But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
Parallel translations
- WEB But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”
- KJV But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
- NKJV But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
- NASB However, reach out with Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face!”
- NLT But reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Satan urges God to strike Job's own body, predicting he will then curse Him. The test escalates to personal suffering.
Overview
Now Satan demands that affliction reach Job's "bone and flesh," certain that physical agony will break his faith. The accusation presses the same lie that no one loves God for His own sake. The narrative will again refute it, displaying a faith that endures even bodily torment by God's sustaining grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 1:11But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
- Job 1:5And 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 19:20–21My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Lev 24:15And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin.
- Ps 39:10Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.
- Ps 32:3–4When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Job 2:9Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
- Ps 38:2–7For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
- Isa 8:21They 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 Chr 21:17And 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.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 2:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.