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Job’s Second Test

One day the members of the heavenly court[a] came again to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan,[b] came with them. “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan.

Satan answered the Lord, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”

Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me to harm him without cause.”

Satan replied to the Lord, “Skin for skin! A man will give up everything he has to save his life. But reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

“All right, do with him as you please,” the Lord said to Satan. “But spare his life.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.

Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”

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Footnotes

  1. 2:1a Hebrew the sons of God.
  2. 2:1b Hebrew and the satan; similarly throughout this chapter.

Now the angels[a] came again to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan was with them.

“Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan.

“From earth, where I’ve been watching everything that’s going on,” Satan replied.

“Well, have you noticed my servant Job?” the Lord asked. “He is the finest man in all the earth—a good man who fears God and turns away from all evil. And he has kept his faith in me despite the fact that you persuaded me to let you harm him without any cause.”

4-5 “Skin for skin,” Satan replied. “A man will give anything to save his life. Touch his body with sickness, and he will curse you to your face!”

“Do with him as you please,” the Lord replied; “only spare his life.”

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with a terrible case of boils from head to foot. Then Job took a broken piece of pottery to scrape himself and sat among the ashes.

His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to be godly when God has done all this to you? Curse him and die.”

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Footnotes

  1. Job 2:1 the angels, literally, “the sons of God.”