Job Gets Very Sick

Remember how Job lost all his animals and all his children but still loved God? Well, Satan wasn't done yet.

Satan went back to heaven and talked to God again. 'Job only stayed faithful because he's still healthy!' Satan said. 'Let me make him sick, and then he'll stop loving you!'

God said, 'You can make him sick, but you cannot kill him.'

So Satan made Job VERY sick. Job got painful sores all over his body—from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. It hurt SO much! Job sat down in the ashes (ashes are what's left after a fire) and used a broken piece of pottery to scratch his sores. He felt terrible.

Job's wife was very upset. She had lost all her children too, and now her husband was sick. She said to Job, 'Why don't you just curse God and die? End this suffering!'

But Job said, 'No! Should we only accept good things from God and not bad things too?' Job was still faithful to God, even when everything was awful.

Job had three friends named Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. When they heard what happened to Job, they came to visit him. When they saw him from far away, they could barely recognize him! He looked so different because he was so sick.

The three friends started crying. They tore their clothes (which people did when they were VERY sad) and threw dust on their heads. Then they sat down on the ground with Job.

They sat there for seven whole days and didn't say ANYTHING. They were too sad and shocked to even talk. They just sat with their friend who was hurting so much.

Sometimes when someone is very sad, the best thing we can do is just be there with them. Job's friends did that at first—but soon they would say things that weren't very helpful.