And Job's three friends had word of all this evil which had come on him. And they came every one from his place, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. So they came together to a meeting-place, in order that they might go and make clear to Job their grief for him, and give him comfort.

Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world.

Give now a cry for help; is there anyone who will give you an answer? and to which of the holy ones will you make your prayer?

Will a man take food which has no taste without salt? or is there any taste in the soft substance of purslain?

My friends have been false like a stream, like streams in the valleys which come to an end:

Which are dark because of the ice, and the snow falling into them;

Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,

Or to the things which go flat on the earth, and they will give you wisdom; and the fishes of the sea will give you news of it.

Though a man comes to nothing like a bit of dead wood, or like a robe which has become food for the worm.

If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past which he may not go;

Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value?

What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours?

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

(The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us;

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.

May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them?

For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back.

In his tent will be seen that which is not his, burning stone is dropped on his house.

I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom.

The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place has no more knowledge of him.

Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

There is no peace for him in his wealth, and no salvation for him in those things in which he took delight.

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?

Will you keep the old way by which evil men went?

For I am overcome by the dark, and by the black night which is covering my face.

How have you given help to him who has no power! how have you been the salvation of the arm which has no strength!

See, these are only the outskirts of his ways; and how small is that which comes to our ears about him! But the thunder of his acts of power is outside all knowledge.

If only I might again be as I was in the months which are past, in the days when God was watching over me!

For that would be a crime; it would be an act for which punishment would be measured out by the judges:

But truly it is the spirit in man, even the breath of the Ruler of all, which gives them knowledge.

My stomach is like wine which is unable to get out; like skins full of new wine, it is almost burst.

If now there may be an angel sent to him, one of the thousands which there are to be between him and God, and to make clear to man what is right for him;

There is no dark place, and no thick cloud, in which the workers of evil may take cover.

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

See that you give praise to his work, about which men make songs.

Give ear to the rolling noise of his voice; to the hollow sound which goes out of his mouth.

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

Which is the way to the resting-place of the light, and where is the store-house of the dark;

Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of war and fighting?

Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth?

Causing rain to come on a land where no man is living, on the waste land which has no people;

Everything which is high goes in fear of him; he is king over all the sons of pride.

And all his brothers and sisters, and his friends of earlier days, came and took food with him in his house; and made clear their grief for him, and gave him comfort for all the evil which the Lord had sent on him; and they all gave him a bit of money and a gold ring.