"Because you're the one who closed their hearts to compassion; therefore, you won't let them triumph.

“He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil,
The eyes of his children also will languish.

“But He has made me a byword of the people,
And I am one at whom men spit.

The upright are surprised at this, and he who has done no wrong is troubled because of the evil-doers.

“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,
And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

But indeed, as for them all, will ye bethink yourselves and enter into it, I pray you? Or shall I not find, among you, one who is wise?

And where is now my hope? Yea, my hope, who doth behold it?

“O you who tear yourself in your anger—
For your sake is the earth to be abandoned,
Or the rock to be moved from its place?

They who are none of his shall dwell in his tent; brimstone shall be showered upon his habitation:

Over his day, have they been astounded who come behind, and, them who are in advance, a shudder hath seized.

“Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,
And this is the place of him who does not know God.”

Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.

“Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
I am a foreigner in their sight.

All my intimate friends abhor me, and they whom I loved are turned against me.

Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven?

But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust;

Whom I -- I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom.

He perishes forever like his refuse;
Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

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

“In the fullness of his plenty he will be cramped;
The hand of everyone who suffers will come against him.

Complete darkness (misfortune) is held in reserve for his treasures.
An unfanned fire will devour him;
It will consume the survivor in his tent.

‘Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him,
And what would we gain if we entreat Him?’

Is it, to GOD, one can teach knowledge, seeing that, he, shall judge, them who are on high?

Have you never questioned those who travel the roads? Do you not recognize their accounts --

Who doth declare to his face his way? And for that which he hath done, Who doth give recompence to him?

The dirt on his grave is sweet to him.
Everyone follows behind him,
and those who go before him are without number.

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

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.

You do not give water to the tired traveller, and from him who has no food you keep back bread.

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

You have sent widows away without hearing their cause, and you have taken away the support of the child who has no father.

Who have been cut down unexpectedly, A flood is poured out on their foundation.

Who said unto God, Depart from us! and what could the Almighty do to them?

But it was he who filled their houses with good things -- yet the counsel of the wicked was far from me.

The upright saw it and were glad: and those who had done no wrong made sport of them,

Is not he who rose against us destroyed, and doth not the fire consume his residue?

For who so humbleth himself, him shall he set up: and who so looketh meekly, shall be healed.

“He will deliver one who is not innocent,
And he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

Who will give, I knew to find him: I will come even to his place.

“There the righteous and upright could reason with Him;
So I would be acquitted forever by my Judge.

And He is in one mind, And who doth turn Him back? And His soul hath desired -- and He doth it.

“It is God who has made my heart faint,
And the Almighty who has dismayed me,

“Why are times not stored up by the Almighty,
And why do those who know Him not see His days?

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

They send away the ass of him who has no father, they take the widow's ox for debt.

They get mixed grain from the field, and they take away the late fruit from the vines of those who have wealth.

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

Who make oil within their walls, and tread their wine-presses, and suffer thirst.

From the town come sounds of pain from those who are near death, and the soul of the wounded is crying out for help; but God does not take note of their prayer.

“Others have been with those who rebel against the light;
They do not want to know its ways
Nor abide in its paths.

He who is purposing death gets up before day, so that he may put to death the poor and those in need.

Drought -- also heat -- consume snow-waters, Sheol those who have sinned.

Treating evil the barren who beareth not, And to the widow he doth no good,

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

And if not now, who doth prove me a liar, And doth make of nothing my word?

“Dominion and awe belong to Him
Who establishes peace in His heights.

Is their any number to His troops? And on whom ariseth not His light?

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

How much less a mortal who is a creeping thing? Or a son of the earth-born who is a worm?

How have you given help to him who has no power! how have you been the salvation of the arm which has no strength!

How have you given teaching to him who has no wisdom, and fully made clear true knowledge!

With whom hast thou declared words? And whose breath came forth from thee?

"Those who are deceased tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

Who stretcheth out the north over emptiness, hangeth the earth upon nothingness;

Who bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent beneath them;

Who shutteth-in the face of the throne, he spreadeth over it his cloud;

Lo, these are the borders of His way, And how little a matter is heard of Him, And the thunder of His might Who doth understand?

“As God lives, who has taken away my right,
And the Almighty, who has embittered my soul,

Let my hater be like the evil man, and let him who comes against me be as the sinner.

When those of his house who are still living come to their end by disease, they are not put into the earth, and their widows are not weeping for them.

He may get them ready, but the upright will put them on, and he who is free from sin will take the silver for a heritage.

He makes a deep mine far away from those living in the light of day; when they go about on the earth, they have no knowledge of those who are under them, who are hanging far from men, twisting from side to side on a cord.

Who doth make me as in months past, As in the days of God's preserving me?

For I deliver the afflicted who is crying, And the fatherless who hath no helper.

The blessing of him who was near to destruction came on me, and I put a song of joy into the widow's heart.

I was eyes to the blind, and feet to him who had no power of walking.

I was a father to the poor, searching out the cause of him who was strange to me.

I set an example of the way to live, as a leader would; I lived like a king among his army; like one who comforts mourners."

"But now they mock me; men who are far younger than I, whose fathers I would have hated to entrust with my own sheep dogs.

Yea, whereto should the strength of their hands profit me, men in whom vigour hath perished?

“From want and famine they are gaunt
Who gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,

Who pluck mallow by the bushes,
And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.

“They are driven from the community;
They shout after them as after a thief.

They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land.

They mar my path. They set forward my calamity, [even] men who have no helper.

They come like those who breach through a wall; as everything crashes around me they'll roll on and on!

Yes, I know that You will lead me to death—
the place appointed for all who live.

Haven't I wept for the one who is going through hard times? Haven't I grieved for the needy?

But my harp is in mourning; my flute plays only songs for those who are weeping."

if not calamity that is due the unjust, and misfortune that is due those who practice iniquity?

The one who made me in the womb made them, too, didn't he? Didn't the same one prepare each of us in the womb?"

if I've observed someone who is about to die for lack of clothes or if I have no clothing to give to the poor,

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

This also would be an iniquity for the judge, for I should have denied the God who is above.

"Have I rejoiced in the destruction of those who hate me, or have I been happy that evil caught up with him?

People in my household have said, "We cannot find anyone who has not been satisfied with his meat,' haven't they?

Who giveth to me a hearing? lo, my mark. The Mighty One doth answer me, And a bill hath mine adversary written.

I said to myself, It is right for the old to say what is in their minds, and for those who are far on in years to give out wisdom.

It is not the old who are wise, and those who are full of years have not the knowledge of what is right.

“I even paid close attention to you;
Indeed, there was no one who refuted Job,
Not one of you who answered his words.