Chapter Overview
Summary
Job 2 narrates the second-heavenly-council scene (vv. 1–6) and the second-disaster — Job's-bodily-affliction (vv. 7–8). Job's wife enters with her infamous 'curse God and die' (v. 9) — the LXX significantly EXPANDS her speech with a long lament-monologue not in the MT. The three-friends arrive and sit in silent-mourning for seven days (vv. 11–13).
Notable Variants
2:9 LXX significantly EXPANDS Job's wife's speech beyond the MT — a notable LXX-plus; 2:7–8 Job's bodily-affliction; 2:10 'shall we receive good from God and not receive evil?' theological-axiom.
Structural Notes
MT Job 2 = LXX Job 2. 13 verses (MT) / extended at v. 9 in LXX. Second-disaster scene.
Again there came a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Adversary also came among them to present himself before the LORD.
'Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD' tracks MT. SECOND HEAVENLY-COUNCIL // 1:6.
The LORD said to the Adversary, "Where have you come from?" The Adversary answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and walking back and forth across it."
'And the LORD said to Satan: From where have you come? Satan answered the LORD and said: From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it' tracks MT. // 1:7.
The LORD said to the Adversary, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth — a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still holds fast to his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to destroy him for nothing."
'And the LORD said to Satan: 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' tracks MT. STILL-HOLDS-FAST-HIS-INTEGRITY — divine-witness to Job's faithfulness through the first-test.
The Adversary answered the LORD, "Skin for skin! Everything a man has he will give for his own life.
'Then Satan answered the LORD and said: Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life' tracks MT. SKIN-FOR-SKIN — Satan's bodily-test rationale.
But stretch out Your hand and strike his bone and his flesh — he will surely curse You to Your face."
'But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face' tracks MT.
The LORD said to the Adversary, "Very well — he is in your hand. Only preserve his life."
'And the LORD said to Satan: Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life' tracks MT. SPARE-HIS-LIFE — second divine-limit on Satan.
The Adversary went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
'So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head' tracks MT. LOATHSOME-SORES — boils, ulcers from-foot-to-head. Possibly elephantiasis or similar disfiguring-disease.
He took a broken piece of pottery to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
'And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes' tracks MT. SAT-IN-ASHES — the mourning-posture par excellence. Luke 10:13 ('they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes') extends.
His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die."
Masoretic (WLC)
וַתֹּאמֶר לוֹ אִשְׁתּוֹ עֹדְךָ מַחֲזִיק בְּתֻמָּתֶךָ בָּרֵךְ אֱלֹהִים וָמֻת
Then his wife said to him: Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!
Septuagint (LXX)
χρόνου δὲ πολλοῦ προβεβηκότος εἶπεν αὐτῷ ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ μέχρι τίνος καρτερήσεις λέγων ἰδοὺ ἀναμένω χρόνον ἔτι μικρὸν προσδεχόμενος τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς σωτηρίας μου ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἠφάνισταί σου τὸ μνημόσυνον ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς υἱοὶ καὶ θυγατέρες ἐμῆς κοιλίας ὠδῖνες καὶ πόνοι οὓς εἰς τὸ κενὸν ἐκοπίασα μετὰ μόχθων σύ τε αὐτὸς ἐν σαπρίᾳ σκωλήκων κάθησαι διανυκτερεύων αἴθριος κἀγὼ πλανῆτις καὶ λάτρις τόπον ἐκ τόπου περιερχομένη καὶ οἰκίαν ἐξ οἰκίας προσδεχομένη τὸν ἥλιον πότε δύσεται ἵνα ἀναπαύσωμαι τῶν μόχθων καὶ τῶν ὀδυνῶν αἵ με νῦν συνέχουσιν ἀλλὰ εἰπόν τι ῥῆμα εἰς κύριον καὶ τελεύτα
After much time had passed, his wife said to him: How long will you persist, saying, Behold, I will wait yet a little while longer, expecting the hope of my salvation? For your memory has been blotted out from the earth — sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb, for whom I labored in vain with hardships. And you yourself sit in the rottenness of worms, passing the night in the open air. And I myself wander as a hireling, going from place to place and from house to house, waiting for the sun to set so that I may rest from the hardships and pains that now press upon me. Speak some word against the Lord, and die!
MAJOR LXX EXPANSION. The LXX dramatically expands Job's wife's speech from MT's terse 'curse God and die' (eight Hebrew words) to a long monologue (over 80 Greek words). The expansion gives her voice — articulating maternal-grief, the wandering-as-hireling situation, her exhaustion. The expansion humanizes-and-explains rather than simply demonizing the wife.
'CURSE GOD AND DIE.' Both MT and LXX preserve the climactic-imperative. The Hebrew berakh elohim — 'bless God' — is a euphemism for 'curse God,' since the actual-curse is too-blasphemous to write. The LXX renders eipon ti rhēma eis kyrion — 'speak some word against the Lord.' The euphemism-tradition shows scribal-piety: scribes-could-not-bring-themselves to-write-the-curse explicitly.
TESTAMENT-OF-JOB. The Testament of Job (1st-cent BCE pseudepigraphon) further expands the wife's-character, naming her 'Sitis' and giving her sympathetic-treatment. The LXX-expansion fits the same trajectory of-narrative-development.
He said to her, "You are speaking as one of the senseless women would speak. Should we accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all of this, Job did not sin with his lips.
'But he said to her: You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips' tracks MT. THE THEOLOGICAL-AXIOM. Receive-good-AND-receive-evil from God — Job's submissive-theology of total-providence. Lamentations 3:38 ('is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?') extends.
When Job's three friends heard about all this disaster that had come upon him, each of them set out from his own place — Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They arranged to meet together to go and grieve with him and comfort him.
'Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him' tracks MT. THREE FRIENDS — Eliphaz (likely Edomite), Bildad, and Zophar.
When they looked up from a distance, they did not recognize him. They raised their voices and wept. Each of them tore his robe, and they threw dust into the air over their heads.
'And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven' tracks MT. UNRECOGNIZABLE — the depth of disfigurement. Isaiah 52:14 ('his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance') applies similar disfigurement-language to the Suffering Servant.
They sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
'And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great' tracks MT. SEVEN-DAYS-OF-SILENCE. The friends' first-act — silent-presence — was their best-act. Once they spoke (chapter 4 onwards), they failed.