Bible Strands
Job 2:5
But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Satan addresses God, issuing a conditional challenge regarding Job’s loyalty at the precise moment divine protection over Job’s life has been granted but affliction remains permitted.
The words — The Hebrew imperative שְֽלַֽח (she.lach) translates literally to "stretch out," directly governing יָדְ/ךָ֔ (ya.de./Kha) for "your hand" to form the command for direct physical intervention.
The thread — This formulation repeats the exact conditional structure of Job 1:11 and aligns with the covenantal warning in Leviticus 24:15 that cursing God incurs definite judgment.
Why it lands — The text records Satan’s claim that physical destruction will force Job to curse God, requiring a reader to evaluate whether devotion survives when bodily integrity is targeted.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Cross-references
- Job 1:11 But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
- Leviticus 24:15 And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin.
- Job 1:5 And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
- Job 19:20 My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Job 2:9 Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
- Psalms 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Psalms 38:2 For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
- Psalms 39:10 Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.
- Isaiah 8:21 They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.
- 1 Chronicles 21:17 And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? O LORD my God, please let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house, but do not let this plague remain upon Your people.”