The same scenario in the Spirit Realm comes around again, where God holds court with His angelic servants. Satan appears faithfully, but without faith. He suggests Job’s words of praise were a cheap attempt to bargain with God for nothing worse. The Hebrew words of Job’s praise include a reference to naked skin, and Satan uses a related term to mock him. We cannot identify in modern medical terms what malady struck Job, but it is clear the ancients considered it incurable. We get the picture of a man with a loathsome skin disease that weeps and wastes away while itching like fire. In later chapters we learn he has trouble eating and sleeping, and it seems to affect his joints, as well. Sitting in ashes is symbolic of social isolation. He is probably well away from human habitations, most likely sitting under a lone tree or a small tent awning on some higher point of ground.
It would be just as well he was alone, because there is little comfort from others. His wife displays a serious moral weakness, suggesting Job just die and get it over with. She seemed to think cursing God would would be fatal, which is a silly legalism. Job carefully answered without cursing her, saying only that she sounded like someone morally depraved. Job has no idea why God would allow all this suffering without a prophetic warning of sin, but accepts any suffering as God’s prerogative. We have a hard time comprehending the Ancient Near Eastern ethic of embracing joyfully the most severe whims of one’s feudal master, but this was proper protocol on Job’s part.
We are introduced to three peers of Job. Each man in his own right was a sheikh like Job. Eliphaz was from Teman, a place near Edom renowned for her sages. Bildad was descended from Shuah, Abraham’s son by Keturah. Zophar’s affiliation is lost to us; we guess it was another ancient East Bank community. The three would have been regarded as sage princes among their people. Upon sighting Job from a distance, they knew it was him, but not from his appearance. The visual change was shocking. Sitting quietly near him for seven days and nights was rather like a wake for the dead. For all their culture and wisdom, they knew there were no words of consolation possible.
