Mates care sufficiently to come without being asked to come.

No one sent a message announcing to Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar, “Would you please come and bring a little sympathy and comfort for Job? The person is dying in this cooking pot of suffering and pain.” That was not required, because real chums show up when anyone they like is truly injuring. Sympathy includes identifying with the sufferer.

They enter into their melting pot, for the point of feeling the misery and being personally touched by the agony. Comfort is making an attempt to reduce the pain by helping in making the sorrow lighter. Pals overtly express the depth of their feelings. They have methods of doing that, don’t they? It is not odd to see a mate standing nearby in the surgery room fighting back the tears.

It isn’t unusual for the buddy to express deep feelings. To the contrary, they come alongside and they get as near as possible. Pals aren’t offended as the room has a bad smell. Chums don’t turn away as the one they have come to be with has been reduced to the shell of his previous self, weighing half what he used to weigh. They don’t walk away as the bottom dropped out of your life and you are at wits’ end. These men literally tore their robes, spattered dust on their heads, and raised their voices and sobbed as they sat down on the ground with Job. They demonstrated the depth of their torment by staying a week and 7 nights without letting out a word. Buddies understand, so they say little.