But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

“As for that night, let darkness seize it;
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
Let it not come into the number of the months.

“Or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be,
As infants that never saw light.

For man is born for trouble,
As sparks fly upward.

“But as for me, I would seek God,
And I would place my cause before God;

“By day they meet with darkness,
And grope at noon as in the night.

“You will know also that your descendants will be many,
And your offspring as the grass of the earth.

“As a slave who pants for the shade,
And as a hired man who eagerly waits for his wages,

“Have I sinned? What have I done to You,
O watcher of men?
Why have You set me as Your target,
So that I am a burden to myself?

“For we are only of yesterday and know nothing,
Because our days on earth are as a shadow.

“For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him,
That we may go to court together.

‘Have You eyes of flesh?
Or do You see as a man sees?

‘Are Your days as the days of a mortal,
Or Your years as man’s years,

‘Remember now, that You have made me as clay;
And would You turn me into dust again?

‘I should have been as though I had not been,
Carried from womb to tomb.’

The land of utter gloom as darkness itself,
Of deep shadow without order,
And which shines as the darkness.”

“They are high as the heavens, what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?

“For you would forget your trouble,
As waters that have passed by, you would remember it.

“But I have intelligence as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
And who does not know such things as these?

“He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt,
As prepared for those whose feet slip.

“But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.

“Does not the ear test words,
As the palate tastes its food?

“Will it be well when He examines you?
Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man?

“As water evaporates from the sea,
And a river becomes parched and dried up,

“I was at ease, but He shattered me,
And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His target.

“O that a man might plead with God
As a man with his neighbor!

“My eye has also grown dim because of grief,
And all my members are as a shadow.

“If I look for Sheol as my home,
I make my bed in the darkness;

“Why are we regarded as beasts,
As stupid in your eyes?

“He has also kindled His anger against me
And considered me as His enemy.

“Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

“He returns what he has attained
And cannot swallow it;
As to the riches of his trading,
He cannot even enjoy them.

“As for me, is my complaint to man?
And why should I not be impatient?

“Are they as straw before the wind,
And like chaff which the storm carries away?

“But He knows the way I take;
When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

“Behold, as wild donkeys in the wilderness
They go forth seeking food in their activity,
As bread for their children in the desert.

“The murderer arises at dawn;
He kills the poor and the needy,
And at night he is as a thief.

“For the morning is the same to him as thick darkness,
For he is familiar with the terrors of thick darkness.

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

For as long as life is in me,
And the breath of God is in my nostrils,

“May my enemy be as the wicked
And my opponent as the unjust.

“Though he piles up silver like dust
And prepares garments as plentiful as the clay,

“He has built his house like the spider’s web,
Or as a hut which the watchman has made.

“The earth, from it comes food,
And underneath it is turned up as fire.

“Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it,
Nor can silver be weighed as its price.

“Oh that I were as in months gone by,
As in the days when God watched over me;

As I was in the prime of my days,
When the friendship of God was over my tent;

“Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
And I shall multiply my days as the sand.

“They waited for me as for the rain,
And opened their mouth as for the spring rain.

“I chose a way for them and sat as chief,
And dwelt as a king among the troops,
As one who comforted the mourners.

“They are driven from the community;
They shout against them as against a thief,

“As through a wide breach they come,
Amid the tempest they roll on.

“Terrors are turned against me;
They pursue my honor as the wind,
And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

“By a great force my garment is distorted;
It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

(But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
And from infancy I guided her),

‘Behold, He invents pretexts against me;
He counts me as His enemy.

“If there is an angel as mediator for him,
One out of a thousand,
To remind a man what is right for him,

“For the ear tests words
As the palate tastes food.

“Can you, with Him, spread out the skies,
Strong as a molten mirror?

“Now gird up your loins like a man,
And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!

“She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers;
Though her labor be in vain, she is unconcerned;

“As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’
And he scents the battle from afar,
And the thunder of the captains and the war cry.

“Now gird up your loins like a man;
I will ask you, and you instruct Me.

“Behold now, Behemoth, which I made as well as you;
He eats grass like an ox.

“Will you play with him as with a bird,
Or will you bind him for your maidens?

“His strong scales are his pride,
Shut up as with a tight seal.

“Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth
As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

“His heart is as hard as a stone,
Even as hard as a lower millstone.

“He regards iron as straw,
Bronze as rotten wood.

“Clubs are regarded as stubble;
He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.

‘Hear, now, and I will speak;
I will ask You, and You instruct me.’

It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.

Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because 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 as the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job.

In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers.