Job 2:11–13; 3 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
Last time, Job lost his wealth and his children, and then he was covered with painful sores from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. His wife told him to curse God, but he said, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10).
Then his three friends came: “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” (Job 2:11).
When they arrived, they did something very few people manage to do. And then Job spoke.
From a distance the three friends did not recognize Job, and they wept aloud. They sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one said a word to him. (Job 2:12–13)
1After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.
2Job answered:
3“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’
Job went on: let that day be darkness, let that night have no joyful voice, because it did not hide trouble from his eyes. (vv. 4–10)
11“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
12Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?
13For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
Job said that there kings and prisoners rest together, the weary are at rest, and the servant is free from his master. (vv. 14–19)
20“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,
21who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
25For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.
26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”
To read the whole passage: Job 2:11–3:26.
They didn’t recognize him. The three friends arranged to come together, in order “to sympathize with him and to comfort him” (Job 2:11). “When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept” (Job 2:12). They tore their robes and threw dust on their heads — they grieved together with Job.
Seven days and seven nights. Then “they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him” (Job 2:13). The passage gives the reason for the silence: “for they saw that his grief was very great” (Job 2:13). In the whole book of Job, those seven days are the best thing the friends do.
Job speaks. It is Job himself who breaks the silence: “After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth” (v. 1). His first words are: “Let the day perish in which I was born” (v. 3). Job does not curse God. He curses the day he was born.
Why. Then Job asks ‘why’ again and again: “Why didn’t I die from the womb?” (v. 11). “Why is light given to him who is in misery” (v. 20)? No one answers these questions — not in chapter 3, and not for many chapters after it. The passage simply records, as they were, the words of a man in pain.
Words of wanting to die. Job speaks of those “who long for death, but it doesn’t come” (v. 21). The passage does not remove these words, and in this chapter it does not rebuke him for them. That these words are in the Bible shows that a man who fears God can also come to a place this dark. But the passage does not present this as a way out either — Job said these words, and he did not end his own life.
Hedged in. In chapter 1, Satan says God has “made a hedge around him” (Job 1:10); here Job speaks of a man “whom God has hedged in” (v. 23). The same hedge: once it meant protection, and now to Job it feels like being shut in. Job does not know what happened in heaven — this is what lesson 1 asked us to keep in mind.
Read it as it stands. This chapter is not a cautionary tale about ‘weak faith,’ and it is not telling us that ‘anything you say to God is fine.’ The passage just records what Job said. At the end of the book, God says to Job’s friends, “You have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7). Why he says this, we will see in lesson 7.
To Job’s friends, when someone suffered like this, it was a time to sit down and weep together (Job 2:12–13). They tore their robes, threw dust in the air, and said nothing for seven days and seven nights.
Before they began to argue, they first knew how to sit on the ground together.
When someone is suffering, we are often in a hurry to talk: to explain, to advise, to encourage. The best part of Job’s friends was the seven days they said nothing at all.
Perhaps you are in Job’s place yourself, with many ‘whys’ you cannot say out loud. This chapter tells you: words like these are in the Bible too, and God did not abandon the man who said them.
If you are in danger, or having thoughts of harming yourself, please call for help right away, or tell someone near you whom you trust:
- Canada and the U.S.: for emergencies call 911; for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline call 988
- Mainland China: for emergencies call 110 or 120; for psychological support call the national hotline 12356 (24 hours)
- Hong Kong: for emergencies call 999
- Taiwan: for emergencies call 110 or 119; for the Taiwan suicide prevention line call 1925
This week: Think of someone who is going through a hard time. This week, spend some time with them — sit with them, share a meal, or make a phone call. Only listen; don’t advise.
Scripture: World English Bible.