Job 2
1 On another day, the angels came again and gathered together in front of Yahweh, and Satan came too.
On another day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Him.
2 Yahweh asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan replied, “I have come from the earth, where I have been traveling back and forth, seeing what is happening.”
“Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”
3 Yahweh asked Satan, “Have you (noticed/thought about) my [faithful] servant Job? He is very godly/righteous [DOU], he greatly respects/reveres me, and he [always] avoids doing evil things. And he still acts in a very godly/righteous manner, even though you persuaded me to [let you] cause disastrous things to happen to him for no reason.”
Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”
4 Satan replied to Yahweh, “He praises you only because you bless him [IDM]. People will give up everything they have to save their own lives.
“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up all he owns in exchange for his life.
5 But if you harm his body [MTY], he will surely curse you openly [IDM]!”
But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
6 Yahweh replied to Satan, “(All right/Okay), you may do to him whatever you want to do, but do not cause him to die.”
“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.”
7 So Satan left, and he caused Job to be afflicted with very painful boils, from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.
So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
8 Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped the boils on his skin, and he sat in ashes [as people did when they were mourning for those who had died].
And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.
9 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to (be loyal to/faithfully trust in) God? You should curse God, and then you will die.”
Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10 But Job replied, “You talk like people who do not know God talk. (Should we accept only the good things that God [does for us]?/We should not accept only the good things that God [does for us].) [RHQ] We should also accept bad things.” So in spite of all these [things that happened to] Job, [he] did not say anything against God.
“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
11 Among Job’s friends were Eliphaz from Teman [town], Bildad from Shuah [land] and Zophar from Naamah [land]. When they heard about all the terrible things that had happened to Job, they left their home areas and went together to Job to console/comfort him [DOU].
Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him.
12 When they saw Job from a distance, they almost did not recognize him. They wailed loudly, they tore their robes, and they threw dust over their heads [to show how sorry they were because of what had happened to Job].
When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head.
13 Then they sat on the ground with Job for seven days. None of them said anything to Job, because they saw that he was suffering greatly, [and they did not think that anything that they said would lessen his pain].
Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.
