And of cattle he had seven thousand sheep and goats, and three thousand camels, and a thousand oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great number of servants. And the man was greater than any of the sons of the east.

Then Job got up, and after parting his clothing and cutting off his hair, he went down on his face to the earth, and gave worship, and said,

Then, opening his mouth, and cursing the day of his birth,

For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,

To those whose desire is for death, but it comes not; who are searching for it more than for secret wealth;

How much more those living in houses of earth, whose bases are in the dust! They are crushed more quickly than an insect;

For then its weight would be more than the sand of the seas: because of this my words have been uncontrolled.

Now then, let your eyes be turned to me, for truly I will not say what is false to your face.

My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again.

My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and come to an end without hope.

Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear;

So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains.

Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

If your children have done evil against him, then their punishment is from his hand.

If you are clean and upright; then he will certainly be moved to take up your cause, and will make clear your righteousness by building up your house again.

Whose support is cut off, and whose hope is no stronger than a spider's thread.

If he is taken away from his place, then it will say, I have not seen you.

The land is given into the power of the evil-doer; the faces of its judges are covered; if not by him, then who has done it?

My days go quicker than a post-runner: they go in flight, they see no good.

You will not let me be clear of sin! why then do I take trouble for nothing?

Then you will have me pushed into the dust, so that I will seem disgusting to my very clothing.

Then I would say what is in my mind without fear of him; for there is no cause of fear in myself.

Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then, changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction.

Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me,

Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,

They are higher than heaven; what is there for you to do? deeper than the underworld, and outside your knowledge;

Longer in measure than the earth, and wider than the sea.

Then truly your face will be lifted up, with no mark of sin, and you will be fixed in your place without fear:

And your life will be brighter than day; though it is dark, it will become like the morning.

Increasing nations, and sending destruction on them; making wide the lands of peoples, and then giving them up.

Only two things do not do to me, then I will come before your face:

Then at the sound of your voice I will give answer; or let me put forward my cause for you to give me an answer.

With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years, much older than your father.

Where then is my hope? and who will see my desire?

Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

How long will it be before you have done talking? Get wisdom, and then we will say what is in our minds.

Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,

Then Job made answer and said,

As for me, is my outcry against man? is it then to be wondered at if my spirit is troubled?

Why then do you give me comfort with words in which there is no profit, when you see that there is nothing in your answers but deceit?

Then Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,

Then the Ruler of all will be your gold, and his teaching will be your silver;

For then you will have delight in the Ruler of all, and your face will be lifted up to God.

Then there are those who are haters of the light, who have no knowledge of its ways, and do not go in them.

For a short time they are lifted up; then they are gone; they are made low, they are pulled off like fruit, and like the heads of grain they are cut off.

Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

How then is it possible for man to be upright before God? or how may he be clean who is a son of woman?

Then Job made answer and said,

Truly, you have all seen it yourselves; why then have you become completely foolish?

His house has no more strength than a spider's thread, or a watchman's tent.

There is no need to say anything about coral or crystal; and the value of wisdom is greater than that of pearls.

From where then does wisdom come, and where is the resting-place of knowledge?

Then he saw it, and put it on record; he gave it its fixed form, searching it out completely.

Then I said, I will come to my end with my children round me, my days will be as the sand in number;

But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks.

I made an agreement with my eyes; how then might my eyes be looking on a virgin?

Then let my wife give pleasure to another man and let others make use of her body.

What then will I do when God comes as my judge? and what answer may I give to his questions?

Then in place of grain let thorns come up, and in place of barley evil-smelling plants.

And Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was angry, burning with wrath against Job, because he seemed to himself more right than God;

Now Elihu had kept quiet while Job was talking, because they were older than he;

Truly, in saying this you are wrong; for God is greater than man.

Then he makes his secrets clear to men, so that they are full of fear at what they see;

Then his flesh becomes young again, and he comes back to the days of his early strength;

Now then, you wise, take note; you men of knowledge, give ear to me. Let it be far from God to do evil, and from the Ruler of all to do wrong.

Who has no respect for rulers, and who gives no more attention to those who have wealth than to the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.

What profit is it to me, and how am I better off than if I had done wrong?

Let your eyes be turned to the heavens, and lifted up to see the skies; they are higher than you.

Who gives us more knowledge than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the heaven?

Then he makes clear to them what they have done, even their evil works in which they have taken pride.

If they give ear to his voice, and do his word, then he gives them long life, and years full of pleasure.

Truly, God is great, greater than all our knowledge; the number of his years may not be searched out.

He does wonders, more than may be searched out; great things of which we have no knowledge;

Then the beasts go into their holes, and take their rest.

No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had come to birth, and the number of your days is great.

Then the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said,

Then I will give praise to you, saying that your right hand is able to give you salvation.

He is so cruel that no one is ready to go against him. Who then is able to keep his place before me?

The arrow is not able to put him to flight: stones are no more to him than dry stems.

A thick stick is no better than a leaf of grass, and he makes sport of the onrush of the spear.

And the Lord's blessing was greater on the end of Job's life than on its start: and so he came to have fourteen thousand sheep and goats, and six thousand camels, and two thousand oxen, and a thousand she-asses.