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.

His estate included 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.

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.”

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.”

“Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life.

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.

Why is life given to a man whose path is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?

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

“Can a person be more righteous than God,
or a man more pure than his Maker?”

See how happy the man is God corrects;
so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

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

Do you think that you can disprove my words
or that a despairing man’s words are mere wind?

Like a slave he longs for shade;
like a hired man he waits for his pay.

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

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

Are Your days like those of a human,
or Your years like those of a man,

But a stupid man will gain understanding
as soon as a wild donkey is born a man!

I am a laughingstock to my friends,
by calling on God, who answers me.
The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

They grope around in darkness without light;
He makes them stagger like drunken men.

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

Man wears out like something rotten,
like a moth-eaten garment.

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Man born of woman
is short of days and full of trouble.

Since man’s days are determined
and the number of his months depends on You,
and since You have set limits he cannot pass,

But a man dies and fades away;
he breathes his last—where is he?

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.

When a man dies, will he come back to life?
If so, I would wait all the days of my struggle
until my relief comes.

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

Does a wise man answer with empty counsel
or fill himself with the hot east wind?

Both the gray-haired and the elderly are with us,
men older than your father.

What is man, that he should be pure,
or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

what was declared by wise men
and was not suppressed by their ancestors,

A wicked man writhes in pain all his days;
only a few years are reserved for the ruthless.

God hands me over to unjust men;
He throws me into the hands of the wicked.

I wish that someone might arbitrate
between a man and God
just as a man pleads for his friend.

If a man informs on his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.

He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at.

But come back and try again, all of you.
I will not find a wise man among you.

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

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

As for me, is my complaint against a man?
Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?

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

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

while the land belonged to a powerful man
and an influential man lived on it.

Will you continue on the ancient path
that wicked men have walked?

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

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

If even the moon does not shine
and the stars are not pure in His sight,

how much less man, who is a maggot,
and the son of man, who is a worm!

For what hope does the godless man have when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?

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

Surely there is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.

No man can know its value,
since it cannot be found in the land of the living.

the young men saw me and withdrew,
while older men stood to their feet.

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

The dying man blessed me,
and I made the widow’s heart rejoice.

Men listened to me with expectation,
waiting silently for my advice.

But now they mock me,
men younger than I am,
whose fathers I would have refused to put
with my sheep dogs.

Foolish men, without even a name.
They were forced to leave the land.

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

let my own wife grind grain for another man,
and let other men sleep with her.

if I have gazed at the sun when it was shining
or at the moon moving in splendor,

So these three men quit answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

But when he saw that the three men could not answer Job, he became angry.

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 I tell you that you are wrong in this matter,
since God is greater than man.

He will pray to God, and God will delight in him.
That man will see His face with a shout of joy,
and God will restore his righteousness to him.

He will look at men and say,
“I have sinned and perverted what was right;
yet I did not get what I deserved.

God certainly does all these things
two or three times to a man

Hear my words, you wise men,
and listen to me, you knowledgeable ones.

What man is like Job?
He drinks derision like water.

He keeps company with evildoers
and walks with wicked men.

For he has said, “A man gains nothing
when he becomes God’s friend.”

Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding.
It is impossible for God to do wrong,
and for the Almighty to act unjustly.

who says to a king, “Worthless man!”
and to nobles, “Wicked men!”?

For His eyes watch over a man’s ways,
and He observes all his steps.

so that godless men should not rule
or ensnare the people.

Reasonable men will say to me,
along with the wise men who hear me,

If only Job were tested to the limit,
because his answers are like those of wicked men.

There they cry out, but He does not answer,
because of the pride of evil men.

serve as His sign to all mankind,
so that all men may know His work.

Should He be told that I want to speak?
Can a man speak when he is confused?

Now men cannot even look at the sun
when it is in the skies,
after a wind has swept through and cleared them away.

Therefore, men fear Him.
He does not look favorably on any who are wise in heart.

Get ready to answer Me like a man;
when I question you, you will inform Me.

Do you give strength to the horse?
Do you adorn his neck with a mane?

Get ready to answer Me like a man;
When I question you, you will inform Me.