Job 2:4-13

4 Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.

5 But ¹stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will ²curse you to your face."

6 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life."

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome ³sores from ⁴the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

8 And he took ⁵a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in ⁶the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still ⁷hold fast your integrity? ⁸Curse God and die."

10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the ⁹foolish women would speak. ¹⁰Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"^[a]¹¹In all this Job did not ¹²sin with his lips.

Job's Three Friends

11 Now when Job's three ¹³friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz ¹⁴the Temanite, Bildad ¹⁵the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to ¹⁶show him sympathy and comfort him.

12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they ¹⁷tore their robes and sprinkled ¹⁸dust on their heads toward heaven.

13 And they sat with him on the ground ¹⁹seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

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Job 2:4-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 2

This chapter gives an account of a second trial of Job's constancy and integrity, the time and occasion of it, Job 2:1-3; the motion made for it by Satan, which being granted, he smote him from head to foot with sore boils, which he endured very patiently, Job 2:4-8; during which sad affliction he is urged by his wife to give up his integrity, which he bravely resisted, Job 2:9,10; and the chapter is concluded with an account of a visit of three of Job's friends, and of their conduct and behaviour towards him, Job 2:11-13.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 19

1. Job 1:11
2. Job 1:5
3. Exodus 9:9; Leviticus 13:18; [Deuteronomy 28:27]
4. Deuteronomy 28:35; Isaiah 1:6
5. Job 41:30
6. Job 42:6; Ezekiel 27:30; Jonah 3:6; Matthew 11:21
7. ver. 3
8. [See ver. 5 above]
9. [Psalms 74:18, 22]
10. [James 5:10, 11]
11. Job 1:22
12. [Psalms 39:1]
13. [Proverbs 17:17]
14. See 1 Chronicles 1:45
15. Genesis 25:2; 1 Chronicles 1:32
16. Job 42:11; [Romans 12:15]
17. See Genesis 37:29
18. See Joshua 7:6; Nehemiah 9:1; Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 27:30
19. Ezekiel 3:15; [Genesis 50:10]

Footnotes 1

[a]. Or disaster; also verse 11

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.