Job’s Second Test

2 Another day arrived when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came into their midst. ² The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming the earth and walking around on it.”

³ Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and turns away from evil. And he still maintains his integrity, even though you incited me against him to destroy him for no reason.”

⁴ Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! A man will give all he has for his life. ⁵ But stretch out your hand and strike his bones and flesh, and he will certainly curse you to your face!”

⁶ The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hand, but preserve his life.”

⁷ Satan then went out from the presence of the Lord. He struck Job with very painful sores from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. ⁸ So Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he was sitting among the ashes.

⁹ Then his wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”

¹⁰ But he said to her, “You are talking like a woman who lacks moral judgment.^[a] If we accept the good that comes from God, shouldn’t we also accept the bad?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Job’s Friends Arrive to Comfort Him

¹¹ Three friends of Job heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, and each of them came from his own homeland: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Na’amathite.^[b] They met together and went to sympathize with Job and to comfort him. ¹² When they caught sight of Job from a distance, they did not recognize him. They raised their voices and wept. Each man tore his robe and tossed dust into the air and onto his head. ¹³ They sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very great.