The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 44

Commentary,' vol. Iv. p. 26: "An intense that he would do (eh. i. 11; Ii. :'>), anrl had hee.t, 11 burning and ulcerous swelling, or evidently wished him to do, thus fighting on leprosy in its moet terrific form, taking i!s his siile, o.nd increasing her husband's diffi- na1110 from tho appearance of the body, culties. The only other mention of her (eh. whioh is covered with a knotty, cancerous xix:. 17) implies thnt she was rather a hin- bark like the hide of an elephant ; the drance than n help to Job. Curse God, a.nd wbolo frnmo is in a state of progressive dis- die; i.e. "renounce God, put all regard for solution, ending slowly but surely in deoth." him away from th£:e, even thongh he kill A modern scientific work gives the follow- thee for so doing." Job's wife implies that ing more exact, but more technical, account death is preferable to such a life as Job of the disease : "A non-contagions disease now leads and must expect to lead hence- characterized by recurrence of febrile par- forward. oxysms, attended by inflammation, and pro- Ver. 10.-liut he said unto her, Thou gressive hypertrophy of the integument and speakest as one of the foolish women areolar tissue, chiefly of the extremities and speaketh; rather, as one of the 1Jile ( ori111pio1J,8) genital organs; and occasionally by swell- women speaketh. Nahal, the term used, ie irig of the lymphatic glands, enlargement expressive, not of mere natmal folly, but ·and. dilatation of the lymphatics, and in of that perversion of the inteller,t which some· cases by the coexistence of ohyluria, comes on men when their hearts a.nd un<ler- ii.lid t.he presence in the blood of certain standings are corrupted and degraded (see nematode hmIQntozoe., together with various 2 Sam. xiii. 13; Pa. xiv. I; Isa. xxxii. 6). symptoms of a morbid or depraved state of What! shil.ll we receive good at the hand of nutrition" (Quain's 'Dictionary of Medi- God, and shill we not receive evil 1 Job re- cine,' vol. i. p. 431). The disease is not now members all the good which he has received regarded as incurable, though, without an of God during his past life, all the blessings entire change of scene and climate, it is and prosperity bestowed on him (eh. i. regarded as very seldom cured (ibid., p. 432). 2, 3), and asks-Would it be fair or right to From the sole of his foot unto his orown. take all the good things as a matter of Elephantiasis is generally local, attacking course, and then to murmur if evil things some part of the body, as, esl?ecially, the o.re sent? He accepts both prosperity and extremities or the genital orl!"ans. But in affliction as coming from God, and expresses the worst for\:ns, the entire body suffers. himself as wi !ling to submit to his will. Ver. 8.-Ana, he took hiqi a potsherd to But he has, perhaps, scarcely attained to scrape himself withal. " The surface of t4e the conviction that whatever Goel sen<b to int.eguments," •says Dr. Quain, "is o~en his faithfol servants is al ways that which much inflamed, and somet_imes discharges a is best for them-that afflictions, in fact, are serous ichor, or chyle-like fluid, according blessings in disguise, and ought to be re- to the extent to wliich the lymphatics are ceived with gratitude, not with mnrmnring engaged in the particular case" (ibid., p. (comp. Heh. xii. 5-11). In ill this did not 432). This "serous or lymph-like fluid" is J'ob sin with his lips. Thus far, that is, occasionally "acrid and offensive." Joh Job "kept the door of his month" strictly, seems •to have used his potsherd to scrape righteously, piously. Later on he was not it away. And he sat down among the ashes. al ways so entirely free from fault. Not us a ourati ve process, or even as an Ver. 11.-Now when J'ob's three friends alleviation of his po.ins, but simply as was heard of il.ll this evil that was come upon the custom of mourners (comp. Isa. xlvii. 3; him. It is not to be supposed that Joh h;1d lviii. 5; Jer. vi. 26; Ezek. xxvii. 30; Jonah no more than three friends-indeed, Elihu iii. 6). The LXX. renders, "on the dung- the Buzzite appears later on as one of his heap;" but this meaning, if a possible one, friends (eh. x:nii. 2-6)-but he had three is highly imp1·obable. contemporaries with whom he was especially Ver. 9.-Then said his wife unto him, intimate, old men (eh. xxxiL 6), with whom Dost thou still retain thine integrity t Job's he was probably accustomed to confer from wife had said nothing when the other ca- time to time, and who were in the habit of lamities had taken place-then she had giving him their advice. All three, appa• "refrained her tongue, and kept silence,'' rently, lived at a distance; and it seems to though probably with some difficulty. Now have been some weeks before the news of she can endure no longer. To see her his misfortunes reached them. When the husbond so afflicted, and so patient under news came they held communication one hie afflictions, is more than she oan bear. with 1mother, and agreed to pe.y him visits Her mind is weak and ill regulated, and of oondolenoe at a certain definite time, she suffers herself to become S11t11,n's ally which was determined upon between them. e.nd her husb11,nd's worst enemy. It is Some months-at least two-seem to h,we noticeable that she urges her husband to elapsed between the date of Job's latest do exactly that which Satan had suggested affliction and the time of their arrival {oh.  36 THE BOOK OF JOB. [ OIi, n, 1-18,