and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!”

When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

“Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.

“I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God and he answered— a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!

My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;

on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.

If anyone denounces their friends for reward, the eyes of their children will fail.

My relatives have gone away; my closest friends have forgotten me.

All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.

“Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

For all of them, midnight is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness.

Job’s Final Word to His Friends

And Job continued his discourse:

Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,

He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.

“I would like to reply to you and to your friends with you.

Epilogue

After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.

Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors and an object of dread to my closest friends— those who see me on the street flee from me.

I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.

My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away.

Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.

But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend,

My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.

You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape;