There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one that feared God, and turned away from evil.

His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

And it was so, when the days of their feasting were finished, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered 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. Thus did Job continually.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

And the men of Sheba came against them and took them away, putting the young men to the sword, and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God has fallen from heaven, and has burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone am escaped to tell you.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone am escaped to tell you.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

When a great wind came rushing from the waste land against the four sides of the house, and it came down on the young men, and they are dead; and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news.

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape himself with while he was sitting among the ashes.

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

And lifting up their eyes when they were still far off, it did not seem that the man they saw was Job because of the change in him. And they gave way to bitter weeping, with signs of grief, and put dust on their heads.

So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

After this, Job began to speak and cursed the day he was born.

and said, "Let the day perish, wherein I was born,

Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a male child conceived.

“Let darkness and gloom claim it for their own;
Let a cloud settle upon it;
Let all that blackens the day terrify it (the day that I was born).

Because it closed not the doors of the womb wherein I was, and so hid trouble from mine eyes.

Why was I not stillborn;
why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

Why was there a lap to hold me, and why were there breasts to nurse me?

Or [why] was I not hidden like a miscarriage, like infants [who] did not see [the] light?

To a man whose way was hid, and God will hedge about him?

For the thing which I greatly feared has come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has come unto me.

I was not at ease, neither had I quiet, neither was I at rest; yet trouble came.

Your words have upheld him that was falling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees.

Remember, I pray thee, who that was innocent has perished? and where were the upright cut off?

Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.

And a breath was moving over my face; the hair of my flesh became stiff:

It stood still, but I could not discern its form: an image was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

I have seen myself, when the foolish was deep rooted, that his beauty was suddenly destroyed,

that his harvest was eaten up of the hungry; that the weaponed man had spoiled it, and that the thirsty had drunk up his riches.

Capturing the wise in their subtilty, And the counsel of wrestling ones was hastened,

In the daytime it becomes dark for them, and in the sunlight they go feeling about as if it was night.

For with the stones of the field they covenant, and the beast of the field was at peace with thee.

They were put to shame because of their hope; they came and their hope was gone.

So was I caused to possess to me months of vanity, and nights of toil were allotted to me.

If I lay down, and I said, When shall I arise, and the evening be measured? And I was filled with tossings even to the twilight

And my flesh was clothed with worms, and a clod of dust; my akin was contracted and melted away.

And why wilt thou not lift up my transgression and pass over mine iniquity? for now I shall lie down to the dust; and thou soughtest me and I was not

Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end should greatly increase.

It was moist before the sun, and its sprout will come forth upon his garden.

This was Job's response:

If a man was desiring to go to law with him, he would not be able to give him an answer to one out of a thousand questions.

Wise of heart and strong of power: who was hard before him and shall be requited?

Whom, if I was just, I shall not answer; I will make supplication to my judge.

“If I called and He answered me,
I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.

Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner.

The earth was given into the hand of the unjust one: he will cover the faces of her judges; if not now, who is it?

I was afraid of all my pains, I knew that thou wilt not acquit me.

If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean;

My soul was weary in my life; I shall leave upon me my complaint; I shall speak in the bitterness of my soul

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

Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like cheese?

By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined together with bones and muscles.

" 'Yet you hid these [things] in your heart; I know that this {was your purpose}.

If I did evil, wo to me; and was I just, I shall not lift up my head, being filled with dishonor: and see thou mine affliction;

And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:

If they had carried me to my grave as soon as I was born, then should I be now, as though I had never been.

And thou wilt say, My instruction is pure, and I was clean in thine eyes.

Why is your face veiled from me, as if I was numbered among your haters?

yet when the stock getteth the scent of water, it will bud, and bring forth bows, like as when it was first planted.

The waters wear the stones: you wash away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and you destroy the hope of man.

Are you the first man that was born? or were you made before the hills?

Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you?

what was declared by wise men
and was not suppressed by their ancestors,

Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.

He will not believe to turn back from darkness, and he was waited for by the sword.

He wandered about for bread, where he knew that the day of darkness was ready at his hand.

Because he stretched out his hand against God, and he was arrogant to Shaddai;

And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls.

Before his day it shall be completed, and his branch was not green.

Was there an end to words of wind? or what will provoke thee that thou wilt answer?

I was at ease, but he has broken me asunder: he has also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

Though no violence was in my hands, and, my prayer, was pure.

He has made me also a byword of the people; and I was as one before whom men spit.

The light was darkened in his tent, and his lamp shall be extinguished for him.

For he was cast into a net by his feet, and he will go about upon latticework.

He is pulled out of his tent where he was safe, and he is taken away to the king of fears.

"Although I cried out "Violence!' I received no answer; I cried for help, but there was no justice.

They sojourning in my house and my maids, mill reckon me for a stranger: I was a foreigner in their eyes.

Mine own wife may not abide my breath, I was fain to speak fair for the children of mine own body.

Yea the children despised me, and when I was gone from them, they spake evil upon me.

For ye shall say, Why shall we pursue after him and the root of the word was found in me?

Know you not this of old, since man was placed upon the earth,

People who had seen him will not see him again, and the place where he was will recognize him no longer.

When wickedness was sweet in his mouth, he hid it under his tongue.

His bread in his bowels was turned, the gall of asps in his midst

There was nothing left that he didn't devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

Though he had plenteousness of everything, yet was he poor, and therefore he is but a wretch on every side.

A flood will wash away his house; dragging it away when God becomes angry.

Their seed was established before their face with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

Behold, their good not in the hand: the counsel of the unjust was far from me.

For you have taken your brother's goods when he was not in your debt, and have taken away the clothing of those who have need of it.

For it was the man with power who had the land, and the man with an honoured name who was living in it.

You sent widows away empty-handed,
and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

Who were cut down before their time, whose foundation was swept away with a flood:

But it was He who filled their houses with good things.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

And the Almighty was thy gold and silver of labors to thee.