The Friends Arrive and Sit in Silence

Job 2:11–13 — “The Friends Arrive and Sit in Silence.”

WHAT IS HAPPENING The test moves from possessions and children to Job’s own body. Job still refuses to curse God, and the friends’ seven days of silent presence are more compassionate than the speeches that follow.

THIS MOVEMENT The section’s own focus is “The Friends Arrive and Sit in Silence.” It begins, “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.” and closes, “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.”.