1 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves to the Lord, and Satan came with them to present himself to the Lord. 2 The Lord asked Satan, “What have you been doing?”

“Traveling around on earth, going here and there,” Satan replied.

3 “Have you noticed my servant Job?” asked the Lord. “There's no one like him on earth, a man of integrity who does what is right, who respects God and avoids evil. And he has kept his integrity, even though you wanted me to harm him for no reason.”

4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up everything to save his life. 5 But reach out and hurt his bones and his flesh, and he will definitely curse you to your face.”

6 So the Lord said to Satan, “Very well, you have the power to do whatever you want to him, but don't kill him.” 7 Then Satan left the Lord's presence and inflicted Job with horrible skin sores from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Job picked up a piece of broken pottery to scratch himself as he sat in ashes. 9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

10 But he told her, “You're talking just like any foolish woman would! Should we receive only good from God, and not evil?”* Of course Job is not aware that his sufferings are the result of Satan's actions, not God's. Despite all this, Job said nothing sinful.

11 When three of Job's friends heard of all the trouble that had happened to him, they each left their homes: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together and went to comfort and console him. 12 When they saw Job from a distance they hardly recognized him. They broke out into loud wailing, tore their robes, and threw dust into the air over their heads. 13 They sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. None of them said anything to him because they saw how badly he was suffering.