But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy 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.”
- BSB But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your 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 put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
- Job 1:5And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
- Job 19:20–21My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
- Lev 24:15And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin.
- Ps 39:10Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
- Ps 32:3–4When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
- Job 2:9Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
- Ps 38:2–7For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
- Isa 8:21And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
- 1 Chr 21:17And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.