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.

I called upon Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised, and I was saved from my enemies.

Then the earth shook and quaked, and [the] foundations of [the] mountains trembled, and they staggered because he was angry.

He made darkness his hiding place; all about him his covering [was] a darkness of waters, {thick clouds}.

They confronted me on the day of disaster, but Yahweh was my support.

and I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt.

They cried out but there was no rescuer, [even] to Yahweh, but he did not answer them.

On you I was cast from [the] womb. From my mother's belly you [have been] my God.

I will wash my hands in innocence, and I will walk about your altar, O Yahweh,

O Yahweh, by your favor you caused my strong mountain to stand. You hid your face. I was bewildered.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vigor was changed into [the] dry heat of summer. Selah

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing [was] sackcloth. I weakened my soul with fasting, and my prayer {returned to me unanswered}.

I {behaved} as [though he were] a friend [or] as a brother to me. As one lamenting a mother, I was bowed down [in] mourning.

I was a youth, but I am [now] old; yet I have not seen [the] righteous forsaken or his children {begging for} bread.

Then he passed on and behold, he was not. And I sought him, but he could not be found.

I was mute [with] silence. I was silent [even] from [saying] good [things], and my pain was stirred up.

For not with their sword did they possess [the] land, and their arm did not give them victory. Rather [it was] your right hand and your arm and the light of your presence, because you delighted in them.

Though he congratulated his soul while he was living --and [people] will praise you when you do well for yourself--

These [things] you have done, and I have been silent; You imagined that I was just like you. I will rebuke you and present [an argument] before your eyes.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and from my sin cleanse me.

Behold, in iniquity I was born, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

The {buttery words} of his mouth were smooth, but [there was] battle in his heart. His words were smoother than oil, but they [were] drawn swords.

[The] righteous will rejoice when he sees [the] vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

I called to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

[the] earth shook; [the] heavens also dripped [rain] at the presence of God who [was] at Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

You caused abundant rain to fall, O God. When your inheritance was weary you revived it.

Reproach has broken my heart and I am sick. And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.

Upon you I have leaned {from birth}. [It was] you who {took} me from the womb of my mother. My praise [is] of you continually.

When I thought about [how] to understand this, it [was] troubling in my eyes

When my heart was embittered and I felt stabbed in my kidneys,

then I was brutish and ignorant. With you I was [like] the beasts.

From heaven you proclaimed judgment. [The] earth feared and was still

The sound of your thunder [was] in the whirlwind; lightnings lit [the] world; the earth shook and quaked.

Your way [was] through the sea, and your path through many waters. Yet your footprints were not discerned.

and not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation [that] did not make ready its heart, whose spirit was not faithful [to] God.

Therefore Yahweh heard and he was very angry, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and [his] anger also rose up against Israel,

They had not yet turned aside from their craving, [while] their food [was] still in their mouth,

And they remembered that God [was] their rock, and God Most High their redeemer.

For their heart was not steadfast with him, nor were they faithful to his covenant.

But he [was] compassionate; he pardoned [their] guilt and did not destroy [them]. And many [times] he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath,

God heard and he was very angry and rejected Israel utterly.

He also handed his people over to the sword, and he was very angry with his inheritance.

They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was none to bury [them].

Why should the nations say, "Where [is] their God?" Let it be known among the nations before our eyes, [by] the avenging of the blood of your servants that was poured out.

I will record those who know me [in] Rahab and Babylon, behold [in] Philistia and Tyre with Cush, "This one was born there."

But with respect to Zion it shall be said, "{Each one} was born in her," for the Most High himself will establish her.

Yahweh will record in writing [the] peoples, "This [one] was born there." Selah

Moses and Aaron [were] among his priests; Samuel also [was] among [those who] called on his name. They called to Yahweh, and he answered them.

He sent a man on ahead of them; Joseph was sold as a slave.

Then Israel came [to] Egypt, and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Ham.

Then he brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.

Egypt was glad when they departed, because the fear of them had fallen upon them.

Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and [so] the plague was stopped,

and it was reckoned to him as righteousness {throughout all generations}.

and they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and [so] the land was defiled with the blood.

he therefore humbled their heart with trouble. They stumbled and there was no helper.

Yahweh watches over [the] simple. I was brought low, but he gave me victory.

Before I was afflicted, I was going astray, but now I heed your word.

[It is] good for me that I was afflicted, so that I might learn your statutes.

"If [it had] not [been] Yahweh who was on our side," do let Israel say,

"If [it had] not [been] Yahweh who was on our side, when men rose up against us,

then they would have swallowed us alive, when their anger was kindled against us.

Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with rejoicing. Then they said among the nations, "Yahweh has done great [things] for these [people]."

My {frame} was not hidden from you, when I was created secretly, [and] intricately woven in [the] depths of [the] earth.

Your eyes saw my embryo, and in your book they all were written-- days fashioned [for me] when [there was] not one of them.

When I was a son to my father, tender and alone before my mother,

I was almost at utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation."

She took hold of him and kissed him. Her face was impudent, and she said to him,

From eternity, I was set up from [the] first, from the beginning of the earth.