission. From these data the whole issue of the book arises.” What is the book’s primary issue? Clines quotes Fohrer (p. 9), “The concern of this narrative, as of the book as a whole, is not the problem of suffering, but the behavior of people in their experiencing and enduring suffering… not the problem of theodicy, but of human existence in suffering.”

The book begins by saying, “There was a man in the land of Uz named Job.” The place ‘utz is only mentioned twice elsewhere, once in Jer. 25:20 and once in Lam. 4:21 which says, “Rejoice and exult, Fair Edom, Who dwell in the land of Uz! To you, too, the cup shall pass, You shall get drunk and expose your nakedness.” The relationship between Uz and the Edomites (who lived in the wilderness below the Dead Sea to the west of Arabia) is important: it indicates that Uz was probably located in northwest Arabia. Clines writes, “Further support for a situation in or near Edom may be given by the occurrence of the personal name Uz in an Edomite genealogy (Gen 36:28 = 1 Chr 1:42), and by the probability that most of the personal names in Job have an Edomite origin (see on 2:11). Further, the personal name Uz is linked in Gen 22:21 with the name Buz, which appears in Jer 25:23 as a place name associated with Dedan and Tema, towns in northwest Arabia and thus not far south of Edom.” It is also interesting that the Septuagint’s lengthy ending to the book explicitly states that Job (a) lived on the edge of Arabia, and (b) ruled over the Edomites: “…  [Job] is described in the Syriac book as living in the land of Ausis on the borders of Idumea and Arabia: and his name before was Jobab; and having taken an Arabian wife, he begot a son whose name was Ennon. And he himself was the son of his father Zare, one of the sons of Esau, and of his mother Bosorrha, so that he was the fifth from Abraam. And these were the kings who reigned in Edom, which country he also ruled over…” (LXX 42:17).

Regarding Job’s ethnicity, Clines writes (p. 10), “The importance of the name Uz lies not in where such a place is, but in where it is not. Israelites themselves may not have known its precise location, but they will have known, as we do, that it is not in Israel. The name therefore signifies that the action has a horizon that is not peculiarly Israelite. It does not mean that Job necessarily is a foreigner, for most Jews of the exilic period and beyond—if that is the time of the book’s composition—lived outside the borders of Israel, and the patriarchs themselves—since that is ostensibly the time in which the story is set—were almost as often to be found outside the land as within it. The Book of Job simply does not say whether or not Job is an Israelite; by leaving open the question of his race, the book effectively makes his experience transcend the distinction between Israelite and non-Israelite, Jew and non-Jew. We do not know that the storyteller had such a conscious intention, but such is the effect he has created.”

Before getting to the crux of the chapter, two more geographical points are in order. V. 15 describes how the sheva’ “Sabeans” steal Job’s cattle. Who were the Sabeans? Anchor Bible Dictionary (“Sabeans,” Vol. V, p. 861) writes that the term refers to different groups in Tanach, but “the peoples here are a N Arabian group in the vicinity of Tema (Job 6:19), an oasis city which is often associated with Dedan (Isa 21:13–14; Jer 25:23; cf. Gen 10:7 and 25:3).” V. 17 describes how the kasdim “Chaldeans” steal Job’s camels. Who were the Chaldeans? While the Chaldeans were a group of people in Mesopotamia who attacked Judah from a long distance (see Ezek. 23:23, Hab. 1:6), the group mentioned here was probably a group of local marauders.

V. 1 describes Job: “That man was blameless and upright (tom weyashar); he feared God and shunned evil (sar mera’).” These are traits lauded in the Wisdom literature of Tanach. For instance, Prov. 2:21 says, “For the upright (yesharim) will inhabit the earth, The blameless (temimim) will remain in it,” and Ps. 37:37 says, “Mark the blameless (tom), note the upright (yashar), for there is a future for the man of integrity.” The phrases “feared God” and “shunned evil” appear together in many places, albeit with the Tetragrammaton in place of the name ‘elohim. For instance, Prov. 3:7 says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and shun evil (sur mera’).” Also see Prov. 14:16, 16:16.

In v. 8 God describes Job using the same terminology as v. 1, but adds the phrase ‘avdi “my servant”: “The LORD said to the Adversary, ‘Have you noticed My servant Job? There is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil!’” This appellation is given to righteous people such as Moses (more than 40 times, e.g. Num. 12:7-8) and the patriarchs (Ex 32:13, Deut 9:27). Given the fact that Job might have been a non-Israelite, it is interesting that the term ‘avdi is also given to a non-Israelite in Jer. 25:9: “I am going to send for all the peoples of the north — declares the LORD — and for My servant (‘avdi), King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all those nations roundabout. I will exterminate them and make them a desolation, an object of hissing — ruins for all time.” It is also interesteing that v. 8’s phrase ‘ein kamohu “there is no one like him” is almost exclusively used to describe God (e.g. 1 Kings 8:23, Jer 10:6, etc., but see 1 Sam 10:24 where the phrase is applied to Saul).

In v. 9 the Satan makes his major point: “The Adversary answered the LORD, ‘Does Job not have good reason to fear God?’” God agrees that Job has never been tested, and allows Satan to do anything but “lay a hand upon him” (v. 12). The next verses describe how Job’s fortune and children are lost, and how Job mourns in response: “Then Job arose, tore his robe, cut off his hair, and threw himself on the ground and worshiped” (v. 20). Tearing one’s robe and cutting one’s hair seem to have been normal mourning rite (for cutting clothes see Gen. 37:29, 2 Sam. 1:2, etc.; for cutting hair see Isa. 15:2, Amos 8:10, and Mic. 1:16 where gaz “shearing” is equated with the qorchah “baldness”). It is interesting that causing baldness (qorchah) is forbidden in Deut. 14:1. “You are children of the LORD your God. You shall not gash yourselves or shave the front of your heads (qorchah) because of the dead.”

Through it all Job does not lose his faith: “[Job] said, ‘Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’” (v. 20) This phrase has an interesting parallel in the more pessimistic Eccl. 5:14, “Another grave evil is this: He must depart just as he came. As he came out of his mother’s womb, so must he depart at last, naked as he came. He can take nothing of his wealth to carry with him.” The phrase “blessed be the name of the LORD” in our v. 20 appears in Ps. 113:2 “ Let the name of the LORD be blessed now and forever.”

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

Clines, Job 1-20 (Word Biblical Commentary)

Anchor Bible Dictionary (“Sabeans,” “Chaldeans”)

Photo taken from http://advocacynet.org/blogs/media/blogs/peoplesrebrenica/sreb-07-destroyedhouse.jpg