Then said his wife unto him, Do you still retain your integrity? curse God, and die.
All Commentaries on Job 2:9 Go To Job 2
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
62. For the illadvising wife is the carnal thought goading the mind, since it often happens, as has been said above, that we are both harrassed with strokes without, and wearied with carnal promptings within. For it is hence that Jeremiah bewails, saying, Abroad the sword bereaveth; at home there is as death. [Lam. 1, 20] Since ‘the sword bereaveth,’ when vengeance outwardly smites and pierces us, and ‘at home there is as death,’ in that indeed he both undergoes the lash, and yet the conscience is not clear of the stains of temptation within. Hence David says, Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. [Ps. 35, 5] For he that is caught by the blast of temptation in the heart, is lifted up like dust before the face of the wind; and when in the midst of these strokes the rigour of God smites them, what else is it, but the Angel of the Lord that persecutes them?
63. But these trials are carried on in the case of the reprobate in one way, and of the Elect in another. The hearts of the first sort are so tempted that they yield consent, and those of the last undergo temptations indeed, but offer resistance. The mind of the one is taken captive with a feeling of delight, and if at the moment that which is prompted amiss is displeasing, yet afterwards by deliberation it gives pleasure. But these so receive the darts of temptation, that they weary themselves in unceasing resistance, and if at any time the mind under temptation is hurried away to entertain a feeling of delight, yet they quickly blush at the very circumstance of their delight stealing upon them, and blame with unsparing censure all that they detect springing up in themselves of a carnal nature.
