Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends
Some time after, the Evil One presented himself before the faithful wife
under the form of a beautiful youth; and said to her, “What woman art
thou, who art so radiant in beauty?” She answered, “I am the wife of a
poor man, named Job.”
He said, “O woman! what hast thou, with thy wondrous beauty, to do with
a poor sick husband? Go, be divorced from thy husband, and marry me. I
have great possessions, and I will treat thee as a queen.”
She answered, “I am the wife of a prophet; I desire nothing higher.”
Then Satan withdrew, despairing of seducing her from her duty. Rahma
told Job all that had been said to her.
Job said, “O woman! did I not tell thee to speak with him no more; why
hast thou disobeyed my voice? That was Satan, and he sought to separate
us. Do not speak to him again when he addresses thee.”
Some time after, the Evil One presented himself before the faithful
wife, under the form of an angel; and said to her, “O woman, daughter of
a prophet! I am an angel sent from God with a message to thee.”
She said, “What message?”
He said, “Behold the Most High is wroth with Job, for he renders no
thanks for all the good things He gave to him; therefore hath the Lord
rejected him from being a prophet, and he shall fall from worse to
worse, till he is cast into the flames of hell; we, the angels of God,
curse him, and do thou, daughter of a prophet, avoid him, lest thou come
into the same condemnation.”
When Rahma heard these words, she wept, and said, “After so many
afflictions, shall the name of Job be taken from the number of the
prophets? And after so many sufferings shall he perish everlastingly?”
Then she went to Job and told him all that had been said to her.
Job was greatly angered when she told him the tenor of the words, and he
cried out, “Have I not warned thee these two times not to speak with
him, who is the author of my affliction? Wait till I am well, and I will
give thee a hundred strokes with a rod.”[446]
But the story is told differently by others. It is said that the third
time Satan appeared as a baker, and Rahma wanted bread, but had nought
to pay. Then said the pretended baker, “Thou hast locks of very
beautiful hair; cut off thy hair and give it to me, and thou shalt take
the largest of my loaves.”
Then she cut off three locks and gave them to him.
And when Job saw that she had done this, he was filled with fury, and he
swore that when he was well he would beat her for having cut off her
hair.[447]
Thus Satan triumphed in making Job to sin by swearing, and threatening
to ill-treat a true and good woman.
Next the Evil One went as an angel, and announced to all the people of
the land that he came from God to declare to them that Job was no more
reckoned among the prophets; and that they were not to trust his words
and believe his doctrine, but were to return to the worship of those
gods he had blasphemed and cast out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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