*Job 2: 1-13
After God allows it, Satan afflicts Job with painful sores to further test his faith.
- Second Heavenly Encounter:
- Satan appears again before the Lord among the heavenly beings, and the Lord asks him if he has considered His servant Job, who remains faithful despite the afflictions brought upon him.
- Satan argues that Job’s loyalty is only because he still has his health, and he challenges the Lord to allow him to afflict Job’s body, believing that Job will surely curse God to His face.
- Permission to Afflict Job:
- The Lord grants Satan permission to test Job further, allowing him to afflict Job’s body but sparing his life.
- Satan strikes Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, causing him immense physical agony and discomfort.
- Job’s Response to Affliction:
- Job sits among the ashes, scraping his sores with broken pottery, experiencing intense suffering and misery.
- His wife urges him to curse God and die, but Job rebukes her, recognizing that they should accept both good and adversity from the hand of God.
- Arrival of Job’s Friends:
- Three of Job’s friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—hear of Job’s afflictions and travel from their homes to comfort and console him.
- When they see Job’s distress, they are so overcome with grief that they weep aloud, tearing their robes and sprinkling dust on their heads in a sign of mourning.
- Seven Days of Silence:
- Job’s friends sit with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, not speaking a word, as they witness the extent of his suffering and share in his grief.
- They show their solidarity and support for Job in his time of distress by silently mourning alongside him, offering him their presence and companionship in his hour of need.
Chapters 3 to 37 are a central part of the book, where Job, a righteous man, suffers immense loss and pain. Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, visit him to offer comfort, but they end up engaging in a series of debates about the nature of suffering and God’s justice. Job passionately defends his innocence and laments his situation, while his friends argue that suffering must be a result of sin. However, Job maintains his integrity and seeks answers from God. The dialogue between Job and his friends is one of the most compelling and philosophically rich passages in religious literature.
2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
2:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
2:8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
2:13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.