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he blasphemed, fearing lest he might provoke you and you might bring the blow against his own body. And otherwise, often someone, so as not to take it in the eye, puts forward his hand and receives the blow on the less honorable member, holding forth skin for skin, in order to save the more important part. It is nothing great, then, he says, if he has despised external things. But it is also possible to understand it otherwise: the evil one, disparaging the righteous man's praise to God, 27 says, 'skin for skin he has given,' instead of saying: 'being harmed in small things he has offered some small praise, and it is nothing great if a man despises his possessions, so that he himself might not be harmed.' For he has said 'for his soul' instead of 'for himself'. 2, 6 And the Lord said to the devil: Behold, I deliver him to you, only preserve his soul. Again in measure God tests the golden statue with the diabolical fire, not wishing to know for himself, whom he knew, but for the refutation of the devil and so that he might make him known to us. And he gives authority over the body, but does not permit the soul to be led out from the body, so that by his offspring he might grant double the goods. Or he also says this, that you may not touch his ruling faculty, but make the contest through torments to the flesh. 2, 7-8 And the devil went out from the Lord and struck Job with a wicked ulcer from feet to head. And he took a potsherd to scrape the pus, and he sat upon the dung heap outside the city. After the removal of his possessions and his servants and his children, then the devil brought on the ulcer of affliction, so that sharp and biting pus flowed from his body, and there was a complete lack of necessities and of caregivers. And he sat outside the city as one afflicted with leprosy. But he did not receive the decaying pus with his hand, lest he be even more irritated, but with a potsherd he scraped it 28 off. And he lay in the open air and upon a dung heap, so that he might at least hear a human voice or breathe clean air or, to speak more truly, to propitiate God by greater suffering. 2, 9-9a And when a long time had passed, his wife said to him: For how long will you endure, saying: 'Behold, I am waiting yet a little while, expecting the hope of my salvation'? The noble and God-loving Job, then, endured poverty and suffering for no short time and comforting himself said: 'One must bear it manfully, one must endure, one must await help from God; God does not delay to help and to deliver from the present troubles.' But his wife grows weak in the face of the misfortunes, having been kept by the devil as a later device against some unshakable wall. And the cunning devil, as he had worked on the righteous man for a sufficient time, then makes use of the wife's weakness and arms her against him, just as he once did Eve against the forefather Adam. And she, despairing in the face of the misfortunes and filled with the diabolical spirit, was brought to the present words, and first she tries to show him that his hopes in God are unfulfilled, confirming the future by the long time that has passed; then she also adds: 2, 9b-e For behold, your memorial has been wiped out from the earth, sons and daughters, the birth pangs and toils of my womb, for whom I labored in vain with hardships. And you yourself sit in the rot of worms, spending the night in the open air; and I, a wanderer and a servant, go from place to place and from house to house, waiting for the sun to set, that I may rest from the hardships and pains which now hold 29 me. But say some word against the Lord and die. The whole thing was God's permission and the devil's attack, acting with authority on account of God who had permitted it, so that Job, having struggled through all things, might be shown to be a victor. Therefore no one pitied his wife nor, remembering her former prosperity, consoled her poverty, but she served for a wage (for this is what 'servant' signifies), serving those who from time to time were in need, so that she might provide enough for herself and her husband to survive. despairing

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ἐδυσφήμησε δεδοικώς, μή σε παροργίσῃ καὶ κατὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ σώματος ἐνέγκῃς τὴν πληγήν. καὶ ἄλλως δὲ πολλάκις τις, ἵνα μὴ εἰς ὀφθαλμὸν λάβῃ, τὴν χεῖρα προτείνει καὶ εἰς τὸ ἧττον τίμιον μέλος δέχεται τὴν πληγήν, δέρμα ὑπὲρ δέρματος προισχόμενος, ἵνα σώσῃ τὸ κυριώτερον. οὐδὲν οὖν μέγα, φησίν, εἰ τῶν ἔξωθεν περιεφρόνησεν. ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλως νοεῖν· ἐξευτελίζων τὴν τοῦ δικαίου πρὸς θεὸν 27 εὐφημίαν ὁ πονηρὸς δέρμα, φησίν, ὑπὲρ δέρματος δέδωκεν, ἀντὶ τοῦ· εἰς ὀλίγα βλαβεὶς ὀλίγην τινὰ εὐφημίαν προσήγαγεν, καὶ οὐδὲν μέγα, εἰ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ἄνθρωπος καταφρονεῖ, ἵνα αὐτὸς μὴ βλαβῇ. τὸ γὰρ ὑπὲρ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ ἀντὶ τοῦ ὑπὲρ ἑαυτοῦ εἴρηκεν. 2, 6 εἶπεν δὲ ὁ κύριος τῷ διαβόλῳ· ἰδοὺ παραδίδωμί σοι αὐτόν, μόνον τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ διαφύλαξον. πάλιν κατὰ μέτρον τὸν χρυσοῦν ἀνδριάντα τῷ διαβολικῷ πυρὶ δοκιμάζει ὁ θεὸς οὐκ αὐτὸς γνῶναι θέλων, ὃν ἠπίστατο, ἀλλ' εἰς ἔλεγχον διαβολικὸν καὶ ἐφ' ᾧ τοῦτον ἡμῖν γνωρίσαι. καὶ τοῦ μὲν σώματος δίδωσι τὴν ἐξουσίαν, οὐ συγχωρεῖ δὲ τοῦ σώματος ὑπεξαγαγεῖν τὴν ψυχήν, ἵνα ἐξ ἐπιγονῆς τὰ διπλασίονα χαρίσηται ἀγαθά. ἢ καὶ τοῦτό φησιν, ὅτι τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ αὐτοῦ μὴ ἅψῃ, διὰ δὲ τῶν εἰς τὴν σάρκα βασάνων τὸν ἀγῶνα ποιοῦ. 2, 78 ἐξῆλθεν δὲ ὁ διάβολος ἀπὸ τοῦ κυρίου καὶ ἔπαισεν τὸν Ἰὼβ ἕλκει πονηρῷ ἀπὸ ποδῶν μέχρι κεφαλῆς. καὶ ἔλαβεν ὄστρακον, ἵνα τὸν ἰχῶρα ξέῃ, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκάθητο ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας ἔξω τῆς πόλεως. μετὰ τὴν τῶν κτημάτων καὶ τῶν οἰκετῶν καὶ τῶν παίδων ἀφαίρεσιν τότε τὸ τῆς λώβης ἕλκος ἐπήγαγεν ὁ διάβολος, ὡς δριμεῖς μὲν ῥέειν ἰχῶρας ἐκ τοῦ σώματος καὶ ἐπιδάκνοντας, ἀπορίαν δὲ εἶναι παντελῆ τῶν τε ἀναγκαίων καὶ τῶν νοσοκομούντων. καὶ τῆς μὲν πόλεως ὡς λελωβημένος ἔξω καθῆστο. τῇ δὲ χειρὶ τοὺς μυδῶντας ἰχῶρας οὐχ ὑπεδέχετο, ἵνα μὴ καὶ μᾶλλον ἀποκναίοιτο, ἀλλ' ὀστράκῳ τούτους ἀπέ 28 ξεεν. αἴθριος δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ κοπρίας ἔκειτο, ἵνα κἂν ἀνθρωπίνης ἀκούσῃ φωνῆς ἢ καθαρὸν ἀναπνεύσῃ τὸν ἀέρα ἤ, τό γε ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, τῇ μείζονι κακοπαθείᾳ τὸν θεὸν ἐξιλεούμενος. 2, 99α χρόνου δὲ πολλοῦ προβεβηκότος εἶπεν αὐτῷ ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ· μέχρι τίνος καρτερήσεις λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἀναμένω χρόνον ἔτι μικρὸν προσδεχόμενος τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς σωτηρίας μου; ὁ μὲν οὖν γενναῖος καὶ φιλόθεος Ἰὼβ ἐνεκαρτέρει τῇ πενίᾳ καὶ τοῖς πάθεσι χρόνον οὐκ ὀλίγον καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν παραμυθούμενος ἔλεγεν· δεῖ φέρειν ἀνδρικῶς, δεῖ καρτερεῖν, δεῖ τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ προσμένειν βοήθειαν, οὐ βραδύνει θεὸς ἐπαμῦναι καὶ τῶν παρόντων ἀπαλλάξαι δεινῶν. ἐξασθενεῖ δὲ ἡ γυνὴ πρὸς τὰς συμφορὰς ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου τηρηθεῖσα ὥσπερ ὕστερον μηχάνημα κατά τινος ἀσείστου τείχους. ὁ δὲ πανοῦργος διάβολος ὡς ἱκανῷ χρόνῳ κατειργάσατο τὸν δίκαιον, τότε τῇ τῆς γυναικὸς ἀσθενείᾳ συγχρῆται καὶ ὁπλίζει ταύτην κατ' αὐτοῦ ὥσπερ ποτὲ καὶ τὴν Εὕαν κατὰ τοῦ προπάτορος Ἀδάμ. ἡ δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὰς συμφορὰς ἀπειποῦσα καὶ τοῦ διαβολικοῦ πληρωθεῖσα πνεύματος ἐπὶ τοὺς παρόντας προήχθη λόγους, καὶ πρῶτα μὲν αὐτῷ τὰς εἰς θεὸν ἐλπίδας ἀνηνύτους πειρᾶται δεικνύναι τῷ πολλῷ παρεληλυθότι χρόνῳ πιστουμένη τὸ μέλλον· εἶτα καὶ ἐπάγει· 2, 9 βε 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 κάθισαι 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 συνέ 29 χουσιν. ἀλλὰ εἰπόν τι ῥῆμα πρὸς κύριον καὶ τελεύτα. ὅλον ἦν θεοῦ συγχώρησις καὶ διαβόλου προσβολὴ μετ' ἐξουσίας πράττοντος διὰ τὸν συγκεχωρηκότα θεόν, ἐφ' ᾧ διὰ πάντων ἀγωνισάμενον τὸν Ἰὼβ στεφανίτην ἀναδειχθῆναι. διὸ καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα οὐδεὶς ἠλέει οὐδὲ τῆς παλαιᾶς αὐτῆς εὐδαιμονίας μεμνημένος παρεμυθεῖτο τὴν ἔνδειαν, ἀλλ' ἐθήτευεν ἐπὶ μισθῷ (τοῦτο γὰρ σημαίνει τὸ λάτρις) τοῖς ἑκάστοτε δεομένοις ὑπηρετοῦσα, ἐφ' ᾧ καὶ ἑαυτῇ καὶ τῷ συνεύνῳ ἐπαρκέσαι πρὸς τὸ ἀποζῆν. ἀπειποῦσα