Job 2


Job 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is anonymous; most scholars believe it was written around 6th century BCE. This chapter belongs to the prologue of the book,comprising Job 1:1–2:13.

Text

The original text is written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 13 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC; some extant ancient manuscripts of this version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus.

Analysis

Within the structure of the book, chapters 1 and 2 are grouped as "the Prologue" with the following outline:
  • Job Is Utterly Righteous
  • The First Heavenly Court Scene
  • The First Test - Loss of Possessions and Family
  • Job's First Reaction to His Loss and the Narrator's Verdict
  • The Second Heavenly Court Scene
  • The Second Test - Ghastly Sores
  • The Arrival and Mission of the Friends
The whole section precedes the following parts of the book:
  • The Dialogue
  • The Verdicts
  • The Epilogue
The Prologue consists of five scenes in prose form — alternating between earth and heaven — which introduce the main characters and the theological issue to be explored.

Second conversation (2:1–6)

The passage describes the conversation in the second heavenly court which is very similar to the first one. From verse 1 to the middle of verse 3, the narrative practically repeats Job 1:7–8, except for the addition of three Hebrew words at the end of verse 2:1 and the difference in the Hebrew word used for "from where". It is indicated that after the series of calamities on his possession and children, Job continues to "cling to" his integrity, basically maintaining all his commendable personal qualities. YHWH states that he has been "incited" to "ruin" Job "without any reason", acknowledging that YHWH is accountable and responsible, but mainly also inviting the Adversary to concede that Job passed the test. The Adversary responds that the test did not go far enough, using the phrase "skin for skin" to make the exchange equal by including all that a man would give up to save his own skin. YHWH permits the Adversary to proceed with the second test, to touch Job's "flesh and bone" but not Job's "life". Thereafter God will not speak again until chapter 38.

Verse 3

  • "Moved": or "incited"; translated from Hebrew word from the root verb sut which has a sense of 'prompting someone to act in a way that is different from what that person would have chosen to do without provocation'. 1 Chronicles 21:1 indicates that although YHWH permits evil actions within his sovereign plan, he is not directly causing evil to occur.
  • "Without cause": or "without any reason"; translated from Hebrew: khinnam, "for nothing" in Job 1:9; also "in vain", "unnecessarily" or "without compensation" or referring to undeserved treatments in 1 Samuel 19:5; 1 Kings 2:31.

    Verse 6

  • "Very well": or "behold" ; translated from the Hebrew particle, hinnow, literally, “here he is!” as God presents Job to Satan. The Greek Septuagint renders it “I deliver him up to you.”
This verse shows that YHWH is sovereign over the Adversary by putting limits on how far the action against Job may go.

Affliction of Job and the Arrival of Counselors (2:7–13)

The first part of the section describes the second attack by the Adversary on Job, which adds a negative aspect, by afflicting the physical pain of 'ghastly sores', to the removal of the positives in Job's life with the first attack. The words of Job's wife elicits a spoken response from Job about the second attack. The arrival of Job's three friends, their mourning and silence, left to Job to speak first, setting the stage for the subsequent poetic dialogues.

Verse 7

  • "Severe sores": from, , "boils". It is not the same as the term translated as "leprosy", but more involving 'inflammation of the skin'.

    Verse 8

Verse 9

  • "His wife": Job's wife is only mentioned here in the Hebrew Bible, without a name, but with her only speech. In the Aramaic Targum, her name is called "Dinah", with an allusion to Genesis 34, whereas in the "Testament of Job" she is called "Sitis". The Hebrew root word for "wife" recalls Adam's description of Eve as "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" in in relation to the Adversary's intention to strike Job's "bone and flesh".
  • "Curse": from the Hebrew verb, barakh, literally "bless", but in an evil sense.
The words of Job's wife can be interpreted as suggesting a "theological method of committing suicide", that is, urging Job 'to put him out of misery by doing the one forbidden thing that will ensure his immediate destruction and end his endless agony" according to the traditional 'doctrine of retribution'.
The Greek Septuagint has a longer reading with the phrase "when a long time had passed" in the beginning of the verse and the speech of Job's wife: "How long will you hold out, saying, 'Behold, I wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my deliverance?' for behold, your memorial is abolished from the earth, even your sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb which I bore in vain with sorrows, and you yourself sit down to spend the night in the open air among the corruption of worms, and I am a wanderer and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting for the setting sun, that I may rest from my labors and pains that now beset me, but say some word against the Lord and die."
File:Blake 1793 Job's Tormentors.jpg|thumb|Job's Tormentors from William Blake's Illustrations for the Book of Job.

Verse 13

  • "Suffering": from the Hebrew word כְּאֵב, keʾev, "pain"—both mental and physical pain.