The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered and reflected on My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God [with reverence] and abstains from and turns away from evil [because he honors God]. And still he maintains and holds tightly to his integrity, although you incited Me against him to destroy him without cause.”

“As for me, I would seek God and inquire of Him,
And I would commit my cause to God;

“Teach me, and I will be silent;
And show me how I have erred.

“For He bruises me with a tempest
And multiplies my wounds without cause.

“If you say, ‘How shall we [continue to] persecute him?’
And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find [since we claim the root of these afflictions is found in him]?’

“I would present my cause before Him
And fill my mouth with arguments.

“I was a father to the needy;
I investigated the case I did not know [and assured justice].

“You lift me up on the wind and cause me to ride [upon it];
And You toss me about in the tempest and dissolve me in the storm.

“If I have despised and rejected the claim of my male or female servants
When they filed a complaint against me,

“Now Job has not directed his words against me [therefore I have no reason to be offended],
Nor will I answer him with arguments like yours. [I speak for truth, not for revenge.]

“For God pays a man according to his work,
And He will make every man find [appropriate] compensation according to his way.

“Even though you say that you do not see Him [when missing His righteous judgment on earth],
Yet your case is before Him, and you must wait for Him!

To bring rain on the uninhabited land,
And on the desert where no man lives,

To satisfy the barren and desolate ground
And to make the seeds of grass to sprout?