Job

¹There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. ²There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. ³His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east. ⁴His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. ⁵It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.

⁶Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. ⁷Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

⁸Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”

⁹Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. ¹¹But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”

¹²Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh.

¹³It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁴that a messenger came to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, ¹⁵and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

¹⁶While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

¹⁷While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

¹⁸While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁹and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

²⁰Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped. ²¹He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.” ²²In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.

¹Again, on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh. ²Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

³Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”

⁴Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. ⁵But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”

⁶Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.”

⁷So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. ⁸He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. ⁹Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”

¹⁰But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.

¹¹Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. ¹²When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. ¹³So 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.

¹After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. ²Job answered:

³“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

⁴Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.

⁵Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the day black terrify it.

⁶As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

⁸Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

⁹Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

¹⁰because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

¹²Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

¹³For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

¹⁴with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

¹⁵or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;

¹⁶or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.

²⁰“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,

²¹who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

²²who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.

²⁵For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.

²⁶I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

³Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Your words have supported him who was falling, you have made the feeble knees firm.

⁵But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.

⁶Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷“Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

¹⁰The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.

¹²“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.

¹³In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

¹⁴fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

¹⁵Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.

¹⁶It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,

¹⁷‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

¹⁸Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.

¹⁹How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

²¹Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’

¹“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

²For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.

³I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

⁴His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

⁵whose harvest the hungry eat up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.

⁶For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;

⁷but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

⁸“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,

⁹who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;

¹⁰who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;

¹¹so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the plans of the crafty, so that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.

¹³He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.

¹⁵But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

¹⁷“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole.

¹⁹He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you.

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.

²¹You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

²²You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth.

²³For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you.

²⁴You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.

²⁵You will know also that your offspring will be great, your offspring as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.

²⁷Behold, we have researched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”

¹Then Job answered,

²“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

³For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore my words have been rash.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

⁵Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder?

⁶Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

⁷My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.

⁸“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for,

⁹even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

¹⁰Let it still be my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of bronze?

¹³Isn’t it that I have no help in me, that wisdom is driven away from me?

¹⁴“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;

¹⁶which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.

¹⁷In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

¹⁸The caravans that travel beside them turn away. They go up into the waste, and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them.

²⁰They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.

²¹For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.

²²Did I ever say, ‘Give to me’? or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance’?

²³or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors’?

²⁴“Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand my error.

²⁵How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?

²⁶Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

²⁷Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend.

²⁸Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I will not lie to your face.

²⁹Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.

³⁰Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?

¹“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

²As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

³so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

⁷Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.

⁸The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.

¹⁰He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.

¹¹“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?

¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’

¹⁴then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,

¹⁵so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.

¹⁶I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

¹⁷What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,

¹⁸that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

¹⁹How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

²⁰If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

²¹Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

³Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

⁴If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.

⁵If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.

⁶If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

⁷Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.

⁸“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.

⁹(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

¹⁰Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?

¹¹“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?

¹²While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish,

¹⁴whose confidence will break apart, whose trust is a spider’s web.

¹⁵He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will cling to it, but it will not endure.

¹⁶He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden.

¹⁷His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.

¹⁸If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way. Out of the earth, others will spring.

²⁰“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.

²¹He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.

²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.”

¹Then Job answered,

²“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?

³If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.

⁴God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered?

⁵He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.

⁶He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.

⁷He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars.

⁸He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.

⁹He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.

¹⁰He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.

¹¹Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.

¹²Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’

¹³“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.

¹⁴How much less will I answer him, and choose my words to argue with him?

¹⁵Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

¹⁶If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.

¹⁷For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

¹⁸He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’

²⁰Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.

²¹I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.

²²“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.

²³If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

²⁵“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.

²⁶They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

²⁷If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up,’

²⁸I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹I will be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

³³There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

³⁵then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

¹“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.

³Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

⁴Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

⁵Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,

⁶that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?

⁷Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

⁸“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

⁹Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

¹⁰Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?

¹¹You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

¹²You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

¹³Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:

¹⁴if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.

¹⁵If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.

¹⁶If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

¹⁷You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

¹⁸“‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.

¹⁹I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Aren’t my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

²¹before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

²²the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”

¹Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,

²“Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?

³Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, will no man make you ashamed?

⁴For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’

⁵But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,

⁶that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

⁷“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

⁹Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

¹⁰If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?

¹¹For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it.

¹²An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt.

¹³“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.

¹⁴If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

¹⁵Surely then you will lift up your face without spot. Yes, you will be steadfast, and will not fear,

¹⁶for you will forget your misery. You will remember it like waters that have passed away.

¹⁷Life will be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it will be as the morning.

¹⁸You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety.

¹⁹Also you will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. Yes, many will court your favor.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”

¹Then Job answered,

²“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?

⁴I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.

⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

⁶The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

⁷“But ask the animals now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.

⁸Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you.

⁹Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this,

¹⁰in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

¹¹Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

¹²With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.

¹³“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

¹⁵Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.

¹⁸He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.

¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

²⁰He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.

²¹He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.

²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.

²³He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

²⁴He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

¹“Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it.

²What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.

³“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

⁴But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.

⁵Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.

⁶Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.

⁷Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?

⁸Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?

⁹Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?

¹⁰He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality.

¹¹Won’t his majesty make you afraid and his dread fall on you?

¹²Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay.

¹³“Be silent! Leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.

¹⁴Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?

¹⁵Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

¹⁶This also will be my salvation, that a godless man will not come before him.

¹⁷Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.

¹⁸See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.

¹⁹Who is he who will contend with me? For then I would hold my peace and give up the spirit.

²⁰“Only don’t do two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face:

²¹withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.

²²Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me.

²³How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.

²⁴Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy?

²⁵Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?

²⁶For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

²⁷You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,

²⁸though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

¹“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

²He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

³Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?

⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

⁵Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass.

⁶Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.

⁷“For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.

⁸Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground,

⁹yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.

¹⁰But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

¹¹As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,

¹²so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

¹³“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!

¹⁴If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come.

¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.

¹⁶But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?

¹⁷My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.

¹⁸“But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place.

¹⁹The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.

²⁰You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.

²¹His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.

²²But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

³Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?

⁴Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

⁶Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.

⁷“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?

⁸Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

⁹What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?

¹⁰With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?

¹²Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

¹³that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

¹⁶how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

¹⁷“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare

¹⁸(which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

¹⁹to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):

²⁰the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.

²²He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

²³He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,

²⁶he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,

²⁷because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.

²⁸He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

²⁹He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.

³¹Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.

³²It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.

³³He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.

³⁴For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”

¹Then Job answered,

²“I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!

³Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

⁴I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

⁵but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.

⁶“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

⁷But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate.

⁸You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

⁹He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

¹⁰They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

¹¹God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.

¹³His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my bile on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant.

¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids,

¹⁷although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸“Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.

¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.

²⁰My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,

²¹that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!

²²For when a few years have come, I will go the way of no return.

¹“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me.

²Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.

³“Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?

⁴For you have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore you will not exalt them.

⁵He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.

⁷My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

⁸Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.

⁹Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

¹⁰But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man among you.

¹¹My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.

¹²They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.

¹³If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,

¹⁴if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’

¹⁵where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it?

¹⁶Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.

³Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

⁴You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵“Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out. The spark of his fire won’t shine.

⁶The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out.

⁷The steps of his strength will be shortened. His own counsel will cast him down.

⁸For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.

⁹A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him.

¹⁰A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path.

¹¹Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels.

¹²His strength will be famished. Calamity will be ready at his side.

¹³The members of his body will be devoured. The firstborn of death will devour his members.

¹⁴He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors.

¹⁵There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation.

¹⁶His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above.

¹⁷His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street.

¹⁸He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

¹⁹He will have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived.

²⁰Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

¹Then Job answered,

²“How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?

³You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.

⁴If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

⁵If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,

⁶know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

⁷“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

⁸He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

⁹He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree.

¹¹He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

¹²His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.

¹³“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.

¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

¹⁸Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

¹⁹All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

²⁰My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹“Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me.

²²Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

²⁵But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

²⁶After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,

²⁷whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.

²⁸If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,

²⁹be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

²“Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.

³I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.

⁴Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,

⁵that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?

⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

⁷yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

⁸He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more.

¹⁰His children will seek the favor of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.

¹²“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,

¹³though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth,

¹⁴yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.

¹⁵He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.

¹⁷He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.

¹⁸He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten.

¹⁹For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.

²⁰“Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights.

²¹There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²²In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.

²³When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.

²⁴He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through.

²⁵He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent.

²⁷The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”

¹Then Job answered,

²“Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

³Allow me, and I also will speak. After I have spoken, mock on.

⁴As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?

⁵Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

⁶When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

⁷“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

⁸Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.

¹¹They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

¹²They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.

¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

¹⁶Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?

¹⁸How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

²⁰Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

²²“Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?

²³One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

²⁴His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.

²⁶They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.

²⁷“Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.

²⁸For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

²⁹Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,

³⁰that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, that they are led out to the day of wrath?

³¹Who will declare his way to his face? Who will repay him what he has done?

³²Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men will keep watch over the tomb.

³³The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. All men will draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

³⁴So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?

⁴Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?

⁵Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.

⁶For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

¹⁰Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,

¹¹or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.

¹²“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!

¹³You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’

¹⁵Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,

¹⁶who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

¹⁷who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’

¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,

²⁰saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’

²¹“Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you.

²²Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.

²⁴Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

²⁵The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.

²⁶For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.

²⁸You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.

³⁰He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

¹Then Job answered,

²“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

³Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!

⁴I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me.

⁶Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me.

⁷There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

⁸“If I go east, he is not there. If I go west, I can’t find him.

⁹He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him.

¹⁰But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I will come out like gold.

¹¹My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned away.

¹²I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does.

¹⁴For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

¹“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?

²There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

³They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

⁴They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

⁵Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

⁶They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

⁸They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

⁹There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,

¹⁰so that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.

¹¹They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

¹²From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.

¹³“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.

¹⁵The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.

¹⁷For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

¹⁸“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.

¹⁹Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb will forget him. The worm will feed sweetly on him. He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree.

²¹He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.

²²Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.

²³God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

²⁵If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²“Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.

³Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?

⁴How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

⁵Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;

⁶How much less man, who is a worm, and the son of man, who is a worm!”

¹Then Job answered,

²“How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!

³How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

⁴To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came out of you?

⁵“The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

⁶Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

⁷He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them.

⁹He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.

¹⁰He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

¹²He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.

¹³By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.

¹⁴Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

¹Job again took up his parable, and said,

²“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter

³(for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);

⁴surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, neither will my tongue utter deceit.

⁵Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

⁶I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.

⁷“Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

⁹Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

¹⁰Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you about the hand of God. I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty.

¹²Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

¹³“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

¹⁴If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

¹⁵Those who remain of him will be buried in death. His widows will make no lamentation.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

¹⁷he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.

¹⁹He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.

²¹The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place.

²²For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.

²³Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place.

¹“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.

²Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.

³Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

⁴He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

⁶Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.

⁷That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.

⁸The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

⁹He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.

¹⁰He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

¹²“But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man doesn’t know its price, and it isn’t found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’

¹⁵It can’t be gotten for gold, neither will silver be weighed for its price.

¹⁶It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

¹⁷Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.

¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it. It won’t be valued with pure gold.

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?

²¹Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.

²²Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

²³“God understands its way, and he knows its place.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.

²⁵He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.

²⁶When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder,

²⁷then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.

²⁸To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”

¹Job again took up his parable, and said,

²“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

³when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,

⁴as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was in my tent,

⁵when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me,

⁶when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

⁷when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.

⁸The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood.

⁹The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

¹⁰The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me,

¹²because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,

¹³the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.

¹⁷I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹⁸Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.

²⁰My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.

²²After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them.

²³They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.

²⁵I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

¹“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.

²Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

³They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

⁴They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.

⁵They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief,

⁶so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles.

⁸They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.

⁹“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

¹²On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet. They cast their ways of destruction up against me.

¹³They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin.

¹⁵Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

¹⁷In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

¹⁸My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

²¹You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

²²You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

²³For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

²⁵Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?

²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.

²⁷My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

²⁸I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

²⁹I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

³⁰My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

³¹Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

¹“I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

²For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?

³Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?

⁴Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?

⁵“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit

⁶(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);

⁷if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,

⁸then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

⁹“If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,

¹⁰then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.

¹¹For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,

¹²for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.

¹³“If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me,

¹⁴what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him?

¹⁵Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶“If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

¹⁷or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it

¹⁸(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb);

¹⁹if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

²⁰if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;

²¹if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate;

²²then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.

²³For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing.

²⁴“If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’

²⁵If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;

²⁶if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth;

²⁸this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have denied the God who is above.

²⁹“If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him

³⁰(I have certainly not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);

³¹if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’

³²(the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler);

³³if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

³⁴because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—

³⁵oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!

³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and I would bind it to me as a crown.

³⁷I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him like a prince.

³⁸If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;

³⁹if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,

⁴⁰let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.

¹So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ²Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God. ³Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. ⁴Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he. ⁵When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled.

⁶Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, “I am young, and you are very old. Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion.

⁷I said, ‘Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’

⁸But there is a spirit in man, and the Spirit of the Almighty gives them understanding.

⁹It is not the great who are wise, nor the aged who understand justice.

¹⁰Therefore I said, ‘Listen to me; I also will show my opinion.’

¹¹“Behold, I waited for your words, and I listened for your reasoning, while you searched out what to say.

¹²Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who convinced Job, or who answered his words, among you.

¹³Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom. God may refute him, not man;’

¹⁴for he has not directed his words against me; neither will I answer him with your speeches.

¹⁵“They are amazed. They answer no more. They don’t have a word to say.

¹⁶Shall I wait, because they don’t speak, because they stand still, and answer no more?

¹⁷I also will answer my part, and I also will show my opinion.

¹⁸For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me.

¹⁹Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst.

²⁰I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer.

²¹Please don’t let me respect any man’s person, neither will I give flattering titles to any man.

²²For I don’t know how to give flattering titles, or else my Maker would soon take me away.

¹“However, Job, please hear my speech, and listen to all my words.

²See now, I have opened my mouth. My tongue has spoken in my mouth.

³My words will utter the uprightness of my heart. That which my lips know they will speak sincerely.

⁴The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

⁵If you can, answer me. Set your words in order before me, and stand up.

⁶Behold, I am toward God even as you are. I am also formed out of the clay.

⁷Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you.

⁸“Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I have heard the voice of your words, saying,

⁹‘I am clean, without disobedience. I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.

¹⁰Behold, he finds occasions against me. He counts me for his enemy.

¹¹He puts my feet in the stocks. He marks all my paths.’

¹²“Behold, I will answer you. In this you are not just, for God is greater than man.

¹³Why do you strive against him, because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters?

¹⁴For God speaks once, yes twice, though man pays no attention.

¹⁵In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbering on the bed,

¹⁶then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,

¹⁷that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.

¹⁸He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹“He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones,

²⁰so that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty food.

²¹His flesh is so consumed away that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.

²²Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers.

²³“If there is beside him an angel, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him,

²⁴then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’

²⁵His flesh will be fresher than a child’s. He returns to the days of his youth.

²⁶He prays to God, and he is favorable to him, so that he sees his face with joy. He restores to man his righteousness.

²⁷He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.

²⁸He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life will see the light.’

²⁹“Behold, God does all these things, twice, yes three times, with a man,

³⁰to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.

³¹Mark well, Job, and listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will speak.

³²If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak, for I desire to justify you.

³³If not, listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom.”

¹Moreover Elihu answered,

²“Hear my words, you wise men. Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.

³For the ear tries words, as the palate tastes food.

⁴Let us choose for us that which is right. Let us know among ourselves what is good.

⁵For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right.

⁶Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’

⁷What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,

⁸who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men?

⁹For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.’

¹⁰“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

¹¹For the work of a man he will give to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.

¹²Yes surely, God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice.

¹³Who put him in charge of the earth? Or who has appointed him over the whole world?

¹⁴If he set his heart on himself, if he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,

¹⁵all flesh would perish together, and man would turn again to dust.

¹⁶“If now you have understanding, hear this. Listen to the voice of my words.

¹⁷Should even one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,

¹⁸who says to a king, ‘Vile!’ or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’?

¹⁹He doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respect the rich more than the poor, for they all are the work of his hands.

²⁰In a moment they die, even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand.

²¹“For his eyes are on the ways of a man. He sees all his goings.

²²There is no darkness, nor thick gloom, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

²³For he doesn’t need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.

²⁴He breaks mighty men in pieces in ways past finding out, and sets others in their place.

²⁵Therefore he takes knowledge of their works. He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.

²⁶He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others;

²⁷because they turned away from following him, and wouldn’t pay attention to any of his ways,

²⁸so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.

²⁹When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? He is over a nation or a man alike,

³⁰that the godless man may not reign, that there be no one to ensnare the people.

³¹“For has any said to God, ‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.

³²Teach me that which I don’t see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?

³³Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it? For you must choose, and not I. Therefore speak what you know.

³⁴Men of understanding will tell me, yes, every wise man who hears me:

³⁵‘Job speaks without knowledge. His words are without wisdom.’

³⁶I wish that Job were tried to the end, because of his answering like wicked men.

³⁷For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.”

¹Moreover Elihu answered,

²“Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’

³that you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’

⁴I will answer you, and your companions with you.

⁵Look to the skies, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit a son of man.

⁹“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

¹¹who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

¹²There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him!

¹⁵But now, because he has not visited in his anger, neither does he greatly regard arrogance,

¹⁶therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”

¹Elihu also continued, and said,

²“Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.

³I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁶He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted.

⁷He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

⁸If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,

⁹then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.

¹⁰He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.

¹²But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.

¹³“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.

¹⁴They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.

¹⁶Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.

¹⁷“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.

¹⁸Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.

¹⁹Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?

²⁰Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.

²¹Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.

²²Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?

²³Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?

²⁴“Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung.

²⁵All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.

²⁶Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.

²⁷For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,

²⁸which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.

²⁹Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion?

³⁰Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.

³¹For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.

³²He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.

³³Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.

¹“Yes, at this my heart trembles, and is moved out of its place.

²Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, the sound that goes out of his mouth.

³He sends it out under the whole sky, and his lightning to the ends of the earth.

⁴After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his majesty. He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard.

⁵God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.

⁶For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.

⁷He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he has made may know it.

⁸Then the animals take cover, and remain in their dens.

⁹Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north.

¹⁰By the breath of God, ice is given, and the width of the waters is frozen.

¹¹Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.

¹²It is turned around by his guidance, that they may do whatever he commands them on the surface of the habitable world,

¹³whether it is for correction, or for his land, or for loving kindness, that he causes it to come.

¹⁴“Listen to this, Job. Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God controls them, and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

¹⁶Do you know the workings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?

¹⁷You whose clothing is warm when the earth is still by reason of the south wind?

¹⁸Can you, with him, spread out the sky, which is strong as a cast metal mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we will tell him, for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness.

²⁰Will it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?

²¹Now men don’t see the light which is bright in the skies, but the wind passes, and clears them.

²²Out of the north comes golden splendor. With God is awesome majesty.

²³We can’t reach the Almighty. He is exalted in power. In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.

²⁴Therefore men revere him. He doesn’t regard any who are wise of heart.”

¹Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

²“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

³Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!

⁴“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.

⁵Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?

⁶What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,

⁹when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,

¹⁰marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,

¹¹and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?

¹²“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place,

¹³that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment.

¹⁵From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.

¹⁶“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.

¹⁹“What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,

²⁰that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?

²¹Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

²³which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

²⁴By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?

²⁵Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm,

²⁶to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man,

²⁷to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?

²⁸Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?

²⁹Whose womb did the ice come out of? Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky?

³⁰The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.

³¹“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?

³²Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

³⁴“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?

³⁵Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,

³⁸when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?

¹“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?

²Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?

³They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains.

⁴Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again.

⁵“Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,

⁶whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.

⁸The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing.

⁹“Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?

¹⁰Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?

¹²Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love?

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust,

¹⁵and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,

¹⁷because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding.

¹⁸When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.

¹⁹“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?

²⁰Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.

²¹He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.

²²He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword.

²³The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin.

²⁴He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?

²⁸On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold.

²⁹From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.

³⁰His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.”

¹Moreover Yahweh answered Job,

²“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

³Then Job answered Yahweh,

⁴“Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”

⁶Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind:

⁷“Now brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me.

⁸Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?

⁹Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?

¹⁰“Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty.

¹¹Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.

¹²Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place.

¹³Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place.

¹⁴Then I will also admit to you that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵“See now behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox.

¹⁶Look now, his strength is in his thighs. His force is in the muscles of his belly.

¹⁷He moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

¹⁸His bones are like tubes of bronze. His limbs are like bars of iron.

¹⁹He is the chief of the ways of God. He who made him gives him his sword.

²⁰Surely the mountains produce food for him, where all the animals of the field play.

²¹He lies under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.

²²The lotuses cover him with their shade. The willows of the brook surround him.

²³Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble. He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.

²⁴Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with a snare?

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord?

²Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his jaw through with a hook?

³Will he make many petitions to you, or will he speak soft words to you?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever?

⁵Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls?

⁶Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears?

⁸Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more.

⁹Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?

¹⁰None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

¹¹Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.

¹²“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.

¹³Who can strip off his outer garment? Who will come within his jaws?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.

¹⁵Strong scales are his pride, shut up together with a close seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined to one another. They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart.

¹⁸His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out.

²⁰Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.

²¹His breath kindles coals. A flame goes out of his mouth.

²²There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him.

²³The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can’t be moved.

²⁴His heart is as firm as a stone, yes, firm as the lower millstone.

²⁵When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing.

²⁶If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail; nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.

²⁷He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him.

²⁹Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.

³⁰His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.

³¹He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair.

³³On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear.

³⁴He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.”

¹Then Job answered Yahweh:

²“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.

³You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.

⁴You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’

⁵I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

⁶Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

⁷It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. ⁸Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.

¹⁰Yahweh restored Job’s prosperity when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before. ¹¹Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, came to him and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.

¹²So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. ¹³He had also seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch. ¹⁵In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. ¹⁶After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations. ¹⁷So Job died, being old and full of days.