1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah, and Satan came also among them to present himself before Jehovah.

2 And Jehovah said to Satan, From where do you come? So Satan answered Jehovah and said, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking about on it.

3 Then Jehovah said to Satan, Have you set your heart on My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to swallow him up without cause.

4 So Satan answered Jehovah and said, Skin for skin! Yea, all that a man has he will give for his soul.

5 But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse You to Your face!

6 And Jehovah said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand, but keep his soul alive.

7 So Satan went out from the presence of Jehovah, and struck Job with malignant inflammation from the sole of his foot to the top of his head.

8 And he took a potsherd with which to scrape himself; and he sat down in the middle of the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!

10 But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish ones speak. Shall we indeed receive good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, each one came from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and show sympathy for him, and to comfort him.

12 And when they lifted up their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted up their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the heavens.

13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.