a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,

While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house,

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.

Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?

What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.

“A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.

fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.

“Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me.

I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.

that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life!

Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?

when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,

The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth,

deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?

“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.

Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?

“But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face?

so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.

The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more.