His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

And it was so, when the days of their feasting were finished, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there: the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot unto the crown of his head.

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

So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from my eyes.

Or as a hidden untimely birth, I had not been; as infants who never saw light.

Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the strong lion's whelps are scattered abroad.

He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their plans.

So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

Lo this, we have searched it out, so it is; hear it, and know you it for your good.

For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.

For now you are nothing; you see my terror, and are afraid.

Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?

Or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?

So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.

O remember that my life is a breath: my eye shall no more see good.

The eye of him that has seen me shall see me no more: your eyes are upon me, and I am not.

As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away: so he that goes down to the grave shall come up no more.

Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you set a watch over me?

When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;

So that my soul chooses strangling, and death rather than my life.

I have sinned; what shall I do unto you, O you preserver of men? why have you set me as a mark against you, so that I am a burden to myself?

So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:

Whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.

I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just before God?

Who alone spreads out the heavens, and treads upon the waves of the sea.

Lo, he goes by me, and I see him not: he passes on also, but I perceive him not.

Behold, he takes away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What do you?

If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am blameless, it shall also prove me perverse.

Now my days are swifter than a runner: they flee away, they see no good.

If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:

If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean;

Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me why you contend with me.

Have you eyes of flesh? or see you as man sees?

Are your days as the days of man? are your years as man's days,

If I am wicked, woe unto me; and if I am righteous, yet can I not lift up my head. I am full of disgrace; therefore see my affliction;

The measure of it is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

For a vain man will be wise, when a man is born a wild donkey's colt.

Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you: and the fish of the sea shall declare unto you.

Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocks another, do you so mock him?

As the waters fail from the sea, and the river decays and dries up:

So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and you sew up my iniquity.

I also could speak as you do: if your soul were in my soul's place, I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.

And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

And though after my skin is thus destroyed, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my heart be consumed within me.

But you should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

Yet he shall perish forever like his own refuse: they who have seen him shall say, Where is he?

The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.

He shall not see the rivers, the brooks flowing with honey and butter.

As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of your ways.

His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

For you say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

Or darkness, that you can not see; and abundance of waters cover you.

And you say, How does God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?

The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.

When men are cast down, then you shall say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.

There the righteous might reason with him; so should I be delivered forever from my judge.

On the left hand, where he does work, but I cannot behold him: he hides himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:

Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge.

The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguises his face.

Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so does the grave those who have sinned.

And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?

He divides the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through the storm.

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the falcon's eye has not seen:

The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.

The deep says, It is not in me: and the sea says, It is not with me.

Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame of it with our ears.

Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.

The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.

When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

Does not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

If my heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor's door;

(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided him from my mother's womb;)

If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw I had help in the gate:

So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was aroused.

Therefore I say, Hearken to me; I also will show my opinion.

Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, while you searched out what to say.

Lest you should say, We have found out wisdom: God vanquishes him, not man.

Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person, neither let me give flattery unto man.

For I know not how to give flattery; in so doing my maker would soon take me away.