And life shall arise brighter than noonday; though thou be enshrouded in darkness, thou shalt be as the morning,

And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.

And you will lie down, and {no one will make you afraid}; {and many will entreat your favor}.

“But the eyes of the wicked will fail,
And they will not escape [the justice of God];
And their hope is to breathe their last [and die].”

In response Job replied:

“No doubt you are the [only wise] people [in the world],
And wisdom will die with you!

I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.

He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.

The tents of desolators are in peace, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand +God bringeth.

And yet, ask, I pray thee, One of the beasts, and it doth shew thee, And a fowl of the heavens, And it doth declare to thee.

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.

Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?

In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

Have not the ears pleasure in hearing, and the mouth in tasting the thing that it eateth?

With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.

“Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt;
He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

Lo, He keepeth in the waters, and they are dried up, And he sendeth them forth, And they overturn the land.

“With Him are might and sound wisdom,
The misled and the misleader are His [and in His power].

“He makes [great and scheming] counselors walk barefoot
And makes fools of judges.

The bands of kings He hath opened, And He bindeth a girdle on their loins.

He makes priests prisoners, overturning those in safe positions;

“He pours contempt on princes and nobles
And loosens the belt of the strong [disabling them].

He uncovers the hidden dimensions from darkness, bringing what is in deep shadow to light.

He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he spreadeth out the nations, and bringeth them in;

He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.

Lo! all this , hath mine own eye seen, - Mine ear hath heard and understood it:

The same things are in my mind as in yours; I am equal to you.

But I will speak to the Almighty, and will find pleasure in reasoning with God;

But you put a false face on things; all your attempts to put things right are of no value.

Would you testify unjustly on God’s behalf
or speak deceitfully for Him?

“Will you show partiality for Him [and be unjust to me so that you may gain favor with Him]?
Will you contend and plead for God?

Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?

He doth surely reprove you, if in secret ye accept faces.

Would God’s majesty not terrify you?
Would His dread not fall on you?

Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.

Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

Hear diligently my speech, And let my declaration be in your ears.

Behold now, I have set my cause in order; I know that I am righteous.

Is any one able to take up the argument against me? If so, I would keep quiet and give up my breath.

Grant me only two things as you deal with me; then I won't hide from you.

Then at the sound of your voice I will give answer; or let me put forward my cause for you to give me an answer.

Why dost Thou hide Thy face? And reckonest me for an enemy to Thee?

Will you be hard on a leaf in flight before the wind? will you make a dry stem go more quickly on its way?

“For You write bitter things against me [in Your indictment]
And make me inherit and suffer for the iniquities of my youth.

Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.

One who, as a rotten thing consumeth, as a garment that the moth eateth.

He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again.

And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

“Since his days are determined,
The number of his months is with You [in Your control],
And You have made his limits so he cannot pass [his allotted time].

Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

For there is hope of a tree; if it is cut down, it will come to life again, and its branches will not come to an end.

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

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

"But when a person dies and wastes away, when a person breathes his last, where will he be?

The floods when they be dried up, and the rivers when they be empty, are filled again through the flowing waters of the sea:

So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes not again: till the heavens come to an end, they will not be awake or come out of their sleep.

O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

When a man dies, will he come back to life?
If so, I would wait all the days of my struggle
until my relief comes.

At the sound of your voice I would give an answer, and you would have a desire for the work of your hands.

Then you'll certainly count every step I took, but you won't keep an inventory of my sin.

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

But, in very deed, a mountain falling, will lie prostrate, or, a rock moved out of its place:

The stones are crushed small by the force of the waters; the dust of the earth is washed away by their overflowing: and so you put an end to the hope of man.

“You prevail forever against him and overpower him, and he passes on;
You change his appearance and send him away [from the presence of the living].

“But his body [lamenting its decay] grieves in pain over it,
And his soul mourns over [the loss of] himself.”

Doth a wise man answer with vain knowledge? And fill with an east wind his belly?

To reason with a word not useful? And speeches -- no profit in them?

For thine own mouth would teach thine iniquity, and thou wouldst choose the tongue of the crafty.

Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

Hast thou listened in the secret council of +God? And hast thou absorbed wisdom for thyself?

What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

Both the gray-headed And the very aged are among us -- Greater than thy father in days.

“Are the consolations of God [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you,
[Or] were we too gentle toward you [in our first speech] to be effective?

“Why does your heart carry you away [allowing you to be controlled by emotion]?
And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt],

when you turn your rage against God and allow such words to escape from your mouth?

What is man that he is pure, And that he is righteous, one born of woman?

Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!

the land was given to them alone
when no foreigner passed among them.

'All days of the wicked he is paining himself, And few years have been laid up for the terrible one.

A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

He does not believe in a return from darkness, but he is awaited by the sword.

He is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him:

He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him:

He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:

Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

He shall not depart out of darkness, his young branch, shall the flame dry up, and he shall depart, by the breath of his own mouth!

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

Not in his day is it completed, And his bending branch is not green.

He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive.

In response, Job said:

Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.

“If I speak [to you miserable comforters], my pain is not relieved;
And if I refrain [from speaking], what [pain or anguish] leaves me?