Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner.

The earth was given into the hand of the unjust one: he will cover the faces of her judges; if not now, who is it?

I was afraid of all my pains, I knew that thou wilt not acquit me.

If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;

My soul was weary in my life; I shall leave upon me my complaint; I shall speak in the bitterness of my soul

Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then, changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction.

Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like cheese?

By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined together with bones and muscles.

And these things didst thou hide in thy heart; I know that this was with thee.

That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble.

And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:

If they had carried me to my grave as soon as I was born, then should I be now, as though I had never been.

And thou wilt say, My instruction is pure, and I was clean in thine eyes.

Why is your face veiled from me, as if I was numbered among your haters?

yet when the stock getteth the scent of water, it will bud, and bring forth bows, like as when it was first planted.

The waters wear the stones; The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth: So thou destroyest the hope of man.

Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you?

What wise men have [freely] told,
And have not hidden [anything passed on to them] from their fathers,

Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

He will not believe to turn back from darkness, and he was waited for by the sword.

He wandered about for bread, where he knew that the day of darkness was ready at his hand.

Because he stretched out his hand against God, and he was arrogant to Shaddai;

And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls.

Before his day it shall be completed, and his branch was not green.

Was there an end to words of wind? or what will provoke thee that thou wilt answer?

I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

Though no violence was in my hands, and, my prayer, was pure.

He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.

The light was darkened in his tent, and his lamp shall be extinguished for him.

For he was cast into a net by his feet, and he will go about upon latticework.

He is pulled out of his tent where he was safe, and he is taken away to the king of fears.

"Although I cried out "Violence!' I received no answer; I cried for help, but there was no justice.

They sojourning in my house and my maids, mill reckon me for a stranger: I was a foreigner in their eyes.

Mine own wife may not abide my breath, I was fain to speak fair for the children of mine own body.

Yea the children despised me, and when I was gone from them, they spake evil upon me.

For ye shall say, Why shall we pursue after him and the root of the word was found in me?

Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

People who had seen him will not see him again, and the place where he was will recognize him no longer.

When wickedness was sweet in his mouth, he hid it under his tongue.

His bread in his bowels was turned, the gall of asps in his midst

There was nothing left that he devoured not; Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

Though he had plenteousness of everything, yet was he poor, and therefore he is but a wretch on every side.

A flood will wash away his house; dragging it away when God becomes angry.

Their seed was established before their face with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

Behold, their good not in the hand: the counsel of the unjust was far from me.

For you have taken your brother's goods when he was not in your debt, and have taken away the clothing of those who have need of it.

For it was the man with power who had the land, and the man with an honoured name who was living in it.

You sent widows away empty-handed,
and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:

But it was He who filled their houses with good things.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

And the Almighty was thy gold and silver of labors to thee.

He will deliver the island of the innocent: and it was delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

Job's response was to say:

Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

“To whom have you uttered words?
And whose spirit was expressed through you?

He bound up the waters in his clouds, and the cloud was not rent under them.

By his power the sea was made quiet; and by his wisdom Rahab was wounded.

By his wind the heavens become bright: by his hand the quickly moving snake was cut through.

Behold these the ends of his ways; how transient a sound of the word was heard in him! and the thunder of his might who shall understand?

The earth, from it will come forth bread, and under it was turned as fire.

He has searched the sources of the rivers and what was hidden he has brought into the light.

If only I might again be as I was in the months which are past, in the days when God was watching over me!

when his shining lamp [was] over my head-- by his light I walked through darkness--

As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

I was successful wherever I went, and even the rocks poured out streams of olive oil for me."

The voice of the nobles was hushed, And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

For when it came to their ears, men said that I was truly happy; and when their eyes saw, they gave witness to me;

because I saved [the] needy who cried for help, and [I saved] [the] orphan for whom [there was] no helper.

The blessing of him that 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 judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

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

I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

After I had said what was in my mind, they were quiet and let my words go deep into their hearts;

I was laughing at them when they had no hope, and the light of my face was never clouded by their fear.

I took my place as a chief, guiding them on their way, and I was as a king among his army. ...

Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?

They are dried up with want and famine; they who gnaw the dry ground, which was before waste and ruin,

By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes, and the root of the broom tree was their food.

Their dwelling was beside foul brooks, yea in the caves and dens of the earth.

And now I was their song, and I to them for a by word.

and my path have they clean marred. It was so easy for them to do me harm, that they needed no man to help them.

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?

For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark.

I was a brother to jackals, and a companion to the daughters of the ostrich.

My skin was black from above me, and my bones burnt from heat

If my heart went after another man's wife, or if I was waiting secretly at my neighbour's door;

"If I have rejected my male or female slave's case when their complaint [was] against me,

If I kept back the desire of the poor; if the widow's eye was looking for help to no purpose;

(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

if I have seen any perish for lack of clothing, or there was no covering for the needy;

If his loins have not thanked and blessed me [for clothing them],
And if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,

If my hand had been lifted up against him who had done no wrong, when I saw that I was supported by the judges;

For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

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

if I have gazed at the sun when it was shining
or at the moon moving in splendor,

and {I was secretly enticed}, and {my hand threw them a kiss},