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.”

Haven’t You placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

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.”

His wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”

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.

Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.

However, if I were you, I would appeal to God
and would present my case to Him.

He will never return to his house;
his hometown will no longer remember him.

What is man, that You think so highly of him
and pay so much attention to him?

You inspect him every morning,
and put him to the test every moment.

Since your children sinned against Him,
He gave them over to their rebellion.

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

If one wanted to take Him to court,
he could not answer God once in a thousand times.

God is wise and all-powerful.
Who has opposed Him and come out unharmed?

If He passes by me, I wouldn’t see Him;
if He goes right by, I wouldn’t recognize Him.

If He snatches something, who can stop Him?
Who can ask Him, “What are You doing?”

God does not hold back His anger;
Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath Him!

How then can I answer Him
or choose my arguments against Him?

If I summoned Him and He answered me,
I do not believe He would pay attention to what I said.

If it is a matter of strength, look, He is the Mighty One!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him,
that we can take each other to court.

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

Then I would speak and not fear Him.
But that is not the case; I am on my own.

>

If He passes by and throws someone in prison
or convenes a court, who can stop Him?

As for you, if you redirect your heart
and lift up your hands to Him in prayer—

True wisdom and power belong to Him.
The deceived and the deceiver are His.

Would you testify unjustly on God’s behalf
or speak deceitfully for Him?

Would you show partiality to Him
or argue the case in His defense?

Would it go well if He examined you?
Could you deceive Him as you would deceive a man?

Even if He kills me, I will hope in Him.
I will still defend my ways before Him.

Yes, this will result in my deliverance,
for no godless person can appear before Him.

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

You completely overpower him, and he passes on;
You change his appearance and send him away.

But you even undermine the fear of God
and hinder meditation before Him.

Dreadful sounds fill his ears;
when he is at peace, a robber attacks him.

Trouble and distress terrify him,
overwhelming him like a king prepared for battle.

He rushes headlong at Him
with his thick, studded shields.

Let him not put trust in worthless things, being led astray,
for what he gets in exchange will prove worthless.

The light in his tent grows dark,
and the lamp beside him is put out.

His powerful stride is shortened,
and his own schemes trip him up.

For his own feet lead him into a net,
and he strays into its mesh.

A trap catches him by the heel;
a noose seizes him.

A rope lies hidden for him on the ground,
and a snare waits for him along the path.

Terrors frighten him on every side
and harass him at every step.

His strength is depleted;
disaster lies ready for him to stumble.

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

I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
even if I beg him with my own mouth.

I will see Him myself;
my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger.
My heart longs within me.

If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?”

he will vanish forever like his own dung.
Those who know him will ask, “Where is he?”

The eye that saw him will see him no more,
and his household will no longer see him.

His bones may be full of youthful vigor,
but will lie down with him in the grave.

yet the food in his stomach turns
into cobras’ venom inside him.

He will suck the poison of cobras;
a viper’s fangs will kill him.

Nothing is left for him to consume;
therefore, his prosperity will not last.

At the height of his success distress will come to him;
the full weight of misery will crush him.

When he fills his stomach,
God will send His burning anger against him,
raining it down on him while he is eating.

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

He pulls it out of his back,
the flashing tip out of his liver.
Terrors come over him.

Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.
A fire unfanned by human hands will consume him;
it will feed on what is left in his tent.

The heavens will expose his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.

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

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him,
and what will we gain by pleading with Him?”

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

Who would denounce his behavior to his face?
Who would repay him for what he has done?

The dirt on his grave is sweet to him.
Everyone follows behind him,
and those who go before him are without number.

Can a man be of any use to God?
Can even a wise man be of use to Him?

Clouds veil Him so that He cannot see,
as He walks on the circle of the sky.”

You will pray to Him, and He will hear you,
and you will fulfill your vows.

If only I knew how to find Him,
so that I could go to His throne.

I would plead my case before Him
and fill my mouth with arguments.

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

If I go east, He is not there,
and if I go west, I cannot perceive Him.

When He is at work to the north, I cannot see Him;
when He turns south, I cannot find Him.

But He is unchangeable; who can oppose Him?
He does what He desires.

Therefore I am terrified in His presence;
when I consider this, I am afraid of Him.

Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment?
Why do those who know Him never see His days?

Dominion and dread belong to Him,
the One who establishes harmony in the heavens.

These are but the fringes of His ways;
how faint is the word we hear of Him!
Who can understand His mighty thunder?

Will God hear his cry
when distress comes on him?

Those who survive him will be buried by the plague,
yet their widows will not weep for them.

Terrors overtake him like a flood;
a storm wind sweeps him away at night.

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.

For I rescued the poor man who cried out for help,
and the fatherless child who had no one to support him.

Yet no one would stretch out his hand
against a ruined man
when he cries out to him for help
because of his distress.

what could I do when God stands up to judge?
How should I answer Him when He calls me to account?

for from my youth, I raised him as his father,
and since the day I was born I guided the widow—

I would give Him an account of all my steps;
I would approach Him like a prince.

He was also angry at Job’s three friends because they had failed to refute him and yet had condemned him.

But it is a spirit in man
and the breath of the Almighty
that give him understanding.

So do not claim, “We have found wisdom;
let God deal with him, not man.”

But Job has not directed his argument to me,
and I will not respond to him with your arguments.

Why do you take Him to court
for not answering anything a person asks?

If there is an angel on his side,
one mediator out of a thousand,
to tell a person what is right for him

and to be gracious to him and say,
“Spare him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom,”