'Strike his bone and his flesh': Reading Job from the Beginning*

Abstract

Following the destruction of Job's children and possessions in Job 1, traditional readings of ch. 2 understand the Satan to be demanding that Job himself be struck down as a test of his disinterested piety. Instead, this study argues that the Satan's language in Job 2 invites us to read it from `the beginning' (Gen. 1—3) and that when we do, the Satan is seen to be demanding not Job's life, but rather his wife. Such a reading complicates traditional characterizations of Job's wife as merely the Satan's tool by introducing the idea that she is also Satan's target.