Job 2:5-6

2:5 But extend your hand and strike his bone and his flesh, 1  and he will no doubt 2  curse you to your face!”

2:6 So the Lord said to Satan, “All right, 3  he is 4  in your power; 5  only preserve 6  his life.”

1 sn The “bones and flesh” are idiomatic for the whole person, his physical and his psychical/spiritual being (see further H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 26-28).

2 sn This is the same oath formula found in 1:11; see the note there.

3 tn The particle הִנּוֹ (hinno) is literally, “here he is!” God presents Job to Satan, with the restriction on preserving Job’s life.

4 tn The LXX has “I deliver him up to you.”

5 tn Heb “hand.”

6 sn The irony of the passage comes through with this choice of words. The verb שָׁמַר (shamar) means “to keep; to guard; to preserve.” The exceptive clause casts Satan in the role of a savior – he cannot destroy this life but must protect it.