JOB'S WEALTH AND BENEFACTIONS

Job was asked once what he considered the severest affliction
that could strike him, and he replied, "My enemies' joy
in my misfortune,[7] and when God demanded to know of
him, after the accusations made by Satan, what he preferred,
poverty or physical suffering, he chose pain, saying, "O
Lord of the whole world, chastise my body with suffering of
all kinds, only preserve me from poverty."[8] Poverty
seemed the greater scourge, because before his trials he had
occupied a brilliant position on account of his vast wealth.
God graciously granted him this foretaste of the Messianic
time. The harvest followed close upon the ploughing of his
field; no sooner were the seeds strewn in the furrows,
than they sprouted and grew and ripened produce. He was