³The Lord asked Satan, “Have you thought about my servant Job? No one in the world is like him! He is a man of integrity: He is decent, he fears God, and he stays away from evil. And he still holds on to his principles. You’re trying to provoke me into ruining him for no reason.”

⁴Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! Certainly, a man will give everything he has for his life. ⁵But stretch out your hand, and strike his flesh and bones. I bet he’ll curse you to your face.”

⁶The Lord told Satan, “He is in your power, but you must spare his life!”

Job’s Second Crisis

⁷Satan left the Lord’s presence and struck Job with painful boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. ⁸Job took a piece of broken pottery to scratch himself as he sat in the ashes.

⁹His wife asked him, “Are you still holding on to your principles? Curse God and die!”

¹⁰He said to her, “You’re talking like a godless fool. We accept the good that God gives us. Shouldn’t we also accept the bad?”

Through all this Job’s lips did not utter one sinful word.

¹¹When Job’s three friends heard about all the terrible things that had happened to him, each of them came from his home—Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah, Zophar of Naama. They had agreed they would go together to sympathize with Job and comfort him.

¹²When they saw him from a distance, they didn’t even recognize him. They cried out loud and wept, and each of them tore his own clothes in grief. They threw dust on their heads. ¹³Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw that he was in such great pain.

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