Marital Strife at the Town Dump

Job 2:7 Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Unlike chapter one where there seemed to be somewhat of a delay from the time that God gave Satan permission to strike Job until that horrible day of tragedy arrived (vss. 1:12-13), here there doesn’t seem to be any delay. The Satan was determined to strike Job, and he did so with fury.

Hartley says that “in a moment Job’s body was covered with sore boils.” Others think that the disease took some time to progress to an acute state. However long it took to manifest itself, Job’s disease was horrible. The word “boils” in 2:7 is I believe in the singular, indicating that Job’s body was simply one universal and hideous sore. One writer describes a boil as “an angry inflammation.” An angry ulcer from an angry devil?

We are not given enough detail to accurately diagnose Job’s disease. Nor are we sure if it was terminal (in the ancient world though there wasn’t much of delineation between curable and incurable). If you have time (and if you can stomach it) google "elephantiasis" or "leprosy" or "small pox" or "boils." And look at the attached images. They aren’t pretty.

Other chapters in Job describe some of the symptoms of his affliction. They include painful and pus-filled sores that scabbed over and then cracked and oozed, disfiguration, sores infected with worms, fever with chills, a shriveling of the skin, diarrhea, sleeplessness, retched breath, emaciation, fits of depression, weeping, sleeplessness, nightmares, rotting teeth, and excruciating pain throughout the body. And all this lasted for months!

I like Swindoll’s commentary on Job. But the picture on the book jacket is far from accurate. The cover shows a man who is somewhat on the thin side with a scruffy beard. The problem is that if you were to put an accurate picture of Job on the cover of the book, you probably wouldn’t sell any copies. People would turn their heads away in disgust whenever they saw it in a bookstore.

2:8 And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.

It’s hard to envision how appalling Job looked. In just a couple of verses we learn that his friends hardly recognized him. And the contrast from chapter one and verses 1-3 to this scene could not be more dramatic. From the richest and most influential man in his portion of the world to being relegated to “the place of discarded things” as a piece of human trash.

The ash heap was literally the town dump – it was where the garbage was burned. Hartley says “the ash heap was a collection of the ashes from the city’s ovens, broken pots, and other refuse. It was the abode of outcasts.”

Warren Wiersbe says, “The city’s leading citizen was now living in abject poverty and shame. All that he humanly had left were his wife and three friends, and even they turned against him.”

“He took a broken piece of pottery to scrape himself.” That was Job’s medical plan! A shard of pottery to scratch the incessant and tormenting itching. It was probably more like a really rough file/rasp that could be used to scrape away the dried pus and give momentary relief to the intolerable itching.

2:9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!"

This is the only occasion in the entire book where Mrs. Job enters the picture. Tradition says that her name was Dinah; some go so far as to say that this is the "daughter-of-Jacob-and-Leah" Dinah.

Note that in verse 2:3 God admires Job when he says to Satan, “He still holds fast his integrity.” But Mrs. Job says to him in verse 9, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?” Satan’s temptation to Job came to him through the care and concern and solicitude of a loving wife.

Some say that perhaps she spoke in sarcastic tones, “Keep on blessing God…all you get for it is dying!” Or maybe it was, “Do you still believe in God’s Word? Look at what your faith has done for you? Just renounce God and die.” But I don’t believe her words should be interpreted in either of these two ways.

She does not see the possibility of recovery as possible for her husband and she sees death as the only good remaining for him. Hartley says this, “Her view? To compromise one’s faith in God in order to ease an intolerable burden is the wisest course to follow.”

FIA says this of Mrs. Job, “Christians have generally been much harder on her than Jews and Muslims.” Calvin and Augustine certainly didn’t have the nicest things to say about her. An early church writer by the name of Chrysostom says this, "Why 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.”

I frankly think Chrysostom, Calvin and Augustine missed the boat on this one. And I honestly think we’ve been way too hard on Mrs Job. Remember, she lost her ten children and now her husband is in such a horrible condition she hardly recognizes him! His torment was her torment. Seeing a loved one tortured day after day with excruciating pain is tough for anyone to go through, let alone a spouse. These two deeply loved each other, and perhaps she just couldn’t take it any more. In heaven I’m going to ask Mrs. Job about those dark days. It’s easy to sit in a Lazy Boy recliner in an ivory tower and shoot theological bullets at someone. I’ll bet if they could talk with her, some theologians would change their tune. To paint an entire biblical picture of Job’s wife from these 11 words seems to me to be a bit much.

2:10a But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?"

K&D says this about Job’s response to his wife, “The answer of Job to his wife is strong but not harsh.”

His answer to Dinah was tough, but it was velvet glove tough. Mrs. Job probably shouldn’t have said what she said. But you know what? In about 5 verses Job is going to say some things that will blow your theological socks off. So I think we should just cut her a little slack.

2:10b In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job passed the test with flying colors. FIA writes, “Some rabbis split verbal hairs and argue that Job began to waver in his heart.” But Hartley reminds us, “To say that Job did not sin with his lips is to state unequivocally that Job did not commit the slightest error.” This phrase says in a nutshell what 1:22 just took a few more words to say.

We need to remember that when a couple goes through a “dark night of the soul” it can put a terrible strain upon their relationship. Perhaps it’s the loss of a job or a chronic illness; perhaps it’s a child that’s on drugs or ongoing troubles with the in-laws. Don’t let the enemy drive a wedge between you and your spouse! Remain tender before the Lord, confess any bitterness and unforgiveness. Your battle may be tough, but God’s grace is sufficient.

NLT = New Living Translation
NASV = New American Standard Version
OT = Old Testament
K&D = Commentary by Keil and Delitzsch (from PC Bible Study)
JFB = Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (from PC Bible Study)
Adam Clarke = Adam Clarke Commentary (from PC Bible Study)
Barnes = Barnes Notes (from PC Bible Study)
Vine = Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words (from PC Bible Study)
Hartley = The New International Commentary on the Old Testament:
The Book of Job by John E. Hartley
Swindoll = Job, Profiles in Character from Charles R. Swindoll
FIA = Tyndale OT Commentaries: Job by Francis I. Anderson
Eugene Peterson = Introduction to Job, "The Message"
Warren Wiersbe = Be Patient, quoted from Swindoll's Commentary on Job