And three friends of Job heard of all this evil that was come upon him. And they came each one from his place Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to condole with him and to comfort him.
Job has lost his children, his wealth and his health, and now three friends leave their homes to reach him. Their arrival looks like help at last, yet commentators read it as the start of a second, deeper stage of his trial.
The verse names each friend by his district, and both the names and the districts carry meaning:
They came from districts noted for men of wisdom: "Is wisdom no more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished?" (Jer. 49:7). The "men of the East" had the same reputation. They seem to have been men of personal piety; at least they had a knowledge of the true God and of righteousness. Eliphaz has been defined as "God is strength," and by others, "God is fine gold." Both meanings suggest at least the greatness and supremacy of God. His country, Teman, means "the south," the country lying under the sun, open to the light. But while the south country is open to the light, it tends to be dry and arid. Light without life can never help.
That they had to arrange a meeting point tells us something about the length of Job's suffering:
The trouble must have gone on for a long time. We should not think Job's trial lasted only a few days. God set its limit, but that limit need not have been short. His terrible disease came after he lost his property, his family, everything here below. News of it reached friends who lived far away, and so they had to arrange to come together. This alone supposes the lapse of some time.
Whatever went wrong later, their coming was sincere. They arrived when nobody else would:
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar were real friends and brothers, though they proved to be only "miserable comforters." They came to Job when everyone else had deserted him. Children mocked him. Young men pushed his feet away. His relatives failed him, his close friends forgot him, and his servants gave him no answer. Even his wife refused him, though he pleaded with her for their children's sake. They were true-hearted friends. They said they would go and comfort their suffering brother. And they did go.
Their arrival opens something the earlier disasters did not.
God was soon pleased to bring out what was in his heart in a way man could not expect. He used godly friends to bring to the surface what the adversary had completely failed to reach or see. Their very presence drew out impatience even from the patient Job. God proves our weakness at the very point where we are strongest. In Christ alone we stand.
Their presence alone was enough:
It does not appear that the friends had spoken a single sentence. They sat in total silence, with torn garments and covered with dust, gazing on a grief too deep for them to reach. It was Job himself who first broke the silence.
One writer sums up the three men:
Eliphaz the Temanite used his eyes. Bildad the Shuhite used his ears. Zophar the Naamathite used his brain. But all this wisdom was hopeless, dear friends, when it faced this divine problem surrounding this wonderful man Job.
Sympathy was not what they lacked. They had no grasp of how God deals with a soul:
What had his friends done for him during the sifting he was passing through? He had good reason to say, "Miserable comforters are you all." They did not truly understand God's character, so they could not understand His dealings with a soul. They had no proper sense of sin. So they did not know that if God is to deal in blessing with man, it must be wholly on the ground of grace. They did not know how to meet his case. They said many true things, but not one of them was the right thing for Job's case, because they did not understand him.
Yet their failure was not wasted. It emptied Job of every human resource:
They might have helped if his case were an ordinary one. But here was a man of outstanding righteousness, stripped of every earthly possession in a way never seen before, and their tongues were silent. They did not understand God's ways with His own people at all. Their false and unworthy suggestions made Job feel how completely unable they were to help him, and threw him back on God Himself. So in the end he said, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you" (Job 42:5).
- Real friends. They came from far away, when his family, servants and wife had all turned away. Their love was real, even though their comfort failed.
- Real trial. Their arrival started a test the adversary's attacks never reached. Job's strong point was patience, and that is where God proved his weakness.
- Real silence. They had not spoken a word when Job broke down. Their presence alone stirred what lay hidden in him.
- Real ignorance. Eyes, ears and brain could not touch Job's problem. They knew neither God's character nor the ground of grace.
- Real outcome. Their failure drove Job off every human support and onto God. Hearing about God became seeing Him.
And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept. And they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward the heavens.
Three friends travel from their homes to mourn with Job and comfort him. They cannot even recognise him, and their tears raise the question the rest of the book answers: can sincere sympathy reach a grief this deep?
They arrived looking for the man they had known in his best years.
As they saw the ash heap and the miserable figure on it, they did not know him. The suffering and the disease had so disfigured and twisted him that they failed to recognise him. They had known him in the days of his great prosperity. Back then young men stood in awe of him, old men rose to honour him, princes stopped talking and nobles kept quiet (29:7-10).
The verse also hints at how long Job had already been suffering.
Job's trouble must clearly have gone on for a long time. We should not suppose that his trial was measured by a few days. God set its limits, but that does not mean it was short. His friends lived far apart, so they had to arrange to come together, and that alone means time had passed. What Job says later in his complaints fits with this and confirms it.
Weeping aloud, tearing the outer garment, throwing dust upward — these were the recognised signs of mourning, and here they carry a plain meaning.
On arrival they were deeply affected in seeing Job's condition, they wept and tore their garments, sprinkling dust on their heads in token of humbly feeling their compassion for him (v.12).
Some readers treat the friends as cold men who came only to argue. Commentators here push back on that reading firmly.
Anyone who denies that they truly loved Job does them wrong: their failure lies somewhere else entirely. To think their feelings were shallow, or that they had little love for their friend, is to miss the whole point and teaching of the book.
What they had heard did not prepare them for what they saw.
The story of his losses and the horror of his physical state moved them to tears. It shook them so much that for a whole week they sat with him without a word. The reality was far worse than anything they had heard. It must have been dreadful to leave them speechless like this. The words of sympathy they meant to say froze on their lips.
That silence was not indifference. It was the loudest thing they said.
They burst into tears, tear their robes and sit down with him. This is very touching and fitting, and the seven days of silence underline how real their sympathy was. They wept with the man who was weeping. They could not help with words, so their silence showed how deeply they felt it.
Job had already survived the loss of everything and had answered his wife.
But their presence clearly stirred up feelings and thoughts in his heart and mind that had been sleeping until then. He had quietly accepted the loss of his children, his property and his health. He had dismissed Satan and refused his wife's advice. Yet the presence of his friends made Job break down completely.
Satan's attacks never reached what lay underneath. Friendship did.
God used godly friends to bring to the surface what the adversary had completely failed to reach or even see. Their very presence drew impatience out of Job, patient as he was. It is exactly where we are strongest that God shows our weakness.
Sincere people can still fail as comforters when the trouble is past their understanding.
They might have been useful if his had been an ordinary case. But here a deeply righteous man had lost every possession he owned in a way no one had ever seen, and their tongues were silent. They did not understand God's ways with His own people at all. Their false and unworthy suggestions only made Job feel how unable they were to help him, and threw him back on God Himself.
God was at work on both sides of the argument.
Neither side suspected that God was allowing them to hurt one another. He was bringing out what would otherwise have stayed hidden, and humbling them all before Him.
- They came. Three men left their homes to mourn with Job and comfort him. Their love was real, and it is a mistake to call it shallow.
- They wept. Job was so disfigured that they could not recognise him. Their tears and torn robes were real compassion.
- They sat. Seven days of silence showed how deeply they felt it. The words of sympathy they had prepared froze on their lips.
- They failed. Sincere friends could not understand a case like this. Their presence broke the man that loss and disease had not.
- God worked. Neither Job nor his friends knew what God was doing. He used them on each other to bring out what was hidden, and to throw Job back on Himself.
And they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights; and none spoke a word to him; for they saw that [his] anguish was very great.
Job's three friends travelled from their own homes to reach him. What they found left them speechless — a full week on the ground beside a man they could not even recognise. The verse raises the question every mourner faces: what should you say, and what happens when nothing is said?
It is easy to read the silence as coldness, but the commentators refuse that reading. Their weeping and their week on the ground mark people undone by what they saw.
This is very touching and fitting. The seven days of silence show how real their sympathy was. They wept with the one who wept. They could not help with words, so their silence showed how deeply moved they were.
So where did it go wrong? Not in how much they loved him.
Anyone who denies their true affection for Job does them wrong: the failure lies somewhere else altogether. Their feelings were not shallow, and they did not lack love for their friend. To think otherwise is to miss the point and teaching of the book completely. God is showing us that no one and nothing is enough except Christ. The book of Job proves this. So the more you belittle Job or his friends, the less you gain from it.
The verse gives the reason nobody spoke: his suffering was too great. Disease had worked on him so long that the man in front of them no longer matched the man they remembered.
He was so disfigured and distorted by the suffering and the disease that they failed to recognize him. They had known him in the days of his great prosperity. Back then young men stood in awe of his personality, old men rose to do him honour, princes stopped talking and nobles held their peace. What a sad sight to see him in this deplorable condition... Then follows an impressive silence of seven days and seven nights. They are struck dumb and find no words to utter.
Job had already survived the loss of his children, his wealth and his health. What broke him was company.
But their presence clearly stirred up feelings and thoughts in his heart and mind that had lain dormant until then. He had borne the loss of children, property, and bodily health with submission. Satan had been dismissed, and his wife's advice rejected; but the presence of his friends caused Job to break down completely.
Kelly explains why being watched makes pain harder to bear than being alone.
If they had not been there he might have stood it. But sometimes we can bear alone what we cannot bear in the presence of other people, and that was the case with Job. And so Job bore this for seven days and nights. They sat there stiffly, judging him the whole time, without a word of sympathy. This stirred him up, and he broke out into expressions that were certainly very unlike his usual manner, and anything but glorifying to God.
The silence was not empty. Their minds were already working toward an answer.
The first shock at Job's terrible condition passed. Then they must have begun to think — why has this evil come on him? Long-accepted principles would suggest an answer... God punishes the ungodly; the righteous prosper; therefore… can it be?
Kelly draws the warning out: private reasoning that never becomes prayer will mislead.
They began to think; and thinking is a dangerous thing. In God's presence we judge ourselves and hear Him. How often these thoughts of ours mislead us! What we need is to pray and listen, so that we may receive His word from God... The three friends first kept up this dead and distressing silence toward Job. He soon had to learn, in bitterness, what came out of that silence.
Human comfort has a limit. Job's friends reached it — and even their failure served a purpose.
They failed to understand how such a perfect and upright man as Job could be so severely tried. So, after seven days of silence, their hints and false claims made that patient man cry out in the bitterness of his soul, "Miserable comforters are you all"... They did not understand God's ways with His own at all. So they made Job feel how completely unable they were to help him, and threw him back on God Himself. In the end he said, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you."
- Love came. The journey, the tears and the week on the ground prove these were real friends, not cold spectators.
- Silence sat. They said nothing because his suffering was past words — a man so wasted they could not recognise him.
- Thoughts grew. Silent reasoning filled the week. If prosperity means God's favour, then suffering must mean guilt.
- Words failed. When they spoke at last, these sincere friends became "miserable comforters." They understood nothing of God's ways.
- God worked. Their failure threw Job back on God Himself — and there Job moved from hearing about God to seeing Him.