(Job 2:1) Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. (2) And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" And Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down in it."
As in the last study of the first chapter of Job, once again we have a rather matter-of-fact conversation between God and Satan, as Satan has been given power over the world, and walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, as we see here.
(3) And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a pious and an upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you moved Me against him, to destroy him without cause."
Note here that although it was Satan who was given permission to destroy all that Job had, God takes full responsibility for it, as Satan could do nothing without the consent of God.
(4) And Satan answered the LORD, and said, "Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. (5) But put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse You to Your face!"
Satan seeks to do more to Job in an effort to turn him from God, but can only do what God allows him to do.
(6) And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life."
God allows Satan to do whatever he wants to Job's body, but he cannot kill him.
(7) So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. (8) And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself and he sat down among the ashes. (9) Then his wife said to him, "Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!" (10) But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? Shall we receive good from the hand of God, and shall we not accept evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Note that Satan did not kill Job's wife, even though he had been allowed to. There is probably a very good reason and a very good lesson in that. Often Satan uses those who are close to us to tempt us. Job's wife was surely a good woman as Job points out she is talking like a foolish woman, indicating she probably knows better.
(11) Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, each one came from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. (12) And when they lifted up their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted up their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. (13) So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
There are other scriptures that indicate that seven days may have been a usual time of mourning. Job's friends sat in silent mourning with him and allowed him to be the first to speak.
(Job 3:1) After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. (2) And Job spoke, and said, (3) "Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night on which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.' (4) Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it."
"Perish the day I was born! Let that day be blotted out of history." Job laments that he was ever born.
(5) "Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. (6) As for that night, let darkness seize it; let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months."
Job wishes the day he was born had never happened.
(7) "Lo, let that night be desolate; let no joyful voice come into it."
This is a good time to point out that I generally use just the King James Version of the Bible in my transcription notes. There is good reason for that, as I have written before in Which Version of the Truth Will You Use? I guess you could say I also use a little of the New King James version to replace some of the "thee's" and "thou's" of the 1600's Old English with more modern easier-to-understand language. However, I also make it a point to look at the original meaning of the words in the Hebrew and Greek. Sometimes, as I did above, I use a different word, based on the original meaning of the word, than either the KJV or the NKJV. My transcriptions of Bible scriptures are not meant to be a new version of the Bible; they are simply my notes of scriptures rewritten to help me best understand them, and I share these notes on this blog.
I say all that to explain that I have used the word "desolate" in verse 7. It was translated as "solitary" in the KJV, and "barren" in the NKJV. The original word "galmud" can mean sterile, desolate, or solitary. KJV translated it correctly, but that word didn't exactly express the idea well to me, and as I sometimes do, I felt the NKJV may have changed the meaning a little with their word. "Desolate" gave me a better impression of the meaning of Job's statement.
(8) "Let them curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to raise up Leviathan."
The last word was translated as "mourning" in the KJV. The original word is actually "livyathan", or our English "leviathan", and since that word is used in other places in the Bible where it is not translated as "mourning", I saw no reason to try to interpret it as that here. However, as with all the Leviathan scriptures, it's a little difficult to know exactly what Job means here. Leviathan seems to have been a big and terrible and formidable creature, so perhaps the meaning here is to equate the day with some mark of infamy.
(9) "Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day; (10) Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes. (11) Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I not perish when I came out of the belly? (12) Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? (13) For now I should have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept; then I would have been at rest,"
Death in scripture is often called sleep. If Job had died at birth, he imagines that he would now be at rest and not suffering so.
(14) "With kings and counselors of the earth, who built desolate places for themselves;"
I believe Job means here that he would have been laid at rest with kings and counselors and people of like great distinction, in great sepulchres built for themselves. I don't think he's referring to the vanity of building things that do not last, for he seems to continue with the thought that it would be a good thing if he were at rest with all the others who would be at rest, too.
(15) "Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver; (16) Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? (17) There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. (18) There the prisoners rest together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. (19) The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master."
Even the prisoners and the servants may rest there, small and great alike may rest, and that sounds good to Job in his misery.
(20) "Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, (21) Who long for death, but it does not come, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures; (22) Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave? (23) Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?"
Why are light and life given to those in misery, those hedged in with no way of escape, those whom Job supposes just want to die?
(24) "For my sighing comes before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters. (25) For the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has come upon me. (26) I was not in safety, neither had I rest, nor was I quiet; yet trouble came."
This could be a small interesting insight into the life of Job. Job was a good and pious man, but did he have an inner fear? There is a slight indication of this when he worried that his children might have sinned and therefore offered burnt offerings for them. We are told repeatedly in scripture to "fear not". Fearing not in the face of adversity is having faith in God, and even in this terrible tragedy of Job's, God is in complete control. Perhaps a better explanation for so pious a man is that this is part of the reverential fear that Job had for God. He knew that everything he had was in God's hands and could be taken away at any time: "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away."
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