Table of Contents
The Second Heavenly Council
Job chapter 2 continues the narrative framework established in the first chapter, returning to the heavenly court for a second confrontation between God and Satan. This scene parallels the first but intensifies the conflict and the nature of Job’s test. Having failed to break Job’s integrity through the loss of his possessions and children, Satan now proposes a more direct and personal assault. The chapter details this second test, Job’s agonizing physical suffering, his steadfast response in the face of temptation from his own wife, and the arrival of his three friends. This chapter pushes the problem of suffering to its extreme, moving from external loss to internal, physical agony, and setting the stage for the poetic dialogues that form the heart of the book.
Satan’s Cruel Accusation
(Job 2:1-6) The scene opens again on a day when the “sons of God” came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan was among them. The dialogue mirrors the first encounter. God initiates the conversation, once again holding up Job as a model of righteousness: “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” God’s words are a vindication of Job. He affirms that Job’s faithfulness is genuine and that Satan’s first attack was baseless.
Satan, however, is undeterred. He responds with a cynical and proverbial saying: “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.” The meaning of this proverb is debated, but the essence is clear. Satan argues that the first test was insufficient because it did not touch Job’s own body. He claims that a person will willingly sacrifice anything—the “skin” of their children, their livestock, their servants—as long as their own “skin” is safe. He proposes a new test: “But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” Satan’s argument is that self-preservation is the ultimate human motivation and that anyone, even the righteous Job, will abandon their faith when faced with intense, personal, physical suffering. God, confident in His servant, accepts the terms of the second test, but with one crucial limitation: “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
Job’s Physical Affliction
(Job 2:7-8) Satan immediately leaves God’s presence and inflicts Job with a terrible disease. The text describes it as “painful sores” (or grievous boils) from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. The specific medical diagnosis is unknown, but the description suggests a painful, disfiguring, and all-encompassing skin disease, perhaps a form of leprosy or elephantiasis. The suffering was so intense that Job’s response was to take a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes. The scraping would have been a desperate attempt to relieve the maddening itch and pain. Sitting in ashes was a profound symbol of mourning and desolation, showing that Job had been reduced to the lowest possible state of human existence, an outcast dwelling on the town’s refuse heap.
The Temptation from His Wife
(Job 2:9-10) In his moment of greatest agony, Job faces a new temptation, this time from his closest human relationship. His wife, who had also suffered the loss of all her children, comes to him. Seeing his miserable state, she says, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” Her words are born of utter despair. She sees his continued faithfulness as pointless in the face of such relentless suffering. Her advice is to give up, to renounce the God who has seemingly abandoned them and embrace the release of death. Her temptation is a direct echo of Satan’s own prediction.
Job’s response is one of the most profound statements of faith in the entire Bible. He rebukes her gently, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.” He does not condemn her but identifies her perspective as foolish, meaning spiritually blind. He then asks a powerful rhetorical question that lies at the heart of the book’s theology: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” With this statement, Job affirms his unwavering belief in the absolute sovereignty of God over all of life’s circumstances, both the pleasant and the painful. He accepts his suffering as being within the permissive will of God, just as he had accepted his blessings. The narrator concludes this section with a powerful summary: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” He passed the second test.
The Arrival of the Friends
(Job 2:11-13) The news of Job’s calamity reached his three friends: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment to travel together to “show him sympathy and comfort him.” Their initial intention was noble and compassionate. However, when they arrived and saw Job from a distance, his appearance was so shockingly disfigured by his disease that they “did not recognize him.” Their reaction was one of pure horror. They lifted up their voices and wept aloud, tore their robes, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. These were all traditional acts of deep mourning, showing their solidarity with their suffering friend. Overwhelmed by the sight, they simply sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights. During this time, “no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.” This initial, silent ministry of presence was perhaps the greatest comfort they offered him. It was an act of profound empathy that preceded the flawed theological arguments that would follow.
Verse by Verse
(Job 2:1-3) The heavenly court assembles again. God points out to Satan that Job has maintained his integrity despite the first test, which God acknowledges was “without reason.”
(Job 2:4-5) Satan counters with the “skin for skin” argument, claiming Job only remains faithful because his own body has not been harmed. He gets permission to afflict Job’s health.
(Job 2:6) God grants Satan permission to harm Job physically but sets a firm limit: his life must be spared.
(Job 2:7-8) Satan strikes Job with a terrible skin disease from head to toe. Job’s response is to sit in ashes and scrape his sores with a potsherd.
(Job 2:9) Job’s wife, in despair, tempts him to abandon his faith, telling him to “curse God and die.”
(Job 2:10) Job rebukes her, affirming God’s sovereignty over both good and evil circumstances. He remains faithful and does not sin in his speech.
(Job 2:11) Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, hear of his suffering and arrange to visit him to offer comfort.
(Job 2:12-13) When they see Job, they are so shocked by his appearance that they begin to mourn loudly. They then sit with him in complete silence for seven days and nights, respecting the depth of his grief.
Cross References
Matthew 4:8-10: Satan tempted Jesus by offering him worldly power if he would just bow down and worship him. This is a form of the “curse God” temptation that Job’s wife presents. Both Jesus and Job refuse to abandon their allegiance to God for the sake of personal relief or gain.
Isaiah 53:3-4: This passage describes the Suffering Servant, who was “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” It also says, “surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Job’s physical and social suffering is a powerful foreshadowing of the suffering of the Messiah.
Lamentations 3:38: The prophet Jeremiah asks, “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?” This verse echoes Job’s own theology. Both men, in the midst of profound national and personal suffering, affirmed God’s ultimate sovereignty over all of life’s events.
Romans 12:15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” The initial action of Job’s friends is a perfect embodiment of this command. Before they offered any advice, they simply entered into his grief, sitting with him in silent solidarity for a full week.
James 5:11: “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” This New Testament passage looks back on the events of Job 1 and 2 as the primary example of patient endurance in the face of suffering, highlighting the very integrity that Satan was trying to disprove.