There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of perfect integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.

The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”

“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “A lightning storm struck from heaven. It burned up the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

saying:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will leave this life.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Praise the name of Yahweh.

The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”

“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him, to destroy him without just cause.”

So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head.

“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.

Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head.

For that night did not shut
the doors of my mother’s womb,
and hide sorrow from my eyes.

Why was I not stillborn;
why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

Both small and great are there,
and the slave is set free from his master.

Should anyone try to speak with you
when you are exhausted?
Yet who can keep from speaking?

They perish at a single blast from God
and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils.

Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night,
when deep sleep descends on men,

A figure stood there,
but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form loomed before my eyes.
I heard a quiet voice:

They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;
they perish forever while no one notices.

His children are far from safety.
They are crushed at the city gate,
with no one to rescue them.

For distress does not grow out of the soil,
and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

He saves the needy from their sharp words
and from the clutches of the powerful.

He will rescue you from six calamities;
no harm will touch you in seven.

In famine He will redeem you from death,
and in battle, from the power of the sword.

You will be safe from slander
and not fear destruction when it comes.

Since I cannot help myself,
the hope for success has been banished from me.

A despairing man should receive loyalty from his friends,
even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty.

The wadis evaporate in warm weather;
they disappear from their channels in hot weather.

Caravans turn away from their routes,
go up into the desert, and perish.

Have I ever said: “Give me something”
or “Pay a bribe for me from your wealth”

or “Deliver me from the enemy’s power”
or “Redeem me from the grasp of the ruthless”?

Will You ever look away from me,
or leave me alone long enough to swallow?

Will they not teach you and tell you
and speak from their understanding?

He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm.
He grabs it, but it does not hold up.

If he is uprooted from his place,
it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”

Surely this is the joy of his way of life;
yet others will sprout from the dust.

He shakes the earth from its place
so that its pillars tremble.

Let Him take His rod away from me
so His terror will no longer frighten me.

even though You know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?

I wish I had never existed
but had been carried from the womb to the grave.

then you will hold your head high, free from fault.
You will be firmly established and unafraid.

He reveals mysteries from the darkness
and brings the deepest darkness into the light.

Only grant these two things to me, God,
so that I will not have to hide from Your presence:

remove Your hand from me,
and do not let Your terror frighten me.

Who can produce something pure from what is impure?
No one!

look away from him and let him rest
so that he can enjoy his day like a hired hand.

As water disappears from the sea
and a river becomes parched and dry,

so man lies down never to rise again.
They will not wake up until the heavens are no more;
they will not stir from their sleep.

But as a mountain collapses and crumbles
and a rock is dislodged from its place,

as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil from the land,
so You destroy a man’s hope.

He doesn’t believe he will return from darkness;
he is destined for the sword.

He will not escape from the darkness;
flames will wither his shoots,
and by the breath of God’s mouth, he will depart.

Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,
and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.

although my hands are free from violence
and my prayer is pure.

My eyes have grown dim from grief,
and my whole body has become but 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 is ripped from the security of his tent
and marched away to the king of terrors.

All memory of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name anywhere.

He is driven from light to darkness
and chased from the inhabited world.

He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.

He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me.

Don’t you know that ever since antiquity,
from the time man was placed on earth,

His children will beg from the poor,
for his own hands must give back his wealth.

He swallows wealth but must vomit it up;
God will force it from his stomach.

He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;
he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.

If he flees from an iron weapon,
an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.

This is the wicked man’s lot from God,
the inheritance God ordained for him.

Their homes are secure and free of fear;
no rod from God strikes them.

But their prosperity is not of their own doing.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

Let his own eyes see his demise;
let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!

Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of disaster,
rescued from the day of wrath.

For you took collateral from your brothers without cause,
stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.

You gave no water to the thirsty
and withheld food from the famished,

But it was He who filled their houses with good things.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

Receive instruction from His mouth,
and place His sayings in your heart.

If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed.
If you banish injustice from your tent

Then an upright man could reason with Him,
and I would escape from my Judge forever.

I have not departed from the commands of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth
more than my daily food.

The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;
the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.

From the city, men groan;
the mortally wounded cry for help,
yet God pays no attention to this crime.

as long as my breath is still in me
and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,

This is a wicked man’s lot from God,
the inheritance the ruthless receive from the Almighty.

An east wind picks him up, and he is gone;
it carries him away from his place.

It blasts at him without mercy,
while he flees desperately from its grasp.

It claps its hands at him
and scorns him from its place.

Iron is taken from the ground,
and copper is smelted from ore.

He cuts a shaft far from human habitation,
in places unknown to those who walk above ground.
Suspended far away from people,
the miners swing back and forth.

Food may come from the earth,
but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.

He dams up the streams from flowing
so that he may bring to light what is hidden.

Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it,
and it cannot be valued in pure gold.

Where then does wisdom come from,
and where is understanding located?

It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
and concealed from the birds of the sky.

He said to mankind,
“The fear of the Lord is this: wisdom.
And to turn from evil is understanding.”

I shattered the fangs of the unjust
and snatched the prey from his teeth.

After a word from me they did not speak again;
my speech settled on them like dew.

Emaciated from poverty and hunger,
they gnawed the dry land,
the desolate wasteland by night.

They were expelled from human society;
people shouted at them as if they were thieves.

They despise me and keep their distance from me;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.