There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.

It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,

that there came a messenger to Job, and said, "The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,

While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,

"Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?

"Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances.

They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.

If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn't answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

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

He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul's place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

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

"Oh that my words were now written. Oh that they were inscribed in a book.

That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever.

The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

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

As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

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

when Shaddai was yet with me, and my children were around me,

when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.

Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he.

His flesh is so consumed away, that it can't be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.

I wish that Job were tried to the end, because of his answering like wicked men.

Shall it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.

Whereupon were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,

Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great.

She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,

In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.