Job 2:13

They sat down with him upon the ground seven days - They were astonished at the unprecedented change which had taken place in the circumstances of this most eminent man; they could not reconcile his present situation with any thing they had met with in the history of Divine providence. The seven days mentioned here were the period appointed for mourning. The Israelites mourned for Jacob seven days, Genesis 50:10. And the men of Jabesh mourned so long for the death of Saul, 1 Samuel 31:13; 1 Chronicles 10:12. And Ezekiel sat on the ground with the captives at Chebar, and mourned with and for them seven days. Ezekiel 3:15. The wise son of Sirach says, "Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead;" Sirach 22:12. So calamitous was the state of Job, that they considered him as a dead man: and went through the prescribed period of mourning for him.

They saw that his grief was very great - This is the reason why they did not speak to him: they believed him to be suffering for heavy crimes, and, seeing him suffer so much, they were not willing to add to his distresses by invectives or reproach. Job himself first broke silence.

So they sat down with him upon the ground; - see Job 1:20, note; Job 2:8, note; compare Ezra 9:3, "I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head, and my beard, and sat down astonished."

Seven days and seven nights - Seven days was the usual time of mourning among the Orientals. Thus, they made public lamentation for Jacob seven days, Genesis 50:10. Thus, on the death of Saul, they fasted seven days, 1 Samuel 31:13. So the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus says," Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead;" Ecclesiastes 22:12. It cannot be supposed that they remained in the same place and posture for seven days and nights, but that they mourned with him during that time in the usual way. An instance of grief remarkably similar to this, continuing through a period of six days, is ascribed by Euripides to Orestes:

Ἐντεῦθεν ἀγρίᾳ ξυντακεὶς νόσῳ νοσεῖ

Τλήμων Ὀρέστης; ο δὲ πεσὼν ἐν δεμνίοις

Κεῖται.

Ἓκτου δὲ δὴ τόδ ἦμαρ, κ. τ. λ.

Enteuthen agriacuntakeis nosō nosei

Tlēmōn Orestēs; ho de pesōn en demniois

Keitai.

Hekton de dē tod́ ēmar, etc.

"'Tis hence Orestes, agonized with griefs

And sore disease, lies on his restless bed

Delirious.

Now six morns have winged their flight,

continued...

2:13 Upon the ground - In the posture of mourners condoling with him.Seven days - Which was the usual time of mourning for the dead, and therefore proper both for Job's children, and for Job himself, who was in a manner dead, while he lived: not that they continued in this posture so long together, which the necessities of nature could not bear; but they spent the greatest part of that time in sitting with him, and silent mourning over him. None spake - About his afflictions and the causes of them. The reason of this silence was the greatness of their grief for him, and their surprize and astonishment at his condition; because they thought it convenient to give him time to vent his own sorrows, and because as yet they knew not what to say to him: for though they had ever esteemed him to be a truly good man, and came with full purpose to comfort him, yet the prodigious greatness of his miseries, and that hand of God which they perceived in them, made them now question his sincerity, so that they could not comfort him as they had intended, and yet were loth to grieve him with reproofs.