If I lie down, I say, 'When will I arise?', and the night stretches on and I toss and turn restlessly until the day dawns.

If I say, "My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,"

If he snatches away, who can turn him back? Who dares to say to him, 'What are you doing?'

If it is a matter of strength, most certainly he is the strong one! And if it is a matter of justice, he will say, 'Who will summon me?'

"It is all one! That is why I say, 'He destroys the blameless and the guilty.'

If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression and be cheerful,'

I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; tell me why you are contending with me.'

These men change night into day; they say, 'The light is near in the face of darkness.'

If you say, 'How we will pursue him, since the root of the trouble is found in him!'

he will perish forever, like his own excrement; those who used to see him will say, 'Where is he?'

So they say to God, 'Turn away from us! We do not want to know your ways.

You may say, 'God stores up a man's punishment for his children!' Instead let him repay the man himself so that he may know it!

For you say, 'Where now is the nobleman's house, and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?'

When people are brought low and you say 'Lift them up!' then he will save the downcast;

I would know with what words he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.

"You say, 'He is foam on the face of the waters; their portion of the land is cursed so that no one goes to their vineyard.

The deep says, 'It is not with me.' And the sea says, 'It is not with me.'

Destruction and Death say, 'With our ears we have heard a rumor about where it can be found.'

Therefore I say, 'Listen to me. I, even I, will explain what I know.'

So do not say, 'We have found wisdom! God will refute him, not man!'

"They are dismayed and cannot answer any more; they have nothing left to say.

"But now, O Job, listen to my words, and hear everything I have to say!

and if God is gracious to him and says, 'Spare him from going down to the place of corruption, I have found a ransom for him,'

For Job says, 'I am innocent, but God turns away my right.

For he says, 'It does not profit a man when he makes his delight with God.'

"If you have understanding, listen to this, hear what I have to say.

who says to a king, 'Worthless man' and to nobles, 'Wicked men,'

Men of understanding say to me -- any wise man listening to me says --

"Do you think this to be just: when you say, 'My right before God.'

But you say, 'What will it profit you,' and, 'What do I gain by not sinning?'

But no one says, 'Where is God, my Creator, who gives songs in the night,

How much less, then, when you say that you do not perceive him, that the case is before him and you are waiting for him!

And further, when you say that his anger does not punish, and that he does not know transgression!

And he reveals this for correction, and says that they must turn from evil.

For to the snow he says, 'Fall to earth,' and to the torrential rains, 'Pour down.'

Tell us what we should say to him. We cannot prepare a case because of the darkness.

Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Will they say to you, 'Here we are'?

At the sound of the trumpet, it says, 'Aha!' And from a distance it catches the scent of battle, the thunderous shouting of commanders, and the battle cries.

I have spoken once, but I cannot answer; twice, but I will say no more."