what wise men have told, and they have not hidden [that which is] from their ancestors,

"I have heard many [things] like these; all of you [are] {miserable comforters}.

"Surely now he has worn me out; you have devastated all my company.

They gaped at me with their mouth; they struck my cheeks with disgrace; they have massed themselves together against me.

His archers surround me; he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion; he pours out my gall on the ground.

"I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and I have inserted {my pride} in the dust.

Indeed, [after] {a few years} have come, then I will go [the] way [from which] I will not return.

Indeed, you have closed their mind from understanding; therefore, you will not let [them] triumph.

These ten times you have disgraced me; you are not ashamed [that] you have attacked me.

And what is more, [if] I have truly erred, my error remains with me.

His troops have come together and have thrown up their rampart against me and have encamped around my tent.

"He has removed my kinsfolk from me, and my acquaintances have only turned aside from me.

My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.

The sojourners in my house and my slave women count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

All {my intimate friends} abhor me, and these [whom] I have loved have turned against me.

My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

he will perish forever like his dung; [those who] have seen him will say, 'Where [is] he?'

"Indeed, you have required a pledge from your family for nothing, and you have stripped off [the] clothes of [the] naked.

You have given no water [for the] weary to drink, and you withheld food from [the] hungry.

You have sent widows away empty-handed, and [the] arms of orphans were crushed.

Will you keep [to the] way of old that [the] people of mischief have trod,

My foot has held on to his steps; I have kept his way, and I have not turned aside.

[From] the commandment of his lips, indeed I have not departed; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily food.

Indeed, I have not been silenced {because of darkness}, and because of me he conceals thick darkness.

They spend the night naked, {without} clothing, and [they] have no garment in the cold.

Drought and heat snatch away [the] snow waters, [like] Sheol [snatches away] those [who have] sinned.

[He] feeds on [the] barren, [who] does not have a child, and does no good to [the] widow.

"How you have helped {one who has no power}! [How] you have assisted [the] arm {that has no strength}!

How you have advised {one who has no wisdom}! And [what] sound wisdom you have made known {in abundance}!

{With whose help} have you uttered words, and whose breath has come forth from you?

Look, you all have seen, and {why in the world} {have you become altogether vain}?

If their children multiply, [it is] for [the] sword, and his offspring {do not have enough to eat}.

{Proud wild animals} have not trodden it; [the] lion in its prime has not prowled over it.

"But now I am their mocking song, and I have become a byword for them.

because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me, and they have thrown off restraint {in my presence}.

They destroy my path; they promote my destruction; they have no helper.

"And now my life is poured out onto me; days of misery have taken hold of me.

He has cast me into the dirt, and I have become like dust and ashes.

You have turned cruel to me; you persecute me with your hand's might.

Have I not wept for {the unfortunate}, [and] grieved myself over the poor?

"If I have walked with falseness, and my foot has hastened to deceit,

If my steps have turned aside from the way, and my heart has walked after my eyes, and my hand has clung to a spot,

"If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and at my neighbor's doorway I have lain in wait,

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

"If I have withheld [the] desire of [the] poor from [them], or I have caused [the] widow's eyes to fail,

or I have eaten my morsel {alone}, and [the] orphan has not eaten from it

if I have seen [the one who] perishes because of no clothing or [that] there is no covering for the poor,

if his loins have not blessed me, or by means of my sheep's fleece he has warmed himself,

if I have raised my hand against an orphan because I saw my supporters at the gate,

"If I have made gold my trust, or I have called fine gold my security,

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

this also [is] an iniquity [to be] judged, for I have deceived God above.

"If I have rejoiced at [the] ruin of [the one who] hated me or have exulted when evil overtook him--

no, I have not allowed my mouth to sin, to ask his life with a curse.

{Have the people of my tent not said}, '{O that} someone had not been satisfied with his meat'?

An alien has not lodged in the street; I have opened my door to the traveler.

{Have I concealed} my transgressions as [other] human beings to hide my iniquity in my bosom

If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept together,

if I have eaten its yield without payment, or I have caused [the] breath of its owners to die,

So do not say, 'We have found wisdom; let God refute him, not a man.'

"They are dismayed; they no longer answer; {they have nothing to say}.

And I have waited because they do not speak, because they stand [there] [and] no longer answer.

"Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard [the] sound of [your] words:

{so that} he is gracious [to] him, and he says, 'Deliver him from descending into [the] pit; I have found a ransom.'

"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.

If {you have anything to say}, {answer me}; speak, for I desire {to justify you}.

"Therefore, listen to me, {people who have sense}: far be it from God {that he should commit wickedness} and that Shaddai {should do wrong}.

"But if [you have] understanding, hear this; listen to {what I say}.

because they have turned aside from him and have not understood any of his ways,

"Indeed, does anyone say to God, 'I have endured [chastisement]; I will not act corruptly [again];

teach me yourself {what I cannot see}; if I have done wrong, I will not repeat [it]'?

{Those who have sense} say to me, and [the] wise man hearing me [says]:

If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And [if] your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

"Bear with me a little longer, and {I will explain}, for {I still have something to say on God's behalf}.

Take care, you must not turn to mischief, for because of this you have been tried by misery.

Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who says, 'You have done wrong'?

Remember that you should extol his work, [of] which people have sung.

All human beings have looked on it; everyone watches from afar.

"Have you {ever in your life} commanded [the] morning? Have you made the dawn know its place,

"Have you entered into [the] sea's sources? Or have you walked around in [the] recesses of the deep?

Have [the] gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen [the] gates of deep shadow?

Have you considered closely [the] earth's vast expanse? Declare [it], if you know all of it.

Have you entered into [the] storehouses of [the] snow, or have you seen [the] storehouses of [the] hail,

which I have reserved for [the] time of trouble, for [the] day of battle and war?

[to] which I have given [the] wilderness [as] its house and [the] salt flat [as] its dwelling place?

Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; even twice, but I will not proceed."

Or do you have an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

"Look, Behemoth, which I have made just as [I made] you; it eats grass like the ox.

{And then} after Yahweh spoke these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "{My wrath has been kindled} against you and against [the] two of your friends, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job [has].

{So then}, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will pray for you, for {I will certainly accept his prayer}, so that it will not be done with you [according to your] folly, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job [has]."

"But as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy mountain."

I will tell the decree; Yahweh said to me: "You are my son; today I have begotten you.

I am not afraid of the ten thousands of people who all around have set themselves against me.

You have put gladness in my heart more than {when} their grain and their wine abound.

Treat them as guilty, O God; let them fall because of their plans. Because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

O Yahweh, my God, in you I have taken refuge. Save me from all [who] pursue me, and deliver me.

O Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,

if I have repaid {my ally} [with] harm, or [if] I have plundered my enemy without cause,

Rise up, O Yahweh, in your anger, and lift yourself up against the wrath of my oppressors, and awake for me, since you have commanded judgment.

From the mouth of children and infants you have founded strength on account of your enemies, to silence [the] enemy and [the] avenger.