And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?

Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

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

How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

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

How hast thou given counsel to one of no-wisdom? or, effective wisdom, abundantly made known?

Who did you speak these words to?
Whose breath came out of your mouth?

“The spirits of the dead tremble
Underneath the waters and their inhabitants.

“Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) is naked before God,
And Abaddon (the place of destruction) has no covering [from His eyes].

He locks the waters in his clouds, and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.

He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.

He hath described a boundary upon the face of the waters, Unto the confines of light and darkness.

The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.

Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

And Job continued the lifting up of His speech, and said,

As God lives, who has deprived me of justice,
and the Almighty who has made me bitter,

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

If my lips shall speak iniquity, and my tongue if it shall murmur deceit

Pollution to me -- if I justify you, Till I expire I turn not aside mine integrity from me.

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart reproacheth me not one of my days.

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

Will God hear his cry of distress when distress comes upon him?

Will he take delight in the Ruler of all, and make his prayer to God at all times?

I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

Lo, ye -- all of you -- have seen, And why is this -- ye are altogether vain?

This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.

If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep.

If he heap up as dust silver, And as clay prepare clothing,

He goes to rest full of wealth, but does so for the last time: on opening his eyes, he sees it there no longer.

Terrors overtake him like the water; a storm wind carries him off [in the] night.

The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.

For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.

Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.

Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.

He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.

The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.

As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.

That path no bird of prey knoweth, Neither hath the falcon's eye seen it:

Nor trodden it have the sons of pride, Not passed over it hath the fierce lion.

He makes deep ways, cut through the rock, and his eye sees everything of value.

He has searched the sources of the rivers and what was hidden he has brought into the light.

But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?

Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

“It cannot be obtained for pure gold,
Nor can silver be weighed as its price.

It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.

No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

“Abaddon (the place of destruction) and Death say,
‘We have [only] heard a report of it with our ears.’

“God understands the way [to wisdom]
And He knows its place [for wisdom is with God alone].

For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;

When God fixed the weight of the wind
and limited the water by measure,

When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

And Job continued the lifting up of his speech, and said,

Oh that I were as in the months of old, As in the days when God watched over me;

As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

While the Ruler of all was still with me, and my children were round me;

When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

“When I went out to the gate of the city,
When I took my seat [as a city father] in the square,

when the princes left of their talking, and laid their hand to their mouth;

The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

"When [the] ear heard and commended me, and [the] eye saw and testified in support of me

The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

I put on righteousness as my clothing, and was full of it; right decisions were to me a robe and a head-dress.

I was eyes to the blind, and feet to him who had no power of walking.

I was a father to the needy: And the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.

And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

"I used to say: "I will die in my home. I'm going to live as many days as there are grains of sand on the shore.

If I had spoken, they would have it none other ways, my words were so well taken among them.

If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

I set an example of the way to live, as a leader would; I lived like a king among his army; like one who comforts mourners."

But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?

They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.

They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food.

They are driven forth from the midst of men ; They cry after them as after a thief;

To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

Now I am mocked by their songs;
I have become an object of scorn to them.

“They hate me, they stand aloof from me,
And do not refrain from spitting in my face.

For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have cast off the bridle before me.

Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as [by] the wind, and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer.

Thou art turned to be cruel to me; With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.

Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm.

For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and into the house of assemblage for all living.

“However, does not one falling in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand?
Or in his disaster [will he not] therefore cry out for help?

Did not I weep in the time of trouble? Had not my soul compassion upon the poor?

My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches.