While he was still speaking, another [messenger] also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and have taken them away and have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

Dread and trembling came upon me,
Which made all my bones shake.

“In the daytime they meet in darkness,
And at noon they grope as in the night.

“Oh, that my grief could actually be weighed
And placed in the balances together with my tragedy [to see if my grief is the grief of a coward]!

“Oh that my request would come to pass,
And that God would grant me the thing that I long for!

“Is my strength and endurance that of stones,
Or is my flesh made of bronze?

Who made [the constellations] the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the [vast starry] spaces of the south;

“They pass by like the [swift] boats made of reeds,
Like an eagle that swoops down on its prey.

“There is no arbitrator between us,
Who could lay his hand upon us both [would that there were].

“Let Him take His rod away from me,
And let not the dread and fear of Him terrify me.

‘Your hands have formed and made me altogether.
Would You [turn around and] destroy me?

“But I have intelligence and understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know such things as these [of God’s wisdom and might]?

“But [only] with Him are [perfect] wisdom and might;
He [alone] has [true] counsel and understanding.

“With Him are might and sound wisdom,
The misled and the misleader are His [and in His power].

“Oh, that you would be completely silent,
And that silence would be your wisdom!

“But now God has exhausted me.
You [O Lord] have destroyed all my family and my household.

“Oh, that a man would mediate and plead with God [for me]
Just as a man [mediates and pleads] with his neighbor and friend.

“But He has made me a byword and mockery among the people,
And I have become one in whose face people spit.

“Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might [even] come to His seat!

“For God has made my heart faint,
And the Almighty has terrified me,

“No mention of coral and crystal can be made;
For the possession of wisdom is even above [that of] rubies or pearls.

When He made a limit for the rain
And a way for the thunderbolt,

“They must dwell on the slopes of wadis
And in holes in the ground and in rocks.

“You have become harsh and cruel to me;
With the might of Your hand You [keep me alive only to] persecute me.

“I am seething within and my heart is troubled and cannot rest;
Days of affliction come to meet me.

“If my heart has been enticed and I was made a fool by a woman,
Or if I have [covetously] lurked at my neighbor’s door [until his departure],

“Did not He who made me in the womb make my servant,
And did not the same One fashion us both in the womb?

“If I have put my trust and confidence in gold,
Or have declared fine gold my hope and assurance,

“No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin
By cursing my enemy and asking for his life.

But Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became indignant. His indignation was kindled and burned and he became upset with Job because he justified himself rather than God [and even expressed doubts about God’s character].

“I even paid close attention to [what] you [said],
Indeed, not one of you convinced Job [nor could you refute him],
Not one of you supplied [satisfactory] answers to his words.

“The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life [which inspires me].

“God seals (brings to a standstill, stops) [by severe weather] the hand of every man,
That all men [whom He has made] may know His work [that is, His sovereign power and their subjection to it].

When I made the clouds its garment
And thick darkness its swaddling band,

To whom I gave the wilderness as his home
And the salt land as his dwelling place?

“Have you given the horse his might?
Have you clothed his neck with quivering and a shaking mane?

“Have you [Job] made him leap like a locust?
The majesty of his snorting [nostrils] is terrible.

“He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength;
He goes out to meet the weapons [of armed men].

“[If you can do all this, Job, proving your divine power] then I [God] will also praise you and acknowledge
That your own right hand can save you.

“He is the first [in magnitude and power] of the works of God;
[Only] He who made him can bring near His sword [to master him].

“Who has first given to Me that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine. [Who can have a claim against Me who made the unmastered beast?]

“His strong scales are his pride,
Bound together as with a tight seal.

“Upon earth there is nothing like him—no equal exists,
A creature made without fear.