Job 2:13

Verse 13. Seven days, and so forth They sat with him for a good part of the day, and of the night, during seven days: and spoke nothing all that time that could give him any uneasiness. Challoner. Menochius. Olympiad.—They mourned for him as if he had been dead. Their mutual grief was too great for utterance. But the text seems to intimate that they remained with Job, all this time. Scultet. Calmet.—Their design in coming was really to afford him consolation; but being under a mistake, respecting the conduct of Providence towards mankind, ( Calmet.) they erred involuntarily, ( Tirinus.) and by attempting to prove their assertions, as if none but criminals could be so grievously afflicted, they eventually insulted the holy man. Tobit 2:15.—They argued on the principle, “that under a just God no one is miserable, unless he have deserved it;” not reflecting that god sometimes puts his best servants to the trial, that their merit and glory may increase. Notwithstanding their piety and learning, they became therefore the devil’s most powerful agents unawares: ( Calmet.) and though they were not properly heretics, as they acquiesced when better informed, they were a figure of them, by drawing from many undeniable truths false inferences, and by a parade of learning, and of new things. Saint Gregory Mor. iii. 24. and verse 18.—They also judged rashly of Job’s secret behaviour. Worthington.