date: 06/05/
Righteous Job came from the country of Ussitas which was between Judea and Arabia and was the son of Zareth and Basra. A prophet for forty years, he flourished around 1900 BC. (according to others in 1400 BC). Despite his fabulous wealth, he was godly, just, upright and blameless.
By God’s grace, in order to test him, he was tempted by Satan and lost his wealth and every loved one, except his wife, and he himself was affected by a severe form of leprosy. Because of this he left the city and spent the rest of his life in a cave, praying and scratching his wounds for relief. Not even the exhortations of his wife and friends were able to turn him away from God. And when his wife visited him and full of anger she said to him: “How long will you endure saying: behold, I will wait a little while longer and hope, that I will get rid of my condition?” Behold, thy memory has vanished from the earth, for thy sons and daughters, these painful fruits of my womb, have perished. I labored in vain to raise them.
And you yourself sit on rotting refuse wormwood passing not only days but also nights in the countryside. I do not wander like a maid, passing from one place to another and from one house to another, and I wait for the sun to set, so that I can rest from the physical labors and mental pains, which today surround me. Say, then, a word against the Lord and die,” he, after hearing with his usual meekness these bitter words of his wife, answered her with great sorrow: “Why did you speak thus as one of the foolish women? Since you have received so many good gifts from the hands of God, shall we not also endure calamities?”, thus remaining again godly and blameless. Only for a moment, when he was visited by his three friends Eliphaz, king of the Thamanites, Baldad, tyrant of the Sachaites, and Shaphar, king of the Minaeans, who remained silent, after accompanying him for seven days, Job’s spirits were shaken, but immediately, through his deep faith, he regained this again.
After seven years of patience with this superhuman ordeal, God rewarded Job, giving him again all his lost goods and loved ones. He lived, after his ordeal, for one hundred and forty years and at the age of two hundred and forty, around 1650 BC, he slept in peace, being an example of patience and perseverance. His exploits are described at length in the Old Testament book of the same name.
