Job

Job

We preserve the Hebrew parallelism and emotional weight.

We refrain from Western theological insertions or flattening Job into “suffering because of sin.”

We let Job speak as he was meant to: raw, broken, reverent, unrelenting.

“The awe of YHWH is wisdom.

To turn from evil—that is understanding.” (Job 28:28)

———

There was a man in the land of Uz,

his name was Iyov (Job);

a man blameless and upright,

one who feared Elohim

and turned away from evil.

Seven sons and three daughters were born to him.

His livestock was vast—

seven thousand sheep,

three thousand camels,

five hundred yoke of oxen,

and five hundred female donkeys—

and many servants.

This man was greater than all the sons of the east.

His sons would feast in their houses, each on his day,

and they would send and invite their three sisters

to eat and drink with them.

When the days of feasting had completed their cycle,

Job would rise early and offer burnt offerings for each of them,

for he said,

“Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”

Thus Job did continually.

Now there came a day

when the sons of Elohim came to present themselves before YHWH,

and the Accuser (ha-satan) also came among them.

YHWH said to the Accuser,

“From where have you come?”

And the Accuser answered YHWH,

“From roaming the earth—walking back and forth on it.”

YHWH said,

“Have you considered My servant Job?

There is none like him on the earth—

blameless and upright,

fearing God and turning from evil.”

But the Accuser said,

“Does Job fear God for nothing?

Have You not put a hedge around him, his household, and all he owns?

You have blessed the work of his hands,

and his flocks spread across the land.

But stretch out Your hand and strike all he has,

and he will curse You to Your face.”

YHWH said to the Accuser,

“Behold, all he has is in your hand.

Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”

And the Accuser went out from the presence of YHWH.

Now it happened on a day

when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine

in the house of their eldest brother,

a messenger came to Job and said:

“The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,

and the Sabeans attacked and took them.

They struck down the servants with the edge of the sword,

and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another came and said:

“The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants,

and consumed them;

I alone have escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another came and said:

“The Chaldeans formed three bands

and raided the camels and took them,

and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword;

I alone have escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another came and said:

“Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine

in the house of their eldest brother,

and behold—a great wind came from across the wilderness

and struck the four corners of the house.

It fell upon the young people, and they died.

I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Then Job arose and tore his robe

and shaved his head

and fell to the ground—

and worshiped.

He said,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I shall return there.

YHWH gave, and YHWH has taken away—

Blessed be the name of YHWH.”

In all this Job did not sin,

nor did he charge God with wrongdoing.

———

Again there was a day

when the sons of Elohim came to present themselves before YHWH,

and the Accuser came also among them

to present himself before YHWH.

YHWH said,

“From where have you come?”

The Accuser answered,

“From going to and fro on the earth, and walking up and down on it.”

YHWH said,

“Have you considered My servant Job?

There is none like him on the earth,

blameless and upright, fearing God and turning from evil.

He still holds fast his integrity,

though you incited Me against him

to destroy him without cause.”

And the Accuser said,

“Skin for skin!

All that a man has he will give for his life.

But stretch out Your hand now,

and touch his bone and his flesh,

and he will curse You to Your face.”

And YHWH said,

“He is in your hand—only spare his life.”

So the Accuser went out from the presence of YHWH

and struck Job with terrible sores

from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

And he took a piece of broken pottery

with which to scrape himself

as he sat among the ashes.

Then his wife said to him,

“Do you still hold fast your integrity?

Curse God and die.”

But he said to her,

“You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

Shall we receive good from God, and not receive evil?”

In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this disaster,

they came each from his place—

Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.

They made an appointment together

to come and show him sympathy and comfort him.

When they saw him from a distance,

they did not recognize him.

They raised their voices and wept aloud;

they tore their robes

and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights,

and no one spoke a word to him,

for they saw that his suffering was very great.

———

After this Job opened his mouth

and cursed the day of his birth.

He said:

Let the day perish on which I was born,

and the night that said, “A man is conceived.”

Let that day be darkness!

Let not God above seek it,

nor light shine upon it.

Let gloom and deep shadow claim it.

Let clouds settle upon it;

let blackness terrify it.

Let that night be barren;

let no joyful cry enter it.

Let those curse it who curse the day,

who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

Let the stars of its dawn be dark;

let it hope for light, but have none,

nor see the eyelids of the morning—

because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor hide trouble from my eyes.

Why did I not die at birth,

come out from the womb and expire?

Why were there knees to receive me,

or breasts that I should nurse?

For then I would have lain down and been quiet;

I would have slept—then I would be at rest,

with kings and counselors of the earth

who built ruins for themselves,

or with princes who had gold,

who filled their houses with silver.

Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,

like infants who never see the light?

There the wicked cease from troubling,

and there the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together;

they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

The small and the great are there,

and the slave is free from his master.

Why is light given to one in misery,

and life to the bitter in soul—

who long for death, but it does not come,

and dig for it more than for hidden treasures—

who rejoice exceedingly

and are glad when they find the grave?

Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden,

whom God has hedged in?

For my sighing comes instead of my bread,

and my groanings pour out like water.

For the thing I feared has come upon me,

and what I dreaded has overtaken me.

I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest, but trouble comes.

———

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?

Yet who can keep from speaking?

Behold, you have instructed many,

you have strengthened weak hands.

Your words have upheld the one who was stumbling,

and you have made firm the feeble knees.

But now it comes to you, and you are impatient;

it touches you, and you are dismayed.

Is not your fear of God your confidence,

and the integrity of your ways your hope?

Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?

Or where were the upright cut off?

As I have seen, those who plow iniquity

and sow trouble reap the same.

By the breath of God they perish,

and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion—

the teeth of the young lions are broken.

The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,

and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

Now a word was brought to me stealthily;

my ear received a whisper of it.

Amid thoughts from visions of the night,

when deep sleep falls on people,

dread came upon me, and trembling,

which made all my bones shake.

A spirit glided past my face;

the hair of my flesh stood up.

It stood still,

but I could not discern its form.

A figure was before my eyes;

there was silence—then I heard a voice:

“Can a mortal be in the right before God?

Can a human be pure before his Maker?

Even in His servants He puts no trust,

and His messengers He charges with error;

how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed like a moth.

Between morning and evening they are broken to pieces;

they perish forever without anyone regarding it.

Is not their tent cord pulled up within them,

so that they die without wisdom?”

———

Call now—is there anyone who will answer you?

To which of the holy ones will you turn?

Surely vexation kills the fool,

and jealousy slays the simple.

I have seen the fool taking root,

but suddenly his home was cursed.

His children are far from safety;

they are crushed in the gate,

with none to deliver them.

The hungry eat what he harvests,

and thorns take it for themselves;

the thirsty pant after his wealth.

Affliction does not come from the dust,

nor does trouble sprout from the ground.

But human beings are born to trouble

as surely as sparks fly upward.

But I would seek God,

and to God I would commit my cause—

who does great things and unsearchable,

wonders without number.

He gives rain on the earth

and sends waters on the fields;

He sets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

He frustrates the plans of the crafty,

so that their hands achieve no success.

He catches the wise in their own craftiness,

and the schemes of the wily come quickly to ruin.

They meet with darkness in the daytime,

and grope at noonday as in the night.

But He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth

and from the hand of the mighty.

So the poor have hope,

and injustice shuts its mouth.

Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;

therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

For He wounds, but He binds up;

He shatters, but His hands heal.

He will deliver you from six troubles;

in seven no evil shall touch you.

In famine He will redeem you from death,

and in war from the power of the sword.

You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue,

and shall not fear destruction when it comes.

At destruction and famine you shall laugh,

and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.

For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the wild beasts shall be at peace with you.

You shall know that your tent is secure,

and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

You shall know that your offspring shall be many,

and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

You shall come to your grave in full vigor,

like a sheaf gathered in its season.

Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.

Hear it, and know it for yourself.

———

Then Job answered and said:

Oh that my anguish were weighed,

and all my trouble laid in the balances together!

For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas—

therefore my words have been rash.

For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;

my spirit drinks their poison;

the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass,

or the ox low over his fodder?

Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt,

or is there any flavor in the juice of mallow?

My soul refuses to touch them;

they are as food that brings me sickness.

Oh that I might have my request,

and that God would grant what I hope for—

that it would please God to crush me,

to let loose His hand and cut me off!

This would still be my comfort—

I would exult in pain that does not spare—

for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

What is my strength, that I should hope?

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

Is my strength the strength of stones,

or is my flesh bronze?

Have I any help within me,

when resource is driven from me?

He who withholds kindness from a friend

forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi,

as the streambeds that overflow,

which are dark with ice,

and where snow hides itself;

in the heat they vanish,

they disappear from their place.

The caravans turn aside from their way;

they go up into the waste and perish.

The caravans of Tema look,

the travelers of Sheba hope.

They are ashamed because they were confident;

they come there and are disappointed.

For now you have become nothing;

you see my calamity and are afraid.

Have I said, “Make me a gift”?

Or, “Pay a bribe for me from your wealth”?

Or, “Deliver me from the hand of the enemy”?

Or, “Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless”?

Teach me, and I will be silent;

make me understand where I have gone astray.

How forceful are upright words!

But what does your reproof prove?

Do you think you can reprove my words,

when the speech of the desperate is wind?

You would even cast lots over the fatherless,

and bargain over your friend.

But now be pleased to look at me,

for I will not lie to your face.

Turn—let no injustice be done.

Turn now—my vindication is at stake.

Is there any wrong on my tongue?

Cannot my palate discern disaster?

Job Chapter 7 — I Will Speak in the Bitterness of My Soul

Does not humanity have hard service on earth,

and are not his days like those of a hired hand?

Like a slave who longs for the shadow,

and a hired hand who waits for his wages,

so I am allotted months of emptiness,

and nights of misery are appointed to me.

When I lie down I say, “When shall I arise?”

But the night is long,

and I am full of tossing till dawn.

My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;

my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle

and come to their end without hope.

Remember that my life is a breath;

my eye will never again see good.

The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;

while Your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.

As the cloud fades and vanishes,

so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;

he returns no more to his house,

nor does his place know him anymore.

Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Am I the sea, or a sea monster,

that You set a guard over me?

When I say, “My bed will comfort me,

my couch will ease my complaint,”

then You frighten me with dreams

and terrify me with visions,

so that I would choose strangling

and death rather than my bones.

I loathe my life; I would not live forever.

Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

What is man, that You make so much of him,

that You set Your heart on him,

visit him every morning

and test him every moment?

How long will You not look away from me,

nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

If I sin, what do I do to You, O watcher of humanity?

Why have You made me Your target?

Why have I become a burden to You?

Why do You not pardon my transgression

and take away my iniquity?

For now I shall lie in the dust;

You will seek me, but I shall not be.

Job Chapter 8 — Bildad Speaks: God Does Not Pervert Justice

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

How long will you say these things,

and the words of your mouth be a great wind?

Does God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert what is right?

If your children have sinned against Him,

He gave them over to the hand of their rebellion.

But if you will seek God

and plead with the Almighty for grace,

if you are pure and upright,

surely then He will rouse Himself for you

and restore your rightful dwelling.

Though your beginning was small,

your latter days will be very great.

For inquire, please, of former generations,

and consider what their ancestors found,

for we are of yesterday and know nothing,

because our days on earth are a shadow.

Will they not teach you and tell you

and utter words out of their understanding?

Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?

Can reeds flourish where there is no water?

While yet in flower and not cut down,

they wither before any other plant.

Such are the paths of all who forget God;

the hope of the godless shall perish.

His confidence is cut off,

and his trust is a spider’s web.

He leans against his house, but it does not stand;

he holds it fast, but it does not endure.

He is a lush plant before the sun,

and his shoots spread over his garden.

His roots entwine the stone heap;

he lives among the rocks.

If he is destroyed from his place,

then it will deny him, saying, “I have never seen you.”

Behold, this is the joy of his way,

and out of the soil others will spring.

Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,

nor take the hand of evildoers.

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with shouting.

Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,

and the tent of the wicked will be no more.

Job Chapter 9 — How Can a Mortal Be Just Before God?

Then Job answered and said:

Truly I know that it is so:

how can a mortal be right before God?

If one wished to contend with Him,

he could not answer Him once in a thousand times.

He is wise in heart and mighty in strength—

who has hardened himself against Him and succeeded?

He removes mountains, and they do not know it

when He overturns them in His anger.

He shakes the earth out of its place,

and its pillars tremble.

He commands the sun, and it does not rise;

He seals up the stars.

He alone stretches out the heavens

and treads on the waves of the sea.

He made the Bear and Orion,

the Pleiades and the chambers of the south.

He does great things beyond searching out,

and wonders without number.

Behold, He passes by me, and I see Him not;

He moves on, but I do not perceive Him.

If He snatches away, who can turn Him back?

Who will say to Him, “What are You doing?”

God will not turn back His anger;

beneath Him bowed the helpers of Rahab.

How then can I answer Him,

choosing my words with Him?

Though I am righteous, I could not answer Him;

I must appeal for mercy to my Judge.

If I summoned Him and He answered me,

I would not believe that He was listening to my voice.

For He crushes me with a tempest

and multiplies my wounds without cause.

He will not let me catch my breath,

but fills me with bitterness.

If it is a contest of strength, behold, He is mighty!

If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;

though I am blameless, it would prove me perverse.

I am blameless; I regard not myself;

I loathe my life.

It is all one; therefore I say,

He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.

When disaster brings sudden death,

He mocks the despair of the innocent.

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

He covers the faces of its judges—

if it is not He, then who is it?

My days are swifter than a runner;

they flee away; they see no good.

They pass like skiffs of reed,

like an eagle swooping on prey.

If I say, “I will forget my complaint,

I will put off my sad face and be of good cheer,”

I become afraid of all my suffering,

for I know You will not hold me innocent.

I shall be condemned;

why then do I labor in vain?

If I wash myself with snow

and cleanse my hands with lye,

yet You will plunge me into a pit,

and my own clothes will abhor me.

For He is not a man, as I am, that I might answer Him,

that we should come to trial together.

There is no arbiter between us,

who might lay his hand on us both.

Let Him take His rod away from me,

and let not dread of Him terrify me.

Then I would speak without fear of Him,

for I am not so in myself.

———

I loathe my life;

I will give free utterance to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

I will say to God,

Do not condemn me;

let me know why You contend against me.

Does it please You to oppress,

to despise the work of Your hands

and favor the plans of the wicked?

Have You eyes of flesh?

Do You see as humans see?

Are Your days as the days of a mortal,

or Your years as a man’s,

that You seek out my iniquity

and search for my sin,

although You know I am not guilty,

and there is none to deliver from Your hand?

Your hands fashioned me and made me,

yet now You would destroy me altogether?

Remember that You have made me like clay;

will You return me to the dust?

Did You not pour me out like milk

and curdle me like cheese?

You clothed me with skin and flesh,

and knit me together with bones and sinews.

You granted me life and covenant love,

and Your care preserved my breath.

Yet these things You hid in Your heart;

I know that this was Your purpose.

If I sin, You watch me,

and do not acquit me of guilt.

If I am guilty, woe to me!

If I am righteous, I dare not lift my head,

for I am filled with disgrace

and look on my affliction.

And were I to lift up my head,

You would hunt me like a lion

and again display Your power against me.

You renew Your witnesses against me

and increase Your anger toward me;

relief troops come against me.

Why did You bring me out from the womb?

Would that I had died before any eye had seen me

and been as though I had not been—

carried from the womb to the grave.

Are not my days few?

Then cease, and leave me alone,

that I may find a little cheer

before I go—and I shall not return—

to the land of darkness and deep shadow,

a land of gloom like thick darkness,

of deep shadow and chaos,

where light is like darkness.

Job Chapter 11 — Zophar Rebukes: Can You Fathom the Mystery of God?

Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

Should a multitude of words go unanswered,

and a man full of talk be justified?

Should your babble silence others,

and when you mock, should no one shame you?

For you say, “My doctrine is pure,

and I am clean in Your eyes.”

But oh, that God would speak

and open His lips against you,

and that He would tell you the secrets of wisdom!

For sound wisdom has two sides.

Know this: God exacts from you less than your guilt deserves.

Can you find out the deep things of God?

Can you discover the limit of the Almighty?

It is higher than the heavens—what can you do?

Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

Its measure is longer than the earth

and broader than the sea.

If He passes through and imprisons,

and calls to judgment, who can hinder Him?

For He knows worthless people;

when He sees iniquity, will He not consider it?

But a witless man will become wise

when a wild donkey’s colt is born a human.

If you prepare your heart,

and stretch out your hands toward Him,

if iniquity is in your hand, put it far away,

and let no injustice dwell in your tents.

Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish;

you will be secure and will not fear.

You will forget your misery;

you will remember it as waters that have passed away.

Your life will be brighter than noonday;

darkness will be like the morning.

And you will feel secure, because there is hope;

you will look around and rest in safety.

You will lie down, and none will make you afraid;

many will court your favor.

But the eyes of the wicked will fail;

they shall find no escape,

and their only hope is to breathe their last.

Job Chapter 12 — Job Replies: You Are Not the Only Ones Who Know

Then Job answered and said:

No doubt you are the people,

and wisdom will die with you.

But I have understanding as well as you;

I am not inferior to you.

Who does not know such things as these?

I have become a laughingstock to my friends,

I, who called on God and He answered—

a just and blameless man is laughed at.

In the thought of one at ease there is contempt for misfortune;

it is ready for those whose feet slip.

The tents of robbers are at peace,

and those who provoke God are secure,

who bring their god in their own hand.

But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;

or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;

and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

Who among all these does not know

that the hand of YHWH has done this?

In His hand is the life of every living thing

and the breath of all mankind.

Does not the ear test words

as the palate tastes food?

Wisdom is with the aged,

and understanding in length of days.

With Him are wisdom and might;

He has counsel and understanding.

If He tears down, none can rebuild;

if He shuts a person in, none can open.

If He holds back the waters, they dry up;

if He sends them out, they overwhelm the land.

With Him are strength and sound wisdom;

the deceived and the deceiver are His.

He leads counselors away stripped,

and judges He makes fools.

He loosens the belt of kings

and binds a waistcloth on their loins.

He leads priests away stripped

and overthrows the mighty.

He deprives speech from those who are trusted

and takes away discernment from the elders.

He pours contempt on nobles

and loosens the belt of the strong.

He uncovers the deeps out of darkness

and brings deep shadow to light.

He makes nations great, and He destroys them;

He enlarges nations and leads them away.

He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth

and makes them wander in a trackless waste.

They grope in the dark without light,

and He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Job Chapter 13 — Let Me Argue My Case with God

Behold, my eye has seen all this,

my ear has heard and understood it.

What you know, I also know;

I am not inferior to you.

But I would speak to the Almighty,

and I desire to argue my case with God.

As for you, you whitewash with lies;

worthless physicians are you all.

Oh that you would be silent,

and it would be your wisdom!

Hear now my argument

and listen to the pleadings of my lips.

Will you speak wrongly for God

and speak deceitfully for Him?

Will you show partiality toward Him?

Will you plead the case for God?

Will it be well with you when He searches you out?

Can you deceive Him, as one deceives a man?

He will surely rebuke you

if in secret you show partiality.

Will not His majesty terrify you,

and the dread of Him fall upon you?

Your maxims are proverbs of ashes;

your defenses are defenses of clay.

Be silent before me so that I may speak,

and let come on me what may.

Why do I take my flesh in my teeth

and put my life in my hand?

Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him;

but I will argue my ways to His face.

This will be my salvation,

that the godless shall not come before Him.

Listen carefully to my words,

and let my declaration be in your ears.

Behold, I have prepared my case;

I know that I shall be vindicated.

Who is there who will contend with me?

For then I would be silent and die.

Only grant me two things,

then I will not hide myself from Your face:

withdraw Your hand far from me,

and let not dread of You terrify me.

Then call, and I will answer;

or let me speak, and You reply to me.

How many are my iniquities and my sins?

Make me know my transgression and my sin.

Why do You hide Your face

and count me as Your enemy?

Will You frighten a windblown leaf

and pursue dry chaff?

For You write bitter things against me

and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

You put my feet in the stocks

and watch all my paths;

You mark the soles of my feet.

Man wastes away like something rotten,

like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Job Chapter 14 — Job Pleads for Mortality to Be Shown Mercy

Man, born of woman,

few of days and full of trouble,

comes forth like a flower and withers;

he flees like a shadow and does not last.

Do You open Your eyes on such a one

and bring me into judgment with You?

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

No one.

Since his days are determined,

and the number of his months is with You,

and You have appointed his limits, which he cannot pass,

look away from him and let him rest,

that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

For there is hope for a tree,

if it is cut down, that it will sprout again,

and its shoots will not cease.

Though its root grows old in the earth,

and its stump dies in the soil,

yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put forth branches like a young plant.

But a man dies and is laid low;

he breathes his last, and where is he?

As waters fail from a lake

and a river wastes away and dries up,

so a man lies down and does not rise;

till the heavens are no more he will not awake

or be roused out of his sleep.

Oh that You would hide me in Sheol,

that You would conceal me until Your wrath is past,

that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

If a man dies, shall he live again?

All the days of my service I would wait,

till my renewal should come.

You would call, and I would answer You;

You would long for the work of Your hands.

For then You would number my steps;

You would not keep watch over my sin;

my transgression would be sealed in a bag,

and You would cover over my iniquity.

But the mountain falls and crumbles away,

and the rock is removed from its place;

the waters wear away the stones;

the torrents wash away the soil of the earth—

so You destroy the hope of man.

You prevail forever against him, and he passes;

You change his face and send him away.

His sons come to honor, and he does not know it;

they are brought low, and he perceives it not.

He feels only the pain of his own body,

and he mourns only for himself.

Job Chapter 15 — Eliphaz Speaks Again: Do You Listen to Yourself?

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,

and fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he argue in unprofitable talk,

or in words with no benefit?

Indeed, you undermine the reverence of God

and hinder meditation before the Almighty.

Your guilt teaches your mouth,

and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

Your own mouth condemns you, not I;

your lips testify against you.

Are you the first human born?

Were you brought forth before the hills?

Have you listened in the council of God?

Do you limit wisdom to yourself alone?

What do you know that we do not know?

What do you understand that is not in us?

Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,

older than your father.

Are the consolations of God too small for you,

or the word spoken gently with you?

Why does your heart carry you away,

and why do your eyes flash,

that you turn your spirit against God

and bring such words out of your mouth?

What is man, that he can be pure?

Or one born of woman, that he can be righteous?

Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones,

and the heavens are not pure in His sight;

how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,

a man who drinks injustice like water!

I will show you; listen to me;

what I have seen I will declare—

what wise men have told,

and have not hidden from their fathers,

to whom alone the land was given,

and no stranger passed among them.

The wicked writhes in pain all his days,

through all the years reserved for the ruthless.

Terrifying sounds fill his ears;

in prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him.

He does not believe that he will return from darkness,

and he is marked for the sword.

He wanders in search of bread, saying, “Where is it?”

He knows that a day of darkness is ready at hand.

Distress and anguish terrify him;

they prevail against him like a king ready for battle.

Because he has stretched out his hand against God

and defies the Almighty,

running stubbornly against Him

with a thick shield.

He has covered his face with fat,

and gathered fat upon his loins.

He has lived in desolate cities,

in houses that none should inhabit,

which were ready to become heaps of ruins.

He will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,

nor will his possessions spread over the earth.

He will not escape from darkness;

a flame will dry up his shoots,

and by the breath of His mouth he will go away.

Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,

for emptiness will be his reward.

It will be paid in full before his time,

and his branch will not be green.

He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,

and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.

For the company of the godless is barren,

and fire consumes the tents of bribery.

They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,

and their womb prepares deceit.

———

Then Job answered and said:

I have heard many such things;

miserable comforters are you all.

Shall windy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

I also could speak as you do,

if your soul were in my soul’s place.

I could join words together against you

and shake my head at you.

But I would strengthen you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would bring relief.

Yet if I speak, my pain is not eased,

and if I remain silent, what am I spared?

Surely now He has worn me out;

You have made desolate all my company.

You have shriveled me up—

it has become a witness against me;

my leanness rises up and testifies to my face.

He has torn me in His wrath and hated me;

He has gnashed His teeth at me;

my enemy sharpens his eyes on me.

They have gaped at me with their mouths;

they have struck me insolently on the cheek;

they mass themselves together against me.

God gives me up to the unrighteous

and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

I was at ease, and He broke me apart;

He seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

He set me up as His target.

His archers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;

He pours out my gall on the ground.

He breaks me with breach upon breach;

He runs upon me like a warrior.

I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin

and laid my horn in the dust.

My face is red with weeping,

and on my eyelids is deep darkness,

though there is no violence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

O earth, cover not my blood,

and let my cry find no resting place.

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

and He who testifies for me is on high.

My friends scorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

that He would argue the case of a man with God,

as one pleads for a friend.

For when a few years have passed,

I shall go the way of no return.

———

My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished;

the grave is ready for me.

Surely there are mockers around me,

and my eye dwells on their provocation.

Lay down a pledge for me with You—

who is there that will put up security for me?

Since You have closed their hearts to understanding,

therefore You will not let them triumph.

He who informs against friends for a share of spoil—

the eyes of his children will fail.

He has made me a byword of the peoples;

I am one before whom people spit.

My eye has grown dim from grief,

and all my limbs are like a shadow.

The upright are appalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and the one with clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

But come on again, all of you—

I shall not find a wise man among you.

My days are past; my plans are broken off,

the desires of my heart.

They make night into day:

“The light,” they say, “is near to darkness.”

If I hope for Sheol as my house,

if I make my bed in darkness,

if I say to the pit, “You are my father,”

and to the worm, “My mother,” or “My sister,”

where then is my hope?

And who regards my hope?

Will it go down with me to the bars of Sheol?

Shall we descend together into the dust?

———

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

How long will you hunt for words?

Understand first, and then we can speak.

Why are we counted as cattle?

Why are we stupid in your eyes?

You who tear yourself in your anger—

shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or the rock be removed out of its place?

Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire does not shine.

The light is dark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is extinguished.

His strong steps are shortened,

and his own counsel throws him down.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet,

and he walks into its mesh.

A trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare lays hold of him.

A rope is hidden for him in the ground,

a trap for him in the path.

Terrors frighten him on every side,

and chase him at his heels.

His strength is famished,

and calamity is ready for his stumbling.

It consumes the parts of his skin;

death’s firstborn consumes his limbs.

He is torn from the tent of his confidence

and brought to the king of terrors.

In his tent dwells that which is not his;

sulfur is scattered over his habitation.

His roots dry up beneath,

and his branches wither above.

His memory perishes from the earth,

and he has no name in the street.

He is thrust from light into darkness,

and driven out of the world.

He has no posterity or progeny among his people,

and no survivor where he once lived.

Those in the west are appalled at his day,

and horror seizes those in the east.

Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

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

Job Chapter 19 — Job: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Then Job answered and said:

How long will you torment my soul,

and crush me with words?

These ten times you have insulted me;

you are not ashamed to wrong me.

And even if I have truly erred,

my error remains with me.

If indeed you magnify yourselves against me,

and use my disgrace as an argument against me,

know then that God has put me in the wrong

and closed His net around me.

Behold, I cry out, “Violence!” but I am not answered;

I call for help, but there is no justice.

He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,

and He has set darkness upon my paths.

He has stripped me from my glory

and taken the crown from my head.

He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;

He uproots my hope like a tree.

His anger burns against me,

and He counts me among His enemies.

His troops come on together;

they cast up their siege ramp against me

and encamp around my tent.

He has put my brothers far from me,

and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

My relatives have failed me,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

The guests in my house and my female servants count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

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

I must plead with him with my mouth.

My breath is offensive to my wife,

and I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

Even young children despise me;

when I rise, they speak against me.

All my intimate friends abhor me,

and those whom I loved have turned against me.

My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Have mercy on me, have mercy, O you my friends,

for the hand of God has touched me!

Why do you, like God, pursue me?

Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

That they were engraved on a rock

with an iron tool and lead, forever!

But I know that my Redeemer lives,

and at the last He will stand upon the dust.

And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in my flesh I shall see God,

whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

My heart faints within me!

If you say, “How we will pursue him!”

and, “The root of the matter is found in him,”

be afraid of the sword,

for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

that you may know there is a judgment.

Job Chapter 20 — Zophar: The Triumph of the Wicked Is Short

Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

Therefore my thoughts answer me,

because of my haste within me.

I hear censure that insults me,

and a spirit beyond my understanding prompts me.

Do you not know this from of old,

since humans were placed on earth,

that the exulting of the wicked is short,

and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

Though his height mount up to the heavens,

and his head reach to the clouds,

he will perish forever like his own dung;

those who have seen him will say, “Where is he?”

He will fly away like a dream and not be found;

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

The eye that saw him will see him no more,

nor will his place behold him again.

His children will seek the favor of the poor,

and his hands will give back his wealth.

His bones are full of youthful vigor,

but it lies down with him in the dust.

Though evil is sweet in his mouth,

though he hides it under his tongue,

though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,

yet his food is turned in his stomach;

it is the venom of cobras within him.

He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;

God casts them out of his belly.

He sucks the poison of serpents;

the tongue of a viper kills him.

He will not look upon the rivers,

the streams flowing with honey and curds.

He gives back the fruit of his toil

and will not swallow it down;

from the profit of his trading

he will get no enjoyment.

For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;

he has seized a house he did not build.

Because he knew no quiet in his belly,

he will not save what he desired.

There was nothing left that he did not devour;

therefore his prosperity will not last.

In the fullness of his sufficiency, he will be in distress;

the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

To fill his belly, God will send His burning anger against him

and rain it upon him into his body.

He will flee from an iron weapon;

a bronze arrow will strike him through.

It is drawn forth and comes out of his body;

glittering metal from his gall—

terrors come upon him.

Total darkness is laid up for his treasures;

a fire not kindled by man will consume him;

it will devour what is left in his tent.

The heavens will reveal his iniquity,

and the earth will rise up against him.

The possessions of his house will be carried away,

swept away in the day of God's wrath.

This is the wicked man’s portion from God,

the heritage decreed for him by Elohim.

Job Chapter 21 — Job’s Reply: Why Do the Wicked Live?

Then Job answered and said:

Listen carefully to my speech,

and let this be your comfort.

Bear with me, and I will speak,

and after I have spoken, mock on.

As for me, is my complaint against a man?

Why should I not be impatient?

Look at me and be appalled,

and lay your hand over your mouth.

When I remember, I am dismayed,

and shuddering seizes my flesh.

Why do the wicked live,

reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

Their offspring are established in their presence,

and their descendants before their eyes.

Their houses are safe from fear,

and no rod of God is upon them.

Their bull breeds without fail;

their cow calves and does not miscarry.

They send out their little ones like a flock,

and their children dance.

They sing to the tambourine and the lyre

and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

They spend their days in prosperity,

and in a moment they go down to Sheol.

They say to God, “Depart from us!

We do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?

And what profit do we get if we pray to Him?”

Behold, is not their prosperity in their own hand?

The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?

How often does their calamity come upon them?

Does God distribute pains in His anger?

Are they like straw before the wind,

and chaff that the storm carries away?

You say, “God stores up their iniquity for their children.”

Let Him repay them, that they may know it.

Let their own eyes see their destruction,

and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

For what do they care for their household after them,

when the number of their months is cut off?

Can anyone teach God knowledge,

since He judges those who are on high?

One dies in full strength,

being wholly at ease and secure,

his pails full of milk

and the marrow of his bones moist.

Another dies in bitterness of soul,

never having tasted pleasure.

They lie down alike in the dust,

and the worms cover them.

Behold, I know your thoughts

and your schemes to wrong me.

You say, “Where is the house of the prince?

Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?”

Have you not asked those who travel the roads,

and do you not accept their testimony—

that the wicked is spared in the day of calamity,

that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

Who declares his way to his face,

and who repays him for what he has done?

When he is carried to the grave,

watch is kept over his tomb.

The clods of the valley are sweet to him;

all people follow after him,

and those who went before are innumerable.

How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?

There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.

Job Chapter 22 — Eliphaz’s Final Speech: Return and Be Restored

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

Can a man be of benefit to God?

Surely the wise are only beneficial to themselves.

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous,

or gain to Him if your ways are blameless?

Is it because of your reverence that He reproves you,

and enters into judgment with you?

Is not your evil great?

There is no end to your iniquities.

For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason,

and stripped the clothing from the naked.

You have given no water to the weary to drink,

and withheld bread from the hungry.

The land belonged to the strong,

and the favored lived in it.

You sent widows away empty,

and crushed the arms of the fatherless.

Therefore snares surround you,

and sudden fear terrifies you.

Or darkness, so you cannot see,

and a flood of waters covers you.

Is not God high in the heavens?

See the highest stars, how lofty they are!

Yet you say, “What does God know?

Can He judge through thick darkness?

Clouds veil Him, so He does not see;

He walks on the vault of heaven.”

Will you keep to the old path

that wicked men have trod?

They were snatched away before their time;

their foundations were washed away.

They said to God, “Depart from us,”

and “What can the Almighty do to us?”

Yet it was He who filled their houses with good things—

but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

The righteous see it and are glad;

the innocent mock them, saying,

“Surely our adversaries are cut off,

and fire has consumed their abundance.”

Agree with God and be at peace;

thereby good will come to you.

Receive instruction from His mouth,

and lay up His words in your heart.

If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored.

If you remove injustice far from your tents,

if you cast away your gold like dust,

and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the stream—

then the Almighty will be your treasure,

and precious silver to you.

Then you will delight yourself in the Almighty

and lift up your face to God.

You will pray to Him, and He will hear you,

and you will fulfill your vows.

You will decree a thing, and it will be established for you,

and light will shine on your ways.

When they are humbled, you will say, “Lift them up!”

and He will save the lowly person.

He will deliver even the guilty one;

they will be rescued through the cleanness of your hands.

Job Chapter 23 — Job’s Lament: If Only I Could Find Him

Then Job answered and said:

Even today my complaint is bitter;

His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

Oh that I knew where I might find Him,

that I might come even to His seat!

I would lay my case before Him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

I would know the words He would answer me,

and understand what He would say to me.

Would He contend with me in the greatness of His power?

No; He would pay attention to me.

There an upright person could reason with Him,

and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.

Behold, I go forward, but He is not there,

and backward, but I do not perceive Him;

on the left hand when He is working, I do not behold Him;

He turns to the right hand, but I do not see Him.

But He knows the way that I take;

when He has tested me, I shall come out as gold.

My foot has held fast to His steps;

I have kept His way and not turned aside.

I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;

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

But He is unchangeable, and who can turn Him back?

What He desires, that He does.

For He will complete what He appoints for me,

and many such things are in His mind.

Therefore I am terrified at His presence;

when I consider, I am in dread of Him.

God has made my heart faint;

the Almighty has terrified me;

yet I am not silenced because of the darkness,

nor because thick darkness covers my face.

———

Why are times not kept by the Almighty,

and why do those who know Him never see His days?

Some move boundary stones;

they seize flocks and pasture them.

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;

they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

They thrust the poor off the road;

the poor of the earth hide themselves together.

Like wild donkeys in the desert,

they go out to their toil, seeking food;

the wasteland yields food for their children.

They gather fodder in the field,

and glean the vineyard of the wicked.

They lie all night naked, without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.

They are wet with the mountain rain

and cling to the rock for lack of shelter.

There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,

and take a pledge against the poor.

They go about naked, without clothing;

hungry, they carry the sheaves.

Among the olive rows of the wicked, they make oil;

they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.

From out of the city the dying groan,

and the soul of the wounded cries for help—

yet God does not charge them with wrongdoing.

There are those who rebel against the light,

who do not know its ways,

nor stay in its paths.

The murderer rises with the light,

kills the poor and needy,

and in the night becomes like a thief.

The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight,

saying, “No eye will see me”;

he veils his face.

In the dark they dig through houses;

by day they shut themselves in—

they do not know the light.

For deep darkness is morning to them;

they are friends with the terrors of the night.

Yet they are swift on the face of the waters;

their portion is cursed in the land;

no treader turns toward their vineyards.

Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;

so Sheol snatches away those who have sinned.

The womb forgets them;

the worm finds them sweet;

they are no longer remembered;

injustice is broken like a tree.

They wrong the barren, childless woman,

and do not show kindness to the widow.

Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by His power;

they rise up, though they despair of life.

He gives them security, and they are supported;

His eyes are on their ways.

They are exalted a little while, then are gone;

they are brought low and gathered up like all others;

they are cut off like the heads of grain.

If it is not so, who will prove me a liar

and make my speech nothing?

Job Chapter 25 — Bildad’s Final Speech: Can a Mortal Be Pure?

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

Dominion and awe belong to Him

who makes peace in His high places.

Is there any number to His armies?

On whom does His light not rise?

How then can a mortal be righteous before God?

How can one born of woman be pure?

Behold, even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure in His eyes;

how much less man, who is a maggot,

and the son of man, who is a worm!

Job Chapter 26 — Job Replies: You Have Not Helped Me

Then Job answered and said:

How you have helped the powerless!

How you have saved the arm without strength!

How you have counseled the one without wisdom,

and shown full insight!

With whose help have you uttered words,

and whose spirit came from you?

The dead tremble

under the waters and their inhabitants.

Sheol is naked before Him,

and Abaddon has no covering.

He stretches out the north over empty space

and hangs the earth upon nothing.

He binds up the waters in His clouds,

and the cloud is not torn under them.

He covers the face of the full moon

and spreads over it His cloud.

He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

The pillars of heaven tremble

and are astounded at His rebuke.

By His power He stilled the sea;

by His understanding He shattered Rahab.

By His breath the heavens are made fair;

His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

Behold, these are but the outskirts of His ways,

and how faint the whisper we hear of Him!

Who then can understand the thunder of His power?

Job Chapter 27 — Job’s Final Reply: I Will Not Let Go of My Integrity

And Job again took up his discourse and said:

As God lives, who has taken away my justice,

and the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—

as long as my breath is in me

and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

my lips will not speak falsehood,

and my tongue will not utter deceit.

Far be it from me to say you are right;

till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;

my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

Let my enemy be as the wicked,

and let him who rises against me be as the unrighteous.

For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off,

when God takes away his life?

Will God hear his cry

when distress comes upon him?

Will he take delight in the Almighty?

Will he call upon God at all times?

I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

This is the portion of a wicked man with God,

and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword,

and his descendants have not enough bread.

Those who survive him the plague buries,

and his widows do not weep.

Though he heap up silver like dust,

and pile up clothing like clay,

he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it,

and the innocent will divide the silver.

He builds his house like a moth’s cocoon,

like a booth that a watchman makes.

He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;

he opens his eyes, and it is gone.

Terrors overtake him like a flood;

in the night a whirlwind carries him off.

The east wind lifts him up and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

It hurls at him without pity;

he flees from its power in terror.

It claps its hands at him

and hisses him out of his place.

———

Surely there is a mine for silver,

and a place where gold is refined.

Iron is taken out of the earth,

and copper is smelted from ore.

Man puts an end to darkness

and searches out to the farthest limit

the ore in gloom and deep shadow.

He opens shafts in a valley away from habitation;

they are forgotten by travelers;

they hang in the air, far away from people;

they swing to and fro.

As for the earth, out of it comes bread,

but underneath it is turned up as by fire.

Its stones are the place of sapphires,

and it has dust of gold.

That path no bird of prey knows,

and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

The proud beasts have not trodden it;

the lion has not passed over it.

Man puts his hand to the flinty rock

and overturns mountains by the roots.

He cuts out channels in the rocks,

and his eye sees every precious thing.

He dams up the sources of the rivers

and brings what is hidden to light.

But where shall wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

Man does not know its worth,

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

The deep says, “It is not in me,”

and the sea says, “It is not with me.”

It cannot be bought for gold,

nor can silver be weighed as its price.

It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

in precious onyx or sapphire.

Gold and glass cannot equal it,

nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

No mention shall be made of coral or crystal;

the price of wisdom is above pearls.

The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,

nor can it be valued in pure gold.

From where then does wisdom come?

And where is the place of understanding?

It is hidden from the eyes of all living

and concealed from the birds of the air.

Abaddon and Death say,

“We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.”

God understands the way to it,

and He knows its place.

For He looks to the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

When He gave the wind its weight

and apportioned the waters by measure,

when He made a decree for the rain

and a way for the thunderbolt,

then He saw it and declared it;

He established it and searched it out.

And He said to mankind:

“Behold, the fear of YHWH — that is wisdom,

and to turn from evil is understanding.”

———

And Job again took up his discourse and said:

Oh that I were as in months past,

as in the days when God watched over me,

when His lamp shone on my head,

and by His light I walked through darkness,

as I was in my prime,

when the friendship of God was over my tent,

when the Almighty was yet with me,

and my children were around me,

when my steps were washed with butter,

and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

When I went out to the gate of the city,

when I prepared my seat in the square,

the young men saw me and withdrew,

and the aged rose and stood;

the princes refrained from talking

and laid their hands on their mouths;

the voice of the nobles was hushed,

and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

When the ear heard, it blessed me;

when the eye saw, it approved me;

because I delivered the poor who cried for help,

and the fatherless who had none to help him.

The blessing of him who was ready to perish came upon me,

and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

my justice was like a robe and a turban.

I was eyes to the blind

and feet to the lame.

I was a father to the needy,

and I searched out the cause of him I did not know.

I broke the fangs of the unrighteous

and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

Then I thought, “I shall die in my nest,

and I shall multiply my days like the sand.

My roots spread out to the waters,

with the dew all night on my branches,

my glory fresh with me,

and my bow ever new in my hand.”

Men listened to me and waited,

and kept silence for my counsel.

After I spoke, they did not speak again,

and my word dropped upon them.

They waited for me as for the rain,

and opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

I smiled on them when they had no confidence,

and the light of my face they did not cast down.

I chose their way and sat as chief;

I dwelt like a king among his troops,

like one who comforts mourners.

———

But now they mock me,

men younger than I,

whose fathers I would have disdained

to set with the dogs of my flock.

What could I gain from the strength of their hands,

whose vigor has perished?

Through want and hard hunger

they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation.

They pick saltwort leaves among the bushes,

and the roots of broom trees for their food.

They are driven out from human company;

they shout after them as after a thief.

In the gullies of the valleys they dwell,

in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

Among the bushes they bray;

under the nettles they huddle together.

A senseless and nameless brood,

they have been whipped out of the land.

And now I have become their song;

I am a byword to them.

They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;

they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.

Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me,

they have cast off restraint in my presence.

On my right hand the rabble rise;

they push away my feet;

they cast up against me their ways of destruction.

They break up my path;

they promote my calamity;

they need no helper.

As through a wide breach they come;

amid the crash they roll on.

Terrors are turned upon me;

my dignity is driven away as by the wind,

and my safety passes away like a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out within me;

days of affliction have taken hold of me.

Night pierces my bones within me,

and my gnawing pains never rest.

By great force my garment is disfigured;

it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

God has cast me into the mire,

and I have become like dust and ashes.

I cry to You for help and You do not answer me;

I stand, and You only look at me.

You turn cruel to me;

with the might of Your hand You persecute me.

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

and You toss me about in the roar of the storm.

For I know that You will bring me to death,

to the house appointed for all living.

Yet does not one in a heap of ruin stretch out his hand,

or in his disaster cry for help?

Did I not weep for those whose days were hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

But when I hoped for good, evil came;

and when I waited for light, darkness came.

My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;

days of affliction come to meet me.

I go about darkened, but not by the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

I am a brother of jackals

and a companion of ostriches.

My skin turns black and falls from me,

and my bones burn with heat.

My lyre is turned to mourning,

and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

———

I have made a covenant with my eyes;

how then could I gaze at a young woman?

For what is the portion of God from above

and the heritage of the Almighty from on high?

Is not calamity for the unrighteous,

and disaster for the workers of iniquity?

Does not He see my ways

and number all my steps?

If I have walked with falsehood,

and my foot has hastened to deceit—

let me be weighed in a just balance,

and let God know my integrity!

If my step has turned aside from the way,

and my heart has followed my eyes,

and if any spot has clung to my hands,

then let me sow, and another eat,

and let what grows for me be rooted out.

If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,

and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door,

then let my wife grind for another,

and let others bow down upon her.

For that would be a heinous crime;

that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

For that would be a fire that consumes to destruction,

and would uproot all my harvest.

If I have rejected the cause of my servant or my maid

when they brought a complaint against me,

what then shall I do when God rises up?

When He makes inquiry, what shall I answer Him?

Did not He who made me in the womb make him?

And did not One fashion us in the womb?

If I have withheld anything from the poor,

or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

or eaten my morsel alone,

without the fatherless eating from it—

for from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,

and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,

or the needy without covering,

if his loins have not blessed me,

and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep—

if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,

because I saw help in the gate,

then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,

and let my arm be broken from its socket.

For I was in dread of calamity from God,

and I could not have faced His majesty.

If I have made gold my trust

or called fine gold my confidence,

if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,

or because my hand had gotten much,

if I have looked at the sun when it shone,

or the moon moving in splendor,

and my heart has been secretly enticed,

and my mouth has kissed my hand,

this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,

for I would have been false to God above.

If I have rejoiced at the ruin of the one who hated me,

or exulted when evil overtook him—

I have not permitted my mouth to sin

by asking for his life with a curse—

if the men of my tent have not said,

“Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?”

—no stranger had to lodge in the street,

for I have opened my doors to the traveler—

if I have concealed my transgressions as Adam did,

by hiding my iniquity in my bosom,

because I feared the great multitude,

and the contempt of families terrified me,

so that I kept silent and did not go out of doors—

Oh that I had one to hear me!

(Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)

Oh that I had the indictment written by my adversary!

Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;

I would bind it on me as a crown;

I would give Him an account of all my steps;

like a prince I would approach Him.

If my land has cried out against me

and its furrows have wept together,

if I have eaten its yield without payment

and made its owners breathe their last,

let thorns grow instead of wheat,

and foul weeds instead of barley.

The words of Job are ended.

———

So these three men ceased to answer Job,

because he was righteous in his own eyes.

Then Elihu the son of Barakel the Buzite,

of the family of Ram, burned with anger.

He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God.

He was also angry at Job’s three friends

because they had found no answer,

though they condemned Job.

Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job

because they were older than he.

But when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men,

he burned with anger.

And Elihu the son of Barakel the Buzite answered and said:

I am young in years,

and you are aged;

therefore I held back

and was afraid to declare to you what I know.

I thought, “Let days speak,

and many years teach wisdom.”

But it is the breath in mankind,

the spirit of the Almighty, that gives understanding.

It is not the aged who are wise,

nor the old who understand justice.

Therefore I say, “Listen to me;

I also will declare what I know.”

Behold, I waited for your words,

I gave ear to your reasonings,

while you searched out what to say.

I gave you my attention,

and behold, there was none among you who refuted Job

or who answered his words.

Beware lest you say, “We have found wisdom;

God may vanquish him, not a human.”

He has not directed his words against me,

and I will not answer him with your speeches.

They are dismayed; they answer no more;

they have not a word to say.

And shall I wait, because they do not speak,

because they stand there and answer no more?

I also will answer my share;

I also will declare what I know.

For I am full of words;

the spirit within me constrains me.

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

like new wineskins ready to burst.

I must speak, that I may find relief;

I will open my lips and answer.

I will not show partiality to any person

or flatter anyone.

For I do not know how to flatter,

or my Maker would soon take me away.

Job Chapter 33 — Elihu’s First Speech: God Speaks in Many Ways

But now, hear my speech, O Job,

and listen to all my words.

Behold, I open my mouth;

the tongue in my mouth speaks.

My words declare the uprightness of my heart,

and what my lips know they speak sincerely.

The Spirit of God has made me,

and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Answer me, if you can;

set your words in order before me; take your stand.

Behold, I am toward God as you are;

I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.

Behold, no fear of me need terrify you;

my hand will not be heavy upon you.

Surely you have spoken in my ears,

and I have heard the sound of your words.

You say, “I am pure, without transgression;

I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.

Behold, He finds occasions against me,

He counts me as His enemy;

He puts my feet in the stocks

and watches all my paths.”

Behold, in this you are not right.

I will answer you,

for God is greater than any human.

Why do you contend against Him,

saying, “He will not answer any of man's words”?

For God speaks in one way,

and in two, though people do not perceive it.

In a dream, in a vision of the night,

when deep sleep falls on men,

while they slumber on their beds,

then He opens the ears of mankind

and terrifies them with warnings,

that He may turn them aside from their deed

and conceal pride from a man.

He keeps back his soul from the pit,

his life from perishing by the sword.

Or a person is rebuked with pain on his bed

and with continual strife in his bones,

so that his life loathes bread,

and his soul the choicest food.

His flesh is so wasted away

that it cannot be seen,

and his bones that were not seen stick out.

His soul draws near the pit,

and his life to the messengers of death.

If there is for him a messenger,

an interpreter, one among a thousand,

to declare to man what is upright for him,

and he is merciful to him, and says,

“Deliver him from going down into the pit;

I have found a ransom,”

then his flesh becomes fresher than a child’s;

he returns to the days of his youth;

he prays to God, and He accepts him;

he sees His face with a shout of joy,

and God restores him to his righteousness.

He sings before men and says:

“I sinned and perverted what was right,

and it was not repaid to me.

He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,

and my life shall look upon the light.”

Behold, God does all these things,

twice, three times, with a person,

to bring back his soul from the pit,

that he may be lighted with the light of life.

Pay attention, O Job, listen to me;

be silent, and I will speak.

If you have anything to say, answer me;

speak, for I desire to justify you.

If not, listen to me;

be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.

———

Then Elihu answered and said:

Hear my words, you wise men,

and give ear to me, you who know.

For the ear tests words

as the palate tastes food.

Let us choose what is right;

let us know among ourselves what is good.

For Job has said, “I am in the right,

and God has taken away my justice;

in spite of my right I am counted a liar;

my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.”

What man is like Job,

who drinks up scoffing like water,

who travels in company with evildoers

and walks with wicked men?

For he has said, “It profits a man nothing

that he should take delight in God.”

Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding:

far be it from God that He should do wickedness,

and from the Almighty that He should do wrong.

For according to a man’s work He will repay him,

and according to his ways He will cause it to befall him.

Surely God will not do wickedly,

and the Almighty will not pervert justice.

Who gave Him charge over the earth,

and who laid on Him the whole world?

If He should set His heart to it

and gather to Himself His spirit and His breath,

all flesh would perish together,

and man would return to dust.

If you have understanding, hear this;

listen to what I say.

Shall one who hates justice govern?

Will you condemn Him who is righteous and mighty,

who says to a king, “Worthless one,”

and to nobles, “Wicked man,”

who shows no partiality to princes,

nor regards the rich more than the poor,

for they are all the work of His hands?

In a moment they die;

at midnight the people are shaken and pass away,

and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

For His eyes are on the ways of a man,

and He sees all his steps.

There is no gloom or deep shadow

where evildoers may hide themselves.

For God has no need to consider a man further,

that he should go before God in judgment.

He shatters the mighty without investigation

and sets others in their place.

Thus, knowing their works,

He overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.

He strikes them for their wickedness

in a place for all to see,

because they turned aside from following Him

and had no regard for any of His ways,

so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him,

and He heard the cry of the afflicted.

When He is quiet, who can condemn?

When He hides His face, who can behold Him,

whether it be a nation or a man?

That a godless man should not reign,

that he should not ensnare the people.

For has anyone said to God,

“I have borne punishment; I will offend no more;

teach me what I do not see;

if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more”?

Will He then make repayment to suit you,

because you reject it?

For you must choose, and not I;

therefore declare what you know.

Men of understanding will say to me,

and the wise who hears me will say:

“Job speaks without knowledge;

his words are without insight.”

Would that Job were tested to the end,

because he answers like wicked men.

For he adds rebellion to his sin;

he claps his hands among us

and multiplies his words against God.

———

And Elihu said:

Do you think this is just?

Do you say, “I am more righteous than God”?

For you ask, “What advantage have I?

How am I better off than if I had sinned?”

I will answer you,

and your companions with you.

Look to the heavens and see;

behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him?

And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?

If you are righteous, what do you give to Him?

Or what does He receive from your hand?

Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself,

and your righteousness a fellow human being.

Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;

they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.

But none says, “Where is God my Maker,

who gives songs in the night,

who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth

and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?”

There they cry out, but He does not answer,

because of the pride of evil people.

Surely God does not hear an empty cry,

nor does the Almighty regard it.

How much less when you say you do not see Him,

yet your case is before Him, and you wait for Him!

And now, because His anger does not punish

and He does not take much notice of transgression,

Job opens his mouth in vain;

he multiplies words without knowledge.

Job Chapter 36 — Elihu: God Is Great in Power and Justice

And Elihu continued, and said:

Bear with me a little, and I will show you,

for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.

I will fetch my knowledge from afar

and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

For truly my words are not false;

one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise;

He is mighty in strength of understanding.

He does not keep the wicked alive,

but gives justice to the afflicted.

He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;

they are exalted with kings on the throne,

and He seats them forever, and they are lifted up.

And if they are bound in chains

and caught in cords of affliction,

then He declares to them their work

and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.

He opens their ears to instruction

and commands that they return from iniquity.

If they listen and serve Him,

they complete their days in prosperity,

and their years in pleasantness.

But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword

and die without knowledge.

The godless in heart cherish anger;

they do not cry for help when He binds them.

They die in youth,

and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.

He delivers the afflicted by their affliction

and opens their ear by adversity.

He also allured you out of distress

into a broad place where there was no constraint,

and what was set on your table was full of richness.

But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked;

judgment and justice seize you.

Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing,

and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.

Will your cry avail to keep you from distress,

or all the force of your strength?

Do not long for the night,

when peoples vanish in their place.

Take heed; do not turn to iniquity,

for this you have chosen rather than affliction.

Behold, God is exalted in His power;

who is a teacher like Him?

Who has prescribed for Him His way,

or who can say, “You have done wrong”?

Remember to exalt His work,

of which mortals have sung.

All humanity has looked on it;

man beholds it from afar.

Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him;

the number of His years is unsearchable.

For He draws up the drops of water;

they distill His mist in rain,

which the skies pour down

and drop on man abundantly.

Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,

the thunder of His canopy?

Behold, He scatters His lightning about Him

and covers the roots of the sea.

For by these He judges peoples;

He gives food in abundance.

He covers His hands with the lightning

and commands it to strike the mark.

Its crashing declares His presence;

even the cattle sense what is coming.

———

At this also my heart trembles

and leaps out of its place.

Listen closely to the thunder of His voice

and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

Under the whole heaven He lets it go,

and His lightning to the corners of the earth.

After it His voice roars;

He thunders with His majestic voice,

and He does not restrain the lightnings

when His voice is heard.

God thunders wondrously with His voice;

He does great things that we cannot comprehend.

For to the snow He says, “Fall on the earth,”

likewise to the downpour, His mighty downpour.

He seals up the hand of every person,

so that all whom He has made may know it.

Then the beasts go into their lairs,

and remain in their dens.

From its chamber comes the whirlwind,

and cold from the scattering winds.

By the breath of God ice is given,

and the broad waters are frozen fast.

He loads the thick cloud with moisture;

the clouds scatter His lightning.

They turn around and around by His guidance,

to accomplish all that He commands them

on the face of the habitable world.

Whether for correction or for His land

or for covenant love, He causes it to happen.

Hear this, O Job;

stop and consider the wondrous works of God.

Do you know how God lays His command upon them

and causes the lightning of His cloud to shine?

Do you know the balancing of the clouds,

the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge,

you whose garments are hot

when the earth is still because of the south wind?

Can you, like Him, spread out the skies,

hard as a cast metal mirror?

Teach us what we shall say to Him;

we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.

Shall it be told Him that I would speak?

Did a person ever wish to be swallowed up?

Now no one looks on the light

when it is bright in the skies,

when the wind has passed and cleared them.

Out of the north comes golden splendor;

God is clothed with awesome majesty.

The Almighty—we cannot find Him;

He is great in power,

justice and abundant righteousness He will not violate.

Therefore mortals fear Him;

He does not regard those who think themselves wise.

———

Then YHWH answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

Who is this that darkens counsel

by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man;

I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone,

when the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Or who shut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb,

when I made clouds its garment

and thick darkness its swaddling band,

and prescribed bounds for it

and set bars and doors,

and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stayed”?

Have you commanded the morning since your days began,

and caused the dawn to know its place,

that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,

and the wicked be shaken out of it?

It is changed like clay under the seal,

and its features stand out like a garment.

From the wicked their light is withheld,

and their uplifted arm is broken.

Have you entered into the springs of the sea,

or walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have the gates of death been revealed to you,

or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?

Declare, if you know all this.

Where is the way to the dwelling of light,

and where is the place of darkness,

that you may take it to its territory

and that you may discern the paths to its home?

You know, for you were born then,

and the number of your days is great!

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,

or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

which I have reserved for the time of trouble,

for the day of battle and war?

What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,

or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain,

and a way for the thunderbolt,

to bring rain on a land where no man is,

on the desert in which there is no one,

to satisfy the waste and desolate land,

and to make the ground sprout with grass?

Has the rain a father,

or who has begotten the drops of dew?

From whose womb did the ice come forth,

and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?

The waters become hard like stone,

and the face of the deep is frozen.

Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades

or loose the cords of Orion?

Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,

or guide the Bear with its children?

Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?

Can you establish their rule on the earth?

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightning, that they may go

and say to you, “Here we are”?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts

or given understanding to the mind?

Who can number the clouds by wisdom?

Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

when the dust runs into a mass

and the clods stick fast together?

Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

when they crouch in their dens

or lie in wait in their thicket?

Who provides for the raven its prey,

when its young ones cry to God for help,

and wander about for lack of food?

———

Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?

Do you observe the calving of the does?

Can you number the months that they fulfill,

and do you know the time when they give birth,

when they crouch and bring forth their offspring?

Their young become strong; they grow up in the open;

they go out and do not return to them.

Who has let the wild donkey go free?

Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

to whom I have given the arid plain for his home

and the salt land for his dwelling place?

He scorns the tumult of the city;

he hears not the shouts of the driver.

He ranges the mountains as his pasture,

and he searches after every green thing.

Is the wild ox willing to serve you?

Will he spend the night at your manger?

Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes,

or will he harrow the valleys after you?

Will you depend on him because his strength is great,

and will you leave to him your labor?

Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain

and gather it to your threshing floor?

The wings of the ostrich flap joyously,

but are her pinions and plumage like the stork’s?

She leaves her eggs on the earth

and lets them be warmed on the ground,

forgetting that a foot may crush them

and that the wild beast may trample them.

She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;

though her labor is in vain, she has no fear,

because God has made her forget wisdom

and given her no share in understanding.

When she rouses herself to flee,

she laughs at horse and rider.

Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

Do you make him leap like the locust?

His majestic snorting is terrifying.

He paws in the valley and exults in his strength;

he goes out to meet the weapons.

He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;

he does not turn back from the sword.

Upon him rattle the quiver,

the flashing spear and javelin.

With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;

he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

When the trumpet sounds, he says “Aha!”

He smells the battle from afar,

the thunder of the captains and the shouting.

Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars

and spreads his wings toward the south?

Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up

and makes his nest on high?

On the rock he dwells and makes his home,

on the rocky crag and stronghold.

From there he spies out the prey;

his eyes behold it from far away.

His young ones suck up blood,

and where the slain are, there he is.

———

And YHWH said to Job:

Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

Let him who reproves God answer it.

Then Job answered YHWH and said:

Behold, I am of small account;

what shall I answer You?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

I have spoken once, and I will not answer;

twice, but I will proceed no further.

Then YHWH answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

Gird up your loins like a man;

I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

Will you even put Me in the wrong?

Will you condemn Me that you may be in the right?

Have you an arm like God,

and can you thunder with a voice like His?

Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity;

clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

Pour out the overflowings of your anger,

and look on everyone who is proud and bring him low.

Look on everyone who is proud and humble him,

and tread down the wicked where they stand.

Hide them all in the dust together;

bind their faces in the hidden place.

Then I will also acknowledge to you

that your own right hand can save you.

Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you;

he eats grass like an ox.

Behold, his strength is in his loins,

and his power in the muscles of his belly.

He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;

the sinews of his thighs are knit together.

His bones are tubes of bronze,

his limbs like bars of iron.

He is the first of the works of God;

let him who made him bring near His sword!

For the mountains yield food for him

where all the beasts of the field play.

Under the lotus plants he lies,

in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.

For his shade the lotus trees cover him;

the willows of the brook surround him.

Behold, if the river is turbulent, he is not frightened;

he is confident though the Jordan rushes against his mouth.

Can one take him by his eyes,

or pierce his nose with a snare?

———

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook

or press down his tongue with a cord?

Can you put a rope in his nose

or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he make many pleas to you?

Will he speak soft words to you?

Will he make a covenant with you

to take him for your servant forever?

Will you play with him as with a bird,

or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

Shall traders bargain over him?

Shall they divide him up among the merchants?

Can you fill his skin with harpoons

or his head with fishing spears?

Lay your hands on him;

remember the battle—you will not do it again!

Behold, the hope of him is false;

is not one cast down even at the sight of him?

No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before Me?

Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.

I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,

or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

His sneezings flash forth light,

and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

Out of his mouth go flaming torches;

sparks of fire leap forth.

Out of his nostrils comes smoke,

as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

His breath kindles coals,

and a flame comes from his mouth.

In his neck abides strength,

and terror dances before him.

The folds of his flesh stick together,

firmly cast on him and immovable.

His heart is hard as a stone,

hard as the lower millstone.

When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid;

at the crashing they are beside themselves.

Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail,

nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

He regards iron as straw,

and bronze as rotten wood.

He makes the deep boil like a pot;

he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

On earth there is not his equal,

a creature without fear.

He sees everything that is high;

he is king over all the sons of pride.

———

Then Job answered YHWH and said:

I know that You can do all things,

and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.

“Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?”

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

“Hear, and I will speak;

I will question you, and you declare to Me.”

I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye sees You;

therefore I despise myself,

and repent in dust and ashes.

After YHWH had spoken these words to Job,

He said to Eliphaz the Temanite:

“My anger burns against you and your two friends,

for you have not spoken of Me what is right,

as My servant Job has.

Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams

and go to My servant Job

and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves.

And My servant Job shall pray for you,

for I will accept his prayer

not to deal with you according to your folly.

For you have not spoken of Me what is right,

as My servant Job has.”

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite

and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what YHWH had told them,

and YHWH accepted Job’s prayer.

And YHWH restored the fortunes of Job,

when he had prayed for his friends.

And YHWH gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then came to him all his brothers and sisters

and all who had known him before,

and they ate bread with him in his house.

And they showed him sympathy and comforted him

for all the evil that YHWH had brought upon him.

And each gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

And YHWH blessed the latter days of Job

more than his beginning.

And he had fourteen thousand sheep,

six thousand camels,

a thousand yoke of oxen,

and a thousand female donkeys.

He also had seven sons and three daughters.

And he called the name of the first Jemimah,

and the name of the second Keziah,

and the name of the third Keren-happuch.

And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters.

And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

And after this Job lived one hundred forty years,

and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.

And Job died, old and full of days.