[Here we continue a reprint of a small portion of Joseph Caryl’s study in Job.  Mr. Caryl wrote twelve volumes on the book of Job.  His study is a great example of how deep one can dig into the truths of the Bible.]   A Study by Joseph Caryl (1644) Job 1:11-12 (part 2) - “He Will Curse Thee”   11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. 12 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. (KJV)    “Touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face” (vs. 11) – Some render it thus:  Touch all that he hath, if he curse thee not to thy face.  So it is word for word out of the original, or, Touch all that he hath and see if he does not curse thee to thy face.  We give the sense of it in a direct affirmation, “Touch all that he hath, and he will...” etc.  Others put the force of an imprecation to it:  Touch all that he hath and see if he does not curse thee to thy face; that is, as if he had said, let me never be believed, and never be trusted.  Indeed, Satan is so far disgraced and damned already, that he has nothing to lose; he cannot damn himself further; he cannot wish anything to himself worse than he already is, but yet there is a kind of execration or imprecation upon himself in it:  Do this, and if he does not curse thee to thy face, let me never be accounted of, or (as many use to say) let me never be trusted; or as some wretched hellish ones, Let me be damned, if such or such a thing be not.  There is such an emphasis in that manner of speaking used in the text.  But we translate it by a direct affirmation, and that is a good sense too, touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face; that’s certain, so said Satan, he will do it:  it is as sure as done already. “Curse thee” – It is the same word which is used before, in verse 5, “It may be my children have cursed God.”  The word signifies properly to bless.  It was showed that probably in that place, it might be translated “Curse”; but in this text there is a necessity of translating it so, seeing a clear fence cannot be made out, taking the word properly.  In cursing another, these three things concur:  first, an ill opinion or conceit of that person; second, hatred or malice against him; third, a desire that some evil may befall him.  This Satan means when he undertakes that Job being afflicted, will curse God.  So then to curse God is to blaspheme God in our thoughts and words, to think or speak unworthy of God, and the ways of God; see, if he curse thee not to thy face; that is, see if his heart be not embittered against thee; see if his tongue be not sharpened to wound thy honor, to reproach thy goodness, to accuse thy providence.  As it is said of those in Isa. 8:21:  “They shall be hungry and hard bestead.”  And what then?  “They shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God, and look upward;” that is, they shall speak basely of their King and of their God, in whom they have trusted, and whom they have followed.  He speaks of those wretches that did seek to worship false gods, or worship the true God falsely; they shall curse their King and their God.  It is the very same, that here Satan promises himself and undertakes with God that Job will do likewise; do but make him hungry (said he) and hard bestead, and he will fret himself, and curse thee.  It was very ordinary among the heathen to do so:  when their gods did not please them, then they would curse their gods.  Satan interprets Job to be a man of the same temper. Aquinas translates the word literally, Touch all that he hath and he will bless thee to thy face.  He endeavors to make out the sense thus, touch all that he hath and thou shalt see he hath blessed thee to thy face.  He reads it in the preterperfect tense; that is, if you afflict him you will find that all his former religion was nothing but mere outside formality; that he served you only from the teeth outward, served you to your face; he blessed you, prayed to you and honored you only to your face.  He had no regard to worship from his heart; he did not worship you because he loved you or delighted in you, but gave you an outward complemental blessing, because you blessed him outwardly.  As the apostle directs servants in Eph. 6:6:  “Not with eye service as men pleasers.”  Satan makes Job an eye-servant to God, or as if like those of whom Christ complains in Matt. 15, in the words of the prophet:  “He had drawn nigh to God with his lips, while his heart was far from him.”  The heart of Job has been far enough from you; he only blessed you with his lips and to your face.  Indeed, this interpretation has a fair face, but touch it by a serious examination, and it will be found without a heart.  The construction of grammar is quite against it, and for us to change the text, and make it to speak in the preterperfect tense of a thing past, whereas the words are in the future tense, of an act to be done for the time to come, is to take too much boldness with scripture.  Therefore, though that opinion has a plausible sense in it, yet I shall lay it by and take the ordinary translation, that he indeed intended this, that Job would break forth into blasphemous revilings of God, if God did but try him with an affliction. And when he says that Job would do it to his face, the meaning of it is, that he would do it openly:  he will curse you openly; he will curse you boldly; he will not go behind the door to tell tales of you, but he will speak of it before all the world, that you are a cruel God, an unjust God, and a hard matter; he will tell such tales of you, even to your very face.  We have a like speech in Gal. 2:11:  “When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face,” said Paul; that is, openly, I did not go behind his back to tell Peter his own, but I told him it to his face, plainly, openly before them all, as it is explained in verse 14, “I said to Peter before them all.”  Jerome (because he would not have Peter receive such an open reproof, judging it would be a disparagement to Peter, to be rebuked by Paul) gives a quite contrary sense of those words of Paul:  I withstood him to his face; that is, said he, I did speak somewhat roughly to him before them, but there was no such things in my heart.  I did it but to his face, very slightly, lest I should offend the Jews whose apostle Peter was; and I did it to his face, a little, that I might satisfy the Gentiles, who were scandalized by Peter’s walking; otherwise in my heart, I had no quarrel with Peter; he and I agreed enough.  It was as if Paul had made but a shadow fight to delude the people.  But we must not interpret it that way.  I withstood him to his face, is not opposed to withstanding him cordially, but to a withstanding of him secretly, or behind his back.  So here, he will curse thee to thy face; that is, he will curse thee (as the Greek scholar had it) openly, and impudently; Job himself indeed was afraid lest his sons had cursed God in their hearts, but for all his niceness and seeming fear of his children’s sinning in secret, he will curse you with impudence; he will not only curse you in his heart, but the curse will break out at his lips:  Out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will speak blasphemy against God.  He will curse thee to thy face. We may give some examples of what it is to curse God, to blaspheme God to his face.  You may read what it is in Mal. 3:14:  “Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord;” you have spoken to my very face.  Why?  What had they spoken to the Lord?  “What have we spoken so much against thee?  Ye have said, It is vain to serve God:  and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?”  This is to curse God to his face:  when the ways of God are blasphemed and the worship of God reported as unprofitable; when we say it is in vain to serve God; when they cast aspersions and bring up an evil name upon any holy duty; this is to blaspheme God.  They did only speak against the service of God, and they thought they had not blasphemed God in it, “Wherein have we spoken against thee?”  Yes, said God, you have spoken against me, in that you have spoken against and discredited my ways.  So, if Job had said the ways of God are unprofitable, and I see now it is in vain to serve God and to fear him; this had been blasphemy and cursing of God to his face.  David was near upon the very brink of this blaspheme, in Ps. 73:13, when he said, “I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency, because”  (said he) “I am plagued every morning.”  The judgments and afflictions that were upon him, began to make him break out thus.  But he presently befools himself for such speeches, and by that repairs God in his honor. Secondly, to quarrel and be angry with the providence of God, as if he were not wise or just or good in his dispensations either to particular persons or to the church.  This, I say likewise, is a cursing, a reproaching of God. Thirdly, to curse the servants and people of God is to curse God.  If he that touches them touches God, then he that curses them curses God too.  And God is cursed in any of these senses two ways.  First, by detracting from himself, his worship, his works or his servants the good they have, or by fastening on them and aspersing them with the evil which they have not. “He will curse thee to thy face.” – Observe two or three points from this: First, note this, Satan can only guess at the hearts of men.  He would undertake and enter warranty with God that Job would blaspheme, if God did but touch him, but he was deceived:  Satan did but conjecture at most, and speak at a venture.  If he did not lie knowingly, I am sure he did but guess ignorantly.  Satan knows not what is in the heart; that’s God’s peculiar; that’s God’s cabinet.   God know there lay sincerity in the heart of Job all the while, although Satan would stand to it that nothing was there but hypocrisy. Secondly, we may note, seeing Satan accusing him of hypocrisy, would have him afflicted, That affliction is the trial and touchstone of sincerity.  When God afflicts you, then he brings you to the touchstone to see whether you are good mettle or not; he brings you then to the furnace, to try whether you be dross or gold, or what you are.  Affliction is the great discoverer; it unmasks us.  Satan was not out in the thing; he hit upon the rightest way that could be; if anything would discover Job, affliction would.  Indeed, some are discovered by prosperity and outward abundance.  The warm sun makes some cast off that cloak, which the wind and the cold caused them to wrap closer about them.  Some, when they have gotten enough from God, care not for God; when the fish is caught, they lay by the net, for they do but go a-fishing with holiness, and the profession of religion, and when they have their ends, there’s an end of their profession.  Affliction and the cross try others:  Some will hold on with God as long as the sun shines, as long as it is fair weather; but if the storms arise, if troubles come, whether personal or public, then they pull in their heads, then they deny and forsake God, then they draw back from and betray his truth.  Trouble makes the great trial; bring professors to the fire, and then they show their mettle.  This course Satan took with Job.  He knew Job had been abundantly tried by fullness and abundance, and these did not draw his heart from God, he must therefore now try another way.  It is an excellent passage in the Church history, concerning Constantius, the father of Constantine, that so the end he might try the hearts of his courtiers, he proclaimed that all they who would not forsake the worship of the true God, should be banished the court, and should have heavy penalties and fines laid upon them.  Presently upon this (says the story) all that were base and came to serve him only for ends, when away, forsook the true God, and worshipped idols.  By this means, he found out who were the true servants of God, and whom he meant to make his own;  such as he found faithful to God he thought would prove faithful to him.  What this exploratory decree of Constantius effected in this court, the same did that which the apostate Julian set forth in good earnest against the Christians.  He no sooner caused it to be proclaimed, that whosoever would not renounce the faith should be discarded his service, and forfeit both life and estate to his high displeasure.  But presently upon the publication of that decree, they who were indeed Christians, and they who had only the title of Christians, presented themselves, as it were, on a common stage to the view of all men.  Such as these are willows not oaks.  And so it was with Naomi and her two daughters-in- law, Orpah and  Ruth.  All the while that she was Naomi, beautiful, and had enough, they both stayed with her:  but when once Naomi became Marah, bitter, and empty, then Orpah took her leave of her, but Ruth abided with her.  Here was the trial whether Orpah or Ruth had the sincerer affection to Naomi.  Ruth loved her mother’s person, Orpah her estate and outward preferments.  While religion and prosperity go together, it is hard to say which a man follows; but when once they are forced to a separation, where the heart was will soon be manifest.  The upright in heart are like Ruth: whatsoever becomes of the Gospel, they will be sharers with it in the same condition; be it affliction, or be it prosperity; be it comfort or be it sorrow; be it fair weather or be it foul; be it light or be it darkness, they will take their lot with it.  This is a clear truth, that, whatsoever was the cause of our doing a thing, that being removed we cease to do it:  if outward comforts and accommodations in the world be the cause of why we follow Christ in the profession of the Gospel, then as soon as ever they fail, our profession will fail too.  When zeal is kindled only with the beams of worldly hopes, when worldly hopes fail, our zeal is extinct, and our endeavor is cut off with our expectation. —— This article is taken from:  Caryl, Joseph.  An Exposition with Practical Observations upon the Book of Job. London: G. Miller, 1644.  A PDF file of this book can be downloaded, free of charge, at http://www.ClassicChristianLibrary.com