Job 2:6

And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
LORD	יְהוָ֛ה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
said	וַיֹּ֧אמֶר vai.Yo.mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Satan	הַשָּׂטָ֖ן ha.sa.Tan	H7854	an opponent · definite article + noun, masculine singular absolute
hand	בְיָדֶ֑ךָ ve.ya.De.kha	H3027	a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
save	שְׁמֹֽר she.Mor	H8104	properly · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
life	נַפְשׁ֥וֹ naf.Sho	H5315	properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye ar…
Luke 22:31-32 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from…
Revelation 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall…
Job 38:10-11 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
Luke 8:29-33 (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in…
Psalms 65:7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.
Revelation 20:1-2 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 2:1-6

Satan, that sworn enemy to God and all good men, is here pushing forward his malicious prosecution of Job, whom he hated because God loved him, and did all he could to separate between him and his God, to sow discord and make mischief between them, urging God to afflict him and then urging him to blaspheme God. One would have thought that he had enough of his former attempt upon Job, in which he was so shamefully baffled and disappointed; but malice is restless: the devil and his instruments are so. Those that calumniate good people, and accuse them falsely, will have their saying, though the evidence to the contrary be ever so plain and full and they have been cast in the issue which they t…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 2:6

but save--rather, "only spare his life." Satan shows his ingenuity in inflicting pain, and also his knowledge of what man's body can bear without vital injury.

John Gill on Job 2:6

And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, he is in thine hand,.... Well may a behold be prefixed to this, it being matter of wonder and astonishment that a saint and servant of God should be permitted to be in the hand of Satan; which yet must not be so understood; as if he was off of, and no more upon the heart of God; or as if he was out of the hands of God, and out of the hands of Christ; or as if he was become Satan's property, and a child of his; for neither of these can be true of a good man: nothing can separate him from the love of God; not Satan and all his principalities and powers; nor can men or devils pluck them out of his hands, nor out of the hands of his son; nor can those who ar…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Job 2:6

The Grant of New Power: 6 And Jehovah said to Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; only take care of his life. Job has not forfeited his life; permission is given to place it in extreme peril, and nothing more, in order to see whether or not, in the face of death, he will deny the God who has decreed such heavy affliction for him. נפשׁ does not signify the same as חיּים; it is the soul producing the spirit-life of man. We must, however, translate "life," because we do not use "soul" in the sense of ψυχή, anima.

The Church Fathers

I abandon you, respect only his soul, so that he would not think himself allowed to take his life.
— Augustine of Hippo, ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOB (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

"Only spare his soul." God does not say this as if he wanted to prevent the devil from snatching Job's life away, but he says "spare him." That is, be careful not to destroy the natural state of Job's mind and reason. So God arranged things in order that the devil, being convinced by the evidence of the facts, might acknowledge that Job, even though he was pressed by so many afflictions, could never be brought to blasphemy.
— Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON JOB 2:6

MORAL INTERPRETATION. Behold, he is in thine hand: but save his life. Oftentimes our old enemy, after he has brought down upon our mind the conflict of temptation, retires for a time from his own contest, not to put an end to his wickedness, but that upon those hearts, which he has rendered secure by a respite, returning of a sudden, he may make his inroad the more easily and unexpectedly. It is hence that he returns again to try the blessed man, and demands pains on the head of him, whom nevertheless the Supreme Mercy while keeping fast yields up to him. For He so forsakes us that He guards us, and so guards us that by the permitted case of temptation, He shews us our state of weakness.
— Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book III

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Satan — Adversary; accuser. When used as a proper name, the Hebrew word so rendered has the article “the adversary” (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). In the New Testament it is used as interchangeable with Diabolos, or…
Devil, The · Saints: Afflicted by, only as God permits — Saints: Afflicted by, only as God permits
Example · CHRIST, OUR — CHRIST, OUR
Fellowship · WITH CHRIST — WITH CHRIST
Life, Natural · Of saints, specially protected by God — Of saints, specially protected by God
Obedience · 10:7; — 10:7;
Righteousness · 2:17;7:10,11;9:10;10:5;13:5; — 2:17;7:10,11;9:10;10:5;13:5;
Sickness · The devil sometimes permitted to inflict — The devil sometimes permitted to inflict

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Job 2:6

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 2:1-6

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 2:6

John Gill on Job 2:6

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 2:6

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Job 2:6

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 2:1-6

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 2:6

John Gill on Job 2:6

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 2:6

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 2:6

Rashi on Job 2:6