and he still holdeth fast his integrity, although
thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause."

SATAN--"Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his
life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh,
and he will renounce thee to thy face."

THE LORD--"Behold, he is in thy hands; only spare his life."

Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with
sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a
potsherd to scrape himself, and he sat among the ashes.

THE WIFE OF JOB--"Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce
God, and die."

JOB--"Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall
we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"

{184}

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon
him, they came everyone from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and
Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: and they made an
appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And
when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted
up their voice, and wept; and they rent everyone his mantle, and
sprinkled dust upon their heads. So they sat down with him upon the
ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him:
for they saw that his grief was very great.

(The action of the dramatic poem itself now begins.)

I

JOB.

Why died I not at birth?
Why did life receive me?
For now should I have lain down and been quiet;
I should have slept; then had I been at rest:
With kings and counsellors of the earth,
Which built up waste places for themselves;
Or with princes that had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver:
There the wicked cease from troubling;
And there the weary be at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together;
They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and great are there; {185}
And the servant is free from his master.
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery,
And life unto the bitter in soul;
Which long for death, but it cometh not;
And dig for it more than for hid treasures;
Which rejoice exceedingly,
And are glad, when they can find the grave?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
And whom God hath hedged in?
For my sighing cometh before I eat,
And my groans are poured out like water.
For the t