Job · Before explaining · Elias Thorn
Site: Elias Thorn / Shelter
Source: https://elias-thorn.com/en/rooms/records/garden-job-companions/
Language: en
Reuse: Retain the source URL and existing author credits. The site is the distribution source, not necessarily the original author or rights holder.
Scope: Public HTML text at build time. Interactive content, media and private records are not included.

Job · Before explaining

Job 2:11–13 · the friends arrive and sit in silence

2:11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.

2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

2:13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

Reading notes

The friends come to comfort Job and initially stay beside him. Explanations follow: Eliphaz connects ruin and trouble with the evil a person has sown. At the end of the book, the Lord rebukes him and his two friends for what they have said about Him. These three verses preserve the moment before the argument; the whole book is much more complicated than advice to keep quiet.

Read beside a discussion of treatment and care, the scene leaves a simple question: why must someone who is ill first hear a theory about what their pain is supposed to teach them? We could start with what they need now. Explanations can wait if the person has not asked for them.

King James Version, public domain. All three verses of the selected episode are reproduced without cuts. This is the end of chapter 2, not the whole chapter or the whole Book of Job. The commentary also considers Eliphaz's later speech (4:7–8) and the Lord's rebuke of the friends (42:7). The card title is editorial.

Open source ↗ (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%202%3A11-13&version=KJV)

Complete chapter 2 · Russian Synodal translation (https://azbyka.ru/biblia/?Job.2)

Job 2:11–13 · King James Version (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%202%3A11-13&version=KJV)

Eliphaz's later speech · Job 4 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%204&version=KJV)

The Lord's rebuke of the friends · Job 42:7 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2042%3A7&version=KJV)

Related traces

Suffering is not a required course. (https://elias-thorn.com/en/rooms/records/reddit-suffering/)Who sinned? · A question on the road (https://elias-thorn.com/en/rooms/records/garden-john-healing/)The cessation of suffering · What can change (https://elias-thorn.com/en/rooms/records/garden-suffering-cessation/)