Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 2:13
So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him: for they saw that [his] grief was very great.
13. none spake a word ] Being overwhelmed by the affecting sight before them; as the Author adds: they saw that the grief, i. e. the pain or affliction, was very great. Comp. Eze 3:15. The length of time during which they sat in silence, seven days and seven nights (the time of mourning for the dead, Gen 50:10; 1Sa 31:13), shews the profound impression made upon them.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
So they sat down with him upon the ground; – see Job 1:20, note; Job 2:8, note; compare Ezr 9:3, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head, and my beard, and sat down astonished.
Seven days and seven nights – Seven days was the usual time of mourning among the Orientals. Thus, they made public lamentation for Jacob seven days, Gen 50:10. Thus, on the death of Saul, they fasted seven days, 1Sa 31:13. So the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus says, Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead; Eccles. 22:12. It cannot be supposed that they remained in the same place and posture for seven days and nights, but that they mourned with him during that time in the usual way. An instance of grief remarkably similar to this, continuing through a period of six days, is ascribed by Euripides to Orestes:
.
, . . .
Enteuthen agriacuntakeis noso nosei
Tlemon Orestes; ho de peson en demniois
Keitai.
Hekton de de tod emar, etc.
Tis hence Orestes, agonized with griefs
And sore disease, lies on his restless bed
Delirious.
Now six morns have winged their flight,
Since by his hands his parent massacred
Burnt on the pile in expiatory flames.
Stubborn the while he keeps a rigid fast,
Nor bathes, nor dresses; but beneath his robes
He skulks, and if he steals a pause from rage,
Tis but to feel his weight of wo and weep.
And none spake a word to him – – That is, on the subject of his grief. They came to condole with him, but they had now nothing to say. They saw that his affliction was much greater than they had anticipated.
For they saw that his grief was very great – This is given as a reason why they were silent. But how this produced silence, or why his great grief was a cause of their silence, is not intimated. Perhaps one or all of the following considerations may have led to it.
(1) They were amazed at the extent of his sufferings. Amazement is often expressed by silence. We look upon that which is out of the usual course of events without being able to express anything. We are struck dumb with wonder.
(2) The effect of great calamity is often to prevent utterance. Nothing is more natural or common than profound silence when we go to the house of mourning. It is the lesser cares only that speak; the greater ones find not language. Curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.
(3) They might not have known what to say. They had come to sympathize with him, and to offer consolation. But their anticipated topics of consolation may have been seen to be inappropriate. The calamity was greater than they had before witnessed. The loss of property and children; the deep humiliation of a man who had been one of the most distinguished of the land; the severity of his bodily sufferings, and his changed and haggard appearance, constituted so great a calamity, that the usual topics of conversation did not meet the case. What they had to say, was the result of careful observation on the usual course or events, and it is by no means improbable that they had never before witnessed sorrows so keen, and that they now saw that their maxims would by no means furnish consolation for such a case.
(4) They seem to have been very early thrown into doubt in regard to the real character of Job. They had regarded him as a pious man, and had come to him under that impression. But his great afflictions seem soon to have shaken their confidence in his piety, and to have led them to ask themselves whether so great a sufferer could be the friend of God. Their subsequent reasonings show that it was with them a settled opinion that the righteous would be prospered, and that very great calamities were proof of great criminality in the sight of God. It was not inconsistent with this belief to suppose that the righteous might be slightly afflicted, but when they saw such sorrows, they supposed they were altogether beyond what God could send upon his friends; and with this doubt on their minds, and this change in their views, they knew not what to say. How could they console him when it was their settled belief that great sufferings were proof of great guilt? They could say nothing which would not seem to be a departure from this, unless they assumed that he had been a hypocrite, and should administer reproof and rebuke for his sins.
(5) In this state of things, to administer rebuke would seem to be cruel. It would aggravate the sorrows which already were more than he could bear. They did, therefore, what the friends of the afflicted are often compelled to do in regard to specific sufferings; they kept silence. As they could not comfort him, they would not aggravate his grief. All they could have said would probably have been unmeaning generalities which would not meet his case, or would have been sententious maxims which would imply that he was a sinner and a hypocrite; and they were therefore dumb, until the bitter complaint of Job himself Job 3 gave them an opportunity to state the train of thought which had passed through their minds during this protracted silence. How often do similar cases occur now – cases where consolation seems almost impossible, and where any truths which might be urged, except the most abstract and unmeaning generalities, would tend only to aggravate the sorrows of the afflicted! When calamity comes upon a person as the result of his sins; when property is taken away which has been gained in an unlawful manner; when a friend dies, leaving no evidence that he was prepared; when it is impossible to speak of that friend without recalling the memory of his irreligious, prayerless, or dissolute life, how difficult is it to administer consolation! How often is the Christian friend constrained to close his lips in silence, or utter only torturing general truths that can give no consolation, or refer to facts which will tend only to open the wound in the heart deeper! To be silent at such times is all that can be done; or to commend the sufferer in humble prayer to God, an expedient which seems not to have been resorted to either by Job or his friends, It is remarkable that Job is not represented as calling upon God for support, and it is as remarkable that his friends during these seven days of silent grief did not commend the case of their much afflicted friend to the Father of mercies. Had Job prayed, he might have been kept from much of the improper feeling to which he gave vent in the following chapter; had they prayed, they might have obtained much more just views of the government of God than they had hitherto possessed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 2:13
And none spake a word unto him.
Silence, not speech, the best service of friendship in sorrow
Here is a demonstration of true friendship. Note the way in which these friends at first endeavoured to comfort Job. They did not speak.
I. Silence is the strongest evidence of the depth of our sympathy towards a suffering friend.
1. The comforting power of a friend lies in the depth of his sympathy.
2. Silence is a better expression of deep sympathy than speech.
II. Silence is most consistent with our ignorance of Divine providence towards our suffering friend. How little we know of Gods procedure in the affairs of human life: So long as these friends kept silence they acted as comforters; but as soon as they launched into speech they became Jobs tormentors.
III. Silence is most congenial with the mental state of our suffering friend. The soul in deep sorrow seeks silence and solitude. Mere word-condolers are soul- tormentors. Then be silent in scenes of sorrow; overflow with genuine sympathy, but do not talk. (Homilist.)
Silent sympathy
Bishop Myriel had the art of sitting down and holding his tongue for hours, by the side of the man who had lost the wife he had loved, or of a mother bereaved of her child. (Victor Hugo.)
For they saw that his grief was very great.—
The trials of Job, and his consolations under them
They saw that his grief was very great. Job was the friend of God, and the favourite of heaven: a person known in the gates as an upright judge, and a public blessing; his seasonable bounties made the widows heart rejoice, and his liberal charities were as eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. Yet of him it is said: his grief was very great. But the faithful and compassionate God, in whom this patriarch placed all his confidence, sustained his fainting mind, and strengthened his heart in his agonising struggles.
I. The nature, variety, and severity of Jobs calamities. His trials began with the loss of all his wealth and property. His afflictions came with an accumulating force. From his honours and usefulness he was driven, with as much rapidity as from his other sources of comfort. The mournful consequences of being visited with a singular distemper, and of his being stripped of his property and bereaved of his children, was the desertion of those who had formerly professed to venerate his character, and the total loss of influence and reputation in the places of concourse. The general opinion was that God had forsaken him, and therefore men might despise and revile him. Even the wife of his bosom added to his distress. And Job sometimes in Ills depression lost all sense of Gods favour.
II. The causes assigned why an unerring and righteous God permitted so great and good a man as Job to be so singularly afflicted. Afflictions cannot come upon us without the Divine permission. But Jobs friends perverted this sentiment.. They urged that all calamities are the punishments of sin secretly allowed, or freely indulged in. Job must have been living in the transgression of the Divine commandments or he would not have been so sorely afflicted. It is made an argument against religion, that its highest attainments cannot exempt the godly from calamities. The just are often more tried than other men. But the truth is, that God is glorified by the afflictions of His children, and their best interests are promoted thereby.
1. Jobs trials were designed and calculated to convince him, and to convince the saints in every age, that God is sovereign in His dispensations. He claims it as His right to order the lot of His children on earth according to His own unerring wisdom. So important is the habitual persuasion of the Divine Sovereignty, that in chapter 38, the Almighty is represented as pleading His own cause in this respect. He is the great First Cause, of whom and for whom are all things. His people may well trust in God, though He hides His countenance; venerate their Heavenly Father, though He corrects them; and walk by faith, not by sight. Much of religion lies in submitting to the sovereignty of God, especially when the events of Providence appear to us peculiarly mysterious.
2. Job was tried in order to correct and remove his imperfections, and to promote in his soul that spiritual life which Divine grace had already begun. History represents Job as devoted to God, eminent for holiness, and distinguished for the most active benevolence and extensive usefulness. But there were certain blemishes which needed the powerful influence of the fiery furnace to purify and eradicate. There was a spirit of dejection, fretfulness, and distrust, which at times prevailed over his heroic patience. And there was a self-righteous opinion of his own goodness. With too presumptuous a confidence he wishes to argue matters even with a holy God. His arrogant language he penitently confesses and laments in the last chapter of the book. His tribulation wrought humility and self-abasement, so did it also work patience. His sufferings also increased his compassion for the afflicted.
3. Jobs trials were intended to convince him, and to convince mankind, that though God afflicts the dearest of His children, yet He most seasonably and graciously imparts to them both support and deliverance. We cannot expect temporal deliverance and exaltation, like that of Job, but we may be sure that we shall receive of the Lords hand a double recompense of joy for all our sorrow.
III. The considerations which supported and relieved the mind of Job in his days of adversity and tribulation.
1. Seeing the hand of God in all his afflictions. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.
2. The full persuasion that his Redeemer would never abandon him.
3. The prospect of resurrection from the dead, a believing persuasion, and a lively hope of eternal happiness beyond the grave. Although immortality was not then brought to light by any outward revelation, the Spirit of God wrought in this illustrious patriarch that genuine faith which is the evidence of things not seen, and which enabled him to connect humble faith in an ever-living Redeemer with the lively hope of an inheritance in the heavens. (A. Bonar.)
The calamity
Someone says, God had one Son without sin, but no Son without sorrow. The line of saints has been a striking one. Men burdened with terrific duties, overwhelmed with affliction, stoned and sawn asunder, persecuted, afflicted, tormented. There is a matter of subsidiary but yet striking interest to which we must advert, namely, the prominence given to Satan in connection with this affliction. The gospel theory of affliction does not name him. Whom God loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. But here Satan is the accuser, the adversary, and he, with Gods permission, brings upon Job all his troubles. But although in the early twilight of truth all things are not discerned so clearly as in gospel noonday, it is striking how near the fullest truth the writer comes. There have been darkling thoughts in the minds of men on this matter. Some few shallow spirits have never sufficiently resisted temptation to feel its reality and force; nor sufficiently sympathised with the sorrow of the world to feel the mystery of evil. There have been three great lines of thought on this matter of the principle of evil. There have been those who have thought that the Evil One was the Great God, the Lord Almighty. Sometimes they have developed this into the basis of religion, like the devil worshippers in Santhalistan, in Southern India, and in Ceylon. Sometimes they have made it only the basis of their practical life, as the fraudulent, who, in England, in the nineteenth century, believe the god of falsehood and of fraud a stronger providence than the God of truth and honour; or the despairing and remorseful, who think God vengeance only. Sometimes, as in the old Manichean doctrine, men have shrunk from believing in the supremacy of an Evil Deity, but have believed him equal in power to the Good God, and have explained all the mixing of human conditions by the divided sovereignty which governs all things here. And Ormuzd, the god of light, and Ahriman, the god of darkness, have sat on level thrones, confronting one another in constant but unprogressive conflict. The writer of the Book of Job had never lapsed into the despair that deemed evil supreme, nor into that alarm which feared it was equal in power to God. According to him, Satan is powerless to inflict outward trouble or inward temptation, excepting as permitted by the Lord. Substantially, the doctrine of this book on the power of evil is the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of the devout in all ages. Give heed to it. Evil is not Divine in its power, nor eternal in its mastery over men. It works within strictest limits; the enemy only by permission can touch either soul or body. Be not afraid, nor yield to despair. Love is the supreme and the eternal thing; therefore rejoice. Accusing Job–God gives Satan liberty and power to afflict. The affliction is suggested by Jobs enemy, with the hope of destroying his integrity. It is permitted by God with an intent very different; namely, that of developing it. It is no vivisection of a saint that is permitted merely to gratify curiosity as to the point at which the most vigorous vitality of goodness will break down. Little knowing the Divine issue which would proceed from his assault, the enemy goes forth to his envious and hateful task. There is an awful completeness about this calamity of Job. The strokes of it are so contrived that, although some interval may be between them, they are all reported in the same day.
1. Observe that affliction is by Gods ordinance part of the general lot of man. A state of perfect happiness, if such were possible, would not be suitable for a world of imperfect virtue.
2. We should not be astonished when afflictions touch us. We all get into the way of assuming that somehow we are to be exempt from the usual ills.
3. Remember that a universal experience has testified that affliction has its service, and adversity its sweetness. Without affliction who could avoid worldliness? It is the sorrows of this life that raise both eye and expectation to the joys of the life to come. Without affliction there would be but little refinement–no tender ministries, no gracious compassion, no self-forgetful sympathy. All the passive virtues, which are so essential to character, thrive under it–such as endurance, patience, meekness, humility. Prosperity coarsens and scars the conscience; affliction gives it tenderness. The necessity for stronger faith itself strengthens it.
4. It is but a deduction from this to add: Remember, therefore, affliction is not hate, but love. Whom God loveth He chasteneth. Lord Bacon forgot Job when he uttered his fine aphorism: Prosperity was the blessing of the Old Testament, but adversity of the new. (Richard Clover.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. They sat down with him upon the ground seven days] They were astonished at the unprecedented change which had taken place in the circumstances of this most eminent man; they could not reconcile his present situation with any thing they had met with in the history of Divine providence. The seven days mentioned here were the period appointed for mourning. The Israelites mourned for Jacob seven days, Ge 50:10. And the men of Jabesh mourned so long for the death of Saul, 1Sa 31:13; 1Ch 10:12. And Ezekiel sat on the ground with the captives at Chebar, and mourned with and for them seven days. Eze 3:15. The wise son of Sirach says, “Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead;” Ecclus. 22:12. So calamitous was the state of Job, that they considered him as a dead man: and went through the prescribed period of mourning for him.
They saw that his grief was very great.] This is the reason why they did not speak to him: they believed him to be suffering for heavy crimes, and, seeing him suffer so much, they were not willing to add to his distresses by invectives or reproach. Job himself first broke silence.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Sat down with him upon the ground, in the posture of mourners condoling with him.
Seven days and seven nights was the usual time of mourning for the dead, Gen 1:10; 1Sa 31:13, and therefore proper both for Jobs children, who were dead, and for Job himself, who was in a manner dead whilst he lived. But we must not fancy that they continued in this place and posture so long together, which no laws of religion or civility required of them, and the necessities of nature could not bear; but only that they spent a great or the greatest part of that time in sitting with him, and silent mourning over him. And so such general expressions are frequently understood, as Luk 2:37; 24:53; Act 20:31.
None spake a word to him; either,
1. About any thing. Or rather,
2. About his afflictions, and the causes of them. The reason of this silence was, partly the greatness of their grief for him, and their surprise and astonishment at his condition; partly, because they thought it convenient to give him some further time to vent his own sorrows; and partly, because as yet they knew not what to say to him: for though they had ever esteemed him to be a truly wise and godly man, and came with full purpose to comfort him; yet the prodigious greatness of his miseries, and that hand and displeasure of God which they manifestly perceived in them, made them at a stand, and to question Jobs sincerity; so that they could not comfort him as they had intended, and yet were loth to grieve him with those convictions and reproofs which they thought he greatly needed. And here they stuck till Job gave them occasion to speak their minds.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. seven days . . . nightsTheydid not remain in the same posture and without food, c., all thistime, but for most of this period daily and nightly. Sitting on theearth marked mourning (La 2:10).Seven days was the usual length of it (Gen 50:101Sa 31:13). This silence may havebeen due to a rising suspicion of evil in Job; but chiefly because itis only ordinary griefs that find vent in language; extraordinarygriefs are too great for utterance.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights,…. Which was the usual time of mourning, Ge 50:10; not that they were in this posture all this time, without sleeping, eating, or drinking, and other necessaries of life; but they came and sat with him every day and night for seven days and nights running, and sat the far greater part of them with him, conforming themselves to him and sympathizing with him:
and none spake a word unto him; concerning his affliction and the cause of it, and what they thought about it; partly through the loss they were at concerning it, hesitating in their minds, and having some suspicion of evil in Job; and partly through the grief of their own hearts, and the vehemence of their passions, but chiefly because of the case and circumstances Job was in, as follows:
for they saw that [his] grief was very great; and they knew not well what comfort to administer, and were fearful lest they should add grief to grief; or they saw that his “grief increased exceedingly” r; his boils, during these seven days, grew sorer and sorer, and his pain became more intolerable, that there was no speaking to him until he was a little at ease, and more composed and capable of attending to what might be said; they waited a proper opportunity, and which they quickly had, by what Job said in the following chapter: this account is given of his three friends in this place, because the greater part of the book that follows is taken up in giving an account of a dispute which passed between him and them, occasioned by what he delivered in the next chapter.
r “quod creverat dolor valde”, Pagninus, Montanus; so Mercerus Schultens, Michaelis, and the Targum.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Their Silence:
13 And they sat with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights; and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his pain was very great.
Ewald erroneously thinks that custom and propriety prescribed this seven days’ silence; it was (as Eze 3:15) the force of the impression produced on them, and the fear of annoying the sufferer. But their long silence shows that they had not fully realized the purpose of their visit. Their feeling is overpowered by reflection, their sympathy by dismay. It is a pity that they let Job utter the first word, which they might have prevented by some word of kindly solace; for, becoming first fully conscious of the difference between his present and former position from their conduct, he breaks forth with curses.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(13) So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days.Compare the conduct of David (2Sa. 12:16), and see also Gen. 1:10; 1Sa. 31:13; Eze. 3:15. There is a colossal grandeur about this description which is in keeping with the majesty and hoary antiquity of the poem.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Seven days and seven nights The Orientals not only bemoaned the event of death for a period of seven days, (Gen 50:10, Sir 22:12 ,) but other calamities those of a national. (Eze 3:15,) and, as in this case, those of a more private, character. The “Bedawi Romance of Antar” thus describes the lamentation of the tribes of Abs and Adnam over their great discomfiture, and the many kings and chiefs that had been slain in battle: “They threw down their tents and pavilions, and thus they continued seven days and seven nights.” The obsequies of a Jewish king were celebrated with peculiar honours: “among others,” says Maimonides, “a company of students in the law were appointed to sit at his sepulchre, and to mourn seven days together.”
(Cited by LEWIS, Antiq., 3:88.) Dillmann, Hirtzel, and others, deny that custom prescribed a seven days’ silence. This they attribute to deep compassion and awe for Job’s sorrow. The counter view of Ewald and Rosenmuller, that such mourning was in conformity with the custom of the times, may be illustrated by a similar usage that to the present time prevails among the Hindus: “Those who go to sympathize with the afflicted are often silent for hour’s together. As there were seven clays for mourning in the Scriptures, so here, and the seventh is always the greatest, the chief mourner, during the whole of these days, will never speak, except when it is absolutely necessary. When a visitor comes in, he simply looks and bows down his head.” ROBERTS, Orient. Illus. The Rabbins tell us that among the Jews the mourner always sat chief; and the comforters, who were the neighbours, were not to speak a word till he broke silence first. LEWIS, Ibid.
EXCURSUS No. I.
SATAN.
This word Satan Septuagint, diabolos, “devil” is a word purely Semitic, (Arabic, Shatanah,) signifying “adversary,” and is from the same form, , Satan, “to attack,” “lie in wait,” “hate.” It is used in Job and in Zechariah with the article, “the Satan,” either for emphasis, “ the adversary “pre-eminently, (for the word appears elsewhere a few times as a designation of human beings,) or, more properly, as a proper name of a being at that time well known.
He first appears in Scripture under the guise of the serpent, (a name he afterwards bears,) as the agent in encompassing man’s fall. On the reasonable supposition that Adam, in his subsequent reflections if not in the hour of his temptation, must have peered through this bestial disguise and apprehended the superbestial agency involved in the act of intelligent speech, we may presume that the being of this profoundly mysterious adversary must have as deeply impressed the descendants of Adam as any other of the antediluvian facts whose traditions still linger among men. The Arabs, for instance, still “call a serpent Satan, especially if he be conspicuous in the crest, the head, and repulsive looks.” Schultens.
There are very few, if any, of the essential characteristics of the Satan of this book that are not to be found in the diabolic actor in the garden. So that the serious objection urged by some against the antiquity of the Book of Job because of its “full-fledged Satan,” as they are pleased to call this most malicious enemy of our race, really finds its refutation in the records of the Fall. And it may be as easy to account for the fact that during the many centuries included in the Book of Genesis no further mention is made of Satan, as for the silence respecting the actual instrument in beguiling Eve. A detailed comparison of the two Satans of Genesis and Job would show them to be not only one in being but in the amount of disclosure of character made, and that the supposed progress of doctrine in regard to Satan is without a valid basis.
A general knowledge of this evil spirit is implied in the Azazel of Leviticus, chapter xvi, translated scapegoat, who is represented as the antithesis to God, which necessitates a spiritual personality “a personification of abstract impurity as opposed to the absolute purity of Jehovah.” Roskoff. The very desert to which the goat “to Azazel” was to be sent, was in the popular belief the home of evil spirits. (Isa 13:21; Isa 34:14.) This view of Azazel as Satan is confirmed by the etymology of the word Azazel, the might or “power of God,” (Furst and Gesenius,) perhaps the name of the evil spirit before his fall, (compare Gabriel,) or “defiance to God,” another etymology suggested by Gesenius. ( Thesaurus, 1012.) Origen declared Azazel to be the devil. (See Hengstenberg’s “Egypt and the Books of Moses,” 159-174.)
In 1Ch 21:1. Satan (without the article) “stands up against Israel,” and that he may involve a whole nation in the wrath of God, persuades its royal head into the pride and presumption of numbering the people. The Satan is here disclosed as operating within the domain of the mind, and moving mind directly by solicitations from within. This is the most important disclosure of the Old Testament with regard to Satanic agency.
The same idea of adversary appears in Zec 3:1, where Satan stands as accuser (Rev 12:10, ) at the right hand of the high priest the proper place of an accuser and antagonizes (literally, Satanizes) him in his official capacity of bearing the sins of the people before the Lord.
In these four chief places of the Old Testament where Satan is disclosed we have, therefore, a oneness and consistency of character answering to the generic meaning of the word Satan. The position of adversary to such a being as God, makes possible all that the Bible reveals of his nature. He stands at the head of fallen beings, who, in the New Testament, are called demons, the one great, powerful, and infinitely malicious personality, who, for some reasons not fully revealed, seeks the injury and ruin of our race an object of overwhelming terror unless restrained by the grace and power of God. In the New Testament he bears the names Satan, Beelzebub, Belial; and the titles “devil,” ( 😉 “slanderer,” (one who sets at variance;) the “wicked one;” “prince of this world;” the “destroyer;” “prince of the demons,” ( , Mar 3:22😉 “prince of the power of the air;” “lord of the dwelling;” “worthlessness,” or “wickedness;” and is the author of evil, Joh 8:44, the enemy of mankind, Mat 13:39, and the tempter of the faithful, 1Th 3:5. Satan is a created spirit, subordinate in every sphere to God, and destined to be subjugated by Christ, and has but little in common with the dualistic conception of an evil spirit coeternal and coequal with the good. The disclosures concerning our great foe are confined to the word of God. Traces, indeed, there are, in the most ancient mythologies, that plainly reach back to the garden of Eden, of a spirit pre-eminently evil, but they are so overgrown with puerile conceptions of suryas: devs, fervers, etc., that the scriptural idea of Satan is almost lost. The evil spirit most nearly resembling the Satan of the Old Testament is Set, or Typhon, of the Egyptian mythology. Under the ascription of an “adversary,” he is invoked on a papyrus as “the god who is in the void, the almighty destroyer and waster.” DOLLINGER, Gentile and Jew, 1:453. The features of resemblance on the part of Set, or the Vritra of the Vedas, Tiamat of the Babylonians, Angra Mainyus (Ahriman) of the Avesta, or Loki of the Scandinavians, are too few to need notice. See pp. 277, 278.
EXCURSUS No. II.
SATAN AMONG THE SONS OF GOD.
The confessedly strange scene of Satan in the midst of “the sons of God” has called forth various theories:
1 . That it is to be regarded as a mere vision, after the manner of the vision of Micaiah. (1Ki 22:19.)
2 . That the scene has not even the basis of a vision, but God employs the figure of an earthly court in accommodation to our ideas of things. According to Mercerus, while “engaged in their ministry the angels cease not to stand before the Lord. They are said, after a human way, to return to him when they praise him,” etc. Quaint Job Caryl, the most copious of the many writers on this book, takes this view: “This I say, God doth here after the manner of men; for, otherwise, we are not to conceive that God doth make certain days of session with his creatures, wherein he doth call the good and bad angels together about the affairs of the world. We must not have such gross conceits of God; for he needs receive no information from them, neither doth he give them or Satan any formal commission; neither is Satan admitted into the presence of God, to come so near God at any time; neither is God moved at all by the slanders of Satan, or by his accusations, to deliver up his children and servants into his hands for a moment; but only the Scripture speaks thus to teach us how God carries himself in the affairs of the world, even as if he sat upon his throne, and called every creature before him, and gave each directions what and when and where to work, how far and which way to move in every action.” Kitto ( Daily Bib. Illust. in loc.) endorses this view.
3 . That the Satan, here, is a good spirit, to whom has been assigned the work of trying and proving men. This was the opinion of Dathe, Eichhorn, Schultens, and Herder. The last mentioned regarded him as a kind of censor morum, or an attorney or solicitor general, ( Staats-Anwalt Gottes.) This view, which savours more of trifling than of serious discourse, is destined to a like fate with that of Dathe, of which Gesenius says it is now universally exploded.
4 . That his presence is tolerated as a culprit, or as a transgressor as yet unexposed except to God himself. Thus St. Augustine, ( Serm. in loc.): “Satan was in the midst of the good angels, even as a criminal stands in the midst of bailiffs awaiting judgment.” Delitzsch suggests, “that Satan here appears among the good spirits, resembling Judas Iscariot among the disciples until his treachery was revealed.” This thought Birks ( Difficulties of Belief, p. 99) expands: “If Judas remained long undetected among the twelve apostles, it is conceivable that the crime of the arch deceiver may have remained concealed for a time except from the eye of the Omniscient alone. We may conceive that the adversary was still permitted to appear among the sons of God, and to seek, in the courts of heaven itself, to veil his dark malice under the show of a zeal for the divine justice, and his fraudulent temptations under the specious show of genuine benevolence towards angels and men.” A plausible theory! but one requiring that the temptation of Job should have taken place prior to the fall of man; for at that time the character of Satan must have been fully revealed.
Another theory is that of Dachsel: “Satan appears among the children of God before the Lord, on the one part, because all his hostile doing stands under God’s holy will and his permission, on the other part, because Satan and his angels have a right to accuse believers before the Lord as long as an unforgiven sin remains in the Church of God. Rev 12:10.” (See also Delitzsch, under Job 2:9, who maintains the same view.)
The gist of this whole difficulty lies in the problem of the place where the scene transpired. The intimation that Satan could have insinuated himself into the heaven of the sainted dead is a pure assumption, at once contrary to the entire analogy of the Scriptures and offensive to our thoughts. The subject has been embarrassed by the too limited view taken of the dominion of God. The innumerable company ( ) of angels, (Heb 12:22,) may be assigned to divers worlds, and subjected to different economies of the divine government. Under some one of these, the visible appearing of Satan may be no more abnormal than is his invisible presence in kindred assemblages in this world. Indeed, our present economy, no less than that which opened in Eden, discloses not only the juxta-residence of good and evil spirits, but their casual association. Analogy justifies us in accepting a similar economy for at least one other world, and this would meet the demands the scene before us makes upon our faith. The scene, however, which is remarkable for its downright naturalness, has been overlaid with “cabinets” and “councils” and the paraphernalia of Eastern courts, to the prejudice of sound criticism.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 2:13. So they sat down with him upon the ground The circumstance of Job’s lying in the ashes, and his three friends with him, for seven days and seven nights together, without speaking, though it has the same poetical aspect with some other circumstances in the history, yet might be literally true, and agreeable, to the manners of those ancient times, for any thing we know to the contrary, though we should understand it of an absolute silence. A long silence is a very natural effect of an extraordinary grief, which overwhelms the mind, and creates a sort of stupor and astonishment: moreover, the rules of decorum are very different in different ages and countries. Sitting on the ground is an oriental phrase, to express their passing the time in the deepest mourning. This, according to the eastern manner, was for seven days; so Joseph made a mourning for his father seven days, Gen 50:10. We find the prophet Ezekiel (ch. Job 3:15.) sitting with his brethren of the captivity by the river Chebar, for seven days, astonished,silent among them, as the Chaldee renders it; struck dumb, as it were, at the apprehension of their present miseries, and the still greater desolation coming on his country. Ezekiel, no doubt, was very conversant with the book of Job, and by his own behaviour on this occasion takes off all suspicion of impropriety from the other. The ancient poet AEschylus represents Niobe as sitting three days together on the tomb of her children, covered with a vail, and observing a profound silence. But further, from the reason here given for the silence of these three friends, namely, because they saw that Job’s grief was very great, too great, perhaps, to admit of any long or formal consolatory discourses; we may collect that they were only silent as to this point for the first seven days; and, considering the nature of the discourse that they afterwards had with him, they would not have been at all too grave or modest, if they had been silent seven days longer. This they might have been, perhaps, had not their afflicted friend, by bursting forth into that bitter complaint in the next chapter, opened a way for them to interpose with their advice. See Peters.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Restless is our hellish foe, and disappointment but sharpens his rage, and makes him return more furious to the attack. Though proved a liar, he persists in his accusations, and pretends that another trial will yet prove Job a hypocrite. They who hate God’s people will submit to no evidence, but lie on in spite of conviction. We have,
1. Another solemn assembly of the sons of God, and Satan with hardened impudence appearing among them, filled with the same inveterate malice against the faithful sufferer. The same inquiries and the same answer introduce the great point in dispute, the integrity of Job; and now it might be expected, that on the issue of his own proposal he would own God’s character of Job just, and take shame for his infamous insinuation concerning his hypocrisy; seeing, saith God, he still holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause: he rises higher under every pressure, and gains in true greatness by his losses.
2. With persevering accusation this enemy dares to support his plea; and, though baffled, pretends that it was more owing to the insufficency of the test, than the integrity of Job, that he had not made good his allegation. Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life: while he himself rests in a whole skin, he can sit calm under other losses; but put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, torture him with pain, or afflict him with sickness, and then he will curse thee to thy face. Note; Bodily torture is, in general, the severest trial of human patience.
3. God consents that he shall make the experiment; reserving only Job’s life, he is at mercy to afflict him to the uttermost: thus purposing ultimately to make a more glorious display of the power of his grace; to preserve to future ages an eminent monument of patience under every affliction; with deeper confusion to cover this accuser of the brethren, and by these works of wickedness permit him to fill up the measure of his iniquities.
2nd, No sooner is the permission granted, than the devil is impatient to worry his prey; and while every thing that Job feels is tormenting, and every thing he hears discouraging, Satan hopes that he shall at last prevail.
1. Job is smitten from head to foot with sore boils. What was the specific disease has occasioned many conjectures: I should suppose it was no common case; but some extraordinary effort of him who has the power of death, to concenter perhaps in some sense the force of every disease in one, uniting anguish, pain, sickness, nauseousness, restlessness, and every other ill which flesh is heir to; while no comforter was near, no medicine to assuage, no oil to supple, no rags to cover, not even a dog to lick his sores. In the ashes he sat, a potsherd in his hand, and while with this he sought to assuage the intolerable itching, it served but to aggravate his torment. Yet, in this miserable state, no murmuring word is heard; he is dumb before God, and his soul as deeply abased, as his body is in the dust and ashes which were spread under him. Note; How admirable does Job appear! what a lesson to us, in pain or sickness, to keep the door of our lips from impatient complaints! See note on Job 2:8.
2. The wife of his bosom becomes the tempter of his soul; and what trials can be so severe as those which come through their hands who are dearest to us? Note; They are bad judges of true religion, who look no farther than this present world: had we hope here only, we should be often miserable indeed.
3. Job nobly repels this fiery dart thrown at him from Satan’s quiver. Thou speakest (says he) as one of the foolish women speaketh; far different language should flow from those lips which have so long been taught a wiser lesson. What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? With indignation he receives the suggestion; many blessings they had received at God’s hand: if now he chose to afflict them, it was what with meekness they should prepare to receive, and, under all submissive, wait in hope. Note; (1.) When we rebuke even great provocations, we should avoid every rash or hasty expression, and do it calmly and seriously. (2.) We must never parley with vile suggestions, but reject them at once with abhorrence. (3.) In this world, good and evil are set over against each other; whatever we enjoy of the one, we may not expect exemption from the other; and to a child of God the latter usually proves the greatest blessing.
4. God bears a fresh testimony to Job’s integrity, In all did not Job sin with his lips, never uttered a murmuring impatient word: and, whatever struggle there might be within, hitherto grace had triumphed; and in bridling his tongue he had maintained the deserved character of a perfect man.
3rdly, The afflictive circumstances of so great a man’s fall and sufferings soon spread abroad; his enemies rejoiced, but his friends mourned. We have here,
1. An appointment made by three of them to come and condole with him, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, men of deep knowledge and experience. They had known Job in the days of his greatness, and were not like many others, who left him when brought low, but thought themselves then especially bound to testify their regard, and by sympathetic tears to alleviate the sorrows of the mourner. Note; (1.) A true friend is known in adversity, and such may be justly esteemed among the chief blessings of this life. (2.) The house of mourning will be frequented by the wise and gracious, both in charity to support others, and as a school to learn themselves.
2. Their astonishment, grief, and anguish, are painted in the strongest colours. When afar off, they lifted up their eyes: so changed was his countenance, so disfigured his body, so wretched his appearance, that at first they knew him not; but soon discovering, through the dark vail, the miserable sufferer, a burst of tears and cries terrified their deep affliction; they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven, the tokens of expressive sorrow; so the sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights,probably never stirred, and in bitterness ate the bread of mourners, and mingled their drink with weeping: or, at least, each day and part of the night they spent with him, however painful and grievous the scene; and none spake a word unto him: in silence overwhelmed with such stupendous woe, too big for utterance; for they saw that his grief was very great. Note; (1.) Disease makes frightful changes; the dearly beloved countenance will soon be horridly ghastly; let us remember what vile bodies we have, and be abased. (2.) They who haste from the chamber of disease, and are glad to fly from the melancholy door, shew themselves strangers to true friendship, as well as unmindful of, and unprepared for, the evil days that they must shortly see. (3.) When we perceive the grief so great as to be incapable of admitting immediate consolation, we must wait till an opening offers to speak a word in season.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(13) So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
I venture to suppose that this seventh day here spoken of, in which it should seem an interruption was given to the long silence, was in respect to the sabbath day, which those three men no doubt reverenced, as they sprung from stock which could not be ignorant of the sabbath. Eliphaz being a Timanite, sprung from one of the descendants of Esau. And it is probable that the other two were nearly of the same race, or in alliance with it. See Gen 36:10-11 .
REFLECTIONS
READER! I would call you, and myself at the same time, in our improvement of what is here related, to a subject which the Holy Ghost graciously intended to be gathered out of it, as well as from the whole tenor of scripture, on the same interesting point. If Job’s sufferings were typical of Jesus, and we are commanded to take the example of those, who have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, for our encouragement of suffering affliction, and of patience; well may we look at such of them, as are intended to hold forth to us the outlines of him, who in his victory and triumph over Satan, wrought our deliverance in that accomplishment, and hath conquered both hell and destruction, for the salvation of his people.
Behold then, Reader, the victory of the Lord Jesus bruising the serpent’s head, and subduing his kingdom both for his people, and in his people, by his glorious redemption. The original ground of the quarrel against our poor nature, began with our glorious head. Hence Jesus undertook to conquer Satan for us, and drive him out of the kingdom of our hearts where he had taken possession, by conquering him in us. The apostle saith, that forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same, that through death be might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them, who through fear of death, were all their life time subject to bondage. Hence Jesus triumphed over Satan at his death on the Cross, when the Redeemer’s heel was bruised. And the Son of God prosecutes his victory, by converting us his people from the error of our ways, and which is called in scripture, delivering us out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. And what is yet more, by the grace of his Spirit implanted in our hearts, he gives wisdom as in the case of Job, to escape from Satan’s wiles. Thus we overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and are made more than conquerors through his grace helping us. And by and by that blessed promise will be completely fulfilled, when in death, by the faith of Christ, the God of peace shall have bruised Satan under our feet shortly.
Hail! then, thou glorious almighty Conqueror, thou Lord Jesus Christ! thou hast indeed spoiled principalities and powers; thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men; thou hast taken the prey from the mighty, and even the lawful captive delivered! Thou hast beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven; and, blessed be thy name, thou hast given unto thy people, thy redeemed, power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Oh! precious, precious Jesus! give all thy children grace, that as their day is their strength may be; and to all thy redeemed ones, who are still exercised, as Job was, by reason of the devil’s hatred, with trials and temptations, manifest in all our remaining skirmishes with the accursed foe, that greater is He that is in us, than all that are against us. God is faithful, who will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but with every temptation will make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“… none spake a word unto him.” Job 2:13
There are silent friends. We must not suppose that all our friends are human. Oftentimes the greatest friend a man can have in sorrow is silent yet ever-eloquent Nature. The mountain can do more for some men than can be done by the most elaborate controversy. God himself called upon Jacob to look up and behold the host of heaven, and draw lessons from that great army of stars. The Psalmist also was accustomed to turn his eyes in the same direction that he might learn great life-lessons and be soothed and comforted by the quietness of Nature. But these were men who came to Job, and they showed their wisdom by their silence. What can words do in the supreme agony of life? Do not let a man suppose that he is useless because he cannot talk largely and fluently. Men may imagine that if they could go forth well-armed with arguments and gifted with high eloquence they would soothe and bless the world. Nothing of the kind. Never forget the potency of silence, the magic of wordless sympathy. There is a touch of the hand that conveys impressions to the mind which no words could convey. There are also deeds so subtle and delicate and far-reaching in their meaning that they comfort the heart without disturbing the ear or calling for any audible reply. It is a blessed experience to be forced to silence. Silent prayer is sometimes the most effectual of all. So long as we can express ourselves fluently in words our fluency may but represent the shallowness of our feeling. Only those should speak who know what to say. The best-meant word, if uttered in a wrong tone, may exasperate the sorrow it was intended to soothe. How good are right words! How pleasant and useful is divinely-inspired speech! Sometimes a man is encouraged by seeing his friends overwhelmed by the grief which he bears: it touches his own sense of heroism; he feels that he has to exemplify certain virtues and graces which are supposed to characterise religious life. Yet there is a time to speak. If we cannot speak directly to the grief we would comfort, we may speak generally, and so include the one specific object with the necessities of the whole world. Men may not like to be addressed directly and personally, yet they may not object to listen to a general appeal which includes their own particular case. When grief silences men, oppression should never take away their speech, nor should wrong-doing of any kind. We are never to sit down beside the sin of the world silently because we see that the sin is very great; the greatness of the sin should stir us into protest, denunciation, and then to gospel-preaching. The majesty of God should be treated with silent reverence, yet there must be breaks in that silence, for we cannot withhold the hymn of praise, the ascription of adoration, and the declaration of filial trust and faithfulness. “The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him,” there is a period when silence is the best worship, but there is also a period when speech is an imperative duty. What self-humiliation a man must experience who has allowed an opportunity to pass away without denouncing wrong, protesting against evil, and making declaration of the right under trying circumstances. In addressing grief, we can never be wrong in adopting spiritual language. Always have recourse to the holy Book for words of sympathy and condolence; they are venerable, they are lofty, they are full of reverence and tenderness, and they have been well tested in many generations. We should at least begin with the language which we find in the Bible; if by-and-by we care to add a word of our own, or enlarge the meaning of the divine word, so be it; but every human heart responds in the hour of its agony to the solemn eloquence of Holy Writ. The Bible was written for men who are in grief; it approaches the soul without intruding upon us; it is eloquent without being noisy; it is majestic without being overpowering. In the darkest hours of our life the Bible is the best witness to its own inspiration.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Job 2:13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that [his] grief was very great.
Ver. 13. So they sat down with him on the ground ] Though his scent and loathsomeness were intolerable, yet they bare him company; this was love and sympathy, thus to sit by him on the ground, then, when every one loathed him, and would not lend him a hand to help to scrape him.
Seven days and seven nights
And none spake a word unto him
For they saw that his grief was very great
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they sat: Ezr 9:3, Neh 1:4, Isa 3:26, Isa 47:1
seven days: Gen 1:5, Gen 1:8, Gen 50:10
none spake: Job 4:2, Psa 77:4
Reciprocal: Job 9:17 – multiplieth Job 18:20 – were affrighted Psa 137:1 – the rivers Ecc 3:7 – time to keep Lam 2:10 – elders Eze 3:15 – sat Eze 26:16 – sit
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 2:13. So they sat down with him upon the ground In the same mournful posture wherein they found him, which indeed was the usual posture of mourners, condoling with him. Sitting on the ground, in the language of the eastern people, signifies their passing the time in the deepest mourning. Seven days and seven nights Which was the usual time of mourning for the dead, Gen 50:10; 1Sa 31:13, and therefore proper, both for Jobs children, who were dead, and for Job himself, who was in a manner, dead while he lived: not that they continued in this posture so long together, which the necessities of nature could not bear: but they spent a great, or the greatest, part of that time in sitting with him, and silent mourning over him. And none spake a word to him
About his afflictions or the cause of them, or, perhaps, about any thing. A long silence, says Dr. Dodd, is a very natural effect of an extraordinary grief, which overwhelms the mind, and creates a sort of stupor and astonishment. Thus we find the Prophet Eze 3:15, sitting with his brethren of the captivity by the river Chebar, for seven days, astonished, silent among them, as the Chaldee renders it; struck dumb, as it were, at the apprehension of their present miseries, and the still greater calamities coming on his country. And thus were Jobs friends affected on this occasion; their long silence arising from the greatness of their grief for him, and their surprise and astonishment at the condition in which they found him. They probably, also, thought it proper to give him some further time to vent his own sorrows; and might, as yet, not know what to say to him: for though they had ever esteemed him to be a truly good man, and came with a full purpose to comfort him; yet the prodigious greatness of his miseries, and that hand and apparent displeasure of God which they perceived in them, made them now question his sincerity, so that they could not comfort him as they had intended, and yet were loath to grieve him with reproofs.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that [his] grief was very {r} great.
(r) And therefore thought that he would not have listened to their counsel.