Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

  So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

  Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

  Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

  After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:

    “Let the day perish on which I was born,
        and the night that said,
        ‘A man is conceived.’
    Let that day be darkness!
        May God above not seek it,
        nor light shine upon it.
    Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
        Let clouds dwell upon it;
        let the blackness of the day terrify it.
    That night—let thick darkness seize it!
        Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
        let it not come into the number of the months.
    Behold, let that night be barren;
        let no joyful cry enter it.
    Let those curse it who curse the day,
        who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
    Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
        let it hope for light, but have none,
        nor see the eyelids of the morning,
    because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
        nor hide trouble from my eyes.
    
    
    “Why did I not die at birth,
        come out from the womb and expire?
    Why did the knees receive me?
        Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
    For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
        I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
    with kings and counselors of the earth
        who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
    or with princes who had gold,
        who filled their houses with silver.
    Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,
        as infants who never see the light?
    There the wicked cease from troubling,
        and there the weary are at rest.
    There the prisoners are at ease together;
        they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
    The small and the great are there,
        and the slave is free from his master.
    
    
    “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
        and life to the bitter in soul,
    who long for death, but it comes not,
        and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
    who rejoice exceedingly
        and are glad when they find the grave?
    Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
        whom God has hedged in?
    For my sighing comes instead of my bread,
        and my groanings are poured out like water.
    For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
        and what I dread befalls me.
    I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
        I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
    
    
      Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

    “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
        Yet who can keep from speaking?
    Behold, you have instructed many,
        and you have strengthened the weak hands.
    Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
        and you have made firm the feeble knees.
    But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
        it touches you, and you are dismayed.
    Is not your fear of God your confidence,
        and the integrity of your ways your hope?
    
    
    “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
        Or where were the upright cut off?
    As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
        and sow trouble reap the same.
    By the breath of God they perish,
        and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
    The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
        the teeth of the young lions are broken.
    The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
        and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
    
    
    “Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
        my ear received the whisper of it.
    Amid thoughts from visions of the night,
        when deep sleep falls on men,
    dread came upon me, and trembling,
        which made all my bones shake.
    A spirit glided past my face;
        the hair of my flesh stood up.
    It stood still,
        but I could not discern its appearance.
    A form was before my eyes;
        there was silence, then I heard a voice:
    ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God?
        Can a man be pure before his Maker?
    Even in his servants he puts no trust,
        and his angels he charges with error;
    how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
        whose foundation is in the dust,
        who are crushed like the moth.
    Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
        they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
    Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,
        do they not die, and that without wisdom?’ (ESV)

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

  To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

  Greetings.

  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

  Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

  Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

  Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

  Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

  If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (ESV)