Suffering of the Righteous

The Book of Job is widely believed to have taken place in the area of Edom, south of Israel in an area settled by Jacobs's brother Esau during the Patriarchal Period. Here Satan acts as an adversary and challenges God stating that Job, although he is upright and just, is only so because God has provided him with protection and he has all that a man ever needed; family, friends, happiness and wealth. Satan challenges God and vows that if God would take his possessions, that he would curse God. God then allows Satan to take all that Job has, except his health. All that Job owns is then destroyed including his wealth, livestock and family. In all of this, Job never wavered from his love and respect for God. Satan then is allowed to take away Job's health as he is covered with sores and goes through tremendous physical suffering. It is then that even Job's wife tells him to "curse God and die," but three of his friends come and try to comfort him and mourn with him. Finally, God unveils himself in a vision speaking to Job out of a whirlwind and reveals that Job is a just and upright mans and reprimands his three friends for their charges against Job as a sinful man. In the end a sacrifice is made by his friends for Job and he is showered with gifts. Job goes on to become more wealthy than ever before and raises a new and wonderful family, living to be one hundred and forty years old, long enough to see four generations of his family.