{Then when} the days of the feast had run their course, {Job would send}, and he would sanctify them. Thus he would arise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings [according to] the number of all of them, because Job thought, "Perhaps my children have sinned and {cursed} God in their heart." This is what Job used to do {all the time}.

So Yahweh said to Satan, "From where have you come?" Then Satan answered Yahweh and said, "From roaming on the earth and from walking about in it."

So Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you {considered} my servant Job? Indeed, there is no one like him on the earth--a blameless man and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil."

Have you not put a fence around him and his household and around {all that belongs to him} {on every side}? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock has increased in the land.

So Yahweh {asked} Satan, "From where have you come?" And Satan answered Yahweh and said, "From roaming on the earth and from walking about in it."

So Yahweh {asked} Satan, "Have you {considered} my servant Job? Indeed, there is no one like him on the earth--a blameless man and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil. And still he persists in his blamelessness {even though} you incited me against him to destroy him for nothing."

or with high officials {who have gold}, who fill up their houses [with] silver.

I am not at ease, and I am not at peace, and I do not have rest, thus turmoil has come."

Look, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened weak hands.

Your words have raised up [the one who] stumbles, and you have strengthened knees giving way.

[Just] as I have seen, plowers of mischief and sowers of trouble will reap it.

I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.

"Look, we have searched this out--it [is] true; hear it and know [it] {yourself}."

for then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas; therefore my words have been rash,

But it will still be my consolation, and I would recoil in {unrelenting} pain, for I have not denied [the] words of [the] Holy One.

"For now you have become {such}; you see terrors, and you fear.

Is it because I have said, 'Give to me,' or, 'Offer a bribe for me from your wealth'?

Teach me, and I myself will be silent; and make me understand how I have gone astray.

"Does not {a human being have hard service} on earth? And [are not] his days like the days of a laborer?

When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I rise?' But [the] night is long, and I have my fill of tossing until dawn.

[If] I have sinned, what have I done to you, watcher of humanity? Why have you made me as a target for yourself, so that I have become a burden to myself?

"Indeed, please inquire of former generations, and consider {what their ancestors have found},

If he destroys him from his place, then it deceives him, [saying], 'I have never seen you.'

{Do you have eyes of flesh}? Or {do you see as human beings see}?

You have granted me life and loyal love, and your care has preserved my spirit.

So why did you bring me forth from the womb? I should have passed away, {and no eye should have seen me}.

I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been brought from [the] womb to the grave.

And you will have confidence because there is hope; and you will be well protected--{you will sleep in safety}.

{I also have insight} like you; I am not more inferior than you. And {who does not know things like these}?

{Those at ease have contempt} for [the] thought of {disaster}, [but it is] ready for those unstable of foot.

"{Let me have silence}, and I myself will speak, and let come over me whatever [may].

Please look, I have prepared [my] case; I know that I myself will be vindicated.

If his days [are] determined, the number of his months [is] with you; you have appointed his boundaries, and he cannot cross [them].

Have you listened in God's confidential discussion? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

"I will show you, listen to me; and what I have seen, I will tell--

what wise men have told, and they have not hidden [that which is] from their ancestors,

"I have heard many [things] like these; all of you [are] {miserable comforters}.

"Surely now he has worn me out; you have devastated all my company.

They gaped at me with their mouth; they struck my cheeks with disgrace; they have massed themselves together against me.

His archers surround me; he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion; he pours out my gall on the ground.

"I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and I have inserted {my pride} in the dust.

Indeed, [after] {a few years} have come, then I will go [the] way [from which] I will not return.

Indeed, you have closed their mind from understanding; therefore, you will not let [them] triumph.

These ten times you have disgraced me; you are not ashamed [that] you have attacked me.

And what is more, [if] I have truly erred, my error remains with me.

His troops have come together and have thrown up their rampart against me and have encamped around my tent.

"He has removed my kinsfolk from me, and my acquaintances have only turned aside from me.

My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.

The sojourners in my house and my slave women count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

All {my intimate friends} abhor me, and these [whom] I have loved have turned against me.

My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

he will perish forever like his dung; [those who] have seen him will say, 'Where [is] he?'

"Indeed, you have required a pledge from your family for nothing, and you have stripped off [the] clothes of [the] naked.

You have given no water [for the] weary to drink, and you withheld food from [the] hungry.

You have sent widows away empty-handed, and [the] arms of orphans were crushed.

Will you keep [to the] way of old that [the] people of mischief have trod,

My foot has held on to his steps; I have kept his way, and I have not turned aside.

[From] the commandment of his lips, indeed I have not departed; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily food.

Indeed, I have not been silenced {because of darkness}, and because of me he conceals thick darkness.

They spend the night naked, {without} clothing, and [they] have no garment in the cold.

Drought and heat snatch away [the] snow waters, [like] Sheol [snatches away] those [who have] sinned.

[He] feeds on [the] barren, [who] does not have a child, and does no good to [the] widow.

"How you have helped {one who has no power}! [How] you have assisted [the] arm {that has no strength}!

How you have advised {one who has no wisdom}! And [what] sound wisdom you have made known {in abundance}!

{With whose help} have you uttered words, and whose breath has come forth from you?

Look, you all have seen, and {why in the world} {have you become altogether vain}?

If their children multiply, [it is] for [the] sword, and his offspring {do not have enough to eat}.

{Proud wild animals} have not trodden it; [the] lion in its prime has not prowled over it.

"But now I am their mocking song, and I have become a byword for them.

because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me, and they have thrown off restraint {in my presence}.

They destroy my path; they promote my destruction; they have no helper.

"And now my life is poured out onto me; days of misery have taken hold of me.

He has cast me into the dirt, and I have become like dust and ashes.

You have turned cruel to me; you persecute me with your hand's might.

Have I not wept for {the unfortunate}, [and] grieved myself over the poor?

"If I have walked with falseness, and my foot has hastened to deceit,

If my steps have turned aside from the way, and my heart has walked after my eyes, and my hand has clung to a spot,

"If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and at my neighbor's doorway I have lain in wait,

"If I have rejected my male or female slave's case when their complaint [was] against me,

"If I have withheld [the] desire of [the] poor from [them], or I have caused [the] widow's eyes to fail,

or I have eaten my morsel {alone}, and [the] orphan has not eaten from it

if I have seen [the one who] perishes because of no clothing or [that] there is no covering for the poor,

if his loins have not blessed me, or by means of my sheep's fleece he has warmed himself,

if I have raised my hand against an orphan because I saw my supporters at the gate,

"If I have made gold my trust, or I have called fine gold my security,

if I have rejoiced because my wealth [was] great or because my hand found a fortune,

this also [is] an iniquity [to be] judged, for I have deceived God above.

"If I have rejoiced at [the] ruin of [the one who] hated me or have exulted when evil overtook him--

no, I have not allowed my mouth to sin, to ask his life with a curse.

{Have the people of my tent not said}, '{O that} someone had not been satisfied with his meat'?

An alien has not lodged in the street; I have opened my door to the traveler.

{Have I concealed} my transgressions as [other] human beings to hide my iniquity in my bosom

If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept together,

if I have eaten its yield without payment, or I have caused [the] breath of its owners to die,

So do not say, 'We have found wisdom; let God refute him, not a man.'

"They are dismayed; they no longer answer; {they have nothing to say}.

And I have waited because they do not speak, because they stand [there] [and] no longer answer.

"Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard [the] sound of [your] words:

{so that} he is gracious [to] him, and he says, 'Deliver him from descending into [the] pit; I have found a ransom.'

"He will sing to men, and he will say, 'I have sinned and have perverted [what is] right, and it was not paid back to me.