Albert Barnes Commentary Job 2:7

"So Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown." — Job 2:7 (ASV)

So went Satan forth (Job 1:12).

And smote Job with sore boils—The English word 'boil' denotes the well-known swelling on the flesh, accompanied by severe inflammation; a sore, angry swelling (Webster). The Hebrew word, however, is in the singular number, שׁחין shechin—and should have been rendered that way in our translation. Dr. Good renders it “a burning ulceration.” The Vulgate translates it “ulcere pessimo.” The Septuagint, ἕλκει πονηρῶ helkei ponērō—“with a foul ulcer.” The Hebrew word שׁחין shechin means a burning sore, an inflamed ulcer, a boil (Gesenius). It is derived from שׁכן shâkan—an obsolete root, retained in Arabic, and meaning to be hot or inflamed. It is translated “bile” or “boil” in Exodus 9:9-11; Leviticus 13:18; 2 Kings 20:7; Isaiah 28:21 (see the notes on that passage); Leviticus 13:19–20; Job 2:7; and “botch” in Deuteronomy 28:27, 35. The word does not occur elsewhere in the Scriptures.

In Deuteronomy 28:27, it means “the botch of Egypt,” some species of leprosy, undoubtedly, which prevailed there.

Regarding the disease of Job, we may learn some of its characteristics not only from the usual meaning of the word but also from the circumstances mentioned in the book itself. It was such that he took a potsherd to scrape himself with (Job 2:8); such as to make his nights restless and full of tossings to and fro, to clothe his flesh with clods of dust and with worms, and to break his flesh, or to constitute a running sore or ulcer (Job 7:4–5); such as to make him bite his flesh for pain (Job 13:14), and to make him like a rotten thing, or a garment that is moth eaten (Job 13:28); such that his face was foul with weeping (Job 16:16); such as to fill him with wrinkles and to make his flesh lean (Job 16:8); such as to make his breath corrupt (Job 17:1), and his bones cleave to his skin (Job 19:20, 26); such as to pierce his bones with pain in the night (Job 30:17); and to make his skin black and to burn up his bones with heat (Job 30:30).

It has been commonly supposed that Job’s disease was a species of black leprosy commonly called “elephantiasis,” which is very prevalent in Egypt. This disease received its name from ἐλέφας elefas—“an elephant”—from the swelling it produced, causing the limbs to resemble those of that animal, or because it rendered the skin like that of the elephant: scabrous and dark-colored. It is called by the Arabs judhām (Dr. Good) and is said to produce a grim, distorted, and “lion-like” set of features in the face, and for this reason has been called by some “Leontiasis.” It is known as the black leprosy, to distinguish it from a more common disorder called “white leprosy”—an affliction which the Greeks call “Leuce,” or “whiteness.”

Job’s disease seems to have been a universal ulcer, producing an eruption over his entire person and attended by violent pain and constant restlessness. A universal boil, or groups of boils over the body, would accord with the account of the disease in the various parts of the book.

In elephantiasis, the skin is covered with incrustations like those of an elephant. It is a chronic and contagious disease, marked by a thickening of the legs, with a loss of hair and feeling, a swelling of the face, and a hoarse, nasal voice. It affects the whole body; the bones as well as the skin are covered with spots and tumors, at first red, but afterward black (Coxe, Ency. Webster).

It should be added that leprosy in all its forms was regarded as contagious and therefore involved the necessity of separation from society. All the circumstances attending this calamity were such as to deeply humble a man of Job’s former rank and dignity.