While this messenger was still speaking, another came and announced, "A lightning storm struck and incinerated the flock and the servants while they were eating. I alone escaped to tell you!"

when a strong wind came straight out of the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people, and they died. I alone escaped to tell you!"

When Job's three friends heard all these tragedies that happened to him, they each traveled from their home towns to visit him. Eliphaz came from Teman, Bildad came from Shuah, and Zophar came from Naamath. They met together and went to console and comfort him.

Observing him from a distance, at first they didn't even recognize him, so they raised their voices and burst into tears. They each ripped their robes, threw ashes into the air on their heads,

and sat with Job on the ground for a full week without saying a word, since they could see the great extent of his anguish.

In that place, those who once were prisoners will be at ease together; they won't hear the voice of oppressors.

To those who are happy beyond measure when they reach their graves?

Now please think: Who has ever perished when they're innocent? Where have the upright been destroyed?

They perish by the breath of God; they are consumed by the storm that is his anger.

Full grown lions die when they cannot find prey; that's when the lion cubs are scattered.

They are defeated between morning and evening; they perish forever and no one notices!

Their wealth perishes with them, doesn't it? They die, and do so without having wisdom, don't they?"

His children are far from deliverance; they'll be maltreated before they leave home, with no one to rescue them.

He frustrates the plans of the crafty; so that what they work for never succeeds.

They meet with darkness in broad daylight; at noonday they grope around as if it were night.

There is no help within me, is there? My resources have been driven away from me, haven't they?

Filled with waters made cold by ice, they are where the snow goes to hide.

But then the snow melts, and they disappear; when warmed, they evaporate from their stream beds.

Travelers divert in their route; they go into a wasteland and die.

For all their expectations, they are doomed to disappointment; even though they have come and searched this far.

"Men have harsh servitude on earth, do they not? His days are like those of a hired laborer, are they not?

My days pass as swiftly as a hand-loom; they come to their conclusion without hope.

Won't they instruct you, and tell you, and bring out words from the heart?

While they are still green and not yet ready to be harvested, they wither before any plant.

"My days pass faster than a runner; but they pass quickly without seeing anything good.

They pass by like a ship made of reeds, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

My days are so few, aren't they? So leave me alone, then, so I can smile a little

These things are higher than the heavens, so what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol, so what can you know?

They are longer than the earth's circumference, and broader than the ocean.

"Ask the wild animals, and they'll teach you; the birds of the sky will tell you.

Or ask the green plants of the earth and they'll teach you; let the fish in the sea tell you.

When he withholds water, rivers dry up; when he lets them loose, they'll flood the land.

They grope in the dark without light; he causes them to stagger around like a drunkard."

Who can oppose me? If they do, I'll be silent and die.

so also a person lies down and does not get up; they won't awaken until the heavens are no more, nor will they arise from their sleep."

"If his children are honored, he doesn't know it; if they become insignificant, he never perceives it.

"We have both the gray-haired and the aged with us, and they are far older than your father.

Distress and pressure terrify him; they overwhelm him, like a king poised for attack.

For they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity; their womb is pregnant with deception."

People gaped at me with mouths wide open; they slap me in their scorn and gather together against me.

They have transformed night into day "The light,' they say, "is about to become dark.'

"He is petrified by terror that surrounds him on all sides; they chase at his heels.

His troops march in a column against me, erecting their siege ramps against me; they surround my tent."

Those who live in my house and my maidservants, too! treat me like a stranger; they think I'm a foreigner.

Even little children hate me; when I get up, they mock me.

If only my words were written down; if only they were inscribed in a book

using an iron stylus with lead for ink! Then they'd be engraved in rock forever.

Though his bones were full of youthful vigor; yet they will lie down with him in the dust.

Their children grow up while they're alive, and they live to see their grandchildren.

They release their children to play like sheep; their young ones dance about,

singing with tambourines and lyres as they rejoice to the sound of flutes.

They grow old in prosperity, as they descend peacefully into the afterlife.

"They say to God, "Turn away from us! We have no desire to know your ways.

May they become like a straw, blown away before the wind; like a chaff that's swept off by a storm.

God stores up their iniquity to repay their children; making them repay so that they may be aware.

Their own eyes will see their destruction; and they'll drink the wrath of the Almighty.

What will they care for their household after them, when the number of his months comes to an end?"

They both lie down in the dust; and worms cover them."

"Isn't God in heaven above? Consider how far away the stars are, and how lofty they are!

They told God, "Get away from us!' and "What will the Almighty do to them?'

"For when they're humbled, you may respond; "It's their pride!' but he delivers the humble.

They move boundary stones, steal flocks, and pasture them.

They drive away the orphan's donkey; they take the ox of the widow as security for a loan;

They push the needy off the road, and force the poor of the land into hiding.

"Look! Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, they work diligently as they seek wild game in the desert, food for them and their young ones.

They reap fodder in the field and glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

They spend the night naked, without clothing, with no covering against the cold.

They are wet from mountain rains; without shelter, they cling to a rock.

They wander around naked, without clothes; hungry, though they carry sheaves of grain.

They press oil between the olive groves owned by the wicked; they suffer from thirst, even while treading the winepress.

"Then there are those who rebel against the light; they are not acquainted with its ways; and they don't stay on its course.

They break into houses in the dark; during the day they remained sealed in. They don't know daylight.

"They remain only a short time on the water's surface; their inheritance will be cursed in the land; no one will work in their vineyards.

The womb will forget them. Maggots will find them to be a delicacy! They won't be remembered anymore, their iniquity will be cut to pieces like firewood.

"They prey on the barren woman, and do no favors for widows.

God prolongs the life of the strong by his power, but they get up in the morning without purpose in life.

He gives them security and financial support, but he watches everything they do.

They're exalted momentarily, but then they are gone; they are humbled, just like all the others. They are cut down like heads of corn.

Mankind limits the darkness as they search the deepest depths for ore in unfathomable darkness.

He sinks his shaft far from human habitations, in a place forgotten by explorers; they hang on harnesses as they swing back and forth.

God understands how to get there; he knows where they live.

"When people heard me speak, they blessed me; when people saw me, they approved me,

"They listened and waited for me, as they remained in silence for my counsel.

After I spoke, they had nothing to say, when what I said hit them.

They waited for me as one waits for rain, as one opens his mouth to drink in a spring rain shower.

I smiled at them when they had no confidence, and no one could discourage me.

"But now they mock me; men who are far younger than I, whose fathers I would have hated to entrust with my own sheep dogs.

Unproductive due to poverty and hunger, they could only scratch in parched soil, devastated and desolated.

"They would pluck off herbs from salt marshes to eat; and roots of the broom shrub for food.

Driven away from human company, they were shouted at as though they were thieves.

They lived in the most dangerous of ravines, in holes in the ground, and among rocks.

They bray like donkeys among the bushes and huddle together under the desert weeds.

Sons of fools and of uncertain reputation, they have been driven from the land by scourging."

They abhor me they keep their distance from me; but they don't refrain from spitting at the sight of me.

But God has loosened his cord and afflicted me; so they've cast off all restraints in my presence.

"A wretched crowd ambushes me to my right; they trip my feet; they build up their path of calamity for me.

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

They come like those who breach through a wall; as everything crashes around me they'll roll on and on!

"Surely he won't stretch his hand against the needy, will he, especially if they cry to him in their calamity?

"If I've refused to help my male and female servants when they complain against me,