Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 2:9
Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
9. Then said his wife ] The incident related of Job’s wife is not introduced for her sake, but for the purpose of exhibiting through it the condition of Job’s mind, around which the drama turns. The author did not indicate the impression which Job’s personal affliction produced upon him. What thoughts he had are concealed; he is represented as sitting silent in his seclusion. The full impression of his miseries is brought home to him reflected from the mind of another, that other being the one fitted to influence him most powerfully. It is probable that the episode of Job’s wife is brought in with a double purpose, first, to shew how all around Job, those nearest to him, gave way under the severity of his trial, and thus by contrast to enhance the strength of his faith and the grandeur of his character; and second, to shew how, though subjected to the keenest trial from the example and representations of his wife, he still remained true.
The name Dinah given to Job’s wife by the Targum or Chaldee Translation most probably rests on no tradition, but is a mere child’s fancy. The Sept. introduces her speech, which it gives in a greatly amplified form, with the words “when a long time had passed.” The amplification is not unsuitable to the circumstances, but the curt phrases of the original are truer to art and nature, for grief is possessed of few words. Much animated dispute has taken place over the character and conduct of the woman. The Ancients were not favourably impressed by her. Augustine calls her roundly Diaboli adjutrix. The Geneva Version discerns a sad and universal principle in her conduct, “Satan useth the same instrument against Job as he did against Adam.” As was to be expected the present age has espoused her cause, and labours hard to put a face upon her words. The only question of importance is, what sense the Author intended her words to convey; and the key to this is found in the way in which her husband takes them up. He does not directly call her a “fool,” that is, a godless person (Psa 14:1), but with mild circumlocution says that she speaks as one of the foolish women speaks. The Eastern writer lets the woman act in character (Ecc 7:26 seq.). He would have probably smiled at the elaborate analysing of the female mind to which Westerns devote themselves, thinking it a waste of time. As the weaker Job’s wife fell first into the snare of the Devil, and used her influence, as in the beginning of history, to draw her husband after her. Her story, however, is not told for her sake, but to shew how those around Job fell away, and to set in a strong light the strain to which his faith was put by such an example and the solicitations that accompanied it.
curse God, and die ] Rather as before, renounce God and die. From a modern point of view many extenuations may be pleaded for Job’s wife, but her religion is represented here as precisely of the kind which Satan said Job’s was of. She wonders that Job still maintains his pious resignation; and counsels him, as he gets no good from God but only evil, even the extreme evil of death, to renounce an unprofitable service, and die, as he must, for nothing else awaits him. This is probably the meaning of the words “and die.” The words might have a different meaning. When two imperatives come together the second often expresses the consequence of the first, as do this and live. And, “renounce God and die” might mean, renounce Him and bring down His final stroke of death at once. The other is more probable.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then said his wife unto him – Some remarkable additions are made by the ancient versions to this passage. The Chaldee renders it, and Dinah ( dynah), his wife, said to him. The author of that paraphrase seems to have supposed that Job lived in the time of Jacob, and had married his daughter Dinah; Gen 30:21. Drusius says, that this was the opinion of the Hebrews, and quotes a declaration from the Gemara to this effect: Job lived in the days of Jacob, and was born when the children of Israel went down into Egypt; and when they departed thence he died. He lived therefore 210 years, as long as they were into Egypt. This is mere tradition, but it shows the ancient impression as to the time when Job lived. The Septuagint has introduced a remarkable passage here, of which the following is a translation. After much time had elapsed, his wife said unto him, How long wilt thou persevere, saying, Behold, I will wait a little longer, cherishing the trope of my recovery? Behold, the memorial of thee has disappeared from the earth – those sons and daughters, the pangs and sorrows of my womb, for whom I toiled laboriously in vain. Even thou sittest among loathsome worms, passing the night in the open air, whilst I, a wanderer and a drudge, from place to place, and from house to house, watch the sun until his going down, that I may rest from the toils and sorrows that now oppress me. But speak some word toward the Lord ( ti rema eis kurion) and die.
Whence this addition had its origin, it is impossible now to say. Dr. Good says it is found in Theodotion, in the Syriac, and the Arabic (in this he errs, for it is not in the Syriac and Arabic in Waltohs Polyglott), and in the Latin of Ambrose. Dathe suggests that it was probably added by some person who thought it incredible that an angry woman could be content with saying so little as is ascribed in the Hebrew to the wife of Job. It may have been originally written by some one in the margin of his Bible by way of paraphrase, and the transcriber, seeing it there, may have supposed it was omitted accidentally from the text, and so inserted it in the place where it now stands. It is one of the many instances, at all events, which show that implicit confidence is not to be placed in the Septuagint. There is not the slightest evidence that this was ever in the Hebrew text. It is not wholly unnatural, and as an exercise of the fancy is not without ingenuity and plausibility, and yet the simple but abrupt statement in the Hebrew seems best to accord with nature. The evident distress of the wife of Job, according to the whole narrative, is not so much that she was subjected to trials, and that she was compelled to wander about without a home, as that Job should be so patient, and that he did not yield to the temptation.
Dost thou still retain thine integrity? – Notes Job 2:3. The question implies that, in her view, he ought not to be expected to mantles, patience and resignation in these circumstances. He had endured evils which showed that confidence ought not to be reposed in a God who would thus inflict them. This is all that we know of the wife of Job. Whether this was her general character, or whether she yielded to the temptation of Satan and cursed God, and thus heightened the sorrows of Job by her unexpected impropriety of conduct, is unknown. It is not conclusive evidence that her general character was bad; and it may be that the strength of her usual virtue and piety was overcome by accumulated calamities. She expressed, however, the feelings of corrupt human nature everywhere when sorely afflicted. The suggestion will cross the mind, often with almost irresistible force, that a God who thus afflicts his creatures is not worthy of confidence; and many a time a child of God is tempted to give vent to feelings of rebellion and complaining like this, and to renounce all his religion.
Curse God – See the notes at Job 1:11. The Hebrew word is the same. Dr. Good renders it, And yet dost thou hold fast thine integrity, blessing God and dying? Noyes translates it, Renounce God, and die, Rosenmuller and Umbreit, Bid farewell to God, and die. Castellio renders it, Give thanks to God and die. The response of Job, however Job 2:10, shows that he understood her as exciting him to reject, renounce, or curse God. The sense is, that she regarded him as unworthy of confidence, and submission as unreasonable, and she wished Job to express this and be relieved from his misery. Roberts supposes that this was a pagan sentiment, and says that nothing is more common than for the pagan, under certain circumstances, to curse their gods. That the man who has made expensive offerings to his deity, in hope of gaining some great blessing, and who has been disappointed, will pour out all his imprecations on the god whose good offices have (as he believes) been prevented by some superior deity. A man in reduced circumstances says, Yes, yes, my god has lost his eyes; they are put out; he cannot look after my affairs. Yes, said an extremely rich devotee of the supreme god Siva, after he had lost his property, Shall I serve him any more? What, make offerings to him! No, no. He is the lowest of all gods?
And die – Probably she regarded God as a stern and severe Being, and supposed that by indulging in blasphemy Job would provoke him to cut him off at once. She did not expect him to lay wicked hands on himself. She expected that God would at once interpose and destroy him. The sense is, that nothing but death was to be expected, and the sooner he provoked God to cut him off from the land of the living, the better.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 2:9
Curse God and die.
Jobs wife
She only comes on the scene to heighten for one moment the intensity of her husbands desolation and misery. Renounce, she says, God and die. Leave the unprofitable service of this God, who has left thee to so undeserved a fate. Leave Him and quit life, a life that has nothing left worth living for. It seems hard indeed, hard above all to those who have known the blessings of an English and a Christian home, that such a sneer and such advice should come from such a quarter. It pains us, as with an unwelcome shock. Let me recall to you that when, some sixty years ago, the poet-painter William Blake drew some wonderfully powerful illustrations to the Book of Job, he, the English husband of a loyal and affectionate wife, refused to follow the course of the story in this terrible detail. All the rest he could portray, step by step; but here he stayed his hand, and those who can turn to his much-prized drawings will see Jobs wife vindicated against the scorn of centuries, kneeling beside her husband, and sharing his patient misery. They will see her still by his side, through each and all of his future pangs and agonies, and restored with him to a common happiness in the closing scene. There was something in the record of Jobs sufferings too keen and bitter, too remote, may we not thankfully say, from the experience of English and Christian married life, for that sensitive and gifted spirit, so often on the borderland where genius touches madness, to bear to reproduce. And it might well be so. Curse God and die, she said. The depths of human misery seemed sounded. How many human souls might, in one way or another, have lent an ear to the suggestion. A Roman might have turned upon his unjust gods and died by his own hand, like Care, with words of defiance on his lips. Others might have sought the same fate in dull despair. Not so Job. (Dean Bradley.)
Jobs wife
Some have spoken very strongly about Jobs 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. 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. (R. A. Watson, D. D.)
A despairing cry
Sorrow and pain work a ferment in the soul that is terrible. Our theme is the folly and wickedness of impeaching God.
1. The folly of impeaching the justice, wisdom, or love of God. Think of human ignorance. Compared with the material or brute creation man is great, but not great when compared with his Maker. Sydney Smith satirically described Lord Jeffrey as dissatisfied with the Almighty in the construction of the solar system, particularly as to the rings of Saturn. Men nowadays do soberly set up their judgment in opposition to the will and wisdom of God. They know but part, yet talk as if they understood the Almighty to perfection.
2. The guilt of such a course is equally great. It is a practical repudiation of the authority of God, who commands us to be patient and obedient. It is akin to the dreadful sin of blasphemy, an act that under no circumstances can ever be tolerated. (C. H. Buckley, D. D.)
The blasphemy of despair
Jobs wife is typical of a class of persons that has always existed in the world. Such persons lose sight of all that is bright in life, hem themselves in with the blackest gloom, seek a path only in the darkness where no star shines, allow distrust to take entire possession of their souls, and hatred to reign supreme in the domain of their affections, and then end their career like Popes reprobate knight, of whom the poet says, And sad Sir Balaam curses God and dies. In human life we often meet with persons whose gloomy minds throw a shadow on everything with which they come into contact. We protest against pessimism as being false in theory, and impossible in practice. Even dark things have a bright side, which can be seen if looked for in a proper spirit.
I. The causes of despair.
1. False views of God. A mans theology very largely influences his life. Spiritual ideas are at the root of all others. Whatever a man thinks of God and religion, will largely mould his character. Despair arises from two causes: the pessimism of men who are opponents of God, haters of God; and the hard, encrusted, stern, unbending Calvinism, which professes to be overpowered by Gods love, which love is, however, always limited to those holding the doctrine. The pessimistic raving is indicative of a despair which has taken a fixed and settled position in the soul. Hope has fled, and all the brightness, even to the last spark, has departed from life.
2. Misanthropic notions respecting the human race. The loss of faith in our fellow men is a prolific cause of despair. We place confidence in men, and we are betrayed; we trust them, and they deceive us. So we lose faith in mankind: we sink into a condition of sullen moroseness, which is but the forerunner of despair.
3. Denial of Gods existence. Atheism is a gloomy creed. To take away God is to deprive the world of hope, to rob it of its highest consolation, and consequently to plunge the human race into the blackest despair.
II. The folly of despair.
1. It shuts out of view possible changes for the better. The clouds encompass us, the darkness hems us in, we see no light, and we lose hope, never dreaming that behind the mists a sun is shining, which will sooner or later dispel the gloom and illumine the world with its beams.
2. It injures the soul. Like all evil passions, it grows with what it feeds on.
3. It is a rebellion against God. Evil is not the universe. Goodness is eternal. God lives, and His mercy fails not. Despair is rank blasphemy against heaven.
III. The remedy for despair. It is the religion of Jesus, with the great and eternal truth which it enunciates–God is love. Recognising the fact that there is a God, and that His mercy is over all that His hands have made, how can we ever despair? We know that we are in His hands, and that therefore we are sure. Let us then leave the demon of despair to atheists, and those who have neither faith in God nor confidence in man, but for ourselves we must cling to the eternal truth that God is love. (George Sexton, M. A. , LL. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Then said his wife] To this verse the Septuagint adds the following words: “Much time having elapsed, his wife said unto him, How long dost thou stand steadfast, saying, ‘Behold, I wait yet a little longer looking for the hope of my Salvation?’ Behold thy memorial is already blotted out from the earth, together with thy sons and thy daughters, the fruits of my pains and labours, for whom with anxiety I have laboured in vain. Thyself also sittest in the rottenness of worms night and day, while I am a wanderer from place to place, and from house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, that I may rest from my labours, and from the griefs which oppress me. Speak therefore some word against God, and die.” We translate barech Elohim vamuth, Curse God, and die. The verb barach is supposed to include in it the ideas of cursing and blessing; but it is not clear that it has the former meaning in any part of the sacred writings, though we sometimes translate it so.
Here it seems to be a strong irony. Job was exceedingly afflicted, and apparently dying through sore disease; yet his soul was filled with gratitude to God. His wife, destitute of the salvation which her husband possessed, gave him this ironical reproof. Bless God, and die – What! bless him for his goodness, while he is destroying all that thou hast! bless him for his support, while he is casting thee down and destroying thee! Bless on, and die.
The Targum says that Job’s wife’s name was Dinah, and that the words which she spake to him on this occasion were berich meymera dayai umith. Bless the word of the Lord, and die.
Ovid has such an irony as I suppose this to have been: –
Quid vos sacra juvant? quid nunc AEgyptia prosunt
Sistra? ______
Cum rapiant mala fata bonos, ignoscite fasso,
Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos.
Vive plus, moriere pius; cole sacra, colentem
Mors gravis a templis in cava busta trahet.
AMOR. lib. iii., Eleg. ix. ver. 33.
“In vain to gods (if gods there are) we pray,
And needless victims prodigally pay;
Worship their sleeping deities: yet death
Scorns votaries, and stops the praying breath.
To hallow’d shrines intruding fate will come,
And drag you from the altar to the tomb.”
STEPNEY.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The devil spared his wife with cruel intent to be the instrument of his temptations, and the aggravation of Jobs misery, by unnatural unkindness to him, which is declared Job 19:17, and elsewhere.
Dost thou still retain thine integrity? art thou yet so weak to persist in the practice of piety, when it is not only unprofitable to thee, but the chief occasion of all these thy insupportable miseries, and when God himself not only forsakes and leaves thee in this helpless and hopeless condition, but is turned to be thy greatest enemy?
Curse God, and die; seeing thy blessing of God availeth thee so little, it is time to change thy note, Curse God, and die, i.e. reproach him to his face, and tell him of his injustice and unkindness to thee, and that he loves his enemies, and hates his friends; and that will provoke him to take away thy life, and so end thy torments. Or, Curse God, though though die for it. But although this word sometimes signifies cursing, as Job 1:11; 1Ki 21:10, yet most properly and generally it signifies blessing; and so it may very well be understood here as a sarcastical or ironical expression, such as there are many in Scripture, as Ecc 11:9; Lam 4:21, and in all authors. And so the sense may be this, Bless God, and die; i.e. I see thou art set upon blessing of God; thou blessest God for giving, and thou blessest God for taking away, and thou art still blessing of God for thy loathsome and tormenting diseases, and he rewards thee accordingly, giving thee more and more of that kind of mercy for which thou blessest and praisest him. Go on therefore in this thy pious and generous course, and die as a fool dieth, and carry this reputation to thy grave, that thou hadst not common sense in thee to discern between good and evil, between thy friends and thy foes. Or rather, Awake out of this stupidity and lethargy, and give over this absurd and unreasonable practice; and as God gives thee no help nor comfort, let him lose thy praises and service. And this being her sense, it is not strange he reproveth her so sharply for it. And yet it seems hard to think that Jobs wife should arrive at that height of impudence and impiety, as in plain terms to bid him curse God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. curse Godrather,”renounce” God. (See on Job1:5) [UMBREIT].However, it was usual among the heathens, when disappointed in theirprayers accompanied with offerings to their gods, to reproach andcurse them.
and diethat is, takethy farewell of God and so die. For no good is to be got out ofreligion, either here or hereafter; or, at least, not in this life[GILL]; Nothing makes theungodly so angry as to see the godly under trial not angry.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then said his wife to him,…. The Jews g, who affect to know everything, say, that Job’s wife was Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, as the Targum, but this is not very likely; however, we may observe that polygamy had not obtained in these early times; Job had but one wife, and very probably she is the same that after all this bore him ten children more; since we never read of her death, nor of his having any other wife, and might be a good woman for anything that appears to the contrary; and Job himself seems to intimate the same, though she was in the dark about this providence, and under a sore temptation on that account; and therefore says to her husband,
dost thou still retain thine integrity? not as blaming him for insisting and leaning on his integrity, and justifying, and not humbling himself before God, when he should rather confess his sins and prepare for death; for this is contrary to the sense of the phrase used, Job 2:3; where Job is applauded by the Lord himself for holding fast his integrity; nor will Job’s answer comport with this sense of her words; nor did she speak as wondering that he should still retain it among so many sore temptations and afflictions; though indeed persevering grace is a marvellous thing; but then he would never have blamed her for such an expression: nor said she this as upbraiding and reproaching him for his religion and continuance in it, and mocking at him, and despising him on that account, as Michal did David; but as suggesting to him there was nothing in religion, and advising him to throw up the profession of it; for he might easily see, by his own case and circumstances, that God had no more regard to good men than to bad men, and therefore it was in vain to serve him; the temptation she laboured under was the same with that good man’s, Asaph, Ps 73:11;
curse God, and die: which is usually interpreted, curse God and then destroy thyself; or utter some such blasphemous words, as will either provoke him to destroy thee, or will make thee liable to be taken notice of by the civil magistrate and put to death for it; or do this in revenge for his hand upon thee, and then die; or, though thou diest; but these are all too harsh and wicked to be said by one that had been trained up in a religious manner, and had been so many years the consort of so holy and good a man: the words may be rendered, “bless God and die” h; and may be understood either sarcastically, go on blessing God till thou diest; if thou hast not had enough of it, take thy fill of it, and see what will be the issue of it; nothing but death; wilt thou still continue “blessing God and dying?” so some i render the words, referring to what he had said in Job 1:21; or else really and sincerely, as advising him to humble himself before God, confess his sins, and “pray” k unto him that he would take him out of this world, and free him from all his pains and sorrow; or rather the sense is, “bless God”: take thy farewell of him l; bid adieu to him and all religion, and so die; for there is no good to be hoped for on the score of that, here or hereafter; or at least not in this life: and so it amounts to much the same as before; and this sense is confirmed by Job’s answer, which follows.
g T. Hieros. Sotah, fol. 20. 3. h “benedic Deo”, Montanus, Piscator, Schmidt, Michaelis. i “Benedicendo et moriendo”, Junius Tremellius, Cocceius, Broughton. k “Supplica Deo”, Tigurine version so some in Munster. l “Valere jubeas numen et morere”, Schultens; “valedic Deo”, so some in Mercer.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
First Job’s Wife (who is only mentioned in one other passage (Job 19:17), where Job complains that his breath is offensive to her) Comes to Him:
9 Then his wife said to him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce God, and die.
In the lxx the words of his wife are unskilfully extended. The few words as they stand are sufficiently characteristic. They are not to be explained, Call on God for the last time, and then die (von Gerl.); or, Call on Him that thou die (according to Ges. 130, 2); but signifies, as Job’s answer shows, to take leave of. She therefore counsels Job to do that which Satan has boasted to accomplish. And notwithstanding, Hengstenberg, in his Lecture on the Book of Job (1860),
(Note: Clark’s Foreign Theological Library.)
defends her against the too severe judgment of expositors. Her desperation, says he, proceeds from her strong love for her husband; and if she had to suffer the same herself, she would probably have struggled against despair. But love hopeth all things; love keeps its despondency hidden even when it desponds; love has no such godless utterance, as to say, Renounce God; and none so unloving, as to say, Die. No, indeed! this woman is truly diaboli adjutrix (August.); a tool of the temper (Ebrard); impiae carnis praeco (Brentius). And though Calvin goes too far when he calls her not only organum Satanae , but even Proserpinam et Furiam infernalem, the title of another Xantippe, against which Hengstenberg defends her, is indeed rather flattery than slander. Tobias’ Anna is her copy.
(Note: She says to the blind Tobias, when she is obliged to work for the support of the family, and does not act straightforwardly towards him: , , i.e., (as Sengelmann, Book of Tobit, 1857, and O. F. Fritzsche, Handbuch zu d. Apokr. Lief. ii. S. 36, correctly explain) one sees from thy misfortunes that thy virtue is not of much avail to thee. She appears still more like Job in the revised text: manifeste vana facta est spes tua et eleemosynae tuae modo apparuerunt , i.e., thy benevolence has obviously brought us to poverty. In the text of Jerome a parallel between Tobias and Job precedes this utterance of Tobias’ wife.)
What experience of life and insight the writer manifests in introducing Job’s wife as the mocking opposer of his constant piety! Job has lost his children, but this wife he has retained, for he needed not to be tried by losing her: he was proved sufficiently by having her. She is further on once referred to, but even then not to her advantage. Why, asks Chrysostom, did the devil leave him this wife? Because he thought her a good scourge, by which to plague him more acutely than by any other means. Moreover, the thought is not far distant, that God left her to him in order that when, in the glorious issue of his sufferings, he receives everything doubled, he might not have this thorn in the flesh also doubled.
(Note: The delicate design of the writer here must not be overlooked: it has something of the tragi-comic about it, and has furnished acceptable material for epigrammatic writers not first from Kstner, but from early times (vid., das Epigramm vom J. 1696, in Serpilius’ Personalia Iobi). Vid., a Jewish proverb relating thereto in Tendlau, Sprchw. u. Redensarten deutsch-jd. Vorzeit (1860), S. 11.)
What enmity towards God, what uncharitableness towards her husband, is there in her sarcastic words, which, if they are more than mockery, counsel him to suicide! (Ebrard). But he repels them in a manner becoming himself.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Job and His Wife
Verses 9, 10:
Contrast of Their Integrity
Verse 9 recounts that Job’s wife sarcastically chided him to “curse God and die,” or just keep on blessing God and all he could expect for it was to die, Gen 3:6. Rhetorically she challenged, “you will not go on holding to your integrity, will you?” Just speak against or renounce God and die, Job 21:15; Job 27:5-6.
Verse 10 states that Job responded, chiding his wife for speaking as a foolish woman, a woman of folly would speak, Job 1:21; Jas 5:10-11. Sin and folly are aligned in the Scriptures, 1Sa 25:25; 2Sa 13:13; Psa 14:1. He further asked her should they always expect to receive good, never receive any evil, ill wind, or chastening, Joh 18:11; Rom 12:12; Heb 12:9; Jas 5:10; In all this experience Job did not sin with his lips, Psa 39:1; Jas 1:12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. Job refuses to curse God. (Job. 2:9-10)
TEXT 2:9, 10
(9) Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce God, and die. (10) But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What: shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
COMMENT 2:9, 10
Job. 2:9Not Job, but his wife reacts as Satan intended. Here the Septuagint inserts a long speech from Jobs wife. (The Qoran also refers to Jobs rebuke of his wife in 38:43.) But the lean and spare simplicity of our text proceeds to set the stage for the dramatic dialogue. This situation must not be psychoanalyzed, especially now that we are deeply involved in womens liberation mentality. Psychoanalysis of dead people is a most precarious scientific pastime. We accept it as a matter of fact. Curse Elohim and die. Resignation is not the chief attribute of Jobs wife. She, like many of us, are only prepared for good not evil in Gods universe.
Job. 2:10The sufferer responds to his wifes mindless suggestion. He calls her foolish. This is not a reflection on her intelligence, but rather on her moral character. Nabal (1Sa. 25:25masculine form) is the masculine form of the same word and means one who is both morally and intellectually obtuse. David describes a fool (same word) as one who says there is no GodPsa. 14:1. This fool is one who wants to live as though there is no God before whom we will give an account of every thought and action. Job has accepted the loss of property and family. He here accepts his illness, in hope of resurrection. Death is not our greatest enemy as the Buddhist mentality of the 20th century seeks to say; live it up, for today may be all that you have.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) Then said his wife.Thus it is that a mans foes are they of his own household (Mic. 7:6; Mat. 10:36, &c.). The worst trial of all is when those nearest to us, instead of strengthening our hand in God and confirming our faith, conspire to destroy it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. His wife There is an old tradition among the Jews, which also appears in the Chaldee Paraphrast, that his wife was Dinah, the frail daughter of Jacob. This is of value only as showing an ancient belief that Job lived in the patriarchal age. This unfortunate woman, who had not the living faith of her husband, and who, perhaps, did not believe in his God, has been bitterly denounced in every age, and has given point to many a stinging epigram from the days of the German Alters to Coleridge. “Why,” asks Chrysostom, “did the devil leave him this wife? Because he thought her a good scourge by which to plague him more acutely than by any other.” Augustine calls her the “helper of the devil;” Ebrard, “a tool of the tempter;” Spanheim, “a second Xantippe;” Calvin, (cited by Delitzsch,) “Proserpina, an infernal fury;” and J.D. Michaelis thinks she alone remained to Job in order that the measure of his sufferings might be full. Among others. Kitto ( Daily Bib. Illus.) and Hengstenberg have taken a more pleasing view of the woman, whom others seem to have forgotten was a sufferer who had been as terribly bereaved as Rachel herself. (Jer 31:15.) “It must be taken into consideration that her despair was rooted in the heartiest and tenderest love to her husband. In all their previous losses she had allowed herself to be kept in restraint by Job’s own submissiveness, and had the pains of disease befallen herself, she would probably still have resisted her despair.” HENGST., Lec. on Job. It was a favourite thought with the fathers that as Satan had successfully employed woman for the ruin of man in Paradise, he feels sure of success in this, his last stake, as he wields the same instrument against Job in the ashes. The moral elements of the two temptations were similar to each other. There was the preceding wreck of woman’s heart, together with the subtle leverage of man’s affection, as well as the contagious influence of evil example; all which unitedly constituted a temptation of inestimable power.
Curse God die (See Job 1:5.) She evidently alludes to what Job had said, (Job 1:21,) and, strangely enough, employs the very words that the tempter had expected Job would use as he sank in despair. By Ewald, among others, the expression is taken as ironical, “say farewell to God, and die;” by others (Rosenmuller, Hirtzel) as an insolent and defiant demand, “Renounce God, and die.” Schultens suspects it to have been a common saying among spare worshippers of the Deity of that day, like that of the Latin, “Eat, drink: to-morrow we die.” It practically said, Religion is of no account. Such sentiments prevail under visitations of the plague and kindred calamities. Thucydides thus moralizes over the plague at Athens: “Men were restrained neither by fear of the gods nor by human law; deeming it all one whether they paid religious worship or not, since they saw that all perished alike.” The wife of Job is now swept away into a similar maelstrom. The Septuagint informs us “that much time had passed” when she uttered these taunting words, “Curse God, and die;” and, displeased at the idea that an angry woman should say so little, puts a long speech into her mouth, recounting her sufferings, and closing with the tame words, “but say some word against the Lord, and die.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job Rebukes His Wife
v. 9. Then said his wife, v. 10. But he, v. 11. Now, when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place: Eliphaz, the Temanite, v. 12. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, v. 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Job 2:9-10. Dost thou still retain thine integrity? &c. The word tam, is the same in chap. Job 27:5 and there rendered integrity. God forbid that I should justify you, says Job, in answer to the uncharitable suspicions of his friends; till I die I will not remove my integrity from me: which, it is evident, cannot be meant of his religion (as a learned writer on this book supposes); for Job’s friends never said any thing to him to tempt him to renounce his religion; but, to make him disclaim or renounce his integrity, they said a great deal. It was, indeed, the chief design of their harangues to bring him to confess himself guilty of some secret crimes, for which they supposed the hand of God was so severe upon him. Job’s refusing to do this, is what he there calls holding fast his integrity; and so bishop Patrick; Till I die, &c. “I will sooner die than confess the guilt you charge me withal.” Why, then, may we not understand the very same expression in the same sense in this speech of Job’s wife? For she upbraids him in just the same strain that the friends did; dost thou still retain thine integrity?BLESS [not curse] God, and die; i.e. “Dost thou still persist in the maintaining that thou art innocent? Bless God, by a confession of those secret sins for which he thus afflicts thee, and so yield thyself up to death?” for I suppose she thought his case remediless. Bless God, in this place, may be used in the same sense as, give glory to God, in the speech of Joshua to Achan; see Jos 7:19. Bishop Warburton himself acknowledges, that barek, &c. is, literally, Bless God; but he would have it spoken ironically; which is very unlikely, considering the calamitous estate they were both in; for the wife must feel her share, if she had any feeling at all; and therefore the speech, we have reason to suppose, was serious. If the foregoing explication be allowed, there appear to be these two errors in her address; first, her unjust suspicions of his being guilty of some secret sins; and secondly, her rashly advising him to despair and die; to starve himself, or by some way or other put an end to his wretched life; to which Job replies, that she spoke like a weak and inconsiderate woman; [ nabal, one like Nabal, of a rash and unthinking, a hasty and passionate temper; see 1Sa 25:25.] that patience and an absolute resignation to the will of God was much better; for, shall we receive good, says he, &c.? This account of the woman’s speech, we see, agrees very well with Job’s reply to it; and if the words will bear a softer sense than that usually put upon them, such an equitable construction may, for any thing I know, be a piece of justice yet due to Job’s wife, though she has been dead three thousand years. What may further incline us to admit a favourable sense of the words is, that the verb barek, properly signifies to accost or salute a person. Thus when Elisha sent his servant Gehazi on a message in great haste, he bids him, If thou meet any man, salute him not; and, if any man salute thee, (the same word, barek, repeated) answer him not again, 2Ki 4:29. So chap. Job 10:15. Jehu meets Jonadab, vayebarkehu, and salutes or accosts him thus, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? &c. This signification of the verb is confirmed by that of the nouns derived from it. As bowing the knee was used in salutation, berek signifies a knee; and as presents very often accompanied their salutations, berakah signifies a gift or present; so that they who take this way of investigating the proper meaning of a Hebrew word, viz. from the affinity of the root with its several branches, will easily acquiesce in this sense of the word. And it was, no doubt, the sense which the LXX had in view when they turned the woman’s speech thus, , say something to God, or address thyself to him. Mr. Heath renders the beginning of the 10th verse mote emphatically thus, Wilt thou, even thou, speak as one of the foolish women speaketh? expressing his surprize at hearing such advice from a wife who had so many opportunities to know better.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(9) Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. (10) But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
The temptation is carried up to the highest point of provocation, when the wife of his bosom thus becomes the abettor of the enemy. The Reader will recollect how the adversary adopted the same plan, in the instance of Jesus, when Peter would have prompted Christ to avoid suffering. That Satan had a hand in this is most evident, from what the Lord said to him; Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto me. Mat 16:23 . Reader! mark those traits of character Satan’s temptations, and be led therefrom to suspect those yet with more jealousy, which come from a quarter least expected. What a blessed account the Holy Ghost gives of the issue of Job’s trials. In all this, did not Job sin with his lips. Oh! how truly blessed is it to be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Ver. 9. Then said his wife ] Was this Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter? So the Jewish doctors say; and that Job had a fair daughter by her, whom Potipher married; and that of her came Asenaz, whom Joseph married. They tell us also (but who told them all this?) that she was hitherto spared, when all Job’s outward comforts were taken away, for Jacob her father’s sake. Moreover, the Septuagint here help her to scold, adding a whole verse of female passion: I must now, saith she, go wander, and have no place to rest in, &c. Job said nothing all this while; not because he was either insensible or sullen; but because it was God that did it, Psa 39:2 , and he had well deserved it, Mic 7:9 . I will bear (thinks he) the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. Yet, my soul, be silent to Jehovah, &c., Psa 12:1 . Satan therefore (who waited for his cursing of God, as a dog waiteth for a bone, but was defeated) cunningly setteth his wife awork, by her venomous words, to make him speak at least, and by her unseemly and sinful counsel, to draw him to do wickedly. Some think, saith Chrysostom, that the devil, in the shape of Job’s wife, spake thus unto him; and surely their words agree: He will curse thee to thy face, saith he; Curse God, and die, saith she. Chrysostom himself thinketh that the devil (if he spake not in her, yet) spake by her, as he did once to Eve by the serpent, and that he borrowed her mouth, using her as a strong engine to a wall of adamant, as the choicest arrow in his quiver, to wound Job’s righteous soul; and as a scaling ladder, whereby to get up into this impregnable tower, as Gregory hath it. He had tried this course before with Adam, and had singular success, Gen 3:6 ; he had by his rib (as by a ladder) gotten up to his heart, Per costam tanquam per scalam ad cor Adami asceudit, Just as through a rib he scales the ladder to the heart of Adam, yea, with his rib broken his head, as one phraseth it, darting in death at the windows of his ears. This he assayed upon Job, but without effect; his ears were waxed up, his heart fixed, &c., although he could not but be vexed that his wife should do it; especially since hereby his servants and friends would be encouraged to do the like. O wives, saith one; the sweetest poison, the most desired evil, &c. (Greg. Moral. 1. 3, c. 8). Sir Thomas Moore was wont to say, that men commit faults often, women only twice, that they neither speak well, nor do well. This may be true of bad wives, such as Jezebel, who stirred up Ahab (of himself forward enough) to do wickedly with both hands earnestly, 1Ki 21:25 . This in Job’s wife might be a particular failing, though a foul one. Women are the weaker vessels, and naturally more passionate; they must have their allowance, as light gold hath. She in the text had no small trials, and he is a perfect man that offendeth not with his tongue.
Dost thou still retain thine integrity?
Curse God, and die
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Dost thou . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6.
retain = remain firm in.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
his wife: Gen 3:6, Gen 3:12, 1Ki 11:4
retain: Job 2:3, Job 21:14, Job 21:15, 2Ki 6:33, Mal 3:14
curse God: Job 2:5, Job 1:11
Reciprocal: Lev 24:11 – cursed Jdg 14:17 – she lay 1Ki 16:18 – and burnt the king’s house 1Ki 21:13 – blaspheme God Job 1:5 – cursed Job 3:1 – cursed Job 19:17 – breath Job 27:5 – I will not Isa 8:21 – curse Mat 27:5 – and departed 2Co 2:11 – General 2Co 4:8 – not in despair
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
JOBS TWO FOES AND THREE FRIENDS
Satan his wife Jobs three friends.
Job 2:7; Job 2:9; Job 2:11
The outward calamities from which Job first suffered are narrated in chapter 1. Affliction, affecting Jobs property and even family, failed to destroy his religious integrity.
Then Satan says that the test has not been a complete and a sufficient one. You do not really try a man by touching his outward circumstances, only by touching his body and putting in peril his life. God even permits the trial to go this length. Let disease in its most shameful and suffering forms afflict My servant, and see by that whether he is heart sincere. This form of the trial is given in chapter 2., and the points may be taken in the following order:
I. Gods inquiry shows that while Satan wrought the mischief in Jobs circumstances, God was matching Job; and notice what He was watching, even to see how Jobs character stood the test of trial. That is what God watches still.
God asks whether what he saw in Job others too had seen, so that the example of his trustfulness and integrity might have its influence.
II. Satans proverb.Dr. Mason Good explains the proverb thus: 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 combatted. Skins hence became the chief representation of property, and in many parts of the world continue so to the present hour. The idea is, that a man would be willing to lose all, even his religion, rather than his life. Satan can recognise no principle of action but selfishness, and finds in it alone the secret of Jobs firmness.
III. Jobs sufferings.The Speakers Commentary gives the following explanation of Jobs disease: The original word means an intense heat, hence a burning and ulcerous swelling, or leprosy in its most terrible form, taking its name from the appearance of the body, which is covered with a knotty, cancerous bark, like the hide of an elephant; the whole frame is in a state of progressive dissolution, ending slowly but surely in death. The foulness, loathsomeness, irritation, and intense pain make Jobs sufferings to be extreme, and the worst that Satan could devise.
Compare the extreme sufferings by which the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ was tested. (See Psalms 22)
IV. His wifes foolishness.Note two things: (1) part of Jobs trial came out of this failure of faith in the partner who ought to have comforted and helped him. And (2) that we may often find it a more testing trial to look upon the sufferings of others than to bear suffering ourselves. This wife spoke hastily and, therefore, foolishly; she could not see the end of the Lord.
V. His friends sympathy.However they turned out, they began well. See the signs of their sincere and brotherly sympathy. Their silence did very much more for Job than their speech.
The question to press home in closing is this: What will our personal piety and godly principle stand? For we, too, must be buffeted in life, even as Job was; and that not only by calamity, but by suffering also, and temptation, and even by the failure and misunderstanding of those about us, who ought to help us. Only if our godly principle is well settled and centred, can we hope to hold fast our integrity in the evil day.
Illustration
However ye might err in after-speech,
The mute expression of that voiceless woe
Whereby ye sought your sympathy to show
With him of Uz, doth eloquently preach,
Teaching a lesson it were well to teach
Some comforters, of utterance less slow,
Prone to believe that they more promptly know
Griefs mighty depths, and by their words can reach.
Seven days and nights, in stillness as profound
As that of chaos, patiently ye sate
By the heart-stricken and the desolate.
And though your sympathy might fail to sound
The fathomless depth of his dark spirits wound,
Not less your silence was sublimely great.
F. Quarles.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Job’s Sorrows and Sighs
Job 2:9-13; Job 3:1-26
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
In this study we will consider the verses which lie in the second chapter of Job beginning with verse nine where we left off in the former study and continuing through verse thirteen.
1. A helpmeet who proved a hindrance. Job’s wife came unto him in verse nine of chapter two and said unto him, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity, curse God, and die.”
If ever there was a time that Job needed words of sympathy and of love it was in this hour of his extremity. Nevertheless, he received from his wife no more than a nagging appeal to curse God.
Let us link up the words which Satan had said before God, “Touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face,” with the words which his wife said, “Curse God, and die.” There must be some vital connection between these two statements. For our part we believe that Satan entered Job’s wife just as truly as he ever entered Judas.
2. A servant who stood the test. Job quietly replied to his wife, “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Here is a statement that we may well weigh. There are many who are given over to complaints for the ills which befall them; but they utterly fail in their praise for the manifold good which is bestowed upon them.
In view of all this the words of Job are most assuring.
3. Satan’s final strategy. Added to the boils which covered Job, and added to the nagging of the wife who failed as a helpmeet, Satan sent along three friends, to bemoan Job.
These three, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had heard of all the evil which had come upon Job, and had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him, and to comfort him.
For our part we are sure they might better have stayed at home. Where is he who has never heard of “Job’s comforters”? They are a byword among men.
Job’s three friends remind you of the one who visited a sick friend, and related to the sick one the story of all the friends and relatives that he had known who had died of the same disease.
We cannot see how they thought such actions could cheer a man who was borne down with grief.
I. JOB CURSED HIS DAY (Job 3:1)
1. He did not curse his God. Job had already told his wife, when she bade him to curse God, that she spoke as one of the foolish women speaketh. Why blame God for everything which brings us grief and sorrow?
We are willing to grant that God permits every pain and every heartache that comes to one of His children, but He does not necessarily send it. Even when He permits it, He moves graciously in our behalf.
2. Job did curse his day. In this he was unwise. We do not condemn Him, for it is altogether human to do what he did. We sympathize with Job because he had the devil and men set against him, and his grief was very great.
Our sympathy, however, does not change the fact that Job was wrong. When the night is dark, it is the time to lean the more heavily upon God. We need to remember that “all things work together for good to them that love God.”
When the Lord Jesus had broken the bread, and had drunk the wine, we read, “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out.”
The Lord was like a nightingale singing in the hour of His greatest sorrow.
II. JOB BEMOANED THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH (Job 3:3)
How piteously did Job cry, “Let the day perish wherein I was born, * * let that day be darkness; * * neither let the light shine upon it.”
Job wished that he had never been born, or else that he had died as an infant. In this Job forgot, for the moment, all of the marvelous blessings which God had showered upon him through many years. When they were gone he forgot them. In this Job forgot all of the eternal blessings which lay ahead of him. But God was with him, even through these hard tests.
1. It is true that, with some men, it were better never to have been born. Jesus Christ said of Judas, the man who betrayed Him, “But woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.”
It is better never to be born, than to live in pleasure and prosperity for awhile, and then to be cut off forever, Asaph wrote, in the Spirit, “I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” But Asaph further wrote, “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the Sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. * * Thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terror.”
2. It was better for job, and better for us that Job was born. Job simply was overwhelmed with grief. He did not weigh well his words. Could job have seen beyond the curtain that hid God from him, he would have felt differently. Could Job have seen the end of the Lord, he would have rejoiced in his sorrow. Could Job have seen the eternal glories which awaited him, he would have shouted for joy.
III. JOB’S CURSES AGAINST THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH (Job 3:4-8)
1. Job’s anathema against “that day.” Let us observe six statements which Job made against the day in which he was born. Job said:
1.”Let that day be darkness.”
2.”Let not God regard it.”
3.”Neither let the light shine upon it.”
4.”Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it.”
5.”Let a cloud dwell upon it.”
6.”Let the blackness of the day terrify it.”
Job certainly was a master in language, and he was far from a child in pronouncing anathemas. He rolled up words against the day of his birth until there was nothing left to be said. It was not a day of song, nor of gladness to him. He would have taken from his mother the joy that a man child had been born into the world. He would have taken from his father the ambition that may have flooded his soul for his new baby boy, as the men of the street gave him congratulations.
As we think of the darkness of that day our minds go to another day that was dark. The Bible reads, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.” This day, however, that was dark was a day of death, and not of birth. It was the day in which Christ suffered, the Just for the unjust. It was the day when God hid His eyes from His well beloved Son, because in mercy He had opened His eyes upon us who had sinned.
2. Job’s anathema against “that night.” Let us observe nine statements which Job made against the night, which formed part of the day, in which he was born. Job said:
1.”Let darkness seize upon it.”
2.”Let it not be joined unto the days of the year.”
3.”Let it not come into the number of the months.”
4.”Let that night be solitary.”
5.”Let no joyful voice come therein.”
6.”Let them curse it that curse the day.”
7.”Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark.”
8.”Let it look for light, and have none.”
9.”Neither let it see the dawning of the day.”
Another experience of just such darkness, and blackness, and joylessness is described in the Word of God. It is a day that awaits this old earth. It will come in the time of tribulation, when God shall arise to judge men for their iniquity. That day is called in the Prophets, “The day of the Lord.” It is described as follows:
“A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains.”
“The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?”
When Job was cursing his day, he probably did not know that a day was coming when the Lord would make the earth empty and waste, turning it upside down, and scattering abroad the inhabitants thereof. He did not know that the earth would be defiled under its inhabitants, and that God would cause the mirth of the tabrets to cease, and the noise of them that rejoiced to end; that all joy would be darkened, and the mirth of the land would be gone.
IV. WHY JOB BEMOANED THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH, MEDITATION 1 (Job 3:10)
1. Job cursed the day of his birth because his life had been eclipsed with sorrow. We may feel that in this Job did foolishly, but his grief was so great that the blackness that enshrouded him dimmed his eyes to all the blessing of the light which had for so long rested upon him. He could not remember the past blessings, because of the present afflictions. To him the grief of an hour seemed heavier than the joy of a lifetime.
We do not condemn Job, we sympathize with him. We know that had he been fully panoplied of God, God’s grace would have been sufficient. Some, like Paul and Silas, have sung in the darkest of hours.
As we think of Job’s anguish and bitterness of soul, we must not fail to remember that his faith did not utterly fail. Every now and then he had wonderful visions of God’s grace, and, at times, he made unprecedented exclamations of praise, and of far sighted hope.
2. Christ passed; into His night of sorrow and His day of grief. The Psalmist, in describing that day, wrote these words:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring; O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.”
Thus did the Spirit write of the darkness that shrouded the Cross, and yet, in the midst of that hour, the Spirit described the perfect trust and the unshakeable confidence of Christ in God. The words which follow the quotation above, are these:
“But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”
Would that we, in every hour of travail, might have so perfect a trust! In the Garden of Gethsemane, with the cup of death pressed close to the lips of the Master, Christ cried: “Nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.”
V. WHY JOB BEMOANED THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH, MEDITATION 2 (Job 3:13-17)
1. Instead of sorrow and sickness, he would have had quiet and rest. Job was willing to forego all of the years of blessing which had fallen upon him rather than to suffer the pain that now pressed him. He said that if he had died as an infant, that he should have lain and been quiet, that he should have slept and been at rest. This is indeed a beautiful conception of death. Jesus Himself said of Lazarus, when he died, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” The Holy Spirit tells us that those who “sleep in Jesus” will God bring with Him. The words “quiet” and “slept” and “rest” do not teach cessation of existence, nor do they teach the unconsciousness of the dead.
The Word of God, in discussing the martyrs who were slain for their testimony, said. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, sayeth the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”
2. Instead of the reproach of his friends, he would have been protected from them. Verse seventeen says, “There the wicked cease from troubling: and there the weary be at rest.”
We believe that this verse points us back to Job’s dread concerning the onslaught of the three men who for seven days and seven nights had sat there without speaking a word. The afflicted man surmised what was coming, and dreaded it. He wished he had died with an untimely birth, or as an infant who had never seen the light, rather than to live and to be forced, in his weakness and grief, to face these would-be comforters.
VI. JOB LONGS FOR DEATH (Job 3:20-25)
1. Is it a sin to long to die? Job speaks of the one in misery and bitter in soul. He says these long for death, but it cometh not; they dig for it more than for hid treasures. They rejoice, and are glad, when they find the grave.
We would say emphatically that it is wrong for any one under any condition to take his own life. The Word of God is positive in this. We would say, however, that it is not wicked for a saint, who is borne down with pain, and is overwhelmed with grief, to long to be taken to the Lord. We can easily understand how the martyrs were glad to die.
Paul, the Apostle, said, “I * * [have] a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.” He said this although he was not at the time in anything like Job’s circumstance. He simply longed for the Lord.
The Lord Jesus, as He faced the agony of death, said, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover.” He was speaking, to be sure, of the bread and the wine: but these, He said, were His broken body and His shed Blood.
2. Job once more a type of Christ. Verse twenty-four says, “My sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.”
The Psalmist, in describing the anguish of Christ upon the Cross, wrote, “My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me? why art Thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of My roaring?” The Lord Jesus upon the Cross was pressed beyond measure. He said, “O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.”
Job had quite a similar experience. He, too, said, “My roarings are poured out like the waters.”
AN ILLUSTRATION
Augustine lived at a time when it cost something to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and in the following words he taught that, “You can’t hurt a Christian.”
“Having considered and examined into these things closely, now see whether any evil can happen to the good and faithful which ought not to be converted into a blessing for them * *. They lost all that they had. But did they lose their faith? Did they lose their godliness? Did they lose the treasures of the heart? This is the wealth of the Christian * *. Wherefore, our dear friend Paulinus, the Bishop of Nola, a man of the amplest means, who in the fullness of his heart became extremely poor, yet abundantly sanctified, after the barbarians had looted the country, and while he was kept a prisoner in bonds, used to pray in his heart, as I afterwards learned from him-‘Lord, let me not be troubled for gold or silver, for where all my treasure is, Thou knowest.”-Texas Christian Advocate.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Job 2:9. Then said his wife Whom Satan had spared, that she might be a troubler and tempter to him. For it is his policy to send his temptations by those that are dear to us. We ought, therefore, carefully to watch, that we be not drawn to any evil by them whom we love and value the most. Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Art thou so weak as still to persist in the practice of righteousness, when it is not only unprofitable to thee, but the chief occasion of all these thy insupportable miseries, and when God himself not only forsakes and leaves thee in this helpless and hopeless condition, but is turned to be thy greatest enemy? This is evidently the meaning of the expression, holding fast his integrity, when used by God, speaking of Job, Job 2:3, and, it seems, must be its meaning here; and not, as some commentators have supposed, the maintaining that he was innocent of those secret sins with which his friends appeared to have charged him; a sense of the words which would not at all suit the connection in which this, or the third verse, stands with the verses following. Curse God and die Seeing thy blessing and praising God avail thee so little, it is time for thee to change thy language. Reproach him to his face, and tell him of his injustice and unkindness to thee; and that he loves his enemies and hates his friends, and that will provoke him to take away thy life, and so end thy torments. Or, Curse God, though thou die for it. This is the sense in which the same Hebrew word is evidently used by Satan, (Job 1:11,) and, as it appears from the next verse, that Jobs wife was now under Satans influence, and was an instrument employed by him to tempt her husband, and so to forward his design, which certainly was to prevail with Job to curse or reproach God; this seems to be her meaning. Inasmuch, however, as the original word, although it sometimes evidently signifies to curse, yet generally means to bless, it may be so interpreted here if we consider Jobs wife as speaking ironically, as many, even pious, persons, are represented in the Scriptures to have spoken. The meaning then will be, Bless God and die That is, I see thou art set upon blessing God; thou blessest him for giving, and thou blessest him for taking away: and thou art even blessing him for thy loathsome and tormenting diseases, and he rewards thee accordingly, giving thee more and more of that kind of mercy for which thou blessest him. Go on, therefore, in this thy generous course, and die as a fool dieth. And, this being her meaning, it is not strange that he reproves her so sharply for it in the next words.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:9 Then said his {k} wife unto him, Dost thou {l} still retain thine integrity? {m} curse God, and die.
(k) Satan uses the same instrument against Job, as he did against Adam.
(l) Meaning, what do you gain from serving God, seeing he thus plagues you, as though he were your enemy? This is the most grievous temptation for the faithful, when their faith is assailed, and when Satan goes about to persuade them that they trust in God in vain.
(m) For death was appointed to the blasphemer and so she meant that he would quickly be rid of his pain.