And the Lord said to the Satan, Have you taken note of my servant Job, for there is no one like him on the earth, a man without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping himself far from evil? and he still keeps his righteousness, though you have been moving me to send destruction on him without cause.

For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,

Truly, you have been a helper to others, and you have made feeble hands strong;

He who was near to falling has been lifted up by your words, and you have given strength to bent knees.

What I have seen is that those by whom trouble has been ploughed, and evil planted, get the same for themselves.

For then its weight would be more than the sand of the seas: because of this my words have been uncontrolled.

So I would still have comfort, and I would have joy in the pains of death, for I have not been false to the words of the Holy One.

My friends have been false like a stream, like streams in the valleys which come to an end:

Put the question now to the past generations, and give attention to what has been searched out by their fathers:

You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe.

Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me,

And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place.

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.

I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows.

And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.

Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been tested I will come out like gold.

I have never gone against the orders of his lips; the words of his mouth have been stored up in my heart.

For what has been ordered for me by him will be gone through to the end: and his mind is full of such designs

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

To whom have your words been said? and whose spirit came out from you?

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

Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?

Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need?

And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.

If I have gone in false ways, or my foot has been quick in working deceit;

If my steps have been turned out of the way, or if my heart went after my eyes, or if the property of another is in my hands;

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

That would have been another sin to be rewarded with punishment by the judges; for I would have been false to God on high.

If only God would give ear to me, and the Ruler of all would give me an answer! or if what he has against me had been put in writing!

If my land has made an outcry against me, or the ploughed earth has been in sorrow;

And he was angry with his three friends, because they had been unable to give him an answer, and had not made Job's sin clear.

May Job be tested to the end, because his answers have been like those of evil men.

And if they have been prisoned in chains, and taken in cords of trouble,

Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the door-keepers of the dark ever seen you?

By whom has the way been cut for the flowing of the rain, and the flaming of the thunder;

Who is this who makes dark the purpose of God by words without knowledge? For I have been talking without knowledge about wonders not to be searched out.