is to be understood, not misunderstood. The skillful author furnishes enough interpretive tools and concrete clues in the text to govern our conclusions in this area.4 The narrator’s introduction of Job’s three friends is the most objective indicator for how we should begin reading their words. Job 2:11–13 offers an inspired opinion of these men and the motives for their visit. They were not monsters or cardboard characters. They were not stereotypical bilge-spouting