Job 2

9–10 Job's wife was not holding up as well as Job was. Either out of anger toward God or out of a desire to end her husband's suffering—or both—she advised Job to curse God and die.¹³

By advising her husband to curse God, Job's wife was, in effect, cursing God herself. But Job treated her comment more lightly; he said she was just talking like a foolish woman—that is, like a thoughtless village woman. But was the wife being used by Satan to tempt Job, just as Satan used Eve to tempt Adam? Job had no way of knowing; there is no evidence he even knew about Satan. The only thing Job knew was that he was afflicted and might not even survive.

The writer concludes this section by stating that Job did not sin in what he said (see Job 1:22). Once again Satan had been proved wrong—so far! And once again we see Job acknowledging God's hand in all the circumstances of his life: “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (verse 10). Throughout these first two chapters, this faith in God's fairness and goodness has sustained Job (see Job 1:20–22 and comment); it has helped him persevere (James 5:11). But in the coming chapters, we shall see Job's faith further put to the test—almost to the breaking point.

Job's Three Friends (2:11–13)

11–13 Here we are introduced to three friends of Job: Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, all of whom are going to play a large role in the remainder of the book. As far as we know, these three friends were sincere in their sympathy and concern for Job; they probably came from some distance to console him. When they saw Job, he looked so sick and distraught that they hardly recognized him. They wept, tore their robes, and put dust on their heads—all indications of the depth of their grief. And they stayed with him day after day. For the first seven days they didn't even speak; perhaps they felt it would be unseemly for them to speak before he did. Furthermore, sometimes the best thing a friend can do is simply to be present, without speaking. As we shall see, when Job's friends did begin to speak, they stopped being a comfort and merely added to his distress.