Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Job 2:9 - 2:13

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Job 2:9 - 2:13


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Job Rebukes His Wife

v. 9. Then said his wife,
whose trust in God was evidently not as strongly founded as that of the sufferer, unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? He was clinging to a virtue which, as she supposed, availed him nothing at this time. The astonishment shown by Job's wife is that found in all unbelievers and false Christians when they cannot explain to their own satisfaction every act of God and every misfortune which befalls them. Curse God and die. She wanted him to renounce God, all his trust in Jehovah, and then give up the struggle for life or suffer the penalty of blasphemy.

v. 10. But he,
sharply reproving her for her lack of trust in the goodness of Jehovah, said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh, in a godless and impious manner, which he, as his words imply, would not have expected from her. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive, accept and willingly bear, evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. If there was a temptation to murmur in the heart of Job, he had so far fought it down.

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,
probably from Idumea, and Bildad, the Shuhite, in the desert east of the Dead Sea, and Zophar, the Naamathite, that is, from a region in Lower Arabia; for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him, they met together by appointment and traveled to Job's home to bring him some form of consolation, if that were possible.

v. 12. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not,
did not recognize their friend in this formless mass of diseased flesh, they lifted up their voice and wept, in sympathy over their friend's suffering; and they rent everyone his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven, that is, they threw up handfuls of dust as high as possible to signify that the misery of Job cried to heaven, and then let it fall back on their heads to show the depth of their grief.

v. 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him,
their sympathetic sorrow being too great for utterance; for they saw that his grief was very great, that the affliction of his pain was unbearable. It is altogether commendable for friends to sympathize with a sufferer, mingling their own tears with his and showing that they truly feel for him, Rom_12:15.