1Again it happened on the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, that Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. 2The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, and said, "From going back and forth on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." 3The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. And he still holds firmly to his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause." 4Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, "Skin for skin. Indeed, all that a man has he will give for his life. 5But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." 6The LORD said to Satan, "Look, he is in your power. Only preserve his life."

7So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to his head. 8And he took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with while he sat among the ashes.

9Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold firmly to your integrity? Curse God, and die." 10But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we indeed accept good at the hand of God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

11Now when Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. 12When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and did not recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and threw dust in the air over their heads. 13So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.