Job 2

₁One day the messengers_from_heaven came and stood in front of the Lord again. God's_enemy also came with them to stand in front of God. ₂The Lord asked his_enemy: ‘Where have you been?’ His_enemy said: ‘I have been all over the world.’

₃And the Lord asked his_enemy: ‘Have you seen my servant Job? There is no one in the world like him. He is a good man, he is honest, he serves Me and he has not done anything wrong. He has done nothing wrong but you asked Me to make him suffer. I did, but he continues to live in the right way.’

₄Then God's_enemy said to God: ‘But Job, himself, is still strong and healthy. People will give everything that they have to stay alive. ₅But if You do something bad to Job's body, he will curse You, this is sure.’

₆The Lord said to his_enemy: ‘You may do with Job what you want, but you may not kill him.’

₇God's_enemy went away from the Lord and he made Job sick. He gave Job very bad sores all over his body. ₈Job took a piece of a broken clay pot and he scratched himself with it and he went and sat on an ash-heap. ₉His wife said to him: ‘Why do you keep on being innocent and good? You must curse God, then you will die.’

₁₀But Job said to his wife: ‘You are speaking like a fool. We accept the good things that God gives us. We must also accept the bad things that He gives us.’

While all of this happened, Job did not say anything that was wrong.

₁₁Job had 3 friends who knew of the bad things that had happened to him. All 3 of his friends came from their homes to visit him. Eliphaz came from the land of Teman, Bildad came from Shuah and Zophar came from the land of Naamah. They decided to come and show Job how sorry they felt for him. They wanted to comfort him. ₁₂When they were far away, they saw Job but they did not know that it was him because he did not look the same as before. When they came near and saw that it was him, they started to cry loudly. They tore their clothes and put sand on their heads. ₁₃They sat down on the ground with Job for 7 days and 7 nights. They did not say anything because they saw that he was in a lot of pain and that he was suffering.