Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him, to destroy him without just cause.”

Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.

His wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”

“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.

Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.

He said:

May the day I was born perish,
and the night when they said,
“A boy is conceived.”

Both small and great are there,
and the slave is set free from his master.

Have I ever said: “Give me something”
or “Pay a bribe for me from your wealth”

Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?

If I summoned Him and He answered me,
I do not believe He would pay attention to what I said.

If I said, “I will forget my complaint,
change my expression, and smile,”

You have said, “My teaching is sound,
and I am pure in Your sight.”

But the sight of the wicked will fail.
Their way of escape will be cut off,
and their only hope is their last breath.

Since man’s days are determined
and the number of his months depends on You,
and since You have set limits he cannot pass,

If God puts no trust in His holy ones
and the heavens are not pure in His sight,

I was at ease, but He shattered me;
He seized me by the scruff of the neck
and smashed me to pieces.
He set me up as His target;

Why are we regarded as cattle,
as stupid in your sight?

Terrors frighten him on every side
and harass him at every step.

He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.
He uproots my hope like a tree.

My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.

Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth
and he conceals it under his tongue,

The dirt on his grave is sweet to him.
Everyone follows behind him,
and those who go before him are without number.

They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!”
and “What can the Almighty do to us?”

The wicked are those who rebel against the light.
They do not recognize its ways
or stay on its paths.

If even the moon does not shine
and the stars are not pure in His sight,

The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon
or a booth set up by a watchman.

He said to mankind,
“The fear of the Lord is this: wisdom.
And to turn from evil is understanding.”

When I went out to the city gate
and took my seat in the town square,

Haven’t the members of my household said,
“Who is there who has not had enough to eat at Job’s table?”

If there is an angel on his side,
one mediator out of a thousand,
to tell a person what is right for him

For he has said, “A man gains nothing
when he becomes God’s friend.”

Be patient with me a little longer, and I will inform you,
for there is still more to be said on God’s behalf.

The wild animals enter their lairs
and stay in their dens.

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:

Who set the wild donkey free?
Who released the swift donkey from its harness?

A quiver rattles at his side,
along with a flashing spear and a lance.

Any hope of capturing him proves false.
Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?

You said, “Listen now, and I will speak.
When I question you, you will inform Me.”

After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has.