Commentary - Job 2:1-10

Bird's-eye view

In this second chapter of Job, the curtain is pulled back once more to reveal the goings-on in the heavenly court. This is not for our entertainment, but for our education. We are being shown the ultimate realities that govern our more mundane ones. Satan, having failed in his first attempt to make Job curse God by stripping him of his possessions and his children, now returns to accuse Job again. The Accuser's thesis is that Job's piety is still just a form of spiritual capitalism; it is skin-deep. He argues that a man will give up anything to save his own skin, and so if Job's health is attacked, his integrity will finally buckle.

God, in His absolute sovereignty, grants Satan permission to afflict Job's body, but with a crucial limitation: his life must be spared. What follows is a brutal physical assault that leaves Job in agony, scraping his boils with a piece of broken pottery, sitting in ashes. The testing then intensifies through the words of his own wife, who acts as Satan's mouthpiece, urging him to curse God and die. But Job stands firm, rebuking her foolishness and articulating one of the central truths of the Christian faith: we must be prepared to receive both good and calamity from the hand of a sovereign God. The section concludes by underscoring Job's remarkable faithfulness. In all this, he did not sin with his lips.

Outline

Context In Job

Chapter 2 directly follows the events of the first chapter and serves as a significant escalation of the trial. In chapter 1, the test was external to Job's person. He lost his wealth and, most devastatingly, all his children. Yet, he responded with worship, saying, "Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away; blessed be the name of Yahweh" (Job 1:21). The narrator confirmed that in this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Now, the Accuser argues that this was insufficient. The attack must become personal, physical. This chapter therefore moves the conflict from Job's circumstances to his own flesh and bone. This sets the stage for the lengthy dialogues that will follow. Job's physical agony and emotional torment, compounded by the foolish counsel of his wife and soon his friends, provide the backdrop for his wrestling with God. This is the crucible in which his faith will be tested by fire.

Key Issues

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 1 Again it was the day that the sons of God came to stand before Yahweh, and Satan also came among them to stand himself before Yahweh.

The first thing to notice is the word "again." This is round two. The heavenly court convenes just as it did before. The "sons of God" are the angels, presenting themselves for duty before the throne of the Almighty. And right there among them is Satan. We must not get our theology from Milton. Satan is not a rival power in some cosmic dualism. He is a creature, and he is on a leash. He has to show up and report in. He comes to "stand himself before Yahweh," which indicates he is being called to account. God is the one running this meeting.

v. 2 And Yahweh said to Satan, “Where do you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”

God's question is not for information. He is not in the dark about Satan's activities. This is an examination. It is the question a king asks of a subordinate. "Give an account of your activities." Satan's answer is the same as before. He has been patrolling the earth, his assigned domain for his rebellious work. He is the prince of the power of the air, but he is a prince who serves at the pleasure of the true King. His roaming is not free-range; it is within the boundaries God has set.

v. 3 And Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you set your heart upon My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity. So you incited Me against him to swallow him up in vain.”

Here God takes the initiative. He puts Job forward again, rubbing Satan's nose in his failure. Notice the commendation: God Himself testifies that Job is blameless, upright, God-fearing, and turns from evil. And the crucial addition: "he still holds fast his integrity." The first test did not work. Satan's theory about why men serve God has been disproven. God then says something remarkable: "you incited Me against him." God is not blaming Satan in a way that absolves Himself of responsibility. He is stating the secondary cause while affirming His own ultimate agency. God is sovereign over this entire affair. The final phrase, "to swallow him up in vain," means "without cause." There was no cause in Job for this calamity, which is the entire point. This is not a punishment for sin; it is a test of faith.

v. 4 Satan answered Yahweh and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.”

Satan, being the father of lies, is also a master of cynical proverbs. "Skin for skin!" This is the logic of the marketplace, not the covenant. The Accuser's argument is that the first test was not severe enough. Job lost things that were external to him, other people's skin, as it were. But a man's own skin, his own life and health, that is his ultimate possession. Satan is doubling down on his claim that all worship is fundamentally selfish. He believes that if you press hard enough, every man will sell out God to save himself. This is a profound slander not only against Job, but against the grace of God that sustains Job.

v. 5 However, send forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You in Your face.”

Notice the challenge. "send forth Your hand." Satan knows he has no authority to act on his own. He can only do what God's hand and God's plan have predestined to take place. He is asking God to be the agent of this suffering. And the predicted outcome is the same: "he will curse You in Your face." This is not a private grumble; this is open, defiant blasphemy. This is what Satan is after. He wants to prove that faith is a sham.

v. 6 So Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, only spare his life.”

And here is the terrifying permission. God hands Job over to Satan's power. "He is in your hand." But it is a permission with a boundary. "Only spare his life." God sets the limits. Satan's leash is let out a little further, but it is still firmly held in the hand of God. This is a central truth for every suffering saint. Your adversary is real, his malice is real, but his power is entirely derivative and limited by the good purposes of your sovereign God.

v. 7 Then Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh and struck Job with terrible boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head.

Satan wastes no time. He goes directly from the throne room to Job's doorstep. The affliction is total and excruciating. "Terrible boils," from head to toe. This would have been physically agonizing, socially isolating (as it would have rendered him unclean), and psychologically devastating. Satan's attack is designed for maximum misery. He wants to break not just Job's body, but his spirit.

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

This is a picture of utter degradation. A potsherd is a piece of broken pottery, a shard of garbage. He is using it to scrape his oozing sores. And his location is "among the ashes," the ancient equivalent of the city dump. This was a place of mourning and desolation. The greatest man in the East is now a wretched outcast, sitting in filth, scraping his tormented flesh with a piece of trash.

v. 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”

When the external assault has done its work, the temptation often comes from those closest to us. Job's wife has clearly broken under the strain. She had lost her ten children too. Her counsel is the very thing Satan wants to hear. She mocks his integrity, the very thing God commended. Her advice is simple: give up. Your faith has gotten you nothing but misery. Renounce God and get it over with. "Curse God and die." This is the logic of despair. It is the wisdom of this world, which sees no value in suffering and no goodness in a God who allows it.

v. 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the wickedly foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept calamity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Here is the climax. Job's response is magnificent. First, he rebukes her, but notice how carefully. He says she speaks "as one of" the foolish women. He doesn't say she is one, but that her words are trafficking in godless folly. Then he delivers the theological knockout punch: "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept calamity?" This is the heart of a robust, biblical piety. God is God. He is sovereign over the good days and the bad days, over the promotions and the boils. To accept only the "good" from Him is to treat Him like a cosmic vending machine, which is just a sophisticated form of idolatry. True faith blesses the name of the Lord when He gives and when He takes away. And the narrator drives the point home for a second time: "In all this Job did not sin with his lips." Despite the agony, despite the temptation, his words remained faithful. The Accuser was wrong again.

Application

The lessons from this passage are not comfortable, but they are essential. First, we must have a right view of God's sovereignty. Our afflictions do not happen because God lost control or because Satan slipped his leash. They happen because God, in His infinite wisdom, has ordained them for our good and His glory. Satan is a real enemy, but he is a defeated enemy and a tool in the hands of our Father.

Second, we must reject the health-and-wealth gospel in all its forms. Job's wife was an early preacher of it. Her view was that if your faith isn't "working" for you in terms of material comfort, you should abandon it. But true faith is not a contract for an easy life. It is a covenant relationship with the living God, who promises to be with us in the fire, not just to keep us from it.

Finally, Job's response is our model. When calamity strikes, our first question should not be "Why is this happening to me?" but rather "How can I glorify God in this?" Job understood that both blessing and hardship come from the same loving, sovereign hand. Our task is to receive whatever He gives with faith, trusting that the one who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will also, along with Him, graciously give us all things. That includes the grace to endure boils, to rebuke foolish counsel, and to bless His name in the ashes.