Job 2:11 - Meaning and Application

Here we have a kind visit from Job’s three friends while he was suffering. News of Job’s unusual troubles spread everywhere, because he was a man of high standing and great goodness, and his suffering was so strange. Some enemies mocked his misery, and perhaps even made songs about him, as later verses suggest (Job 16:10; Job 19:18; Job 30:1). But his friends cared about him and tried to comfort him. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for hard times.

Three friends are named here, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. We later meet a fourth man, Elihu, who seems to have been present for the whole discussion. We are not told clearly whether he came as Job’s friend or only as a listener. These three are called Job’s friends, his close companions, like the special court friend mentioned in the lives of David and Solomon.

These men were wise and good, as their speeches later show. They were very old men, well respected for their knowledge, and people listened carefully to their judgment (Job 32:6). It is likely they were important men in their own land, perhaps princes or heads of families. Job had formed friendship with them while he was prosperous. If they were his equals, he did not treat them with jealousy; if they were below him, he did not look down on them. Such friends added more to his happiness than all his cattle.

Much of life’s comfort comes from friendship with prudent and virtuous people. A person who has even a few such friends should value them highly. Job’s three friends are thought to have been from the line of Abraham, and for some generations that family still kept some of the good results of Abraham’s teaching, even outside the covenant people. Eliphaz was descended from Teman, grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:11). Bildad likely came from Shuah, Abraham’s son by Keturah (Genesis 25:2). Some think Zophar was the same as Zepho, also descended from Esau (Genesis 36:11).

This preservation of wisdom and reverence among people outside the covenant was a hopeful sign of God’s grace to the Gentiles, when the dividing wall would later come down. Esau was rejected, yet many from his line still received some of the best blessings.

These friends also kept their friendship with Job in his trouble, when many others abandoned him (Job 19:14). They showed it in two ways. First, they came to visit him in his suffering, to mourn with him and comfort him (Job 2:11). They had likely visited him in his prosperity before, not for sport, but to enjoy his wise and godly conversation. Now they came to share his grief, just as they had once shared his joy. These were wise men whose hearts were in the house of mourning (Ecclesiastes 7:4).

Visiting the afflicted, the sick, the fatherless, and the sorrowful is part of pure and undefiled religion (James 1:27). When done from a good heart, it will be richly rewarded (Matthew 25:36). By visiting those in sorrow, we can grow in our own grace, because we learn many good lessons from their troubles. We can also help their comfort, because our respect and kind words may strengthen them.

Job’s friends did not come to satisfy curiosity about his troubles, and they did not come to speak ill of him like David’s false friends (Psalm 41:6-8). They came to mourn with him, to share his tears, and so to comfort him. It is much easier to visit people whose comfort is clear than those who first need conviction and correction.

Notice also that they were not invited, but came on their own (Job 6:22). It is good manners to be an uninvited guest at the house of mourning, and to step in before an invitation is given. They had also agreed together to come. Good people should make plans with one another for doing good, so they can encourage and support each other in it. If a good work is to be carried out, hands should join together. They came with a sincere purpose to comfort him, but their lack of wisdom later made them miserable comforters. Many people mean well, yet still miss their aim through poor judgment.

Second, they showed tender sympathy when they saw how badly he had been changed by his suffering. From a distance, they hardly recognized him, because his sores had so disfigured him (Job 2:12). His face was stained with tears (Job 16:16), like the once-healthy people in Jerusalem who had become dark and worn down by hunger and grief (Lamentations 4:7-8). What a change disease, or even deep sorrow and worry, can make in a short time. Is this Naomi? So people asked in surprise before (Ruth 1:19). In the same way, we might ask, Is this Job? How far you have fallen, and how your honor has been thrown into the dust. God allows such changes so we will be ready for them.

Seeing him in this miserable state, they did not turn away in fear or disgust. Instead, they showed even more tenderness. They wept aloud, and Job’s pain rose again at the sight of their sorrow, so that he wept too, and their tears flowed with his. They tore their clothes and put dust on their heads, showing sorrow and humility along with their wounded friend. Then they sat with him on the ground, because that was the place where he received visitors. They did not do it as a polite gesture, but from real compassion. They had often sat with him on couches and at his table when he was prosperous, so they were willing to share his grief and poverty now that they had shared his joy and plenty before.

This was not a quick, polite visit, the kind people make just to look in and leave. They stayed because they could not enjoy themselves while their friend was in such misery. So they took lodging near him, even though Job was no longer able to host them as he once had, and they had to pay their own expenses.

Every day for seven days, they came and sat with him at the house where he received visitors. They stayed with him as companions in suffering, which was already unusual, since friends often disappear when wealth is lost. They sat with him in silence. They were listening closely to the details of his troubles, but they said nothing.

Their silence showed how shocked and overwhelmed they were. Small troubles can be talked about, but deep grief often leaves people speechless. They kept quiet for so long to show respect for such great suffering. They did not speak, even though they may have talked among themselves about what this trial might teach them. They said nothing at first that would grieve Job further (Job 4:2), because his sorrow was already heavy enough, and they did not want to add to his pain.

There is a time to stay silent, especially when words might harden someone who is wicked (Psalms 39:1), or when words might offend God’s people (Psalms 73:15). Their waiting until the seventh day may also mean that they delayed their discussion until the Sabbath, which was likely kept even in the patriarchal age, so that any visitors who came then could join Job in worship and hear something useful. Or it may simply mean they wanted to show that what they later said was carefully thought through.

The wise person thinks before answering. We should think twice before we speak once, especially in a case like this. If we take time to think, we will be better able to speak briefly and to the point.