A seen that left 3 close friends Speechless

"When Job's three friends heard of" his suffering,  they decided to visit him, sympathize and comfort him (2:11b).  Who wouldn't visit his friend in his troubled days?  But when they got there, they saw something that they did not expect.

"When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him.  And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven" (Job 2:12).  

Job's suffering was seen from the distance.  Job's friends had hard time recognizing him when they came to visit.  Job's disease crippled him to a form that he didn't had his looks.  In order for a disease to cripple a person, person had to be very sick.  Maybe job lost lot's weight. We know Job clothes were torn and his head was shaved (Job 1:20).  In addition, Job was covered in sores, possible bleeding because he had a "piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes" (2:8).  Sitting on the ground (2:13) would probably make him be covered in dirt.  This was not who Job's friend imagined when they payed a visit.  Bold, skinny, dirty, depressed, covered in dirt, covered in blood a picture that Job's friend saw.

This scene shocked them so much that they "raised there voices and wept... they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads towards heaven."  This happened for a week–no one had said a word because "they saw that his suffering was very great."  What would you say to someone like Job?  How bad can a person look that even his close friends had no words to say, for a week?  None of us saw or will see a picture that Job's friend saw in our life time.  Job, the upright and blameless man, waits patiently for God to interfere.