- Again, there was a day when the children of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them, to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan, From where do you come? And Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
- And the Lord said unto Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth? A perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and eschews evil. And still he holds fast his integrity, although you moved against him to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in your hand, but save his life.
- So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with terrible boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took himself a potsherd to scrape himself with and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die. But he said unto her, You speak as one of the foolish women speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
- Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came every one from his own place — Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite — for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept. And they rent every one his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
- After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. And Job spoke and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a boy conceived. Let that day be darkness. Let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it. Let a cloud dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it. Let it not be joined unto the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months. Behold, let that night be solitary. Let no joyful voice come therein. Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark. Let it look for light, but have none. Neither let it see the dawning of the day, because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from my eyes.
- Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck? For now should I have lain still and been quiet. I should have slept. Then I would have been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth who built desolate places for themselves, or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver, or as a hidden untimely birth, I would not have been, as infants who never saw light. There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master.
- Why is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul, who long for death but it comes not? And dig for it more than for hidden treasures? Who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave? Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters; for the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has come unto me. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
Chapter 2