Then Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head [in mourning for the children], and he fell to the ground and worshiped [God].

So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome boils and agonizingly painful sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

Because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
Nor hide trouble from my eyes.

Or with princes who had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver.

“I am not at ease, nor am I quiet,
And I am not at rest, and yet trouble still comes [upon me].”

“Behold this; we have investigated it, and it is true.
Hear and heed it, and know for yourself [for your own good].”

When it is warm, they are silent and cease to flow;
When it is hot, they vanish from their place.

“They were put to shame and disappointed because they had trusted [that they would find water];
They came there and were ashamed.

“Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
And the tents of the wicked will be no longer.”

‘Yet these [present evils] You have hidden in Your heart [since my creation]:
I know that this was within You [in Your purpose and thought].

‘If I am wicked, woe to me [for judgment comes]!
And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.
For I am sated and filled with disgrace and the sight of my misery.

‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb?
Would that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

‘I should have been as though I had not existed;
[I should have been] carried from the womb to the grave.’

“Only [O Lord,] do not do two things to me,
And then I will not hide myself from Your face:

“Why do You hide Your face [as if offended]
And consider me Your enemy?

“Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past,
That You would set a definite time and then remember me [and in Your lovingkindness imprint me on your heart]!

What wise men have [freely] told,
And have not hidden [anything passed on to them] from their fathers,

“I also could speak like you,
If you were in my place;
I could compose and join words together against you
And shake my head at you.

“Why are we regarded as beasts,
As if [we are] stupid (senseless) in your eyes?

“He has stripped me of my honor
And removed the crown from my head.

“Though his pride reaches the heavens
And his head touches the clouds,

“Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the distant stars, how high they are!

“Would He contend against me with His great power?
No, surely He would give attention to me.

“They crowd the needy off the road;
The poor of the land all hide themselves.

“Drought and heat consume the snow waters;
So does Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) [consume] those who have sinned.

“Yet God draws away the mighty by His power;
He rises, but no one has assurance of life.

When His lamp shone upon my head
And by His light I walked through darkness;

The young men saw me and hid themselves,
The aged arose and stood [respectfully];

Because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
And the orphan who had no helper.

“I smiled at them when they did not believe,
And they did not diminish the light of my face.

“Indeed, how could the strength of their hands profit me?
Vigor had perished from them.

“My skin falls from me in blackened flakes,
And my bones are burned with fever.

If I gloated and rejoiced because my wealth was great,
And because my [powerful] hand [alone] had obtained so much,

“Surely I would [proudly] bear it on my shoulder,
And bind the scroll around my head like a crown.

Elihu’s anger burned against Job’s three friends because they had found no answer [and were unable to determine Job’s error], and yet they had condemned Job and declared him to be in the wrong [and responsible for his own afflictions].

Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because the others were years older than he.

“However, Job, please listen to my words,
And pay attention to everything I say.

“Pay attention, Job, listen to me;
Keep silent, and I will speak.

“There is no darkness nor deep shadow
Where the evildoers may hide themselves.

“For you say, ‘What advantage have you [by living a righteous life]?
What profit will I have, more [by being righteous] than if I had sinned?’

“Take heed and be careful, do not turn to wickedness,
For you have chosen this [the vice of complaining against God] rather than [learning from] affliction.

You whose garments are hot,
When He quiets the earth [in sultry summer] with the [oppressive] south wind?

When the dust hardens into a mass
And the clods stick together [because of the heat]?

“[Crush and] hide them in the dust together;
Shut them up in the hidden place [the house of death].

“Can you fill his skin with harpoons,
Or his head with fishing spears?

‘Hear, please, and I will speak;
I will ask You, and You instruct [and answer] me.’

“I had heard of You [only] by the hearing of the ear,
But now my [spiritual] eye sees You.

It came about that after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.

The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him over all the [distressing] adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him a piece of money, and each a ring of gold.

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

He had seven sons and three daughters.