“Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life[1]; but put forth Thy hand, touch his bone and his flesh, and then Thou shalt see, if he will not curse Thee.”
The Lord said : “Behold, he is in thy hand, but yet save his life.” So Satan struck Job with a most grievous ulcer[2] from the sole of the foot even to the top of his head. And Job sat on a dung-hill and scraped the ulcerated matter with a potsherd. Then his wife[3] came, not to comfort, but rather to tempt him, for she mockingly said: “Bless God[4] and die!”
But Job said to her: “Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil?” Again, in all these things Job did not sin with his lips or his heart.
Now when Job’s three friends heard of the evils that had befallen him, they came to visit him. When they saw him afar off, they knew him not, and crying out, they wept, and rending their garments, they sprinkled ashes[5] on their heads. They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no man spoke to him a word; for they saw that his grief was very great.
But when Job began at length to complain of the excess of his misery, they reproached him, saying that secretly he must have been a great sinner, or the just God would not have afflicted him in so grievous a manner. But Job loudly and firmly asserted his innocence, and consoled himself with the hope of the resur-
- ↑ For his life. Satan having been foiled in his first charge against Job, now urges that indeed he cares not so much for worldly possessions which he can easily acquire, but does care for health and outward appearance — for his skin.
- ↑ Grievous ulcer. He sickened suddenly with leprosy, a loathsome and painful disease (Fig. 19). His body was covered with ulcers, and all men shunned him on account of the horror and contagion of his disease.
- ↑ His wife. Job’s wife was so prostrated and embittered by the loss of her children, that she doubted God’s mercy and justice. All her happiness was destroyed, all her children were taken from her, so what good, said she, was the thought of God to her! The sight of her husband’s patience was more than she could understand, or put up with. By giving way to such feelings, she was obeying the suggestions of the devil.
- ↑ Bless God. She meant to say: “What have you gained by all your piety? Nothing remains for you but to die a miserable death. Therefore, leave God! Why should you cling to Him who has rewarded your services in such a way?”
- ↑ Sprinkled ashes. As a sign of their horror, they threw ashes into the air, which fell back on their heads. When they began to shower reproaches on him, he had literally no human consolation left. Nothing remained to him but the hope of the future Saviour and of the resurrection of the body.
