Context: Job, of the land of Uz, a man who is "perfect and upright" and who fears God and eschews evil, is the father of seven sons and three daughters and the owner of seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses. In a dialogue with God, Satan argues that Job has always been protected and blessed by the Almighty and that adversity would cause Job to curse Him. God grants Satan permission to test Job with the single restriction that he not harm Job himself. Job then receives the information from four messengers that all of his animals and his sons and daughters have either been taken by his enemies or destroyed by natural causes. On receipt of the information, Job grieves and says that he will return to the earth as he had come: