SPEECHES BY JOB AND HIS THREE FRIENDS

Three friends of Job, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, hear of the calamity that befell Job and come to comfort him. So shocked are they at his wretched state that they sit silent for seven days. Job breaks the silence with a speech in which he curses the day he was born. In reply Eliphaz argues that, since God is just, Job must be getting what he deserves. Job answers him and asks to be shown where he has done wrong. Next Bildad and Zophar argue to the same effect, and each time Job maintains his innocence, justifying himself, however, rather than Jehovah God. And then there is a second round of speeches, and part of a third. Mistakenly trying to help Job, his three friends actually become his enemies, and far from comforting him, they add to his misery!

Repeatedly he reproves them for their harsh words, which become stronger and more in error as the discussion progresses: “What does reproving on the part of you men reprove?” “You men are smearers of falsehood; all of you are physicians of no value.” “What galls you, that you answer?”​—Job 6:25; 13:4; 16:3.

After hearing Jehovah God speak in this way, Job acknowledges that he spoke rashly, without full knowledge, and repents “in dust and ashes.” Thereupon Jehovah speaks again, this time censuring Job’s three friends. He requires them to make sacrifices and instructs Job to intercede for them.