Job 2

KJV · Chapter 2/42

¹Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.

²And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

³And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

⁴And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

⁵But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

⁶And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

⁷So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

⁸And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

⁹Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

¹⁰But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

¹¹Now 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, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.

¹²And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

¹³So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Satan appears once again before God and is given permission to attack Job's body, sparing only his life. Job is afflicted with painful sores but remains faithful even when his wife urges him to curse God. Three friends arrive to comfort him.

Explanation

Job's response to his wife ("Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?") shows a mature theology that accepts both blessings and hardships as part of God's sovereignty, without denying the real pain of loss. The three friends — Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar — come from nearby regions and represent the traditional wisdom of the time; their initial gesture of sitting in silence for seven days follows the ancient Near Eastern mourning custom in the face of extreme suffering. Application for today: silent, sympathetic presence beside someone who is suffering, without trying to immediately explain or resolve their pain, is often the most valuable support one can offer.

Fun facts

The friends' seven days of silence (verse 13) correspond to the Jewish mourning custom later known as "shiva" (meaning "seven" in Hebrew), a mourning practice still observed in Judaism today.
Job's illness, described as "sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown," has been associated by scholars with various possible conditions, but the text deliberately avoids identifying it with medical precision, focusing instead on the total, generalized suffering of the body.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Job 2:1The scene of the heavenly court repeats almost word for word from chapter 1 — a sign that a second round of testing is about to begin.
Job 2:2God asks Satan the same question again, and the answer is identical — the repeated dialogue marks the cyclical pattern of Job’s trials.
Job 2:3God acknowledges that Job remains blameless even though He was “moved” against him “without cause” — the text itself admits that Job’s suffering has no reason, which already undercuts any theory of punishment for sin.
Job 2:4“Skin for skin” is a bargaining phrase: the adversary argues that Job only endured losing his goods and children because he never lost his own skin. It is the second wager of the prologue, this time over his body.
Job 2:5Satan raises the stakes: this time he wants to touch Job’s “bone and flesh,” convinced physical pain will break his faith.
Job 2:6God authorizes the attack on Job’s body but demands that his life be spared — the limit of the second wager.
Job 2:7The “sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown” suggest some severe skin disease; the text does not diagnose it, only describes the physical suffering piled on top of his earlier loss.
Job 2:8The potsherd for scraping himself and the ashes he sits in were part of the ritual of someone in extreme suffering — sitting on the ground, in the dirt, outside normal life. The scene marks Job’s rock bottom before he even utters a single complaint.
Job 2:9Job’s wife, who also lost her children, tells him to “curse God, and die” — harsh words, but coming from someone devastated by the very same tragedy.
Job 2:10Job rebukes his wife and accepts both good and evil from God’s hand — the narrator repeats that he did not sin “with his lips,” a hint that something may shift further on.
Job 2:11Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar come from different regions — the text is assembling a cast of outside sages to debate with Job. Their intention is good, to mourn with him and comfort him, which makes it all the more ironic how much they will soon disagree with him.
Job 2:12Seeing Job from a distance, his friends do not even recognize him, so disfigured is he — they weep, tear their robes, and throw dust on their heads, the most intense mourning gestures of the time.
Job 2:13Seven days and seven nights of silence was the heaviest mourning period of the time, and it is the one moment in the book where the friends get it right: presence alone, no speeches. Starting in the next chapter they break the silence, and that is exactly what Job will later hold against them.