Satan again claimed that Job served God only because God had made it advantageous for Job to do so. Job still had his own life. Satan insinuated that Job had been willing to part with his own children and his animals (wealth) since he still had his own life (skin, v. 4).
Satan could do nothing to Job without God's permission. Having received that he went out to strip Job of his health.
In view of the symptoms mentioned later in the book, Job's ailment (vv. 7-8) seems to have been a disease called pemphigus foliaceous or something similar to it, perhaps elephantiasis (cf. vv. 7, 8, 12; 3:24-25; 7:5; 9:18; 16:16; 19:17, 20; 30:17, 27, 30; 33:21). It appears to have afflicted Job for several months (cf. 7:3; 29:2).
Job's illness resulted in an unclean condition that made him a social outcast. He had to take up residence near the city dump where beggars and other social rejects stayed. He had formerly sat at the city gate and enjoyed social prestige as a town judge (29:7).
Another effect of his disease was his wife's reaction (v. 9). She evidently concluded that God was not being fair with Job. He had lived a godly life, but God had afflicted rather than rewarded him. She had the same retributive view of the divine human relationship that Job and his friends had, but she was "foolish"(v. 10, spiritually ignorant, not discerning). Her frustration in seeing her husband suffer without being able to help him or to understand his situation probably aggravated her already chafed emotions. She gives evidence in the text of being bitter toward God. Had she been simply anxious that Job's suffering would end she probably would not have urged him to abandon his upright manner of life by cursing God.
The third result of Job's suffering was his fresh submission to God (v. 10). Even though Job did not understand why he was in agony, he refused to sin with his lips by cursing God. He continued to worship God even though he gained nothing in return (cf. James 5:11). This response proved Satan wrong (v. 5) and vindicated God's words (v. 3).
Though many people today conclude, as Job's wife did, that the reason for suffering is that God is unjust, this is not the reason good people suffer. The basis for the relationship between God and man is not retribution, with good deeds resulting in prosperity and bad deeds yielding punishment.29
These two tests reveal much about Satan. He is an accuser of the righteous. He knows what is going on in the world and in the lives of individuals, though there is no evidence in Scripture that he can read our minds. He has great power over individuals and nature, but his power is subject to the sovereign authority of God.
