Then Job stood up, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground, bowed very low,

"Look! We have thought all this through, and what we've said is true; So please listen and learn for your own good!"

"There is hope for the tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots won't stop growing.

"He is like a vine that drops its unripe grapes; like an olive tree that loses its blossoms.

"He tore me apart when I was at ease; grabbing me by my neck, he shook me to pieces then he really made me his target.

Even if it's true that I've erred, my error only affects me.

He is breaking me down on every side, and now it's too late for me; he has uprooted my hopes like a tree.

They tear up my pathways; they profit from my destruction, and they need no help to do this!

"If my heart has been seduced by a woman and I've laid in wait at my friend's door,

"Indeed, he drew you away from the brink of distress to a spacious place without constraints, filling your festive table with bountiful food.

"Can you draw Leviathan out of the water with a hook, or tie down his tongue with a rope?

No one is fierce enough to dare to arouse him. "Who, then, can stand in my presence and face me?

He regards iron like straw, and hardened bronze like a dead tree.