there came a messenger unto Job, and said, "While the oxen were a plowing, and the asses going in the pasture beside them,

Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw 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.

“I am not at ease, nor am I quiet,
And I am not at rest, and yet trouble still comes [upon me].”

And unto me a thing is secretly brought, And receive doth mine ear a little of it.

“Can a person be more righteous than God,
or a man more pure than his Maker?”

Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass
or an ox low over its fodder?

My soul refuseth to touch them ; They are as loathsome food to me.

My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi,
as seasonal streams that overflow

Do ye think to reprove words, Seeing that the speeches of one that is desperate are as wind?

Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?

I loathe it; I shall not live always: let me alone, for my days are a breath.

How long will you go on saying these things?
Your words are a blast of wind.

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days upon earth are a shadow);

Eyes of flesh, hast thou? or, as a mortal seeth, seest thou?

Thou huntest me out, being in heaviness, as it were a lion, and troublest me out of measure.

"Should an abundance of words go unanswered, or {a man full of talk} be vindicated?

For in his eyes men are as nothing; he sees evil and takes note of it.

[The] tents of [the] destroyers are at peace, and [there is] security for those who provoke God, [for those] whom God brings into his hand.

He carrieth away the wise men, as it were a spoil, and bringeth the judges out of their wits.

Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?

He cometh up and is cut down like a flower. He flyeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one state.

As water disappears from the sea, or a river drains away and dries up,

But, in very deed, a mountain falling, will lie prostrate, or, a rock moved out of its place:

Too small for thee, are the consolations of GOD? or a word spoken gently with thee?

Sorrow and carefulness make him afraid, and compass him round about, like as it where a king with his host ready to the battle.

He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers.

I was some time in wealth, but suddenly hath he brought me to naught. He hath taken me by the neck, he hath rent me, and set me, as it were a mark for him to shoot at.

He hath made me as it were a byword of the common people. I am his jesting stock among them.

Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, And all my members are as a shadow.

You who tear yourself in anger—
should the earth be abandoned on your account,
or a rock be removed from its place?

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am undone: My hope hath he taken away from me, as it were a tree plucked up by the root.

Their houses, are at peace, without dread, neither is, the rod of GOD, upon them;

They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

even when his bowels are at the fattest, and his bones full of marrow.

“Can a vigorous man be of use to God,
Or a wise man be useful to himself?

[Is] it a pleasure to Shaddai if you are righteous, or a gain if you make your ways blameless?

Although you were a powerful man, owning land, an honored man living on it,

Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he seeth not; And he walketh on the vault of heaven.

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

“He builds his house like a spider’s web,
Like a (temporary) hut which a watchman makes.

Its rocks are a source of sapphire,
containing flecks of gold.

Gold may not be given for it, or a weight of silver in payment for it.

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

“I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
My justice was like a robe and a turban!

“They hate me, they stand aloof from me,
And do not refrain from spitting in my face.

"Fearfulness is turned against me. Mine honour vanisheth away more swiftly than wind, and my prosperity departeth hence like as it were a cloud.

For that were a heinous crime; Yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

if I have seen anyone dying for lack of clothing
or a needy person without a cloak,

if I looked at [the] sun when it shone or [at the] moon moving [in] splendor,

This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judges; For I should have denied the God that is above.

Or a person is chastened by pain on his bed, and with the continual strife of his bones,

“If there is an angel as a mediator for him,
One out of a thousand,
To explain to a man what is right for him [that is, how to be in right standing with God],

For words are tested by the ear, as food is tasted by the mouth.

May he be made whole, that loveth no right? If thou were a very innocent man, shouldest thou then be punished?

He who says to a king, You are an evil-doer; and to rulers, You are sinners;

“When He keeps quiet, who then can condemn?
When He hides His face [withdrawing His favor and help], who then can behold Him [and make supplication to Him],
Whether it be a nation or a man by himself?—

“Behold, God is exalted in His power;
Who is a ruler or a teacher like Him?

Whether as {correction} or for his land, or as loyal love, he lets it happen.

Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;

That the waters are as hard as stones, and lie congealed above the deep.

Or, at thy bidding, that the Eagle mounteth, and that he setteth on high his nest?

His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.

He takes the produce of the mountains, where all the beasts of the field are at play.

“Can you put a rope [made] of rushes into his nose
Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?

The doors of his face, who hath opened? The circles of his teeth, are a terror!

The rows of his shields are a pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

His sneezings cause light to shine, And his eyes are as the eyelids of the dawn.

His underparts are like'sharp potsherds: He spreadeth as it were a threshing-wain upon the mire.

Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers.