Job 2:11-13 - Friends in Adversity?

Job 2:11-13

Job’s Three Friends

11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. 12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. 

13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

Job seemed to have three friends in his adversity who came from all over where they lived to mourn his misfortune with him and to offer their comfort in his pain and suffering.  No doubt they heard of his previous losses of family and possessions, and now of his personal health distresses.  This reminds us of the urging for us to do as well in Romans 12:15 in empathetic response to the joys and sorrows of others.  They actually set a time like an appointment to meet together to minister to their good friend Job and had not just independently arrived at the same time, telling us they were friend themselves of one another and not just Job.  When they arrived and observed his condition firsthand, their first response was sorrow and weeping, for they could not even recognize their friend because he was in such a state.  They tore their robes in response as a way of expressing deep grief and empathy and did something we do not read about when others tore their robes (Joshua 7:6; Nehemiah 9:1; Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 27:30); they sprinkled the dust on their heads, yes, but it tells us they did this with their heads lifted up to heaven also, as if looking to the Almighty for help and answers.  They observed the great grief and suffering of their friend and sat silently with him for an entire week as if trying to suffer with him to feel the weight of his condition, empathizing with Job before speaking to encourage him.  Unfortunately, we will see they were not able to help him the way we would think as their opinions turned more to judgment and assumptions concerning the source of his dire circumstances as they caused Job to defend himself for something he did not bring on himself since it was the adversary Satan who was behind the suffering.  Did Job then really have friends in adversity?