When the days of their feasting were over, Job would send [for them] and consecrate them, rising early in the morning and offering 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.” Job did this at all [such] times.

The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming around on the earth and from walking around on it.”

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.”

But he said to her, “You speak as one of the [spiritually] foolish women speaks [ignorant and oblivious to God’s will]. Shall we indeed accept [only] good from God and not [also] accept adversity and disaster?” In [spite of] all this Job did not sin with [words from] his lips.

“Why did I not die at birth,
Come forth from the womb and expire?

“Why did the knees receive me?
And why the breasts, that I would nurse?

“Did I ever say, ‘Give me something,’
Or, ‘Pay a bribe for me from your wealth,’

“As a cloud vanishes and is gone,
So he who goes down to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) does not come up.

‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb?
Would that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

“His wisdom is as high as the heights of heaven. What can you do?
It is deeper than Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead). What can you know?

“For he has oppressed and neglected the poor;
He has violently taken away houses which he did not build.

“There is nothing left of what he devoured;
Therefore his prosperity does not endure.

“For what pleasure does he have in his house and family after he is dead,
When the number of his months [of life] is cut off?

“Even today my complaint is contentious;
His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

“Drought and heat consume the snow waters;
So does Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) [consume] those who have sinned.

“The spirits of the dead tremble
Underneath the waters and their inhabitants.

“Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) is naked before God,
And Abaddon (the place of destruction) has no covering [from His eyes].

“I was a father to the needy;
I investigated the case I did not know [and assured justice].

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

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

“Did I not weep for one whose life was hard and filled with trouble?
Was not my heart grieved for the needy?

“Did not He who made me in the womb make my servant,
And did not the same One fashion us both in the womb?

Because I feared the great multitude,
And the contempt of families terrified me,
So that I kept silence and did not acknowledge my sin and did not go out of the door?

“He sings out to other men,
‘I have sinned and perverted that which was right,
And it was not proper for me!

“Behold now, Behemoth, which I created as well as you;
He eats grass like an ox.

“His strong scales are his pride,
Bound together as with a tight seal.

“[You said to me] ‘Who is this that darkens and obscures counsel [by words] without knowledge?’
Therefore [I now see] I have [rashly] uttered that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.