The Adversary’s Attack on Job’s Person
2 And then[a] one day the sons of God[b] came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan[c] also came into their midst to present himself before Yahweh. 2 So[d] Yahweh asked[e] Satan,[f] “From where have you come?”
And Satan[g] answered Yahweh and said, “From roaming on the earth and from walking about in it.”
3 So[h] Yahweh asked[i] Satan,[j] “Have you considered[k] my servant Job? Indeed,[l] there is no one like him on the earth—a blameless man and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil. And still he persists in his blamelessness even though[m] you incited me against him to destroy him for nothing.”
4 Then[n] Satan[o] answered him and said, “Skin for skin! All that that[p] man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out[q] your hand and touch his bones and his flesh, and see whether[r] he will curse[s] you to your face.”[t]
6 So[u] Yahweh said to Satan,[v] “All right,[w] he is in your power.[x] Only spare his life.”
Job’s Blameless Behavior
7 So[y] Satan[z] went out from Yahweh’s presence,[aa] and he inflicted Job with loathsome skin sores from the sole of his foot up to the crown of his head. 8 So[ab] he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and he sat in the midst of the ashes.
9 Then[ac] his wife said to him, “Are you still persisting in your blamelessness? Curse[ad] God and die.”
10 So[ae] he said to her, “You speak like one of the foolish women speaks. Indeed, should we receive the good from God, but[af] not receive the evil?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
11 Thus[ag] Job’s three friends heard of this calamity that had come upon him. So[ah] each set out from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. And they met[ai] together to come to console him and to comfort him.
12 Thus[aj] they lifted up their eyes[ak] from afar, but[al] they did not recognize him, so[am] they raised their voice, and they wept, and each man tore his outer garment[an] and threw dust on their heads toward the sky.[ao] 13 Then[ap] they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, but[aq] no one spoke[ar] a word to him because they saw that his[as] suffering was very great.
Footnotes
- Job 2:1 Literally “And it came to be,” or “and it happened”
- Job 2:1 Or “the heavenly beings,” or “the angels”
- Job 2:1 Hebrew “the accuser,” or “the adversary”
- Job 2:2 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:2 Literally “said to”
- Job 2:2 Hebrew “the accuser,” or “the adversary”
- Job 2:2 Hebrew “the accuser,” or “the adversary”
- Job 2:3 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:3 Literally “said to”
- Job 2:3 Hebrew “the accuser,” or “the adversary”
- Job 2:3 Literally “set your heart”
- Job 2:3 Or “For” or “Because”
- Job 2:3 Hebrew “and”
- Job 2:4 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:4 Hebrew “the accuser,” or “the adversary”
- Job 2:4 Literally “the”
- Job 2:5 Or “please”
- Job 2:5 Literally “if not”
- Job 2:5 Literally “bless”—negative meaning by context
- Job 2:5 Hebrew “your faces”
- Job 2:6 Literally “And it happened the/one day”
- Job 2:6 Hebrew “the accuser,” or “the adversary”
- Job 2:6 Literally “Look”
- Job 2:6 Literally “hand”
- Job 2:7 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:7 Hebrew “the accuser,” or “the adversary”
- Job 2:7 Literally “the faces of Yahweh”
- Job 2:8 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:9 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:9 Literally “Bless”—negative meaning by context
- Job 2:10 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:10 Or “and”
- Job 2:11 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:11 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:11 Or “they agreed”
- Job 2:12 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:12 Or “they gazed”
- Job 2:12 Hebrew “and”
- Job 2:12 Hebrew “and”
- Job 2:12 Or “robe”
- Job 2:12 Or “in the air”; literally “to the heavens”
- Job 2:13 Hebrew “And”
- Job 2:13 Hebrew “and”
- Job 2:13 Or “there was no speaking”
- Job 2:13 Literally “the”