Job

Chapter 1

¹ There was a man in the land of Uz. Job was his name, and that man was blameless and righteous, both fearful of God and turning from evil. ² Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. ³ And his stock was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 pairs of oxen and 500 donkeys and a very large retinue. And that man was greater than all the sons of the East. ⁴ And his sons went and made a feast, a man in {his} house on his day, and they sent and called their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. ⁵ And it happened that when the days of the feast had gone around, Job sent and consecrated them. He arose early in the morning and offered burnt offerings {according to} the number of all of them. For Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and blessed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did all the days.

⁶ And it was the day, and the sons of God came to present themselves to Yahweh. And the adversary also came in the midst of them. ⁷ And Yahweh said to the adversary, “From where have you come?” And the adversary answered Yahweh and said, “From wandering on the earth and from going back and forth on it.” ⁸ And Yahweh said to the adversary, “Have you set your heart upon my servant Job? For {there is} not like him on the earth, a blameless and righteous man, fearful of God and turning from evil.” ⁹ And the adversary answered Yahweh and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have you not put a hedge around him and around his house and around all that {is} his, from every side? You have blessed the works of his hands, and his cattle have burst forth in the land. ¹¹ However, just stretch out your hand and touch all that {is} his, if he will not bless you to your face.” ¹² And Yahweh said to the adversary, “Behold, all that {is} his {is} in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” And the adversary went away from the face of Yahweh.

¹³ And it was the day, and his sons and his daughters {were} eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother. ¹⁴ And a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys {were} feeding at their hand. ¹⁵ And Sheba fell {on them} and took them, and they struck the servants with the edge of the sword, and only I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁶ That one {was} still speaking and another came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and only I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁷ That one {was} still speaking and another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and rushed against the camels and took them, and they struck the servants with the edge of the sword, and only I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁸ That one {was} still speaking and another came and said, “Your sons and your daughters {were} eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother. ¹⁹ And behold, a great wind came from across the desert and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and only I alone have escaped to tell you.”

²⁰ And Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and prostrated himself. ²¹ And he said, “Naked I came from the womb of my mother, and naked I will return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken. May the name of Yahweh be blessed.” ²² In all of this, Job did not sin and he did not ascribe impropriety to God.

Chapter 2

¹ And it was the day, and the sons of God came to present themselves to Yahweh, and the adversary also came in their midst to present himself to Yahweh. ² And Yahweh said to the adversary, “From where have you come?” And the adversary answered Yahweh and said, “From wandering on the earth and from going back and forth on it.” ³ And Yahweh said to the adversary, “Have you set your heart on my servant Job? For there is not like him on the earth, a blameless and righteous man, fearful of God and turning from evil. And still he is holding firmly to his integrity, although you incited me against him, to devour him for nothing.” ⁴ And the adversary answered Yahweh and said, “Skin for skin! Indeed, all that {is} to a man, he will give for his life. ⁵ However, just stretch out your hand and touch upon his bones and upon his flesh, if he will not bless you to your face.” ⁶ And Yahweh said to the adversary, “Behold him in your hand; only spare his life.”

⁷ And the adversary went away from the face of Yahweh, and he struck Job with bad boils from the sole of his foot to his pate. ⁸ And he took for himself a shard to scrape himself with it, and he was sitting in the midst of the ash pile. ⁹ And his wife said to him, “{Are} you still holding firmly to your integrity? Bless God and die.” ¹⁰ But he said to her, “Like the speaking of the foolish one, you are speaking. Indeed, will we receive the good from God and not receive the bad?” In all of this, Job did not sin with his lips.

¹¹ And the three friends of Job heard {that} all this evil had come on him, and they each came from his place, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, and they gathered together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. ¹² And they raised their eyes from afar and they did not recognize him, and they raised their voice and wept, and they each tore his robe, and they threw dust heavenward upon their heads. ¹³ And they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and {there was} no speaking a word to him, for they saw that {his} grief was very great.

Chapter 3

¹ After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. ² Job answered and said,

     ³ “May the day on which I was born perish,

         and the night {that} said, ‘A boy has been conceived.’

     ⁴ That day—may it be dark!

         May God not seek it from above,

         and may light not shine upon it.

     ⁵ May darkness and a dark shadow claim it;

         may a cloud dwell over it;

         may the blacknesses of the day terrify it.

     ⁶ That night—may gloom take it!

         May it not rejoice among the days of the year;

         into the number of the months may it not come.

     ⁷ Behold: That night—may it be barren!

         May a joyful shout not come into it.

     ⁸ May the ones cursing a day curse it,

         the ones skillful to awaken Leviathan.

     ⁹ May the stars of its twilight be dark;

         may it wait for light but {there be} none,

         and may it not see the eyelids of the dawn,

     ¹⁰ because it did not close the doors of my womb

         and hide trouble from my eyes.

     ¹¹ Why did I not die from the womb,

         come out of the belly and expire?

     ¹² Why did knees welcome me,

         and why breasts, that I should suck?

     ¹³ For now I had lain down and was reposing,

         I had slept, then it was being rest to me

     ¹⁴ with kings and counselors of the earth,

         the ones having built monuments for themselves,

     ¹⁵ or with princes, gold {having been} to them,

         the ones having filled their houses with silver.

     ¹⁶ Or, like a hidden stillborn child, I might not have been,

         as infants {sometimes} do not see the light.

     ¹⁷ There the wicked stop troubling,

         and there the weary in strength rest.

     ¹⁸ Captives relax together;

         they do not hear the voice of a taskmaster.

     ¹⁹ Small and great {are} there the same,

         and a servant {is} free from his master.

     ²⁰ Why is light given to the miserable,

         and life to the bitter in soul,

     ²¹ the ones longing for death, but {it is} not to them,

         and they dig for it more than for hidden treasure,

     ²² the ones rejoicing unto gladness,

         and they celebrate when they find a grave,

     ²³ to a man whose way is hidden,

         and God has hedged around him?

     ²⁴ For my sighing comes before my food,

         my groaning flows out like waters.

     ²⁵ For I feared a fear and it has arrived with me;

         what I dreaded has come to me.

     ²⁶ I have not relaxed, and I have not reposed, and I have not rested,

         but trouble comes.”

Chapter 4

¹ And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

     ² If a word is tried with you, will you tire?

         But to refrain from a word, who is able?

     ³ Behold, you have instructed many,

         you have strengthened weak hands.

     ⁴ Your words have upheld the one stumbling,

         and buckling knees you have strengthened.

     ⁵ But now it comes to you and you tire;

         it touches you and you panic.

     ⁶ {Is} not your fear your confidence,

         your hope, even the integrity of your ways?

     ⁷ Remember, now: Who, he {being} innocent, has perished?

         And when were the righteous destroyed?

     ⁸ According to what I have seen, the ones plowing misery

         and sowing trouble reap it.

     ⁹ By the breath of God they perish,

         and by the blast of his nose they cease {to be}.

     ¹⁰ The roar of the lion! The voice of the fierce lion!

         But the teeth of the young lions are broken.

     ¹¹ The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,

         and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

     ¹² Now a word was confided to me,

         and my ear received a whisper of it.

     ¹³ In troubling thoughts from visions of the night,

         in the falling of deep sleep upon men,

     ¹⁴ fear happened to me, and trembling,

         and it frightened all my bones.

     ¹⁵ And a spirit was gliding before my face;

         the hair of my flesh was bristling.

     ¹⁶ It was standing still, but I was not recognizing its appearance.

         An image {was} in front of my eyes.

         {There was} silence, then I heard a voice:

     ¹⁷ ‘Will a man be more righteous than God?

         If a man will be more pure than his Maker?’

     ¹⁸ Behold, he does not trust in his servants,

         and he charges his angels with folly.

     ¹⁹ How much less dwellers in houses of clay

         that {have} their foundation in the dust!

         They crumble them before a moth!

     ²⁰ From morning to evening they are destroyed;

         they perish forever without {anyone} noticing.

     ²¹ Is not their tent cord pulled up away from them?

         They will die, and not in wisdom.

Chapter 5

     ¹ Call out now; is there one answering you?

         To which of the holy ones will you turn?

     ² For indignation kills the foolish,

         and resentment kills the one being simple.

     ³ I myself have seen the foolish taking root,

         but right away I cursed his abode.

     ⁴ His children are far from safety,

         and they are crushed at the gate,

         and {there is} none rescuing {them},

     ⁵ whose harvest the hungry one devours;

         they even take it from among the thorns,

         and the thirsty ones pant for their wealth.

     ⁶ For misery does not come out from the dust,

         and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

     ⁷ For man is born to trouble,

         and sons of the flame soar to fly.

     ⁸ But I myself would seek for God,

         and to God I would commit my cause,

     ⁹ the one doing great {things} and {there is} no searching,

         marvelous {things} until {there is} no number,

     ¹⁰ the one giving rain on the face of the earth

         and sending waters on the face of the fields,

     ¹¹ setting the humble on high,

         and the ones mourning are high in safety,

     ¹² frustrating the plans of the crafty,

         and their hands do not accomplish an initiative,

     ¹³ catching the cunning in their craftiness,

         and the plan of the ones being deceptive is hastened.

     ¹⁴ They encounter darkness by day,

         and they grope at midday as at night.

     ¹⁵ But he saves the poor from the sword in their mouths

         and from the hand of the mighty.

     ¹⁶ And hope is to the poor,

         and injustice shuts her mouth.

     ¹⁷ Behold, blessed is the man God corrects,

         and the chastening of the Almighty do not despise.

     ¹⁸ For he injures and binds up,

         he wounds and his hands heal.

     ¹⁹ In six troubles he will rescue you,

         and in seven, harm will not touch you.

     ²⁰ In famine he will redeem you from death,

         and in war, from the hands of the sword.

     ²¹ From the scourge of the tongue you will be hidden,

         and you will not fear destruction when it comes.

     ²² You will laugh at destruction and at famine,

         and you will not fear the beast of the earth.

     ²³ For with the stones of the field {will be} your covenant,

         and the beast of the field will be made peaceable to you.

     ²⁴ You will know that your tent {is in} peace;

         you will visit your sheepfold and you will not miss {anything}.

     ²⁵ And you will know that your seed {will be} great

         and your offspring, like the grass of the earth.

     ²⁶ You will come to the grave in old age,

         like the lifting of a stack of grain in its time.

     ²⁷ Behold this: We have examined it, thus it {is};

         listen to it and know {it} for yourself.”

Chapter 6

¹ And Job answered and said,

     ² “If only my anguish, being weighed, were weighed,

         and my calamity lay in the balances together {with it}!

     ³ For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas;

         therefore my words raved.

     ⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are in me,

         whose poison my spirit is drinking;

         the terrors of God array themselves against me.

     ⁵ Does a wild donkey bray over grass?

         If an ox bellows over its fodder?

     ⁶ Will the unsavory be eaten without salt?

         If there is taste in the white of an egg?

     ⁷ My soul has refused to touch;

         they {are} like disease {in} my food.

     ⁸ Who will grant that my request may come?

         And may God grant my longing

     ⁹ and may God be willing and may he crush me,

         may he loose his hand and cut me off!

     ¹⁰ Yet may it still be my consolation—

         indeed, let me exult in pain, may he not spare—

         that I have not concealed the sayings of the Holy One.

     ¹¹ What {is} my strength, that I should wait?

         And what {is} my end, that I should prolong my life?

     ¹² If my strength {is} the strength of stones?

         If my flesh {is} bronze?

     ¹³ If my help {is} not in me,

         and initiative has been taken away from me?

     ¹⁴ To the despairing, covenant faithfulness from his friend,

         and the fear of the Almighty he forsakes.

     ¹⁵ My brothers have dealt treacherously like a wadi,

         like a channel of wadis they pass away,

     ¹⁶ the ones being dark from ice over it,

         it hides itself with snow.

     ¹⁷ In the time they dry up, they are annihilated;

         in their being hot, they are exterminated from their place.

     ¹⁸ Caravans turn themselves aside from their way;

         they go up into wasteland and they perish.

     ¹⁹ Caravans from Tema looked;

         processions of Sheba hoped in them.

     ²⁰ They were ashamed, because they had been confident;

         they went as far as it and they were confounded.

     ²¹ For now you are nothing;

         you see a terror and you fear.

     ²² {Is it} that I said, ‘Give me {something}’?

         Or, ‘Make a gift to me from your wealth’?

     ²³ Or, ‘Save me from the hand of the enemy’?

         Or, ‘From the hand of the oppressors rescue me’?

     ²⁴ Teach me, and I will be silent,

         and how I have strayed, make me understand.

     ²⁵ How words of uprightness are forceful!

         But what does correcting from you correct?

     ²⁶ Do you think to correct my words,

         and to the wind the words of one despairing?

     ²⁷ Indeed, you cast {lots} for the fatherless,

         and you haggle over your friend.

     ²⁸ But now, be willing, look at me,

         and if I would lie to your faces!

     ²⁹ Please turn, let injustice not be;

         yes, turn, my righteousness {is} yet in it.

     ³⁰ Is there injustice on my tongue?

         If my mouth does not discern iniquity?

Chapter 7

     ¹ {Is} not hardship to a man on earth?

         And {are not} his days like the days of a hireling?

     ² As a slave longs for shade,

         and as a hireling awaits his wages,

     ³ so I have been caused to inherit months of futility,

         and they have appointed nights of trouble to me.

     ⁴ When I lie down, I say,

         ‘When will I get up?’

     But the night extends,

         and I am full of tossings until dawn.

     ⁵ My flesh wears the worm and the clod of dust;

         my skin breaks and festers.

     ⁶ My days are swifter than a shuttle,

         and they end without hope.

     ⁷ Remember that my life {is} a breath;

         my eye will not return to see good.

     ⁸ The eye of the one seeing me will not regard me;

         your eyes {will be} on me, but I will not exist.

     ⁹ A cloud disappears and goes away;

         so the one descending to Sheol does not ascend.

     ¹⁰ He will not return again to his house,

         and his place will not know him again.

     ¹¹ Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

         I will speak in the distress of my spirit;

         I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

     ¹² {Am} I the sea or the sea monster,

         that you will set a guard over me?

     ¹³ When I say, ‘My couch will comfort me,

         my bed will take away my complaint,’

     ¹⁴ then you scare me with dreams

         and you terrify me through visions,

     ¹⁵ and my soul chooses strangling,

         death, rather than my bones.

     ¹⁶ I loathe; I will not live forever.

         Cease from me, for my days {are} vapor.

     ¹⁷ What is man, that you will magnify him

         and that you will set your heart on him,

     ¹⁸ and you will visit him in the mornings

         and you will test him in the moments?

     ¹⁹ For how long will you not look away from me?

         Will you not slacken until I swallow my saliva?

     ²⁰ {If} I have sinned,

         what have I done to you, the one watching man?

     Why have you made me a target for you?

         Indeed, am I a burden to myself?

     ²¹ Why will you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?

         For now I will lie down in the dust,

         and you will seek me diligently, but I will not exist.”

Chapter 8

¹ And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

     ² “Until when will you say these things,

         and the words of your mouth {be} a mighty wind?

     ³ Does God pervert justice?

         Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

     ⁴ If your children sinned against him,

         then he put them in the hand of their sins.

     ⁵ If you seek diligently for God,

         and to the Almighty you appeal,

     ⁶ if you {are} pure and upright,

         surely now he will rouse himself for you

         and restore the habitation of your righteousness.

     ⁷ Though your beginning was small,

         yet your end will increase greatly.

     ⁸ For inquire now of the former generations

         and consider the finding of their fathers.

     ⁹ For we {are} of yesterday and we do not know,

         for our days on earth {are} a shadow.

     ¹⁰ Will they not teach you? They will speak to you,

         and from their hearts they will bring forth words.

     ¹¹ Does papyrus grow without a marsh?

         Does a reed grow without waters?

     ¹² It {is} still in its greenness, it is not cut down,

         but it withers before any {other} plant.

     ¹³ Thus {are} the paths of all the ones forgetting God,

         and the hope of the godless will perish,

     ¹⁴ whose confidence snaps

         and whose trust {is} the house of a spider.

     ¹⁵ He leans himself against his house and it does not stand;

         he takes hold of it, but it does not arise.

     ¹⁶ It {is} lush to the face of the sun,

         and its shoots go out over its garden.

     ¹⁷ Its roots are wrapped around a heap;

         it looks for a house of rocks.

     ¹⁸ When one destroys it from its place,

         then it will deny him, ‘I did not see you.’

     ¹⁹ Behold, this is the joy of his way,

         and from the dust other {plants} will sprout.

     ²⁰ Behold, God will not reject the innocent,

         but he will not hold the hand of evildoers.

     ²¹ He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,

         your lips with shouting.

     ²² The ones hating you will wear shame,

         and the tent of the wicked will not exist.”

Chapter 9

¹ And Job answered and said,

     ² “I know truly that {this is} so.

         But how will a man be righteous with God?

     ³ If he desires to contend with him,

         he will not answer him one from a thousand.

     ⁴ {He is} wise in heart and mighty in strength.

         Who has hardened himself against him and been whole?—

     ⁵ the one removing mountains and they do not know,

         who in his nose overturns them;

     ⁶ the one shaking the earth from its place

         and causing its pillars to tremble;

     ⁷ the one speaking to the sun and it does not rise,

         and upon the stars he seals;

     ⁸ stretching out the heavens by himself

         and treading on the waves of the sea;

     ⁹ making the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades,

         and the chambers of the south;

     ¹⁰ doing great {things} until there is no searching

         and distinguished {things} until there is no number.

     ¹¹ Behold, he goes by me, but I do not see,

         and he passes, but I do not perceive him.

     ¹² If he takes away, who will turn him back?

         Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

     ¹³ God will not turn aside his nose;

         the helpers of Rahab bow beneath him.

     ¹⁴ Indeed that I will answer him,

         choose words with him!—

     ¹⁵ whom, if I were righteous, I would not answer;

         I would plead to my judge for mercy.

     ¹⁶ If I called and he answered me,

         I would not believe that he was giving ear to my voice,

     ¹⁷ who would break me with a tempest

         and multiply my wounds for nothing.

     ¹⁸ He does not allow me to cause my breath to return,

         for he fills me with bitterness.

     ¹⁹ If to strength, behold, {he is} mighty!

         And if to justice, who will summon him?

     ²⁰ If I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me;

         {if} I {were} blameless, yet it would convict me.

     ²¹ I {am} blameless. I do not know my soul;

         I loathe my life.

     ²² It {is} one; therefore I have said,

         ‘The blameless and the wicked, he is destroying.’

     ²³ When a scourge suddenly kills,

         he mocks the despair of the innocent {ones}.

     ²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked.

         He covers the faces of its judges.

         If not, then who {is} it?

     ²⁵ And my days are swifter than a runner, they flee.

         They do not see good.

     ²⁶ They glide with boats of papyrus,

         as an eagle pounces on food.

     ²⁷ If I said, ‘Let me forget my complaint,

         let me change my face,

         let me be cheerful,’

     ²⁸ I would fear all my sorrows;

         I know that you would not acquit me.

     ²⁹ I am wicked;

         why, then, would I toil in vain?

     ³⁰ If I washed myself with water of snow

         and cleansed my hands with lye,

     ³¹ then you would plunge me into a ditch,

         and my clothes would abhor me.

     ³² For I would not be answering a man like me,

         we would {not} be coming together into judgment.

     ³³ There would be no judge between us

         who would lay his hand upon the two of us,

     ³⁴ who would turn from upon me his rod,

         and his terror, may it not frighten me.

     ³⁵ I would speak and I would not fear him.

         But I {am} not thus with me.

Chapter 10

     ¹ My soul is weary of my life;

         I will abandon my complaint upon myself;

         I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

     ² I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;

         cause me to know for what you are accusing me.

     ³ Is it good to you that you will oppress {me},

         that you will despise the work of your hands,

         but on the plans of the wicked you shine?

     ⁴ {Are} eyes of flesh to you?

         If you see according to the seeing of a man?

     ⁵ {Are} your days like the days of a man?

         If your years {are} like the days of a man,

     ⁶ that you seek for my iniquity

         and for my sin you search,

     ⁷ above your knowledge that I am not wicked

         and there is no one rescuing {me} from your hand?

     ⁸ Your hands formed me and made me entirely round about,

         yet you are destroying me.

     ⁹ Remember, please, that you made me like clay,

         and will you turn me into dust?

     ¹⁰ Have you not poured me like milk

         and caused me to curdle like cheese?

     ¹¹ You have clothed me with skin and flesh

         and you have knit me together with bones and tendons.

     ¹² You made life and covenant faithfulness alongside me,

         and your visitation has guarded my spirit.

     ¹³ But in your heart you hid these things

         (I know that this {was} with you):

     ¹⁴ If I sinned, then you would notice me,

         and you would not acquit me of my iniquity.

     ¹⁵ If I am wicked, woe to me!

     And {if} I am righteous,

         I will not lift my head.

     {I am} full of disgrace.

         Yes, see my affliction!

     ¹⁶ And should it arise,

         you would stalk me like a lion,

         and you would return, you would distinguish yourself against me.

     ¹⁷ You would renew your witnesses against me

         and you would increase your anger against me;

         changes and an army {are} with me.

     ¹⁸ So why did you bring me out from the womb?

         Would that I had expired and an eye had not seen me!

     ¹⁹ Would that I had been as though I had not existed!

         Would that I had been brought from the womb to the grave!

     ²⁰ {Are} my days not few?

         So cease and put from me,

         and let me smile a little.

     ²¹ before I go—and do not return—

         to the land of darkness and deep darkness,

     ²² the land of obscurity

         like the gloom of dark shadow

     and no order,

         and it shines like gloom.’”

Chapter 11

¹ And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

     ² “The multitude of words, will it not be answered?

         Or if a man of lips will be justified?

     ³ Will your boastings make people silent?

         Or will you mock and no one {is} shaming?

     ⁴ For you have said, ‘My doctrine is pure,

         and I am clean in your eyes.’

     ⁵ But who will give God to speak

         and open his lips against you

     ⁶ and declare to you the secrets of wisdom?

         For {it is} double to understanding.

         And know that God is forgetting for you {some} of your iniquity.

     ⁷ Will you find God by searching?

         If unto perfection you will find the Almighty?

     ⁸ The height of the heavens! What will you do?

         Deeper than Sheol! What will you know?

     ⁹ Its measure {is} longer than the earth

         and wider than the sea.

     ¹⁰ If he comes and imprisons and assembles,

         then who will turn him back?

     ¹¹ For he knows people of worthlessness,

         and will he see iniquity and not notice it?

     ¹² But an empty man will get a heart

         and the colt of a wild donkey will be born to a man.

     ¹³ If you prepare your heart

         and stretch out your hands to him;

     ¹⁴ if iniquity {is} in your hand, put it far away,

         and do not let unrighteousness dwell in your tents;

     ¹⁵ for then you will lift your face without blemish,

         and you will be established and you will not fear;

     ¹⁶ for you will forget trouble;

         as waters pass by, you will remember {it}.

     ¹⁷ And life will arise more than noon;

         darkness will become like dawn.

     ¹⁸ You will be confident, because there is hope,

         and you will look around, you will lie down in safety.

     ¹⁹ Yes, you will recline and no one {will be} making {you} afraid,

         and many will stroke your face.

     ²⁰ But the eyes of the wicked will fail,

         and escape will perish from them,

         and their hope {will be} an expiration of breath.”

Chapter 12

¹ And Job answered and said,

     ² “Truly, then, you {are} the people,

         and wisdom will die with you.

     ³ A heart {is} also to me, like you.

         I {am} not falling below you.

         And with whom {are} not such {things} as these?

     ⁴ I, the one calling on God and he answered him,

         have become laughter to his neighbor:

         just, blameless—laughter!

     ⁵ In the thought of the secure {there is} contempt for misfortune,

         prepared for the ones slipping of foot.

     ⁶ The tents of robbers prosper,

         and securities {are} to the provokers of God,

         to {the one} who carries God in his hand.

     ⁷ But now ask the beasts, and one will teach you,

         the birds of the heavens, and one will declare to you.

     ⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,

         and the fish of the sea will recount to you.

     ⁹ Which of all these does not know

         that the hand of Yahweh has done this?—

     ¹⁰ in whose hand {is} the life of every living thing

         and the breath of all flesh of man.

     ¹¹ Does not the ear test words

         and the palate taste the food {that is} to it?

     ¹² With the aged {is} wisdom,

         and in length of days {is} understanding.

     ¹³ With him {are} wisdom and might;

         to him {are} counsel and understanding.

     ¹⁴ Behold, he breaks down and it is not rebuilt;

         he closes upon a man and it is not opened.

     ¹⁵ Behold, he withholds the waters and they dry up,

         and he sends them out and they overthrow the land.

     ¹⁶ With him {are} strength and prudence;

         to him {are} the one straying and the one causing to stray.

     ¹⁷ {He is} the one leading counselors away naked,

         and judges he makes foolish.

     ¹⁸ He removes the bond of kings

         and he wraps a cloth around their loins,

     ¹⁹ the one leading priests away naked,

         and the incumbent ones, he overthrows;

     ²⁰ the one removing the lip {that is} to the ones being trusted,

         and the discernment of the elders he takes away;

     ²¹ the one pouring contempt on nobles,

     and the belt of the mighty ones he loosens;

     ²² the one revealing deep things out of darkness,

         and he brings dark shadow into the light;

     ²³ the one magnifying nations, and he destroys them;

         the one enlarging nations, and he exiles them;

     ²⁴ the one removing a heart from the leaders of the people of the earth,

         and he causes them to wander in a wasteland {with} no path.

     ²⁵ They grope in darkness and not in light;

         he makes them wander like a drunkard.

Chapter 13

     ¹ Behold, my eye has seen all;

         my ear has heard and understood it.

     ² As you know, I also know.

         I {am} not falling below you.

     ³ But I will speak with the Almighty,

         and to plead with God I desire.

     ⁴ But you {are} plasterers of a lie;

         all of you {are} healers of no value.

     ⁵ Who will give {that} being silent, you will be silent?

         And it will be to you for wisdom.

     ⁶ Please hear my reasoning

         and heed the pleadings of my lips.

     ⁷ Will you speak unrighteously for God,

         and will you talk deceitfully for him?

     ⁸ Will you lift his face?

         Or will you plead for God?

     ⁹ {Is it} good that he will examine you?

         Or will you deceive him as deceiving a man?

     ¹⁰ Reproving, he would reprove you

         if in secret you were lifting faces.

     ¹¹ {Would} not his majesty terrify you

         and the dread of him fall on you?

     ¹² Your maxims {are} proverbs of ashes;

         your defenses are defenses of clay.

     ¹³ Be silent from me and let me speak,

         and let come upon me what {will}.

     ¹⁴ Why do I take my flesh in my teeth

         and put my life in my hands?

     ¹⁵ Behold, he kills me, I will hope in him;

         I will surely defend my ways to his face.

     ¹⁶ Even this {will be} for salvation to me:

         that the godless will not enter to his face.

     ¹⁷ Hearing, hear my word,

         and {may} my declaration {be} in your ears.

     ¹⁸ Behold now, I have prepared my defense;

         I know that I am righteous.

     ¹⁹ Who {is} he {who} will contend with me?

         For then I will be silent and expire.

     ²⁰ Only two {things} do not do to me,

         then I will not hide myself from your face:

     ²¹ Withdraw your hand from upon me,

         and {with} your fear do not terrify me.

     ²² And call, and I will answer,

         or I will speak, and answer me.

     ²³ How many iniquities and sins {are} to me?

         Make me know my transgression and my sin.

     ²⁴ Why do you hide your face

         and consider me an enemy to you?

     ²⁵ Will you terrify a driven leaf?

         Or will you pursue dry stubble?

     ²⁶ For you write bitter things against me,

         and you make me inherit the iniquities of my youth,

     ²⁷ and you put my feet in shackles,

         and you watch all of my paths;

         you engrave around the soles of my feet.

     ²⁸ And he decays like a rotten thing,

         like a garment—a moth has eaten it.

Chapter 14

     ¹ Man, born of woman—

         few of days and full of trouble!

     ² Like a flower, he comes forth and withers,

         and like a shadow, he flees and does not stand.

     ³ Even on such do you open your eye,

         and do you bring me into judgment with you?

     ⁴ Who will bring clean from unclean?

         Not one!

     ⁵ Since his days are determined,

         the number of his months {is} with you;

         you have set his limit and he will not pass {it},

     ⁶ look away from him, that he may desist

         until he fulfills his day like a hireling.

     ⁷ For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down,

         that it will sprout again

         and its stalk will not cease.

     ⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth

         and its stump dies in the ground,

     ⁹ from the scent of waters it will bud

         and make a branch like a plant.

     ¹⁰ But a man dies,

         and a man weakens and expires,

         and where {is} he?

     ¹¹ Waters disappear from a lake

         and a river dwindles and dries up,

     ¹²

         and a man lies down and does not arise.

     Until the heavens {are} no more,

         they will not awake

         and they will not be roused from their sleep.

     ¹³ Who will give {that} you will conceal me in Sheol,

         {that} you will hide me until the turning of your nose,

         {that} you will set a limit for me and remember me?

     ¹⁴ If a man dies, will he live?

         All the days of my hardship I will wait

         until the coming of my change.

     ¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you.

         You would desire the work of your hands.

     ¹⁶ For then you would number my steps;

         you would not watch over my sin.

     ¹⁷ My transgression {would be} sealed in a bag,

         and you would plaster over my iniquity.

     ¹⁸ However, a falling mountain crumbles,

         and a rock moves from its place,

     ¹⁹ waters wear down stones,

         its flooding washes away the dust of the earth,

     and you destroy the hope of man.

         ²⁰ You forever overpower him, and he goes away;

         changing his face, you send him away.

     ²¹ His sons achieve honor and he does not know,

         or they become insignificant and he does not perceive them.

     ²² Only his flesh grieves for him,

         and {only} his soul mourns for him.”

Chapter 15

¹ And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

     ² “Will the wise answer {with} knowledge of wind

         and fill his belly {with} the east wind,

     ³ reasoning with a word {that} does not benefit

         and {with} words {that} do not have profit in them?

     ⁴ Indeed, you destroy fear,

         and you diminish devotion to the face of God,

     ⁵ for your iniquity teaches your mouth,

         and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

     ⁶ Your mouth condemns you, and not I,

         and your lips testify against you.

     ⁷ Were you born the first man,

         and to the face of the hills were you formed?

     ⁸ Do you hear the counsel of God?

         Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

     ⁹ What do you know, and we do not know?

         {What} do you understand, and it {is} not with us?

     ¹⁰ Both the gray-haired and the aged {are} with us,

     greater than your father {in} days.

     ¹¹ {Are} the consolations of God too small for you,

         or a word in gentleness to you?

     ¹² Why does your heart carry you away

         and why do your eyes flash,

     ¹³ that you turn your spirit against God

         and bring out words from your mouth?

     ¹⁴ What {is} man, that he should be pure,

         or that one born of a woman should be righteous?

     ¹⁵ Behold, he does not trust in his holy ones,

         and the heavens are not clean in his eyes;

     ¹⁶ indeed that the abominable and the corrupted,

         a man drinking iniquity like water!

     ¹⁷ I will show you; listen to me,

         and what I have seen, let me also recount,

     ¹⁸ what the wise have declared—

         and not hidden—from their fathers.

     ¹⁹ To them alone the land was given,

         and no stranger passed in their midst.

     ²⁰ All of the days of the wicked, he is writhing,

         and the number of years, they are reserved for the oppressor.

     ²¹ The sound of terrors {is} in his ears;

         in prosperity the destroyer comes upon him.

     ²² He does not believe to return from darkness,

         and he is selected for the sword.

     ²³ He {is} wandering for bread—‘Where {is it}?’

         He knows that the day of darkness {is} prepared at hand.

     ²⁴ Distress and anguish terrify him;

         it overpowers him like a king ready for battle,

     ²⁵ because he has stretched out his hand against God

         and against the Almighty he has vaunted himself.

     ²⁶ He rushes against him with the neck,

         with the thickness of the bosses of his shields,

     ²⁷ though he has covered his face with his fat

         and made blubber on the flanks.

     ²⁸ And he lives {in} ruined cities,

         {in} houses that no one dwells in,

         which are ready {to be} heaps.

     ²⁹ He will not be rich, and his wealth will not stand,

         and their possessions will not spread over the land.

     ³⁰ He will not depart from darkness;

         a flame will dry up his shoots,

         and he will depart at the breath of his mouth.

     ³¹ Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;

         for emptiness will be his recompense.

     ³² When {it is} not his day, it will be fulfilled,

         and his branch will not be green.

     ³³ He will shake off his unripe grapes like a grapevine,

         and he will cast off his blossoms like an olive tree.

     ³⁴ For the company of the godless {is} barren,

         and fire devours the tents of bribery.

     ³⁵ They conceive trouble and bear iniquity,

         and their womb fashions deceit.”

Chapter 16

¹ And Job answered and said,

     ² “I have heard many such things;

         all of you {are} comforters of trouble.

     ³ {Is there} an end to words of wind?

         Or what compels you that you answer?

     ⁴ I also would speak like you

         if your souls were where my soul is.

     I would join words together against you

         and I would shake my head at you. ⁵ I would strengthen you with my mouth,

         and the moving of my lips would relieve {you}.

     ⁶ If I speak, my pain is not relieved,

         but {if} I refrain, what goes from me?

     ⁷ But now he has exhausted me;

         you have devastated my whole family,

     ⁸ and you have shriveled me—

         it has become a witness,

     and my leanness rises up against me,

         it testifies against my face.

     ⁹ In his nose, he has torn {me} and he has attacked me;

         he gnashes his teeth against me.

     My enemy sharpens his eyes against me.

     ¹⁰ They have gaped at me with their mouth;

         in reproach they have struck my cheek;

         they have gathered themselves together against me.

     ¹¹ God delivers me to sinners,

         and into the hands of the wicked he throws me.

     ¹² I was tranquil, but he has shattered me,

         and he has seized my neck and shaken me to pieces.

     And he has set me up as a target for him;

     ¹³

         his archers have surrounded me.

     He pierces my kidneys and he does not spare;

         he pours my bile on the ground.

     ¹⁴ He breaches me, breach upon the face of breach;

         he runs against me like a warrior.

     ¹⁵ I have sewn sackcloth on my skin,

         and I have thrust my horn into the dust.

     ¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,

         and on my eyelids {is} a dark shadow,

     ¹⁷ although violence {is} not in my hands

         and my prayer {is} pure.

     ¹⁸ Earth, do not conceal my blood,

         and may {there} not be a {hiding} place for my cry.

     ¹⁹ Even now, behold, my witness {is} in the heavens,

         and my advocate {is} in the heights.

     ²⁰ My intercessors {are} my friends;

         my eye weeps to God.

     ²¹ And he will argue for a man with God,

         and a son of man for his neighbor.

     ²² For years of number will come,

         and I will go {on} a path, I will not return.

Chapter 17

     ¹ My spirit is destroyed, my days are extinguished;

         graves {are} for me.

     ² If {there are} not mockers with me?

         And on their provocations my eye lingers.

     ³ Please set down, be surety for me with you.

         Who {is} he {who} will strike himself to my hand?

     ⁴ For you have hidden their hearts away from understanding;

         therefore you will not exalt {them}.

     ⁵ He {who} denounces friends for a reward,

         even the eyes of his sons will fail.

     ⁶ But he has made me a saying of the peoples,

         and I have become a spitting in the face,

     ⁷ and my eye is dim from sorrow,

         and my members {are} like a shadow, all of them.

     ⁸ The upright wonder at this,

         and the innocent rouses himself against the godless.

     ⁹ And the righteous will hold his way,

         and the clean of hands will add strength.

     ¹⁰ But all of them, may you return, and come now,

         but I will not find a wise {person} among you.

     ¹¹ My days have passed, my plans are broken,

         the desires of my heart.

     ¹² They change night into day.

         Light is near from the face of darkness.

     ¹³ If I hope for Sheol {as} my house,

         {if} in the darkness I have spread out my bed,

     ¹⁴ {if} I call to the pit, ‘You {are} my father,’

         to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’

     ¹⁵ where then {would be} my hope?

         And my hope, who would see it?

     ¹⁶ Will they descend to the bars of Sheol?

         If {our} rest {will be} together in the dust?”

Chapter 18

¹ And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

     ² “Until when will you make ends of words?

         Consider, and afterward we will speak.

     ³ Why are we regarded as beasts,

         {as if} we are stupid in your eyes?

     ⁴ The one tearing himself in his nose—

         will the earth be forsaken for your sake,

         or will the rock move from its place?

     ⁵ Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out;

         the flame of his fire will not shine.

     ⁶ The light in his tent will be dark,

         and his lamp will go out above him.

     ⁷ The steps of his strength will shorten,

         and his plan will cast him down.

     ⁸ For he will be cast into a net by his feet,

         and he will wander into a pitfall.

     ⁹ A snare will seize {him} by the heel;

         a trap will hold onto him.

     ¹⁰ His rope is hidden in the ground,

         and his trap for him {on} the path.

     ¹¹ Terrors on every side will frighten him,

         and they will chase him at his feet.

     ¹² His strength becomes hungry,

         and disaster {is} prepared at his side.

     ¹³ It devours parts of his skin;

         the firstborn of death devours his parts.

     ¹⁴ He is pulled from his tent, his safety,

         and one marches him to the king of terrors.

     ¹⁵ One will dwell in his tent, {which is} not to him;

         sulfur is scattered upon his home.

     ¹⁶ Below, his roots dry up,

         and above, his branch withers.

     ¹⁷ His memory will perish from the earth,

         and no name {will be} to him upon the face of the land.

     ¹⁸ They will drive him from light into darkness,

         and they will chase him from the world.

     ¹⁹ No son {is} to him, and no grandson among his people,

         and no survivor in his dwellings.

     ²⁰ The ones after will wonder at his day,

         and the ones before will seize horror.

     ²¹ Surely these {are} the dwellings of the wicked,

         and this {is} the place of one {who} does not know God.”

Chapter 19

¹ And Job answered and said,

     ² “Until when will you afflict my soul

         and crush me with words?

     ³ These ten times you have reproached me;

         you are not ashamed, you mistreat me.

     ⁴ And even {if} truly I have erred,

         my error remains with me.

     ⁵ If truly you will exalt yourselves above me

         and plead my disgrace against me,

     ⁶ then know that God has wronged me,

         and his net has closed around me.

     ⁷ Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;

         I call for help, but {there is} no justice.

     ⁸ He has walled up my way and I do not pass,

         and he has set darkness upon my paths.

     ⁹ He has stripped my glory from upon me,

         and he has removed the crown of my head.

     ¹⁰ He has broken me down on every side, and I have gone away,

         and he has removed my hope like a tree.

     ¹¹ And he has kindled his nose against me,

         and he regards me as an enemy to him.

     ¹² His troops come together,

         and they build up their ramps against me,

         and they encamp around my tent.

     ¹³ He has put my brothers far from me,

         and my acquaintances indeed have turned away from me.

     ¹⁴ My kin have forsaken me,

         and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

     ¹⁵ Guests of my house and my female servants regard me as a stranger;

         I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

     ¹⁶ I call to my servant, but he does not answer;

         with my mouth I entreat him.

     ¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife,

         though I was gracious to the sons of my womb.

     ¹⁸ Even young children despise me;

         let me arise, and they speak against me.

     ¹⁹ All of the friends of my counsel abhor me,

         and those I love have been turned against me.

     ²⁰ My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh,

         and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.

     ²¹ Pity me, pity me, you my friends,

         for the hand of God has touched me.

     ²² Why do you pursue me as God {would}?

         And will you not be satisfied with my flesh?

     ²³ Who will give {that} now my words will be written down?

         Who will give {that} they will be inscribed on a scroll?

     ²⁴ With a stylus of iron and {with} lead

         may they be engraved on a rock forever!

     ²⁵ But I know {that} my redeemer lives,

         and {that at} the last he will stand upon the dust,

     ²⁶ and {that} after my skin, they strike this off,

         yet from my flesh I will behold God,

     ²⁷ whom I will behold for myself

         and my eyes will see, and not a stranger.

     My kidneys fail within my belly.

     ²⁸ If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!

         For the root of the matter is found in me,’

     ²⁹ be afraid for yourselves of the face of the sword,

         for {from} wrath {is} the punishment of the sword,

         so that you will know that there is judgment.”

Chapter 20

¹ And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

     ² “Therefore my thoughts turn me back,

         because of my urgency in me.

     ³ I hear a rebuke of dishonor to me,

         but a spirit from my understanding answers me.

     ⁴ Do you {not} know this from long ago,

         from the placing of man upon the earth,

     ⁵ that the triumph of the wicked {is} from near,

         and the joy of the godless {is} for a moment?

     ⁶ Though his height rises to the skies

         and his head reaches to the cloud,

     ⁷ he will perish forever like his dung.

         The ones having seen him will say, ‘Where {is he}?’

     ⁸ He will fly away like a dream, and they will not find him,

         and he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

     ⁹ The eye {that} saw him will not continue,

         and his place will no longer observe him.

     ¹⁰ His children will recompense the poor,

         and his hands will return his wealth.

     ¹¹ His bones are full of vigor,

         but it will lie down with him in the dust.

     ¹² Although wickedness is sweet in his mouth,

         he hides it under his tongue,

     ¹³ he has pity on it and does not forsake it

         but keeps it in the midst of his palate,

     ¹⁴ his food changes in his bowels;

         {it becomes} the bitterness of asps inside him.

     ¹⁵ He swallows wealth, but he will vomit it;

         God will expel it from his belly.

     ¹⁶ He will suck the poison of asps;

         the tongue of the viper will kill him.

     ¹⁷ He will not enjoy the streams,

         the rivers of torrents of honey and butter.

     ¹⁸ He will return {his} gain and will not consume {it},

         and he will not have enjoyment according to the wealth of his commerce.

     ¹⁹ For he has oppressed, he has forsaken the poor;

         he has seized a house and he did not build it.

     ²⁰ Because he has not known satisfaction in his belly,

         he will not rescue {any} desired {thing} of his.

     ²¹ There is no remnant for his eating;

         therefore his prosperity does not endure.

     ²² In the filling of his wealth it will become narrow to him;

         every hand of the troubling will come against him.

     ²³ He will be {about} to fill his belly, he will send the burning of his nose against him,

         and he will rain {it} upon him in his eating.

     ²⁴ He flees from a weapon of iron,

         a bow of bronze pierces him.

     ²⁵ He pulls, and it comes out of his back,

         and the gleaming goes out of his liver.

     Terrors {are} upon him!

     ²⁶ All darkness is hidden for his treasured {things};

         a fire not blown will devour him;

         it will consume the remnant in his tent.

     ²⁷ The heavens will reveal his iniquity,

         and the earth will raise itself up against him.

     ²⁸ The wealth of his house will depart,

         flowing away on the day of his nose.

     ²⁹ This {is} the portion of the wicked man from God,

         and the heritage of his appointment from God.”

Chapter 21

¹ And Job answered and said,

     ² “Hearing, hear my words,

         and let this be your consolation.

     ³ Tolerate me and I will speak,

         and after I have spoken, you may mock.

     ⁴ As for me, {is} my complaint to a man?

         And if, why may my breath not be short?

     ⁵ Look at me and wonder,

         and lay the hand upon the mouth.

     ⁶ For when I remember, then I am terrified,

         and trembling seizes my flesh.

     ⁷ Why do the wicked live,

         grow old, and become mighty {in} power?

     ⁸ Their seed is established with them to their faces,

         and their descendants to their eyes.

     ⁹ Their houses {are} peace, without fear,

         and the rod of God {is} not upon them.

     ¹⁰ His bull breeds and it does not fail;

         his cow calves and it does not miscarry.

     ¹¹ They send out their babes like a flock,

         and their children dance.

     ¹² They lift up the tambourine and the harp,

         and they rejoice to the sound of the flute.

     ¹³ They spend their days in prosperity,

         and they go down {to} Sheol in a moment.

     ¹⁴ They say to God, ‘Turn away from us,

         for we do not desire knowledge of your ways.

     ¹⁵ Who {is} the Almighty, that we should serve him?

         And how will we profit, that we should pray to him?’

     ¹⁶ Behold, their prosperity {is} not in their hand!

         {May} the counsel of the wicked {be} far from me!

     ¹⁷ How often does the lamp of the wicked go out,

         or does their calamity come upon them?

         {How often,} in his nose, does he distribute pains?

     ¹⁸ {How often} are they like stubble to the face of the wind

         or like chaff that a storm carries away?

     ¹⁹ ‘God lays up his guilt for his sons.’

         Let him repay to him, and he will know!

     ²⁰ Let his eyes see his destruction,

         and from the wrath of the Almighty let him drink.

     ²¹ For what {is} his interest in his house after him

         when the number of his months is cut off?

     ²² Will one teach knowledge to God,

         since he judges the ones being high?

     ²³ This one dies in the bone of his perfection;

         all of him {is} tranquil and secure.

     ²⁴ His pails are full of milk,

         and the marrow of his bones is moistened.

     ²⁵ But that one dies in the soul of bitterness,

         and he has not eaten the good.

     ²⁶ They lie down alike in the dust,

         and the worm covers over them.

     ²⁷ Behold, I know your thoughts

         and the notions you wrest against me.

     ²⁸ For you say, ‘Where {is} the house of the tyrant?

         Where {is} the tent of the habitation of the wicked?’

     ²⁹ Have you not asked travelers of the way?

         Or do you not acknowledge their signs,

     ³⁰ that the wicked is spared in the day of calamity;

         in the day of wrath they are brought forth?

     ³¹ Who will denounce his way to his face?

         And what he has done, who will repay to him?

     ³² Indeed, he will be brought forth to the grave,

         and one will watch over the burial mound.

     ³³ The clods of the torrent will be sweet to him,

         and every man will extend after him,

         and to his face there is not numbering.

     ³⁴ So how do you comfort me in vain?

         And falsehood is left in your answers!”

Chapter 22

¹ And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

     ² “Can a man be useful to God?

         For the one being wise is useful to himself.

     ³ {Is it} pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous?

         Or if {it is} gain that you perfect your ways?

     ⁴ For your fear does he rebuke you,

         enter into judgment with you?

     ⁵ Is not your wickedness great?

         And there is no end to your iniquities!

     ⁶ For you have bound your brother {with a pledge} without cause,

         and you have stripped off the clothing of the naked.

     ⁷ You have not quenched the weary with water,

         and from the hungry you have withheld bread.

     ⁸ but the man of arm, the earth {was} to him,

         and the lifted of face dwelt upon it.

     ⁹ You have sent widows away empty,

         and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

     ¹⁰ Therefore snares {are} around you

         and fear suddenly terrifies you.

     ¹¹ Or darkness—you cannot see!

         And an abundance of waters covers you.

     ¹² Is not God in the height of the heavens?

         And behold the head of the stars, that they are high!

     ¹³ But you say, ‘What does God know?

         Will he judge through thick darkness?

     ¹⁴ Clouds {are} a covering to him and he does not see;

         indeed, he walks around on the dome of the heavens.’

     ¹⁵ Will you keep the old way

         that men of iniquity have walked,

     ¹⁶ who were carried off and {it was} not time;

         their foundations were washed away by a torrent;

     ¹⁷ the ones saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’

         and, ‘What will the Almighty do to them?’

     ¹⁸ Yet he filled their houses with good,

         so {may} the counsel of the wicked {be} far from me!

     ¹⁹ The righteous see and rejoice,

         and the innocent scorn them.

     ²⁰ ‘If our enemy is not cut off?

         And fire has devoured their possessions!’

     ²¹ Reconcile now with him and be at peace;

         by these, good will come to you.

     ²² Now accept instruction from his mouth,

         and set his words in your heart.

     ²³ If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up,

         if you distance unrighteousness from your tent.

     ²⁴ And set gold in the dust,

         and Ophir among the stones of the torrents,

     ²⁵ then the Almighty will be your golds

         and silver of heights to you.

     ²⁶ For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,

         and you will lift your face to God.

     ²⁷ You will pray to him, and he will hear you,

         and your vows you will pay.

     ²⁸ And you will decree a word and it will stand for you,

         and on your paths light will shine.

     ²⁹ When they cast down and you say, ‘Lifting up!’

         then he will save the lowered of eyes.

     ³⁰ He will rescue the not-innocent,

         indeed, he will be rescued through the cleanness of your hands.”

Chapter 23

¹ And Job answered and said,

     ² “Even today my complaint is bitter;

         my hand is heavy upon my groaning.

     ³ Who will give {that} I knew and I would find him?

         I would come to his place!

     ⁴ I would set forth my case to his face,

         and I would fill my mouth with arguments.

     ⁵ I would know the words he would answer me,

         and I would perceive what he would say to me.

     ⁶ Would he argue against me in the greatness of power?

         No, he would only set upon me.

     ⁷ There the upright is arguing with him,

         and I would escape forever the one judging me.

     ⁸ Behold, I go to the east, but he is not there,

         and to the west, but I do not perceive him;

     ⁹ in his working in the north, I do not behold {him};

         he turns to the south, but I do not see {him}.

     ¹⁰ Nevertheless, he knows the way {that is} with me;

         he has tested me, I have come out like gold.

     ¹¹ My foot has held onto his step;

         I have kept {to} his way and I have not turned aside.

     ¹² I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;

         I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion.

     ¹³ But he {is} of one, and who will turn him back?

         For his soul desires, and he does.

     ¹⁴ For he will carry out my decree,

         and many like these {are} with him.

     ¹⁵ Therefore, I am terrified from his face;

         I consider, and I am afraid of him.

     ¹⁶ For God has softened my heart,

         and the Almighty has terrified me.

     ¹⁷ For I was not cut off from the face of the darkness,

         and from my face gloom covers.

Chapter 24

     ¹ Why are times not set by the Almighty?

         And {why} do the ones knowing him not see his days?

     ² They remove boundary markers;

         they seize the flock and pasture {it}.

     ³ The donkey of the fatherless they lead away;

         they take in pledge the ox of the widow.

     ⁴ They turn the needy from the way;

         the poor of the land are hidden together.

     ⁵ Behold, {like} wild donkeys in the wilderness they go out in their work, searching for food;

         the Arabah {is} to him bread for their children.

     ⁶ They gather his fodder in the field,

         and the vineyard of the wicked they glean.

     ⁷ They lie naked all night without a garment,

         and there is no covering in the cold.

     ⁸ They are wet with the showers of the mountains,

         and from {being} without shelter, they hug the rock.

     ⁹ They snatch the fatherless from the breast,

         and upon the poor they bind {a pledge}.

     ¹⁰ They go about naked, without clothing,

         and, hungry, they carry a sheaf.

     ¹¹ Within their walls they press oil;

         they tread their winepresses, but they thirst.

     ¹² From the city, men groan

         and the soul of the wounded cries out,

         but God does not ascribe impropriety.

     ¹³ They are among the ones rebelling {against} the light;

         they do not regard its ways,

         and they do not stay in its paths.

     ¹⁴ At light the murderer arises;

         he kills the poor and the needy,

         and he is like a thief in the night.

     ¹⁵ And the eye of the adulterer watches {for} twilight,

         saying, ‘No eye will perceive me,’

         and he puts a cover {over} {his} face.

     ¹⁶ One digs {into} houses in the darkness;

         by day they shut themselves up;

         they do not know the light.

     ¹⁷ For together, morning for them {is} deep darkness,

         for one regards the terrors of thick darkness.

     ¹⁸ He (is} swift on the face of the waters;

         their portion of the land is cursed;

         one does not turn {to} the way of their vineyards.

     ¹⁹ Drought and heat strip away the waters of snow;

         Sheol, {those who} have sinned.

     ²⁰ The womb will forget him,

         the worm will dine on him,

     until he is not remembered

         and wickedness is broken like a tree,

     ²¹ the one devouring the barren, who has not borne,

         and he does not do good {to} the widow.

     ²² But he drags away the mighty by his power;

         he arises and he does not believe in life.

     ²³ He gives him security and he is supported,

         but his eyes are on their ways.

     ²⁴ They are exalted a little, then there is not to them;

         indeed, they are brought low;

     like all, they are gathered and,

         like the tops of ears of grain, they are cut off.

     ²⁵ And if not, then who will falsify me

         and make my word nothing?”

Chapter 25

¹ And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

     ² “Dominion and fear {are} with him,

         the one making peace in his heights.

     ³ Is there a number to his troops?

         And upon whom does his light not arise?

     ⁴ So how will a man be righteous with God?

         Or how will one born of a woman be pure?

     ⁵ Behold, even the moon does not shine

         and the stars are not pure in his eyes.

     ⁶ Indeed that a man, a worm,

         or a son of man, a grub!”

Chapter 26

¹ And Job answered and said,

     ² “How you have helped {the one} without power!

         You have saved the arm of no strength!

     ³ How you have advised {one} without wisdom!

         Insight in abundance, you have made known!

     ⁴ With whom did you declare words?

         And the breath of whom came out from you?

     ⁵ The Raphaites tremble

         from below the waters

         and the ones inhabiting them.

     ⁶ Sheol {is} naked before him,

         and {there is} no covering to Abaddon,

     ⁷ the one stretching out the north over nothingness,

         hanging the earth upon nothing;

     ⁸ the one binding the waters in his clouds,

         but the cloud is not torn under them;

     ⁹ the one covering the face of the full moon,

         spreading his cloud upon it.

     ¹⁰ He has circled a limit on the face of the waters

         unto the boundary of light with darkness.

     ¹¹ The pillars of the heavens tremble

         and marvel at his rebuke.

     ¹² He calmed the sea with his power,

         and by his understanding he shattered Rahab.

     ¹³ By his breath the skies {become} clearness;

         his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

     ¹⁴ Behold, these are the edges of his ways,

         and how small a word we hear of him!

         And the thunder of his power, who will understand?

Chapter 27

¹ And Job continued to take up his discourse, and he said,

     ² “{As} God lives, {who} has taken away my justice,

         the Almighty, {who} has made my life bitter,

     ³ that, any of my life still {being} in me,

         and breath from God {being} in my nose,

     ⁴ if my lips speak wickedness,

         or my tongue, if it utters deceit!

     ⁵ Sacrilege to me if I justify you!

         Until I expire, I will not turn my integrity away from me.

     ⁶ I grasp my righteousness and I will not let it go;

         my heart will not reproach {me} from my days.

     ⁷ May my enemy be like the wicked,

         and the one rising up against me like the unrighteous!

     ⁸ For what {is} the hope of the godless when he cuts {him} off,

         when God takes away his life?

     ⁹ Will God hear his cry

         when trouble comes upon him?

     ¹⁰ If he will delight himself in the Almighty?

         Will he call {to} God in every time?

     ¹¹ I will teach you about the hand of God;

         what {is} with the Almighty I will not conceal.

     ¹² Behold, you have seen {this} yourselves, all of you;

         why then do you vainly speak this vanity?

     ¹³ This {is} the portion of a wicked man with God,

         and the heritage of oppressors, they receive {it} from the Almighty:

     ¹⁴ If his children multiply, {it is} for the sword,

         and his offspring will not have enough bread.

     ¹⁵ His survivor will be buried in death,

         and his widows will not lament.

     ¹⁶ If he heaps up silver like the dust

         and he piles up clothing like clay mounds,

     ¹⁷ he piles up, but the righteous clothes himself

         and the innocent receives silver.

     ¹⁸ He builds his house as a moth {does},

         and like a hut {that} a guard makes.

     ¹⁹ He lies down rich, but he does not continue;

         he opens his eyes and there is not to him.

     ²⁰ Terrors overwhelm him like waters;

         a storm carries him away in the night.

     ²¹ The east wind takes him away, and he leaves;

         indeed, it blasts him from his place.

     ²² And it hurls {itself} upon him and does not pity;

         fleeing, he flees from its hand.

     ²³ It claps its hands at him

         and hisses at him from his place.

Chapter 28

     ¹ Surely there is a mine for silver,

         and a place {where} they refine gold.

     ² Iron is taken from the dust,

         and one smelts copper {from} stone.

     ³ Setting an end to darkness,

         he is searching out, to every extremity,

         a stone of gloom and deep darkness.

     ⁴ He opens a shaft away from habitation,

         the ones forgotten by the foot.

         Away from man, they dangle and swing.

     ⁵ The earth, from it comes bread,

         but beneath it, it is overturned as with fire.

     ⁶ Its stones {are} the place of sapphire,

         and dusts of gold {are} to it.

     ⁷ No bird of prey knows the path,

         and the eye of the falcon has not seen it.

     ⁸ The sons of pride have not walked it,

         and the lion has not passed over it.

     ⁹ He stretches out his hand against flinty rock;

         he overturns mountains from their roots.

     ¹⁰ He cuts out channels among the rocks,

         and his eye sees every valuable thing.

     ¹¹ He binds the torrents from flowing,

         and he brings a hidden thing {to} light.

     ¹² But where is wisdom found?

         And where is that, the place of understanding?

     ¹³ Man does not know its disposition,

         and it is not found in the land of the living.

     ¹⁴ The deep says, ‘It {is} not in me,’

         and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

     ¹⁵ Gold is not given for it,

         nor is silver weighed {for} its price.

     ¹⁶ It is not valued with the gold of Ophir,

         with precious onyx or sapphire.

     ¹⁷ Neither gold nor crystal compares with it,

         {nor is} its exchange a vessel of fine gold.

     ¹⁸ Coral and jasper are not mentioned;

         indeed, the price of wisdom {is} more than rubies.

     ¹⁹ The topaz of Cush does not equal it;

         it is not valued in pure gold.

     ²⁰ From whence, then, does wisdom come?

         And where {is} that, the place of understanding?

     ²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of each living {thing};

         even from the birds of the heavens it is concealed.

     ²² Abaddon and death say,

         ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

     ²³ God understands its way,

         and he knows its place.

     ²⁴ For he looks to the ends of the earth;

         he sees beneath all of the heavens.

     ²⁵ When he made the weight for the wind

         and apportioned the waters by measure,

     ²⁶ when he made a decree for the rain

         and a path for the flash of the thunders,

     ²⁷ then he saw it and recounted it;

         he established it and also explored it.

     ²⁸ And he said to man,

         ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord—that {is} wisdom,

         and to turn from evil {is} understanding.’”

Chapter 29

¹ And Job continued to take up his discourse, and he said,

     ² “Who will give me {to be} as {in} the months of the past,

         as {in} the days {when} God was keeping me,

     ³ when his lamp shone over my head,

         {when} I walked {in} darkness by his light,

     ⁴ as that I was in the days of my prime,

         when the friendship of God {was} upon my tent,

     ⁵ when the Almighty {was} still with me,

         my children around me,

     ⁶ when my steps were bathed in butter

         and the rock poured out streams of oil for me!

     ⁷ When I went out to the gate of the city,

         {when} I took my seat in the square,

     ⁸ young men saw me and hid themselves,

         and old men rose, they stood.

     ⁹ The princes refrained from words,

         and they put a hand on their mouth.

     ¹⁰ The voice of the nobles—they were hushed,

         and their tongue stuck to their palate.

     ¹¹ For the ear heard, and they blessed me,

         and the eye saw, and they attested me

     ¹² because I rescued the afflicted crying out

         and the fatherless when {there was} no help to him.

     ¹³ The blessing of the one perishing came upon me,

         and I gladdened the heart of the widow.

     ¹⁴ I clothed myself {with} righteousness, and it clothed me;

         my justice {was} like a robe and a turban.

     ¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind,

         and I {was} feet to the lame.

     ¹⁶ I {was} a father to the needy,

         and the case {that} I did not know, I examined it.

     ¹⁷ And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous,

         and I made the prey drop from his teeth.

     ¹⁸ And I said, ‘I will expire in my nest,

         and I will multiply days like sand.

     ¹⁹ My root is spread out to the waters,

         and the dew lodges on my branch.

     ²⁰ My glory {is} fresh in me,

         and my bow sprouts in my hand.’

     ²¹ They listened to me and they waited,

         and they kept silent for my counsel.

     ²² After my word, they did not also {speak},

         for my speech dripped on them.

     ²³ And they waited for me as {for} rain,

         and they opened their mouth {as} for the latter rain.

     ²⁴ I smiled on them {when} they did not believe,

         and they did not cause the light of my face to fall.

     ²⁵ I chose their way and I sat as a chief,

         and I dwelt like a king in an army,

         as when one comforts mourners.

Chapter 30

     ¹ But now the fewer in days than me laugh at me,

         whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.

     ² Indeed, the strength of their hands, for what {is it} to me?

         In them old age has perished.

     ³ {They are} gaunt from poverty and from hunger,

         ones gnawing the dry land yesterday {in} waste and desolation,

     ⁴ ones plucking mallow among the brush,

         and the root of broom trees {is} their bread.

     ⁵ They are driven out from the midst;

         they shout after them as {after} a thief,

     ⁶ to dwell on the slope of wadis,

         {in} holes of the dust and rocks.

     ⁷ Among the shrubs they bray;

         they are gathered together under thorn bushes.

     ⁸ Sons of a fool, indeed, sons of {one} without a name!

         They are scourged from the land.

     ⁹ But now I have become their song,

         and I am a word for them.

     ¹⁰ They abhor me, they stay away from me,

         but from my face they do not withhold spit.

     ¹¹ For he has loosed my cord and humbled me,

         so they cast away restraint from my face.

     ¹² On {my} right the brood arise;

         they thrust aside my foot,

         and they pile up roads of destruction against me.

     ¹³ They destroy my path,

         they advance my calamity;

         {there is} no help for them.

     ¹⁴ As {through} a wide breach they come;

         amid the ruin they roll on.

     ¹⁵ Terrors are turned against me;

         {each} one pursues my dignity like the wind,

         and my deliverance passes away like a cloud.

     ¹⁶ And now my life pours itself out within me;

         days of affliction seize me.

     ¹⁷ Night pierces my bones from upon me,

         and the ones gnawing me do not rest.

     ¹⁸ By great force my clothing is changed;

         it binds me like the collar of my tunic.

     ¹⁹ He has thrown me into the mud,

         and I have become like dust and ashes.

     ²⁰ I cry to you, but you do not answer me;

         I stand, but you gaze at me.

     ²¹ You have changed to {be} cruel to me;

         with the strength of your hand you attack me.

     ²² You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,

         and you toss me about {in} a storm.

     ²³ For I know you are bringing me {to} death

         and {to} the house of appointment to all the living.

     ²⁴ Nevertheless, does not one in a heap stretch out a hand?

         If in his trouble he does {not} therefore cry out?

     ²⁵ If I did not weep for the difficult of day?

         My soul grieved for the needy.

     ²⁶ For I hoped (for} good, but bad came,

         and let me wait for light, but darkness comes.

     ²⁷ My innards are boiled and they do not rest;

         days of affliction confront me.

     ²⁸ I go about being dark not by the sun;

         I stand up in the assembly and cry out.

     ²⁹ I have become a brother to jackals

         and a companion to the daughters of clamor.

     ³⁰ My skin is black from upon me,

         and my bone burns from heat.

     ³¹ So my harp is to mourning

         and my flute to the sound of ones weeping.

Chapter 31

     ¹ I have cut a covenant with my eyes;

         how then would I gaze upon a virgin?

     ² For what {would be} the portion from God above,

         or the inheritance from the Almighty in the heights?

     ³ {Is} not calamity for the unrighteous

         and disaster for doers of wickedness?

     ⁴ Does he not see my ways

         and count all my steps?

     ⁵ If I have walked with falsehood

         or my foot has hurried to deceit—

     ⁶ let him weigh me in balances of righteousness,

         and God will know my integrity—

     ⁷ if my step has turned aside from the way,

         or my heart has gone after my eyes,

         or a spot has stuck to my hands,

     ⁸ let me sow and may another eat,

         or may my crops be uprooted!

     ⁹ If my heart has been opened by a woman

         and I have lurked at the door of my neighbor,

     ¹⁰ may my wife grind for another,

         and may others bow down upon her.

     ¹¹ For that {would be} lewdness,

         and it would be iniquity of judges.

     ¹² For it {is} a fire, it consumes unto Abaddon,

         and it would uproot all of my harvest.

     ¹³ If I disdained the justice of my male servant or my female servant

         in their case against me,

     ¹⁴ then what would I do if God arose?

         Or if he visited, how would I answer him?

     ¹⁵ Did not the one making me in the belly make him?

         And did {not} one fashion us in the womb?

     ¹⁶ If I have withheld from the desire of the poor,

         or I have made the eyes of the widow fail,

     ¹⁷ or I have eaten my morsel alone

         and the fatherless did not eat from it—

     ¹⁸ for from my youth he has grown up with me as a father,

         and from the belly of my mother I have guided her.

     ¹⁹ If I have seen one perishing from lack of clothing

         or {that} there was not a covering for the needy,

     ²⁰ if his loins have not blessed me

         and he has {not} warmed himself from the wool of my sheep,

     ²¹ if I have shaken my hand against the fatherless

         because I saw my help at the gate,

     ²² may my upper arm fall from the shoulder blade;

         yes, may my arm be broken from its socket!

     ²³ For the destruction of God {was} a dread to me,

         and from his majesty, I was not able.

     ²⁴ If I have made gold my hope

         and I have said to fine gold, ‘My confidence’;

     ²⁵ if I have rejoiced because my wealth {was} great

         and because my hand had acquired much!

     ²⁶ If I have seen the light when it shone

         or the moon walking {in} splendor,

     ²⁷ and my heart opened in secret

         and my hand kissed my mouth,

     ²⁸ this also {would be} iniquity of judges,

         for I would have denied God above.

     ²⁹ If I have rejoiced at the destruction of one hating me

         or lifted myself up because evil found him!

     ³⁰ For I have not caused my palate to sin

         by asking {for} his life with a curse.

     ³¹ If the men of my tent have not said,

         ‘Who will give one {who} has not been satisfied from his flesh?’!

     ³² The sojourner has not stayed overnight in the outdoors;

         I have opened my doors to the traveler.

     ³³ If, like man, I have concealed my sins

         by hiding my guilt in my chest,

     ³⁴ because I feared the great multitude

         and the contempt of the clans terrified me,

         and I kept silent, I did not go out the door!

     ³⁵ Who will give to me one hearing me?

         Behold, my mark! May the Almighty answer me!

         And the scroll that the man of my case has written?

     ³⁶ If I would not bear it on my shoulder?

         I would bind it to me {as} crowns!

     ³⁷ I would declare to him an account of my steps;

         I would approach him like a noble.

     ³⁸ If my soil cries out against me

         and its furrows weep together,

     ³⁹ if I have eaten its yield without silver

         or caused the breath of its masters to expire,

     ⁴⁰ may a thorn grow instead of wheat

         and a weed instead of barley!”

The words of Job have ended.

Chapter 32

¹ And the three of these men ceased from answering Job, because he {was} righteous in his eyes. ² Then the nose burned of Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, from the clan of Ram. His nose burned against Job upon him declaring himself righteous rather than God. ³ And against the three of his friends his nose burned upon that they had not found an answer but they had declared Job wrong. ⁴ Now Elihu had awaited Job with words, because they {were} older in days than he {was}. ⁵ But Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of the three of the men, and his nose burned.

⁶ And Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite answered and said,

     “I {am} young in days and you {are} aged.

         Upon that, I was timid and I was afraid of telling you my knowledge.

     ⁷ I said, ‘Let days speak,

         and let a multitude of years teach wisdom.’

     ⁸ Nevertheless, a spirit, it {is} in man,

         and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.

     ⁹ The great are not wise,

         and the aged do {not} understand justice.

     ¹⁰ Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;

         I also will declare my knowledge.’

     ¹¹ Behold, I waited for your words;

         I listened to your reasonings

         while you searched {for} words.

     ¹² Indeed, I paid attention to you,

         but behold, there was no one proving Job wrong,

         {not one} of you answering his words,

     ¹³ lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom!’

         Let God refute him, not man.

     ¹⁴ Now he has not arrayed words against me,

         and I will not answer him with your words.

     ¹⁵ They are dismayed; they do not answer any longer;

         words have gone from them.

     ¹⁶ Shall I wait because they are not speaking,

         because they stand, they answer no more?

     ¹⁷ I also will answer {on} my part;

         I also will declare my knowledge.

     ¹⁸ For I am full of words;

         the spirit in my belly compels me.

     ¹⁹ Behold, my belly {is} like wine {that} has no vent;

         like new wineskins, it is bursting open.

     ²⁰ I will speak and refresh myself;

         I will open my lips and answer.

     ²¹ Now let me not lift the face of a man,

         and let me not give a title to a man.

     ²² For I do not know giving titles;

         my Maker would soon take me away.

Chapter 33

     ¹ But now, Job, please hear my words;

         yes, listen to all of my words.

     ² Behold, I have now opened my mouth;

         my tongue has spoken on my palate.

     ³ My words {are} {from} the uprightness of my heart,

         and my lips speak pure knowledge.

     ⁴ The Spirit of God made me;

         yes, the breath of the Almighty enlivened me.

     ⁵ If you can, answer me;

         array to my face; station yourself.

     ⁶ Behold, I am for God according to your mouth.

         I too have been formed from clay;

     ⁷ behold, my fear will not terrify you,

         and my pressure will not be heavy on you.

     ⁸ Indeed, you have spoken in my ears,

         and I have heard the sound of the words.

     ⁹ ‘I {am} pure, without transgression;

         I {am} innocent, and iniquity {is} not to me.

     ¹⁰ Behold, he finds occasions against me;

         he considers me an enemy to him.

     ¹¹ He puts my feet in shackles;

         he watches all of my paths.’

     ¹² Behold, {in} this you are not right.

         I will answer you,

         for God is greater than man.

     ¹³ Why do you contend against him,

         that he does not answer any of one’s words?

     ¹⁴ For God speaks once—yes, twice;

         one does not perceive it.

     ¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night,

         in the falling of deep sleep upon men,

         in slumbers upon a bed,

     ¹⁶ then he opens the ear of men

         and seals their correction ^[1]

     ¹⁷ to bring a man back from {his} doing

         and to conceal pride from a man.

     ¹⁸ He spares his soul from the pit

         and his life from crossing over by a weapon.

     ¹⁹ He is also chastened with pain on his bed

         and the contention of his bones {is} continual.

     ²⁰ so his life abhors bread,

         and his soul food of desire.

     ²¹ His flesh wastes from sight,

         and his bones, not seen, are exposed,

     ²² and his soul draws near to the pit,

         and his life to the ones causing death.

     ²³ If there is an angel for him, an interpreter,

         one of a thousand,

         to declare to a man his uprightness,

     ²⁴ and he is gracious to him and says,

         ‘Redeem him from going down to the pit,

         I have found a ransom,’

     ²⁵ his flesh becomes fresher than {in} childhood;

         it returns to the days of his youth.

     ²⁶ He will pray to God, and he will accept him,

         and he will see his face with joy,

         and he will restore to the man his righteousness.

     ²⁷ He will sing to men and say,

         ‘I sinned and I turned aside uprightness,

         but he did not requite to me.

     ²⁸ He has redeemed my soul from going over into the pit,

         and my life will see light.’

     ²⁹ Behold, God does all these {things} twice, thrice, with a man

     ³⁰ to bring his soul back from the pit

         for being enlightened with the light of the living.

     ³¹ Heed, Job; listen to me.

         Be silent, and I will speak.

     ³² If there are words, answer me;

         speak, for I desire to justify you.

     ³³ If not, you listen to me;

         be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.

Chapter 34

¹ And Elihu answered and said,

     ² “Hear my words, wise {ones},

         and listen to me, ones knowing.

     ³ For the ear tests words,

         and the palate tastes food.

     ⁴ Let us choose justice for ourselves;

         let us know among ourselves what is good.

     ⁵ For Job has said, ‘I am righteous,

         but God has taken away my justice.

     ⁶ Would I lie about my justice?

         My arrow is incurable, without transgression.’

     ⁷ What man {is} like Job?

         He drinks scorn like water,

     ⁸ and he travels in company with doers of iniquity

         and walks with men of wickedness!

     ⁹ For he has said, ‘It does not benefit a man

         when he delights {himself} with God.’

     ¹⁰ Therefore, men of heart, listen to me:

         Sacrilege to God from wickedness, and the Almighty from iniquity!

     ¹¹ For the deed of a man he repays to him,

         and according to the path of a man, he causes it to find him.

     ¹² Indeed, God truly does not act wickedly,

         and the Almighty does not pervert justice.

     ¹³ Who appointed {him} over the earth?

         And who set the world, all of it?

     ¹⁴ If he set his heart upon himself,

         {if} he gathered his Spirit and his breath to himself,

     ¹⁵ all flesh would expire together,

         and man would return to the dust.

     ¹⁶ But if understanding, hear this;

         listen to the sound of my words.

     ¹⁷ Will one hating justice indeed govern?

         Or if you will condemn the Righteous {One}, the Mighty {One},

     ¹⁸ the one saying ‘Worthless!’ to a king,

         ‘Wicked!’ {to} nobles,

     ¹⁹ who does not lift the faces of princes

         and does not acknowledge the rich to the face of the poor,

         for all of them {are} the work of his hands.

     ²⁰ {In} a moment they die,

         and {in} the middle of the night people are shaken and they pass,

         and they take away the mighty, not by a hand.

     ²¹ For his eyes {are} upon the ways of a man,

         and he sees all of his steps.

     ²² There is no darkness and there is no deep darkness

         for the doers of iniquity to be hidden there.

     ²³ For he does not set upon a man further,

         to go to God for judgment.

     ²⁴ He shatters the mighty {with} no investigation,

         and he establishes others instead of them.

     ²⁵ Because he regards their deeds,

         he overthrows {them} in the night, and they are crushed.

     ²⁶ He strikes them for their wickednesses

         in the place of the ones seeing,

     ²⁷ that because they turned from after him

         and they did not consider any of his ways,

     ²⁸ to cause the cry of the poor to come to him,

         and he heard the cry of the lowly.

     ²⁹ If he is silent, then who will condemn {him}?

         If he hides {his} face, then who will perceive him?

         Yet {he is} over a nation and over a man alike,

     ³⁰ from the reigning of a godless man,

         from snares of the people.

     ³¹ If one says to God,

         ‘I have borne, I will not offend,

     ³² besides [what] I see, you teach me;

         if I have done iniquity, I will not continue,’

     ³³ from with you will he repay it?

         Since you despise, then you will choose and not I.

         So what you know, speak.

     ³⁴ Men of heart will say to me,

         and a man of wisdom hearing me,

     ³⁵ ‘Job does not speak with knowledge,

         and his words {are} not with understanding.’

     ³⁶ If only Job were tested to the end

         upon {his} answers among men of iniquity.

     ³⁷ For he adds transgression to his sin;

         he claps among us,

         and he multiplies his words against God.”

Chapter 35

¹ And Elihu answered and said,

     ² “Do you consider this to {be} justice?

         You say, ‘I am more righteous than God’!

     ³ For you have said, ‘What does it benefit you?

         What do I gain more than my sin?’

     ⁴ I will answer you {with} words,

         and your friends with you.

     ⁵ Observe the heavens and see,

         and look, the clouds soar above you.

     ⁶ If you sin, what do you accomplish against him?

         Or {if} your transgressions multiply, what do you do to him?

     ⁷ If you are righteous, what do you give to him,

         or what does he receive from your hand?

     ⁸ Your wickedness {is} to a man like you,

         and your righteousness {is} to a son of man.

     ⁹ From the multitude of oppressions they make a cry;

         they shout from the arm of the mighty.

     ¹⁰ But one does not say, ‘Where is God my Maker,

         the one giving songs in the night,

     ¹¹ the one teaching us more than the beasts of the earth,

         making us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

     ¹² There they cry out, but he does not answer

         from the face of the pride of evil {ones}.

     ¹³ Surely God does not hear vanity,

         and the Almighty does not regard it.

     ¹⁴ How much less that you say you do not see him,

         the case {is} to his face, and you are waiting for him,

     ¹⁵ and now that {in} his nose, he does not visit,

         and he does not take much notice of transgression!

     ¹⁶ So Job opens his mouth {in} vain;

         without knowledge, he multiplies words.”

Chapter 36

¹ And Elihu continued and said,

     ² “Be patient with me a little and I will show you,

         for [there are} yet words to God.

     ³ I will carry my knowledge to from afar,

         and I will attribute righteousness to my Maker.

     ⁴ For truly my words {will} not {be} false;

         the complete in knowledge {is} with you.

     ⁵ Behold, God {is} mighty, and he does not despise;

         mighty, strong in heart.

     ⁶ He does not keep the wicked alive,

         but he gives the lowly justice.

     ⁷ He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,

         but he sets them on a throne with kings forever,

         and they rise high.

     ⁸ But if {they are} bound in chains

         and they are caught in cords of affliction,

     ⁹ then he declares to them their deeds and their transgressions,

         for they magnified themselves,

     ¹⁰ and he opens their ear to correction

         and says that they shall return from iniquity.

     ¹¹ If they hear and serve {him},

         they will complete their days in good

         and their years in pleasantness.

     ¹² But if they do not hear, they will cross over by a weapon,

         and they will expire as without knowledge.

     ¹³ And the godless of heart keep the nose;

         they do not cry out when he binds them.

     ¹⁴ Their soul dies in youth,

         and their life {is} among the cultic prostitutes.

     ¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted by his affliction,

         and he opens their ear by oppression.

     ¹⁶ And indeed, he has drawn you from the mouth of distress

         {to} a broad place {with} no constriction under it,

         and the setting of your table he has filled {with} fatness.

     ¹⁷ But you are full of the judgment of the wicked;

         judgment and justice take hold.

     ¹⁸ For wrath, lest it entice you into clapping,

         and the greatness of a ransom will not deliver you.

     ¹⁹ Will he esteem your riches?

         Not gold or all of the strengths of wealth!

     ²⁰ Do not desire the night,

         {which is} to the departing of peoples {from} their place.

     ²¹ Watch yourself, do not turn to sin,

         for you have chosen upon that rather than affliction.

     ²² Behold, God causes to be high in his power.

         Who {is} a teacher like him?

     ²³ Who has appointed his way to him?

         Or who has said, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’

     ²⁴ Remember that you magnify his work,

         which men have sung.

     ²⁵ Every man has looked upon it;

         man has regarded from afar.

     ²⁶ Behold, God {is} great, but we do not know {him};

         the number of his years, indeed, {there is} no searching.

     ²⁷ For he draws up the drops of water;

         they distill {as} rain into his stream,

     ²⁸ which the clouds pour down;

         they drop upon man {in} abundance.

     ²⁹ Indeed, if one will understand the spread of the cloud,

         the thunder from his hut?

     ³⁰ Behold, he spreads his lightning upon it,

         and he covers the roots of the sea.

     ³¹ For by them he judges the peoples;

         he gives food in abundance.

     ³² He covers over his hands {with} lightning

         and he enjoins upon it against the mark.

     ³³ He declares his shout about it;

         the cattle also about the thing arising.

Chapter 37

     ¹ Indeed, my heart trembles at this,

         and it leaps from its place.

     ² Hearing, hear the roar of his voice

         and the sound {that} comes from his mouth!

     ³ He lets it loose under all of the heavens,

         and his lightning to the edges of the earth.

     ⁴ A voice roars after it;

         he thunders with the voice of his majesty,

         and he does not restrain them when his voice is heard.

     ⁵ God thunders marvelously with his voice,

         doing great {things} and we do not know.

     ⁶ For he says to the snow, ‘Be {on} the earth,’

         and {to} the shower of rain,

         {to} the shower of rains, ‘Strength!’

     ⁷ He seals the hand of every man

         for the knowing of all of men of his making.

     ⁸ And the beast goes into {its} den

         and remains in its lairs.

     ⁹ The storm comes from the chamber,

         and the cold from the north winds.

     ¹⁰ From the breath of God ice is made,

         and the breadth of the waters {is} in narrowness.

     ¹¹ Indeed, he loads the cloud with moisture;

         he scatters the cloud of his lightning.

     ¹² And it is turning itself around by his counsels

         for them doing all of what he commands them

         above the face of the habitation of the earth.

     ¹³ If to the rod, if to his earth, if to kindness, he causes it to find it.

     ¹⁴ Do hear this, Job;

         stand and consider the marvelous {things} of God.

     ¹⁵ Do you know of the placing of God upon them,

         and his cloud causes lightning to flash?

     ¹⁶ Do you know about the balancing of the cloud,

         the wonders of the perfect in knowledges?

     ¹⁷ {You} whose garments {are} hot

         in the quieting of the earth from the south,

     ¹⁸ will you hammer out the sky with him,

         strong as a cast mirror?

     ¹⁹ Teach us what we shall say to him;

         we can not array, from the face of darkness.

     ²⁰ Shall it be recounted to him that I would speak?

         If a man spoke, that he would be swallowed up?

     ²¹ And now, they do not look at the bright light that {is} in the skies

         when the wind has passed through and cleansed them.

     ²² Out of the north comes gold;

         around God {is} awesome majesty.

     ²³ The Almighty, we do not find him!

         {He is} great {in} power,

         and he does not oppress justice and an abundance of righteousness.

     ²⁴ Therefore, fear him, men.

         He does not regard any of the wise of heart.”

Chapter 38

¹ And Yahweh answered Job from the storm and said,

     ² “Who {is} this, darkening counsel

         by words without knowledge?

     ³ Now gird up your loins like a man,

         and I will question you and you will inform me.

     ⁴ Where were you in my founding of the earth?

         Declare, if you know understanding.

     ⁵ Who set its measurements? If you know!

         Or who stretched a line over it?

     ⁶ On what were its foundations sunk?

         Or who laid its cornerstone,

     ⁷ in the singing together of the stars of the morning,

         and all the sons of God shouted?

     ⁸ And {who} enclosed the sea with doors

         in its issuing from the womb, {when} it came out,

     ⁹ in my making the cloud its clothing

         and thick darkness its swaddling bands?

     ¹⁰ And I broke upon it my boundary,

         and I set a bar and doors,

     ¹¹ and I said, ‘Unto here you will come, but you will not continue,

         and here one has set for the pride of your waves.’

     ¹² From your days, have you commanded the morning?

         Have you caused the dawn to know its place,

     ¹³ for taking hold of the edges of the earth,

         and the wicked are shaken from it?

     ¹⁴ It is changed like clay {under} a seal,

         and they stand out like a garment.

     ¹⁵ And from the wicked, their light is withheld,

         and their high arm is broken.

     ¹⁶ Have you gone to the springs of the sea?

         Or have you walked around in the recesses of the deep?

     ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

         Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

     ¹⁸ Have you given attention to the breadths of the earth?

         Declare, if you know all of it.

     ¹⁹ Where {is} this, the way {to where} light dwells,

         and darkness, where {is} this, its place,

     ²⁰ that you would take it to its territory,

         and that you would perceive the paths of its house?

     ²¹ You know, for you were born then,

         and the number of your days {is} many!

     ²² Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow,

         or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

     ²³ which I keep for a time of trouble,

         for a day of battle and war?

     ²⁴ Where {is} this, the way {to where} the light is distributed,

         the east wind scatters over the earth?

     ²⁵ Who cut a channel for the downpour,

         or a way for the lightning of the thunder,

     ²⁶ to cause rain upon a land {where} no man {is},

         a wilderness {with} no man in it,

     ²⁷ to satisfy the waste and the desolation,

         and to cause the shoot of the grass to sprout?

     ²⁸ Is there a father to the rain?

         Or who begets the drops of dew?

     ²⁹ From whose womb does ice come?

         And the frost of the skies, who bears it?

     ³⁰ As {under} stone, the waters hide themselves,

         and the face of the deep freezes.

     ³¹ Will you tie the bands of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion?

     ³² Will you bring out Mazzaroth in its time?

         Or will you guide the Bear with its sons?

     ³³ Do you know the statutes of the skies?

         If you will establish its rule over the earth?

     ³⁴ Will you raise your voice to the cloud

         and an abundance of waters will cover you?

     ³⁵ Will you send out lightning bolts and they will go,

         and they will say to you, ‘Behold, us’?

     ³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the clouds,

         or who has given understanding to the mist?

     ³⁷ Who by wisdom will number the clouds?

         Or the water skins of the skies, who will tilt

     ³⁸ in the hardening of the dust into a mass,

         and the clods stick together?

     ³⁹ Will you hunt prey for a lioness

         or satisfy the life of {her} cubs

     ⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens,

         {when} they lie in wait in a shelter for an ambush?

     ⁴¹ Who provides to the raven its food

         when its children cry out to God,

     {when} they stagger without food?

Chapter 39

     ¹ Do you know the time of the bearing of the goats of the rock?

         Will you watch the fawning of the does?

     ² Will you number the months they will fulfill?

         Or will you know the time of their bearing?

     ³ They crouch down, they deliver their offspring;

         they cast forth their labor pains.

     ⁴ Their sons become strong, they grow up in the field;

         they go out, and they do not return to them.

     ⁵ Who set the wild donkey free?

         And who untied the ropes of the donkey,

     ⁶ whose house I have made the Arabah,

         and his habitations the salt land?

     ⁷ It laughs at the commotion of the city;

         the shouts of the driver it does not hear.

     ⁸ It ranges the mountains {as} its pasture,

         and it seeks after every green thing.

     ⁹ Will the wild ox consent to serve you?

         If it will lodge by your manger?

     ¹⁰ Will you bind a wild ox in a furrow {with} its rope?

         If it will harrow the valleys after you?

     ¹¹ Will you trust in it because its strength is great?

         Will you leave your labor to it?

     ¹² Will you depend on it, that it will bring in your seed

         and gather {it} {to} your threshing floor?

     ¹³ The wing of ostriches flaps vigorously.

         If {it is} a kind feather and plumage?

     ¹⁴ For it leaves its eggs on the earth,

         and it warms them in the dust,

     ¹⁵ and it forgets that a foot might crush it

         and a beast of the field might trample it.

     ¹⁶ It treats its sons harshly, as if not to it;

         vain {is} its labor, without fear,

     ¹⁷ because God has caused it to forget wisdom,

         and he has not given understanding to it.

     ¹⁸ As for the time it lifts itself on high,

         it laughs at the horse and at its rider.

     ¹⁹ Have you given strength to the horse?

         Have you clothed its neck {with} a mane?

     ²⁰ Have you made it jump like a locust?

         The majesty of its snorting is terrifying!

     ²¹ They paw in the valley, and it rejoices in strength;

         it goes out to meet the weaponry.

     ²² It laughs at fear and it is not frightened,

         and it does not turn back from the face of the sword.

     ²³ The quiver rattles upon him,

         the flashing of the spear and the javelin.

     ²⁴ With shaking and rage it swallows the ground,

         and it does not stand still when {there is} the sound of the horn.

     ²⁵ In the abundance of the horn, it says, ‘Aha!’

         And it smells the battle from far away,

         the thunder of the princes and the battle-cry.

     ²⁶ By your wisdom does the hawk soar,

         does it stretch its wings toward the south?

     ²⁷ If at your mouth the eagle mounts up

         and that its nest is high?

     ²⁸ It dwells and lodges {on} a crag,

         on the peak of a crag and a stronghold.

     ²⁹ From there it seeks food;

         its eyes look to from afar.

     ³⁰ And its eaglets suck up blood,

         and at where the slain {are}, there it is.”

Chapter 40

¹ And Yahweh answered Job and said,

     ² “{Is} a reprover to contend with the Almighty?

         The one correcting God, let him answer it!” ³ And Job answered Yahweh and said,

     ⁴ “Behold, I am slight; how shall I answer you?

         I put my hand over my mouth.

     ⁵ I spoke once, but I will not answer,

         and twice, but I will not continue.” ⁶ And Yahweh answered Job from the storm and said,

     ⁷ “Now gird up your loins like a man!

         I will question you, and you will inform me.

     ⁸ Would you actually annul my judgment?

         Would you condemn me so that you may be right?

     ⁹ Or if like God an arm {is} to you?

         Or like him will you thunder with a voice?

     ¹⁰ Then adorn yourself {in} majesty and greatness,

         and clothe yourself {in} glory and splendor.

     ¹¹ Scatter the outbursts of your nose,

         and look at every proud one and bring him down.

     ¹² Look at every proud one and subdue him,

         and trample the wicked under them.

     ¹³ Hide them in the dust together;

         cover their faces in the hidden {place}.

     ¹⁴ And then I will praise you,

         because your right hand can save you.

     ¹⁵ Now behold Behemoth, which I made with you;

         it eats grass like an ox.

     ¹⁶ Now behold, its strength {is} in his loins,

         and its power {is} in the muscles of his belly.

     ¹⁷ It bends its tail like a cedar;

         the sinews of its thighs are intertwined.

     ¹⁸ Its bones {are} tubes of bronze;

         its legs {are} like bars of iron.

     ¹⁹ It {is} the first of the ways of God.

         Its Maker has brought near its sword.

     ²⁰ For the hills provide food for it,

         and all of the beasts of the field play there.

     ²¹ It lies beneath lotus trees,

         in the covering of the reed and the marsh.

     ²² The lotus trees cover it {with} their shade;

         the willows of the river surround it.

     ²³ Behold, a river will overflow, it does not tremble;

         it is confident, if the Jordan should surge to its mouth.

     ²⁴ Will one capture it with its eyes?

         Will one pierce {its} nose with cords?

Chapter 41

     ¹ Will you draw out Leviathan with a hook?

         Or will you tie its tongue with a rope?

     ² Will you put a rope into its nose,

         or will you pierce its jaw with a hook?

     ³ Will it multiply supplications to you?

         If it will speak tender {things} to you?

     ⁴ Will it cut a covenant with you?

         Will you take it for a servant forever?

     ⁵ Will you play with it as {with} a bird?

         Or will you tie it for your girls?

     ⁶ Will partners bargain over it?

         Will they divide it among merchants?

     ⁷ Can you fill its hide with harpoons

         or its head with spears of fish?

     ⁸ Put your hand on it;

         remember the battle; do not continue!

     ⁹ Behold, his hope is deceived;

         is one {not} cast down even at its appearance?

     ¹⁰ {One is} not fierce, that he will awaken it.

         Then who {is} he {who} will stand to my face?

     ¹¹ Who has anticipated me and I shall repay?

         Beneath all of the skies, it {is} to me.

     ¹² I will not keep silent {about} its limbs

         or the matter of its strengths or the beauty of its form.

     ¹³ Who has removed the face of its clothing?

         Into the double of its bridle, who has entered?

     ¹⁴ The doors of its face, who has opened?

         Around its teeth {is} terror!

     ¹⁵ Rows of shields {are its} pride,

         shut together {with} a tight seal.

     ¹⁶ One with one, they are close,

         and air does not come between them.

     ¹⁷ A man with his brother, they are joined together;

         they clasp themselves and they do not separate themselves.

     ¹⁸ Light flashes from its snortings,

         and its eyes {are} like the eyelids of the dawn.

     ¹⁹ Flames come from its mouth;

         sparks of fire leap out!

     ²⁰ From its nostrils goes smoke

         like a blown pot and a reed.

     ²¹ Its breath kindles coals,

         and a flame goes out from its mouth.

     ²² Strength lodges in its neck,

         and fear leaps up to its face.

     ²³ The folds of its flesh join together;

         they are firm on it, they will not be moved.

     ²⁴ Its heart is hard like stone;

         yes, it is hard like a lower millstone.

     ²⁵ At its rising, the mighty fear;

         from its thrashings, they withdraw.

     ²⁶ The sword reaching it does not stand;

         the spear, the dart, the javelin.

     ²⁷ It regards iron as straw,

         bronze as rotten wood.

     ²⁸ The son of the bow does not make it flee;

         with it, the stones of the sling are turned into chaff.

     ²⁹ Clubs are regarded as chaff,

         and it laughs at the rattling of a spear.

     ³⁰ Beneath it are points of a shard;

         it spreads {like} a threshing sledge upon the mud.

     ³¹ It makes the deep boil like a pot;

         it makes the sea like an ointment pot.

     ³² It makes a path shine behind it;

         one considers the deep {to be} white-haired.

     ³³ Upon the dust there is not its equal,

         the one made without fear.

     ³⁴ It sees all of the high;

         it {is} king over all of the sons of pride.”

Chapter 42

¹ And Job answered Yahweh and said,

     ² “I know that you are able {to do} everything,

         and no plan is withheld from you.

     ³ ‘Who is this, concealing counsel without knowledge?’

     Therefore I have declared, but I did not understand,

         {things} too wonderful for me, and I did not know.

     ⁴ ‘Listen, now, and I will speak;

         I will question you, and you will inform me.’

     ⁵ With the hearing of my ear I had heard {about} you,

         but now my eye sees you.

     ⁶ Therefore I despise,

         and I repent in dust and ashes.”

⁷ And it happened, after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, that Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My nose burns against you and against the two of your friends, for you have not spoken about me what is right as my servant Job {has}. ⁸ So now take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And Job my servant will pray for you; I will surely lift his face, lest I deal with you {according to your} folly. For you have not said what is right about me like my servant Job.” ⁹ And Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite {and} Zophar the Naamathite went and did as Yahweh had spoken to them, and Yahweh lifted the face of Job.

¹⁰ And Yahweh turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, and Yahweh added {to} all that {was} to Job to double. ¹¹ And all of his brothers and all of his sisters and all of the ones knowing him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house. And they consoled him and comforted him for all of the troubles that Yahweh had brought upon him, and they each gave one kesitah to him and each {gave} one earring of gold. ¹² And Yahweh blessed the finish of Job more than his start. And it was to him 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. ¹³ And it was to him seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ And he called the name of the first Jemimah and the name of the second Keziah and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ And one was not found {among} women {as} beautiful as the daughters of Job in all of the land. And their father gave an inheritance to them in the midst of their brothers. ¹⁶ And Job lived 140 years after this, and he saw his sons and the sons of his sons, {to} four generations. ¹⁷ And Job died, old and full of days.