So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord (comp. Job 1:12, ad fin.). Satan, we may be sure, is always anxious to quit the immediate presence of God; for "what communion hath light with darkness?"
(2 Corinthians 6:14). But now he had a special motive for haste in his anxiety to put Job to the test. Doubtless he was confident that he would triumph. And smote Job with sore boils. "With a malignant inflammation" (Lee).
It has been generally concluded, from the scattered notices of his malady contained in the Book of Job (especially Job 7:4, Job 7:5; Job 17:1; Job 19:17-20; and Job 30:17-19), that the disease with which Satan "smote Job' was elephantiasis—sometimes called Elephantiasis Arabum—a marked and strongly developed form of leprosy (Rosenmuller, Michaelis, Professor Lee, Canon Cook, Stanley Leathes etc.
). Elephantiasis is thus popularly described by Canon Cook, in the 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. 4. p. 26; "An intense heat, a burning and ulcerous swelling, or leprosy in its most terrific form, taking its name from the appearance of the body, which is covered with a knotty, cancerous bark like the hide of an elephant; the whole frame is in a state of progressive dissolution, ending slowly but surely in death."
A modern scientific work gives the following more exact, but more technical, account of the disease: "A non-contagious disease characterized by recurrence of febrile paroxysms, attended by inflammation, and progressive hypertrophy of the integument and areolar tissue, chiefly of the extremities and genital organs; and occasionally by swelling of the lymphatic glands, enlargement and dilatation of the lymphatics, and in some cases by the coexistence of chyluria, and the presence in the blood of certain nematode haematozoa, together with various symptoms of a morbid or depraved state of nutrition".
The disease is not now regarded as incurable, though, without an entire change of scone and climate, it is regarded as very seldom cured. From the solo of his foot unto his crown. Elephantiasis is generally local, attacking some part of the body, as, especially, the extremities or the genital organs.
But in the worst forms, the entire body suffers.