Saturday, March 26, 2011

Job 2:10

וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ כְּדַבֵּר אַחַת הַנְּבָלוֹת תְּדַבֵּרִי גַּם אֶת הַטּוֹב נְקַבֵּל מֵאֵת הָאֱלֹהִים וְאֶת הָרָע לֹא נְקַבֵּל בְּכָל זֹאת לֹא חָטָא אִיּוֹב בִּשְׂפָתָיו

10 He replied, “You are speaking like the talk of foolish women. Should we accept good from God, and not accept trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

הַנְּבָלוֹת is a feminine plural noun, so "foolish women" seems like the most literal translation, although putting the phrase into English is awkward this way (NASB and King James try) because the passage comes across sounding unnecessarily sexist since the indefinite "foolish women" sounds like a description of all women, when it isn't. The singular "a foolish woman" would be better in English, so it would be better to handle it like the NIV does.

Even in his pain, Job showed what a responsible husband must do for his family. He corrected her mistake. He is short with her, but that isn't necessarily his pain speaking. He doesn't call her foolish, he says she is talking like someone who is foolish, and he very correctly states the case for his suffering: "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"

If the book ended here, we would have a little example about our faith. We would know that Job suffered, and we would have an idea that suffering is not always the result of some certain sin in our lives, but the result of the sinful actions or intentions of others--in this case, the devil himself.

But Job's suffering did not end here, and the book, which will soon turn into a poem, will explore the reason for suffering and the consequences of sin in our lives. But Job's words should remind us of our place in the world, and that all things are used by God for our good. Even our suffering.

Job 2:9

וַתֹּאמֶר לוֹ אִשְׁתּוֹ עֹדְךָ מַחֲזִיק בְּתֻמָּתֶךָ בָּרֵךְ אֱלֹהִים וָמֻת

9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

תֻּמָּא "integrity" is sometimes thought to be a "late" Hebrew word (i.e., from the time of Ezra), but this is probably because it happens to occur in Ezra more than in other places (Ezra 5:17; 6:1,6,12). But it also occurs in the Davidic Psalm 7:9 and here.

This is the only time Job's wife speaks: the devil has created strife in their marriage. She wanted his suffering to come to an end, and so she wished for his death. In such agony, she could imagine no other end to her husband's misery. Certainly she had lost almost everything he had lost: his property was her stability; his children were her children. Her grief for them went as deep as his. Now he had lost his health, too, and she saw her husband suffering to the point of death, and she knew that without him, she would have nothing; nothing at all. She was evidently still young (as we will later see) and perhaps could have been taken in by another husband, but she wasn't thinking of that now. She wanted him to have peace and relief; death was the only answer she knew.

The strife was religious. She urged her husband to give up on his trust in God for help. In their culture, there is virtually no record of suicide as an option even to suffering. Although there are some exceptions in Egypt, that was another culture and a completely different religion. So Job's wife tells her husband to call God's wrath down on himself by cursing God.