Jó 2:10

10. As one of the foolish women נבלות , perverse, corrupt, or godless women; having respect not so much to the want of intellectual as of moral qualities. The word is one of the strongest in Hebrew, and is used to express utter worthlessness. It is to be remarked that Job does not charge his wife with being such, but with talking like such women. There is no evidence that Job sympathized with those mean views of woman that the Orientals cherish even to the present day, and which the Koran has done so much to promote. It is evident from the Vedas and the Gathas, her position was vastly more honourable in the earlier ages of the world. (See WILKINSON’S Egypt, P. A. Job 1:4, and BLEECK’S Avesta, 2:118.) It is equally clear that she and her condition everywhere, under the influence of the best of pagan religions, have been constantly deteriorating. Between three and four thousand years ago, woman, whether in Egypt, Persia, or India, at home or abroad, was as free as Trojan dame or the daughters of Judea. She was the honoured of man nearly, if not altogether, his equal; now, everywhere in the East she is the spurned of man a mere tool, if not a slave. The institutes of Manu early struck the keynote of woman’s sad declension throughout the East: “Women have no business with the texts of the Vedas.… Even if a husband be devoid of good qualities, or enamoured of another woman, yet must he be revered as a god by a virtuous wife.” Job 9:2-3, etc. (See also MUIR’S Sanscrit Texts, 1:26, 3:42, 68.) That woman is not trodden in the dust in Christian as in eastern countries, is due to the conserving and equalizing doctrines of the cross. (Comp. John 19:26, and Galatians 3:28. See also notes on 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.)

Shall we not receive evil As beings worth disciplining for another life, each one may assume that the elements of evil will, sooner or later, be wrought into his mortal life. His sinful condition should lead him to the reflection that more of evil than good might be his reasonable allotment. If there be, on the contrary, a preponderance of good, it is simply due to the goodness of God. The heathen themselves could see that evil may subserve the most desirable ends, and, by pruning the soul, prepare it for the higher good. Thus Plutarch: “It is likely that the Deity perfectly understands the condition of the soul to whose disease his justice is to be applied, whether it is such as is inclined to repentance.…

He knows how much of the virtue which he gave them at their birth they still retain, and in what degree that in them which is noble still remains, as not having been obliterated, but merely overgrown by evil education and bad connexions, and may be restored to its natural habit by due attention.” Providence of God, book 6. The storm has swept over Job as over an oak of the mountain. He still stands majestically, the roots of his faith having struck more deeply, and grasped more firmly, the Rock of Ages.

Sin with his lips St. James, who dwelt at large upon the right use of the tongue, makes such reference to Job as to show that he must have had in mind the responsibility implied in these and similar words of this book. As language is but the vehicle of thought, and may readily become the winged promoter of that which is evil, God holds even words to solemn account. (Matthew 12:36-37.) In the present age, as facilities for doing good or evil through the tongue, pen, press, or electric wire are so much multiplied, our responsibility is correspondingly increased.