won't make any difference, Is he that rich, Immensely so, imagine being the owner of seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses, The poor have a lot of imagination, said cain, indeed, you might say that's all they have, but I must confess I find such wealth unimaginable. There was a silence, and then one of the men remarked quite casually, We've met before, Yes, I have a vague recollection, said cain nervously, We angels have excellent memories, your name is cain and you were in sodom when the city was destroyed, Yes, that's true, I remember now, As you know, my colleague and I are angels of the lord, And what have I done to merit two angels of the lord helping me in my time of need, You were kind to abraham, you helped to ensure that no harm befell us in lot's house, and that deserves a reward, How can I thank you, We are angels, if we don't do good, who will, asked one. Cain took three deep breaths before summoning up the courage to ask, Given that your mission in sodom was to destroy the city, what mission brings you here, We cannot reveal that to anyone, said one, Well, it's not a secret exactly, said the other, and it won't be a secret once things start to happen, besides, this man has shown he can be trusted, Well, it's up to you, but what if he runs and tells job, Job probably wouldn't believe him, Fine, do as you please, I wash my hands of it. Cain stopped and said, Please don't fall out because of me, tell me if you want, but if you don't, don't, it really doesn't matter either way. In the face of such selflessness, the more reticent of the angels gave in, Go on, he said, tell him, then fixing cain with a stern eye, he said,
But you must swear that you will reveal to no one else what you are about to hear, I swear, declared cain, raising his right hand. The other angel said, A few days ago, as happens now and then, all the celestial beings were gathered before god, including satan, and god asked him, Where have you been, and satan answered, I have been walking to and fro about the earth, Did you notice my servant job, there is none like him on the earth, he is a perfect and upright man, who fears god and eschews evil. Satan, who listened to these words with a scornful sneer on his face, asked the lord, Do you really think his religious feelings are entirely disinterested, isn't it true that, like a hedge, you protect him on all sides, him and his family and everything that belongs to him. He paused, then went on, But if you were to put forth your hand and touch what is his, you would see how he would curse you. Then the lord said to satan, Everything he has is at your disposal, but him you cannot touch. When satan heard this, he left, which is why we are here, To do what, asked cain, To make sure that satan doesn't go too far, that he doesn't overstep the mark the lord has set him. Then cain said, If I've understood you rightly, the lord and satan made a wager, but this man job isn't to know that he is the object of that gamblers' agreement between god and the devil, Exactly, exclaimed the angels as one, That doesn't seem very fair of the lord, said cain, if it's true, as I've heard, that job, for all his wealth, is also a good and upright man, and very religious too, he has committed no crime, and yet, for no reason, he is about to be punished with the loss of all his money and possessions, now it may be, as many people say, that the lord is just, but I don't think so, it reminds me of what happened to abraham, whom god, in order to put him to the test, commanded to kill his son isaac, it seems to me that if the lord doesn't trust the people who believe in him, I really don't see why those people should trust in the lord, The ways of the lord are inscrutable, not even we angels can fathom the workings of his mind, Oh, I've had enough of all this nonsense about the lord's ways being inscrutable, answered cain, god should be as clear and transparent as a pane of glass and not go wasting his energies on creating an atmosphere of constant terror and fear, god, in short, does not love us, He it was who gave you life, My father and mother gave me life, they joined flesh to flesh and I was born, there's no evidence that god was present at the act, God is everywhere, Especially when it comes to ordering people to be killed, why, the death of just one of the children burned to death in sodom would be enough to condemn him outright, but for god, justice is an empty word, and now he's going to make job suffer because of a bet and no one will hold him to account, Be careful, cain, you're talking too much, the lord is listening and, sooner or later, he will punish you, The lord isn't listening, he's deaf, everywhere the poor, unfortunate and wretched cry out to him for help, they plead with him for some remedy that the world denies them, and the lord turns his back on them, he started out by making a pact with the hebrews and now here he is making a pact with the devil, what's the point of having a god. The angels protested indignantly and threatened to leave him there with no work, but at that point, the theological debate ended, and the three men more or less made their peace. One of the angels even said, I think the lord would enjoy discussing these matters with you, One day perhaps, said cain. They were standing at the door of job's mansion, and one of the angels asked to speak to the steward, who did not come in person, but sent a representative to find out what they wanted, Work, said the angel, not for us, because we are not from around here, but for our friend who has just arrived and wants to start a new life in the land of uz, What can you do, asked the under- steward, Well, I know a little about donkeys, I was assistant to the farrier in joshua's army, Very good, that's an excellent recommendation, I will send a slave with you and you can start work at once, I just need to know your name, Cain, And where are you from, From the land of nod, Hm, I've never heard of the place, You're not the first, saying the land of nod is tantamount to saying the land of nowhere. Then one of the angels said to cain, There you are, now you have work, For as long as it lasts, replied cain, with a glum smile, Don't be so pessimistic, said the under-steward, anyone fortunate enough to enter this house will have work for life, there's no better man than job. The angels said goodbye and embraced cain before returning to their task of ensuring that the lord's orders were carried out, besides, who knows, it may all turn out better than we think.
Unfortunately, it turned out far worse than could ever have been expected. Armed with the carte blanche given to him by the lord, satan attacked simultaneously on all fronts. One day, while job's sons and daughters, seven sons and three daughters, were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother's house, a messenger came to job's house, our very own cain, who, as we know, had been employed to tend the she-asses, and he said to job, The oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding beside them, when the sabeans fell upon them and took them away and put all the servants to the sword, and only I escaped alone to tell you. Cain was still speaking when another messenger arrived, The fire of god is fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the slaves and only I escaped alone to tell you. While he was still speaking, there came another, The chaldeans, he said, divided into three groups and fell upon the camels and carried them off, having first put the servants to the sword, and only I escaped alone to tell you. While he was still speaking, there came another, who said, Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother's house, when suddenly the came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell in upon them and killed them, and only I escaped alone to tell you. Then job stood up and rent his cloak and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return to the womb of the earth, the lord gave and the lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the lord. The disasters befalling this unfortunate family will not stop here, but before proceeding, allow us a few remarks. The first is to express our bewilderment at the fact that satan was able to do as he pleased with the sabeans and the chaldeans in order to serve his particular interests, the second is to express our even greater bewilderment on learning that satan had been authorised to make use of a natural phenomenon, in this case a great wind, and worse still, and this really is inexplicable, to use god's own fire to burn the sheep and the slaves tending them. So, either satan is far more powerful than we thought, or what we are seeing here is a grave case of tacit complicity, assuming it was tacit, between good and evil. Mourning had fallen like a tombstone on the land of uz, because all those who died had been born in the city, which was now condemned, who knows for how long, to a general poverty in which job would not be the least of the poor. A few days after these unhappy events, there was another gathering of the celestial beings, and satan was again amongst them. The lord asked him, Where have you been, and satan answered, I have been going to and fro on the earth and walking up and down in it, Did you notice my servant job, asked the lord, there is none like him on the earth, he is a perfect and upright man, who fears god and eschews evil, and who still holds fast to his integrity, even though you moved me to destroy him for no reason, and satan answered, I did so with your agreement, whether or not job deserved it was none of my business, neither was the idea of tormenting him, and he went on, A man is capable of giving all that he has to save his life, even his own skin, but put forth your hand now and make him suffer illness in his own bones and body and you will see that he will curse you to your face. The lord said, He is in your hands, but on condition that you spare his life, That is all I require, answered satan and he left the gathering to go and find job and, before you could say knife, he had covered him with boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. It was terrible to see the poor man sitting in the dust of the road while he scraped the pus from his legs with a potsherd, like the lowest of the low. Job's wife, who had not said a word until now, not even to mourn the death of her ten children, felt that it was time to speak up and she asked her husband, Do you still cling to your integrity, if I were you, if I were in your place, I would curse god even if, by doing so, I risked bringing about my own death, to which job responded, You speak like a foolish woman, if we receive good from god, why should we not also receive evil, that was his
