The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause."

Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

"Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,

Who long for death, but it doesn't come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in?

"If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees.

According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.

How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth.

"Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

who does great things that can't be fathomed, marvelous things without number;

who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;

so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.

"Behold, blessed is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of Shaddai.

"To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of Shaddai.

Do you intend to reprove words, seeing that the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.

As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.

So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish,

Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more."

God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?

Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, 'What are you doing?'

If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty. If of justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?'

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?

But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?

I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.

In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of the LORD has done this,

He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.

Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.

"Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

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

"Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water.

to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.

"Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?

He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.

where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?

You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn't know God."

Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight.

All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. "My heart is consumed within me.

yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?'

In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

"Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing he judges those who are high?

Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

"Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

who said to God, 'Depart from us;' and, 'What can Shaddai do for us?'

saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed the remnant of them.'

He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."

But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does.

"Why aren't times made known by Shaddai? Why do not those who know him see his days?

There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,

"These are of those who rebel against the light. They do not know its ways, nor abide in its paths.

Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.

He devours the barren who do not bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.

Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.

If it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?"

Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?

How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

How much less man, who is a worm, the son of man, who is a worm."

"How have you helped him who is without power. How have you saved the arm that has no strength.

How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge.

To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came forth from you?

"Those who are deceased tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him. But the thunder of his power who can understand?"

"As God lives, who has taken away my right, Shaddai, who has made my soul bitter.

"Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows shall make no lamentation.

Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had none to help him,

the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I did not know, I searched out.

I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

"But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

Did I not weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?

Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

Did not he who made me in the womb make him? Did not the same one fashion us in the womb?

this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above.

"If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him;

if the men of my tent have not said, 'Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?'

It is not the great who are wise, nor the aged who understand justice.

Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who convinced Job, or who answered his words, among you.

"Hear my words, you wise men. Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.

What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,