Open English Translation JOB Chapter 2

2 It was the day that God’s sons came to present themselves to Yahweh and the adversary (Satan) was also there among them. 2 “Where have you come from?” Yahweh asked the adversary.

“From wandering on the earth and going back and forth on it,” he answered.

3 “Have you noticed my servant Iyyov (Job)?” Yahweh asked Satan, “because there’s no one like him on the earth—a blameless and righteous man, striving to obey God and turning from evil. And he’s still holding firmly to his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to ruin him for nothing.”

4 “Skin for skin,” replied the adversary, “actually, a person will give everything they have to save their life. 5 However, just reach out and touch his flesh and bones, and see if he doesn’t curse you to your face.”

6 “Listen,” Yahweh said to him, “I’ll give you power over him, but you must preserve his life.”

7 So the adversary went away from Yahweh’s presence, and he infected Iyyov with bad boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. 8 Iyyov picked up a piece of broken pottery to scratch himself with as he sat down in the middle of a pile of ashes.

9 “Are you still holding tightly onto your integrity?” his wife asked him. “Just curse God and die.”

10 “You’re talking like a foolish person,” Iyyov replied. “Should we only accept good from God and not receive the bad?” In all of that, Iyyov didn’t sin in what he said.

11 When Iyyov’s three friends heard about all the troubles that had happened to him, they each came from his place: Elifaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuah, and Zofar from Naamah. They gathered together to come to console and comfort him. 12 but when they saw him from a distance, they barely recognised him. They wailed loudly, and they ripped their own clothes, and they threw dust into the air so that it would fall on their heads. (All three of those were traditional signs of mourning.) 13 Then they sat with him there on the ground for seven days and seven nights without saying a single word to Iyyov because they had seen that his suffering was extreme.