[There] was a man in the land of Uz whose name [was] Job. That man was blameless and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil.

Then his livestock came to be seven thousand sheep and goats and three thousand camels and five hundred pairs of oxen and five hundred female donkeys, and he had very many slaves, and that man was greater than all the people of the east.

And then [there] was one day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their firstborn brother's house.

While this one was still speaking, {another} came and said, "The fire of God fell from the heavens, and it blazed up against the sheep and goats and against the servants, and it consumed them. But I escaped, [even] I alone, to tell you."

While this one was still speaking, {another} came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three divisions, and they made a raid on the camels, and they carried them away, and they struck your servants {by the edge of the sword}, but I escaped, [even] I alone, to tell you."

At the time this one was speaking, {another} came and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their firstborn brother's house.

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

"Let [the] day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man-child is conceived.'

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

It stood still, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form [was] {before} my eyes; [there was] a hush, and I heard a voice:

Though your beginning was small, your end will be very great.

If I wash myself with soap, and I cleanse my hands with lye,

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

Water wears away stones; its torrents wash away [the] soil of [the] earth; so you destroy the hope of human beings.

{to whom alone} the land was given, and no stranger passed through their midst.

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

"I was at ease, then he broke me in two, and he seized [me] by my neck; then he shattered me and set me up as a target for him.

who were snatched away {before their time}, whose foundation was washed away [by] a current?

when his shining lamp [was] over my head-- by his light I walked through darkness--

as when I was in the days of my prime, when God's confiding [was] over my {house},

when Shaddai[was] still with me, my children [were] all around me,

because I saved [the] needy who cried for help, and [I saved] [the] orphan for whom [there was] no helper.

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice [was] like a robe and a headband.

"I was eyes to the blind, and I [was] feet to the lame.

I [was] a father to the poor, and I investigated {the stranger's} legal dispute.

My glory [was] new with me, and {I was revitalized regularly}.'

"If I have rejected my male or female slave's case when their complaint [was] against me,

Indeed, the disaster from God [was] a dread for me, and {I was powerless} because of his majesty.

if I have rejoiced because my wealth [was] great or because my hand found a fortune,

and {I was secretly enticed}, and {my hand threw them a kiss},

Then these three men ceased from answering Job because he [was] righteous in his [own] eyes.

When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, {he became angry}.

Look, before God {I am like you}; I myself was also formed from clay.

"He will sing to men, and he will say, 'I have sinned and have perverted [what is] right, and it was not paid back to me.

And what's more, he allured you {out of distress} [into] a broad place, [where] in place of it [was] no constraint; and [what] was set on your table is full of fatness.