Select an Ellen White book from the sidebar to see each passage mapped to the Bible verses it amplifies, cites, or echoes.
››Chapter 2
Job 2:11"Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him."
"It was generally believed by the Jews that sin is punished in this life. Every affliction was regarded as the penalty of some wrongdoing, either of the sufferer himself or of his parents. It is true that all suffering results from the transgression of God's law, but this truth had become perverted. Satan, the author of sin and all its results, had led men to look upon disease and death as proceeding from God,—as punishment arbitrarily inflicted on account of sin. Hence one upon whom some great affliction or calamity had fallen had the additional burden of being regarded as a great sinner. DA 471.1"
The EGW passage describes a common belief in Jesus' time that suffering was a direct result of sin, either one's own or one's parents. The Job passage introduces Job's friends who came to comfort him, and their subsequent arguments reflect this belief. While Job 2:11 itself doesn't explicitly state the belief, it sets the stage for the discussion where this belief is prominent. The EGW passage amplifies the context surrounding Job's suffering.