His sons used to go [in turn] and feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send word and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

and the Sabeans attacked and swooped down on them and took away the animals. They also killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

and suddenly, a great wind came from across the desert, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

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

When they looked from a distance and did not recognize him [because of his disfigurement], they raised their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe [in grief] and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky [in sorrow].

So they sat down on the ground with Job for seven days and seven nights and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.

“There the prisoners rest together;
They do not hear the taskmaster’s voice.

Who rejoice exceedingly,
And rejoice when they find the grave?

“By the breath of God they perish,
And by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

‘Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces and destroyed;
Unobserved and unnoticed, they perish forever.

‘Is not their tent-cord drawn up within them [so that the tent collapses]?
Do they not die, and yet without [acquiring] wisdom?’

“His children are far from safety [and included in their father’s ruin],
They are oppressed and crushed in the [court of justice in the city’s] gate,
And there is no one to rescue them.

“In the daytime they meet in darkness,
And at noon they grope as in the night.

When it is warm, they are silent and cease to flow;
When it is hot, they vanish from their place.

“The paths of their course wind along,
They go up into nothing and perish.
[Your counsel is as helpful to me as a dry streambed in the heat of summer.]

“They were put to shame and disappointed because they had trusted [that they would find water];
They came there and were ashamed.

“It is God who removes the mountains, and they do not know it,
When He overturns them in His anger;

“The earth is given into the hands of the wicked;
He covers the faces of its judges [so that they are blind to justice].
If it is not He, then who is it [that is responsible for all this injustice]?

“Now my days are swifter than a runner;
They vanish, they see no good.

“They pass by like the [swift] boats made of reeds,
Like an eagle that swoops down on its prey.

“But the eyes of the wicked will fail,
And they will not escape [the justice of God];
And their hope is to breathe their last [and die].”

“Now ask the animals, and let them teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character];
And ask the birds of the air, and let them tell you;

“Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up;
Again, He sends the waters out, and they overwhelm and devastate the earth.

“They grope in darkness without light,
And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.”

“His sons achieve honor, and he does not know it;
They become insignificant, and he is not aware of it.

“Distress and anxiety terrify him,
They overpower him like a king ready for battle.

“They conceive mischief and bring forth wickedness,
And their inmost soul prepares deceit and fraud.”

“You have taken a firm hold on me and have shriveled me up,
It has become a witness [against me];
And my leanness [and infirmity] rises up [as evidence] against me,
It testifies to my face [about my guilt].

“They have gaped at me with their mouths,
With contempt they have struck me on the cheek;
They massed themselves together [and conspired] against me.

“But He has made me a byword and mockery among the people,
And I have become one in whose face people spit.

“Those in the west are astonished and appalled at his fate,
And those in the east are seized with horror.

“Even young children despise me;
When I get up, they speak against me.

“Oh, that the words I now speak were written!
Oh, that they were recorded in a scroll!

“That with an iron stylus and [molten] lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!

“They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children skip about.

“They lift up their voices and sing to the tambourine and the lyre
And rejoice to the sound of the flute.

“They fully enjoy their days in prosperity,
And so go down to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) in a [peaceful] moment.

“Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.

“Are they like straw before the wind,
And like chaff that the storm steals and carries away?

“Together they lie down in the dust,
And the worms cover them.

“That evil men are [now] reserved for the day of disaster and destruction,
They will be led away on the day of [God’s] wrath?

“Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the distant stars, how high they are!

“They said to God, ‘Depart from us!
What can the Almighty do for us or to us?’

“When you are cast down and humbled, you will speak with confidence,
And the humble person He will lift up and save.

“Some remove the landmarks;
They [violently] seize and pasture flocks [appropriating land and flocks openly].

“They drive away the donkeys of the orphans;
They take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

“They crowd the needy off the road;
The poor of the land all hide themselves.

“They harvest their fodder in a field [that is not their own],
And glean the vineyard of the wicked.

“They spend the night naked, without clothing,
And have no covering against the cold.

“They are wet from the rain of the mountains
And cling to the rock for lack of shelter.

“They cause the poor to go about naked without clothing,
And they take away the sheaves [of grain] from the hungry.

“Within the walls [of the wicked] the poor make [olive] oil;
They tread [the grapes in] the wine presses, but thirst.

“Others have been with those who rebel against the light;
They do not want to know its ways
Nor stay in its paths.

“In the dark they dig into [the penetrable walls of] houses;
They shut themselves up by day;
They do not know the light [of day].

“For the morning is the same to him as the thick darkness [of midnight];
For he is familiar with the terrors of thick darkness.

“Yet God draws away the mighty by His power;
He rises, but no one has assurance of life.

“God gives them security, and they are supported;
And His eyes are on their ways.

“They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone;
Moreover, they are brought low and like everything [they are] gathered up and taken out of the way;
Even like the heads of grain they are cut off.

“Surely there is a mine for silver,
And a place where they refine gold.

“He breaks open (mine) shafts far away from where people live,
[In places] forgotten by the [human] foot;
They dangle [in the mines] and hang away from men.

“Man dams up the streams from flowing [so that they do not trickle into the mine],
And what is hidden he brings out to the light.

“After I spoke, they did not speak again,
And my speech dropped upon them [like a refreshing shower].

“They waited for me [and for my words] as for the rain,
And they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

“I smiled at them when they did not believe,
And they did not diminish the light of my face.

“But now those younger than I mock and laugh at me,
Whose fathers I refused to put with the sheepdogs of my flock.

“Indeed, how could the strength of their hands profit me?
Vigor had perished from them.

“They are gaunt with want and famine;
They gnaw the dry and barren ground by night in [the gloom of] waste and desolation.

“They pluck [and eat] saltwort (mallows) among the bushes,
And their food is the root of the broom shrub.

“They are driven from the community;
They shout after them as after a thief.

“They must dwell on the slopes of wadis
And in holes in the ground and in rocks.

“Among the bushes they cry out [like wild animals];
Beneath the prickly scrub they gather and huddle together.

“They are the sons of [worthless and nameless] fools,
They have been driven out of the land.

“They hate me, they stand aloof from me,
And do not refrain from spitting in my face.

“For God has loosed His bowstring [attacking me] and [He has] afflicted and humbled me;
They have cast off the bridle [of restraint] before me.

“On my right the [rabble] brood rises;
They push my feet away, and they build up their ways of destruction against me [like an advancing army].

“They break up and clutter my path [upsetting my plans],
They profit from my destruction;
No one restrains them.

“As through a wide breach they come,
Amid the crash [of falling walls] they roll on [over me].

“Terrors are turned upon me;
They chase away my honor and reputation like the wind,
And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

“If I have despised and rejected the claim of my male or female servants
When they filed a complaint against me,

“If I have withheld from the poor what they desired,
Or have caused the eyes of the widow to look in vain [for relief],

Elihu’s anger burned against Job’s three friends because they had found no answer [and were unable to determine Job’s error], and yet they had condemned Job and declared him to be in the wrong [and responsible for his own afflictions].

“They (Job’s friends) are dismayed and embarrassed, they no longer answer;
The words have moved away and failed them,” [says Elihu].

“And shall I wait, because they say nothing,
But stand still and say no more?

“My words will express the uprightness of my heart,
And my lips will speak what they know with utter sincerity.

“Who is not partial to princes,
Nor does He regard the rich above the poor,
For they all are the work of His hands.

“In a moment they die, even at midnight
The people are shaken and pass away,
And the powerful are taken away without a [human] hand.

“Therefore He knows of their works,
And He overthrows them in the night,
So that they are crushed and destroyed.

Because they turned aside from following Him
And would not consider or show regard for any of His ways,

So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him,
And He heard the cry of the afflicted.

“Because of the multitudes of oppressions the people cry out;
They cry for help because of the [violent] arm of the mighty.

“He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous [those in right standing with Him];
But with kings upon the throne
He has seated them forever, and they are exalted.

“And if they are bound in bonds [of adversity],
And held by cords of affliction,

Then He declares to them [the true character of] their deeds
And their transgressions, that they have acted arrogantly [with presumption and notions of self-sufficiency].

“He opens their ears to instruction and discipline,
And commands that they return from evil.

“If they hear and serve Him,
They will end their days in prosperity
And their years in pleasantness and joy.

“But if they do not hear and obey, they will die by the sword [of God’s destructive judgments]
And they will die [in ignorance] without [true] knowledge.

“But the godless in heart store up anger [at the divine discipline];
They do not cry [to Him] for help when He binds them [with cords of affliction].

“They die in youth,
And their life ends among the cult prostitutes.

“Its direction is turned around by His guidance,
That it may do whatever He commands it
On the face of the inhabited earth.

“Can you send forth lightnings that they may go
And say to you, ‘Here we are’?