Job Loses His Health
Job 2, verse 1. Then again as it so happened another day, the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and the devil also came among them to present himself before the Lord. Job 2, verse 2. The Lord said to the devil, “Where did you come from?” Then the devil said before the Lord, “I came here from walking around under heaven and going about all the earth.” Job 2, verse 3. Then the Lord said to the devil, “Have you considered my servant Job, since there is none like him on the earth: an innocent, true, blameless, and God-fearing man, and one who abstains from every evil thing? Moreover he still holds fast to his integrity, though you told me to destroy his possessions without cause.”
Job 2, verse 4. Then the devil answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin. Whatever a man has he will pay in full for his life. Job 2, verse 5. Yet truly, stretch out Your hand and touch his bones and his flesh, and see if he will bless You to Your face.” Job 2, verse 6. So the Lord said to the devil, “Behold, I give him over to you; only spare his life.” Job 2, verse 7. Thus the devil went out from the Lord and struck Job with malignant sores from head to foot. Job 2, verse 8. So he took a potsherd to scrape away the discharge and sat on a dunghill outside the city.
Job 2, verse 9. When a period of time passed, his wife said to him, “How long will you hold out, saying, Job 2, verse 10. ‘Behold, I will wait a little longer, looking for the hope of my salvation’? Job 2, verse 11. Listen, your memory is wiped out from the earth: your sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb, which I suffered in vain and with hardships. Job 2, verse 12. You yourself are sitting down, spending the nights in the open air among the rottenness of worms; Job 2, verse 13. and I go about as a wanderer and a handmaid from place to place and from house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, so as to rest from my labors and pains that now beset me. Job 2, verse 14. But say a word against the Lord and die!” Job 2, verse 15. Then Job looked at her and said, “You have spoken as one of the foolish women speaks. If we accepted good things from the Lord's hand, shall we not endure evil things?” In all these things that happened to him, Job did not sin with his lips against God.
Job's Friends Visit Him
Job 2, verse 16. Now when Job's three friends heard of all the evil things that had come upon him, each one came to him from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite king, Bildad the Shuhite ruler, and Zophar the Naamathite king. For they came to him with one accord: to visit and comfort him. Job 2, verse 17. Now when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him; and they cried with a loud voice and wept. Each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head. Job 2, verse 18. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke to him, for they saw that his affliction was terrible and very great.