Job 2:9 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Dost thou still retain thine integrity? &c.— The word תם tam, is the same in chap. Job 27:5 and there rendered integrity. God forbid that I should justify you, says Job, in answer to the uncharitable suspicions of his friends; till I die I will not remove my integrity from me: which, it is evident, cannot be meant of his religion (as a learned writer on this book supposes); for Job's friends never said any thing to him to tempt him to renounce his religion; but, to make him disclaim or renounce his integrity, they said a great deal. It was, indeed, the chief design of their harangues to bring him to confess himself guilty of some secret crimes, for which they supposed the hand of God was so severe upon him. Job's refusing to do this, is what he there calls holding fast his integrity; and so bishop Patrick; Till I die, &c. "I will sooner die than confess the guilt you charge me withal." Why, then, may we not understand the very same expression in the same sense in this speech of Job's wife? For she upbraids him in just the same strain that the friends did; dost thou still retain thine integrity?—BLESS [not curse] God, and die; i.e. "Dost thou still persist in the maintaining that thou art innocent? Bless God, by a confession of those secret sins for which he thus afflicts thee, and so yield thyself up to death?" for I suppose she thought his case remediless. Bless God, in this place, may be used in the same sense as, give glory to God, in the speech of Joshua to Achan; see Joshua 7:19. Bishop Warburton himself acknowledges, that ברךֶ barek, &c. is, literally, Bless God; but he would have it spoken ironically; which is very unlikely, considering the calamitous estate they were both in; for the wife must feel her share, if she had any feeling at all; and therefore the speech, we have reason to suppose, was serious. If the foregoing explication be allowed, there appear to be these two errors in her address; first, her unjust suspicions of his being guilty of some secret sins; and secondly, her rashly advising him to despair and die; to starve himself, or by some way or other put an end to his wretched life; to which Job replies, that she spoke like a weak and inconsiderate woman; [נבל nabal, one like Nabal, of a rash and unthinking, a hasty and passionate temper; see 1 Samuel 25:25.] that patience and an absolute resignation to the will of God was much better; for, shall we receive good, says he, &c.? This account of the woman's speech, we see, agrees very well with Job's reply to it; and if the words will bear a softer sense than that usually put upon them, such an equitable construction may, for any thing I know, be a piece of justice yet due to Job's wife, though she has been dead three thousand years. What may further incline us to admit a favourable sense of the words is, that the verb ברךֶ barek, properly signifies to accost or salute a person. Thus when Elisha sent his servant Gehazi on a message in great haste, he bids him, If thou meet any man, salute him not; and, if any man salute thee, (the same word, ברךֶ barek, repeated) answer him not again, 2 Kings 4:29. So chap. Job 10:15. Jehu meets Jonadab, ויברכהו vayebarkehu, and salutes or accosts him thus, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? &c. This signification of the verb is confirmed by that of the nouns derived from it. As bowing the knee was used in salutation, ברךֶ berek signifies a knee; and as presents very often accompanied their salutations, ברכה berakah signifies a gift or present; so that they who take this way of investigating the proper meaning of a Hebrew word, viz. from the affinity of the root with its several branches, will easily acquiesce in this sense of the word. And it was, no doubt, the sense which the LXX had in view when they turned the woman's speech thus, ειπον τι ρημα ειν κυριον, say something to God, or address thyself to him. Mr. Heath renders the beginning of the 10th verse mote emphatically thus, Wilt thou, even thou, speak as one of the foolish women speaketh? expressing his surprize at hearing such advice from a wife who had so many opportunities to know better.