Then there came a messenger and told me, “Thy sons and thy daughters are dead.”  And verily I was greatly troubled, and rent my clothes.  Yet I said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away:  as it pleased the Lord, so is it come to pass:  blessed be the name of the Lord.”

So Satan perceived that, though all that I had possessed was taken from me, nothing could break my spirit or make me rebel against God.  He departed, therefore, and asked leave of the Lord that he might afflict my body.  And the Lord gave him power over my body to use it as he would, but over my life He gave him no power.  Then Satan came to me as I sat upon my throne mourning for the loss of my children; and he came in the form of a great whirlwind, and cast my throne down to the ground, so that I lay for three hours without moving.  And he smote me with a sore plague from head to foot, and I was filled with worms and ulcers and corruption.  Therefore I arose and went out of the city in great misery and sorrow of heart, and sat upon a dunghill, being severed from the sons of men because of my evil plague.  And there I remained many days.  And I had no strength to work and earn my bread, so that my wife was compelled to labour as a handmaid in the house of a rich man, and carry water; and for that they gave her bread, and she brought it to me.  Then was I cut to the heart, and said, “Alas for the pride of the men of this place!  How can they endure to treat my wife as a slave?” Yet after that again I strengthened my soul and was patient.

After some time they refused to give my wife food enough for her and myself, but allowed her only half of what they had given her before:  yet this she shared with me.  Yea, she was not ashamed to go and beg of the bakers in the market-place, that she might have wherewith to feed me.

When Satan saw her do so, he took upon him the likeness of a seller of bread.  And my wife came and begged of him, supposing him to be a man; and Satan said, “Pay the price, and take what you will.”  But she answered, “Whence should I have money?  Have you not heard of all that has befallen us?  If you will show mercy, show mercy; and if not, it is your own concern.”  He said, “If you had not deserved misfortune, I suppose it would not have come upon you; but now, if you have no money, give me the hair of your head, and take three loaves in exchange:  it may be that you can live on them for three days.”  And she thought within herself, “What is the hair of my head to me in comparison with the hunger of my husband?” And she said to Satan, “Come, take it.”  And he took a pair of shears and cut off her hair, and then gave her three loaves, in the sight of all who were in the market-place.  She took the bread and came to bring it to me, and Satan followed after her invisibly, and made her soul heavy within her.  So, as she drew near to me she lifted up her voice and cried aloud, “Job, Job, how long wilt thou sit upon the dunghill waiting and expecting thy deliverance,