And when they lifted up their eyes afar off…

Job's three friends arrive, left feet first, to console him. But their sympathies are such that the term Job's comforters have become an ironic commonplace: Corporeal Friends are Spiritual Enemies. In fact, their arguments constitute Job's third trial. The sun has now set. In the margin, Job and his wife stand beneath sterile trees. They are still shepherds of Innocence, enduring their sorrows of Experience with resignation.