Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell to the earth and worshipped;

Now when the three friends of Job heard of all this misfortune which had befallen him, - they came, every man from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, - for they had by appointment met together to come to shew sympathy with him, and to comfort him.

Because it closed not the doors of the womb wherein I was, and so hid trouble from mine eyes.

Surely, at once, had I lain down, and been quiet, I had fallen asleep, then, had I been at rest:

With kings, and counselors of the earth, who had built them pyramids:

Or with rulers possessing, gold, - Who had filled their houses with silver:

Or that, like an untimely birth hidden away, I had not come into being, like infants that never saw light:

Who long for death, and it is not, And have digged for it, beyond hid treasures:

I was not careless, nor was I secure, nor had I settled down, - when there came - consternation!

During the scourge of the tongue, shalt thou be hid, neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh;

For, the arrows of the Almighty, are in me, The heat whereof, my spirit is drinking up, The, terrors of GOD, array themselves against me.

So might it still be my comfort, And I might exult in the anguish he would not spare, - That I had not concealed the sayings of the Holy One.

They are ashamed that they had trusted, They have come up to one of them, and are confounded.

They who hate thee, shall be clothed with shame, but, the tent of the lawless, shall not be!

Though I had called, and he had answered me, I could not believe, that he would lend an ear to my voice.

If I should justify myself, mine own mouth, would condemn me, - I blameless? then had it shewn me perverse.

Yet, these things, thou didst hide in thy heart, I know that, this, hath been with thee!

If I have been lawless, alas for me! Or, if I am righteous, I will not lift up my head, Surfeited with shame, look thou then on my humiliation.

As though I had not been, should I have become, - from the womb to the grave, might I have been borne.

Hear, I pray you, the argument of my mouth, and, to the pleadings of my lips, give heed: -

Only, two things, do thou not with me, then, from thy face, will I not hide me: -

Wherefore, thy face, shouldst thou hide? Or count me, as an enemy to thee?

Oh that, in hades, thou wouldst hide me! that thou wouldst keep me secret, until the turn of thine anger, that thou wouldst set for me a fixed time, and remember me:

Because he had stretched out - against GOD - his hand, and, against the Almighty, had been wont to behave himself proudly;

For he had covered his face with his fatness, and had gathered a superabundance on his loins;

And had inhabited demolished cities, houses, wherein men would not dwell, that were destined to become heaps.

I also, like you, could speak, - If your soul were in the place of my soul, I could string together words against you, and could therewith shake over you my head.

My glory - from off me, hath he stripped, and hath removed the crown of my head;

Though his elevation mount up to the heavens, and, his head, to the clouds, doth reach,

Like his own stubble, shall he utterly perish, They who had seen him, shall say, Where is he?

Though, a sweet taste in his mouth, be given by vice, though he hide it under his tongue;

He hath drawn it out, and it hath come forth out of his back, - yea the flashing arrow-head, out of his gall, There shall march on him - terrors:

Is not, GOD, in the height of the heavens? Behold, then, the head of the stars, that they are high.

Who had been saying unto GOD, Depart from us! and - What can the Almighty do for himself?

Yet, he, had filled their houses with good! The counsel of the lawless, then, is far from me:

Would he, with fulness of might, contend with me? Nay, surely, he, would give heed to me!

Wherefore, since from the Almighty times are not hid, have, his knowing ones, no vision of his days?

They turn aside the needy out of the way, at once, are the humbled of the land made to hide themselves.

Drought and heat, steal away snow water, Hades, them who have sinned.

He hath built, like a moth, his house, - like a hut, which a watcher hath made.

Seeing it hath been hid from the eyes of every living thing, and, from the bird of the heavens, hath it been concealed?

When his lamp shone over my head, by whose light, I could go through darkness;

Young men saw me, and hid themselves, and, the aged, arose - they stood;

Because I used to deliver the oppressed who was crying out for aid, the fatherless also, and him that had no helper;

After I had spoken, they spake not again, and, upon them, used my speech to drop;

In the fissures, of the ravines had they to dwell, in holes of dust and crags;

Because, my girdle, he had loosened and had humbled me, therefore, the bridle - in my presence, cast they off;

My skin, turned black, and peeled off me, and, my bones, burned with heat:

Surely that had been a shameful thing! and that an iniquity for the judges!

Surely, a fire, had that been, which, unto destruction, would have consumed, and, of all mine increase, had it torn up the root.

If I saw one perishing for lack of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

If I rejoiced because great was my substance, and, an abundance, my hand had discovered;

That too, had been a judicial iniquity, For I should have been false to GOD, above.

Oh that I had one to hear me, Lo! my crossmark, May, the Almighty, answer me! And would that, a book, mine opponent had written!

But, Elihu, had waited for Job with words, because the others were older than he.

Yea, unto you, gave I diligent heed, - But lo! there was, for Job, nothing to convince, nor could you of you answer his speeches.

For, in one way, GOD may speak, - and, in a second way, one may not heed it: -

No darkness, and no death-shade, where the workers of iniquity may hide.

That thy garments should be hot when he quieteth the earth from the south?

Against him, whiz the arrows of the quiver, the flashing head of spear and javelin;

Hide them in the dust all together, Their faces, bind thou in darkness;

Wilt thou fill, with darts, his skin? or, with fish-spears, his head?

By the hearing of the ear, had I heard thee, but, now, mine own eye, hath seen thee.

And it came to pass, after Yahweh had spoken these words unto Job, that Yahweh, said unto Eliphaz the Temanite, Kindled is mine anger against thee and against thy two friends, for ye have not spoken concerning me the thing that is right, like my servant Job.

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according to that which Yahweh had spoken unto them, - and Yahweh accepted Job.

And, Yahweh himself, turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed in behalf of his friends, - and Yahweh increased all that Job had possessed, unto twice as much.

Then came unto him all his brethren and all his sisters, and all his former acquaintances, and they did eat bread with him in his house, - and shewed sympathy with him and comforted him, over all the calamity which Yahweh had brought upon him, - and they gave him, every one a weight of money, and every one, a ring of gold.