Job 2-4

1On 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“Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”

3Then 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“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up all he owns in exchange for his life.

5But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

6“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.”

7So 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.

8And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.

9Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”

10“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.

11Now 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.

12When 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.

13Then 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.

1After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

2And this is what he said:

3“May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’

4If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.

5May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

6If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year; may it never be entered in any of the months.

7Behold, may that night be barren; may no joyful voice come into it.

8May it be cursed by those who curse the day — those prepared to rouse Leviathan.

9May its morning stars grow dark; may it wait in vain for daylight; may it not see the breaking of dawn.

10For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.

11Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?

12Why were there knees to receive me, and breasts that I should be nursed?

13For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest

14with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,

15or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

16Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?

17There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.

18The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

19Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.

20Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

21who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,

22who rejoice and greatly exult when they reach the grave?

23Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

24I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

25For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.

26I am not at ease or quiet; I have no rest, for trouble has come.”

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2“If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?

3Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.

4Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

5But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

6Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?

7Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?

8As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.

9By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

10The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.

11The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

12Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.

13In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

14fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.

15Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.

16It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:

17‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?

18If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,

19how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

20They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.

21Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’