Job 2

Job is struck in his own body

¹On another day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser also came among them to present himself before the LORD. ²The LORD said to the Accuser, “Where have you come from?” The Accuser answered the LORD, “From roaming the earth and walking up and down on it.” ³The LORD said to the Accuser, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on earth: a man blameless and upright, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still holds firmly to his integrity, even though you stirred me up against him to destroy him for no reason.”^{a 4}The Accuser answered the LORD, “Skin for skin! People will give everything they have to save their own lives.^{b 5}But stretch out your hand and strike his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse you to your face.”^{c 6}The LORD said to the Accuser, “Very well, he is in your power. Only spare his life.” ⁷So the Accuser went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. ⁸Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself with as he sat among the ashes. ⁹His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”^{d 10}He said to her, “You are talking like one of the foolish women. Are we to accept good from God and not accept trouble as well?” In all this Job did not sin in what he said.

Three friends come to comfort Job

¹¹When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the trouble that had come on him, they set out, each from his own home. They had agreed to meet and go together to show him sympathy and comfort him. ¹²When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. They wept aloud, and each of them tore his robe, and they threw dust into the air onto their heads. ¹³Then they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.