¹ Then Job answered,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁴ How much less shall I answer him, And choose my words to argue with him?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁸ "'Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

²⁰ Aren't my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

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

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

¹ Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁵ Surely then you shall lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:

¹⁶ for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it as waters that are passed away.

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

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

¹⁹ Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. Yes, many shall court your favor.

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

¹ Then Job answered,

² "No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁹ Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this,

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

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

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