Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/256

234 Then Satan retired, despairing of seducing her from her duty. Rahma told Job all that had been said to her.

The prophet said, "O woman! he whom you have seen is Satan, and he desired to separate us. Do not speak to him again when he addresses you."

Some time after, the Evil One presented himself before the faithful wife under the form of a beautiful youth; and said to her, "What woman art thou, who art so radiant in beauty?" She answered, "I am the wife of a poor man, named Job." He said, "O woman! what hast thou, with thy wondrous beauty, to do with a poor sick husband? Go, be divorced from thy husband, and marry me. I have great possessions, and I will treat thee as a queen." She answered, "I am the wife of a prophet; I desire nothing higher." Then Satan withdrew, despairing of seducing her from her duty. Rahma told Job all that had been said to her.

Job said, "O woman! did I not tell thee to speak with him no more; why hast thou disobeyed my voice? That was Satan, and he sought to separate us. Do not speak to him again when he addresses thee." Some time after, the Evil One presented himself before the faithful wife, under the form of an angel; and said to her, "O woman, daughter of a prophet! I am an angel sent from God with a message to thee."

She said, "What message?" He said, "Behold the Most High is wroth with Job, for he renders no thanks for all the good things He gave to him; therefore hath the Lord rejected him from being a prophet, and he shall fall from worse to worse, till he is cast into the flames of hell; we, the angels of God, curse him, and do thou, daughter of a prophet, avoid him, lest thou come into the same condemnation."

When Rahma heard these words, she wept, and said, "After so many afflictions, shall the name of Job be taken from the number of the prophets? And after so many sufferings shall he perish everlastingly?"

Then she went to Job and told him all that had been said to her.

Job was greatly angered when she told him the tenor of the words, and he cried out, "Have I not warned thee these two times not to speak with him, who is the author of my affliction?