Chapter 2

  And it came to pass, when on a certain day the sons of God came, and stood before the Lord, and Satan came among them, and stood in his sight,  

  That the Lord said to Satan: Whence comest thou ? And he answered and said: I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it.  

  And the Lord said to Satan: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a man simple, and upright, and fearing Cod, and avoiding evil, and still keeping his innocence ? But thou hast moved me against him, that I sho uld afflict him without cause.  

  And Satan answered, and said: Skin for skin, and all that a man hath he will give for his life:  

  gut put forth thy hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, and then thou shalt gee that he will bless thee to thy face.  

  And the Lord said to Satan: Behold be is in thy hand, but yet save his life.  

  So Satan went forth from the presence Of the Lord, and struck Job with a very grievous ulcer, from the sole of the foot even to the top of his head:  

  And he took a potsherd and scraped the corrupt matter, sitting on a dunghill.  

  And his wife said to him: Dost thou still continue in thy simplicity? bless God and die.  

  And he said to her: Thou hast; spoken like one of the foolish women: if we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil? In all these things Job did not sin with his lips.  

  Now when Job's three friends heard all the evil that had befallen him, they came every one from his own place, Alphas the Themanite, and Baldad the Suhite, and Sophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment to come together and visit him, a nd comfort him.  

  And when they had lifted up their eyes afar off, they knew him not, and crying out they wept, and rending their garments they sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven.  

  And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no man spoke to him a word: for they saw that his grief was very great.