Chapter II.
How blessed Job, having lost everything except his wife, did not yield to disturbances like a good athlete, nor did he refuse to compete.
Therefore, having lost his children and all his possessions except for his wife, who was reserved solely for his temptation, and even being afflicted with a severe ulcer, when he saw that his friends had not come to console him, but to magnify and exacerbate his pain, he understood that the power to tempt him had been given to him by the Lord's adversary. And although he felt the arrows of the Lord in his body, by which he said he was being wounded, yet like a good athlete who would not yield to pain and would not refuse the challenges of the contest, he added: The Lord has begun to inflict wounds, but in the end He will not destroy me. For what is my strength, that I should endure? And what is my time, that my soul should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? In whom then do I trust? Has help left me? Have pity on me, O Lord, for you have afflicted me.
5. Is not man's life on earth a trial, and his days like the days of a hired worker? As a slave who fears his master and seeks shelter under his protection, or as a hired worker who waits for his wages, so have I awaited empty months, and the nights have been given to me in pain. If I try to rest, I ask: When will day come? If I rise again, I ask: When will evening come? I am full of sorrows from evening until morning. My body is consumed by the rot of worms, and I melt the clods of the earth, scraping the pus from my sores. But my life is lighter than a fable, it perishes in empty hope... I would say, my bed will comfort me... You terrify me in my dreams, and you strike me in my visions (Job 7:1 et seq.)