JobChapter 2

Job Chapter 2: Meaning

The Accuser tests Job again with painful sores, but Job refuses to turn against God.

Summary

Another day came when the angels gathered before God again, and the Accuser came too. God pointed to Job again and said he was still a good man, even after everything he had lost. The Accuser said that people will do anything to save their own skin. He said if God hurt Job's body, Job would curse him.

God allowed the Accuser to make Job sick, but he could not kill him. So the Accuser covered Job's body with painful sores, from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. Job sat in ashes and used a broken piece of pottery to scrape his skin.

Job's wife was upset. She said to him, 'Are you still trying to do right? Just curse God and die.' But Job said she was talking like a foolish person. He reminded her that if we enjoy the good things God gives us, we should also accept the hard times. Through all of this, Job still did not say anything sinful against God.

When three of Job's friends heard what had happened, they came to be with him. Their names were Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. When they saw him, they cried and tore their clothes. They sat down with him on the ground and said nothing for seven days and nights. They were so sad for him that words did not seem like enough.

Historical Context

This chapter is set in the same time and place as chapter 1, the land of Uz, long ago. Sitting in ashes and tearing clothes were ways people in the ancient world showed great sadness and grief.

Skin diseases were very serious back then. They could cause a person to be avoided by others and made to live away from the community. Job's three friends, Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuah, and Zophar from Naamah, were known as wise men from nearby lands. Their decision to sit silently with Job for seven days was actually the kindest thing they did in the whole story.