403. The Value of Life

Job 2:4  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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Job 2:4. Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Many interpretations have been given of this passage, which was evidently a familiar proverb in the early times when Job lived. It probably refers to some ancient custom of bartering by means of skins of animals slain in the chase. The hungry hunter trades with the grain grower, parting, for a supply of food, with the skins of the beasts he has slain, and if necessary he will exchange all he has in order to obtain bread. As Kitto says of this text. “It will then express the necessity of submitting to one great evil to avoid incurring a greater, answering to the Turkish proverb, ‘We must give our beards to save our heads.’” (Daily Bible Illustrations, vol. 5, p. 83).