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25Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: ²“Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven. ³Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? ⁴How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? ⁵If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his sight, ⁶how much less a mortal, who is a maggot, and a human being, who is a worm!”

26Then Job answered: ²“How you have helped one who has no power! How you have assisted the arm that has no strength! ³How you have counseled one who has no wisdom, and given much good advice! ⁴With whose help have you uttered words, and whose spirit has come forth from you?

⁵The shades below tremble, the waters and their inhabitants. ⁶Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering. ⁷He stretches out Zaphon over the void, and hangs the earth upon nothing. ⁸He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not torn open by them. ⁹He covers the face of the full moon, and spreads over it his cloud. ¹⁰He has described a circle on the face of the waters, at the boundary between light and darkness. ¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astounded at his rebuke. ¹²By his power he stilled the Sea; by his understanding he struck down Rahab. ¹³By his wind the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. ¹⁴These are indeed but the outskirts of his ways; and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

27Job again took up his discourse and said: ²“As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, ³as long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, ⁴my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. ⁵Far be it from me to say that you are right; until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. ⁶I hold fast my righteousness, and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

⁷“May my enemy be like the wicked, and may my opponent be like the unrighteous. ⁸For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts them off, when God takes away their lives? ⁹Will God hear their cry when trouble comes upon them? ¹⁰Will they take delight in the Almighty? Will they call upon God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of God; that which is with the Almighty I will not conceal. ¹²All of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain? ¹³“This is the portion of the wicked with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty: ¹⁴If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and their offspring have not enough to eat. ¹⁵Those who survive them the pestilence buries, and their widows make no lamentation. ¹⁶Though they heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay— ¹⁷they may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. ¹⁸They build their houses like nests, like booths made by sentinels of the vineyard. ¹⁹They go to bed with wealth, but will do so no more; they open their eyes, and it is gone. ²⁰Terrors overtake them like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries them off. ²¹The east wind lifts them up and they are gone; it sweeps them out of their place. ²²It hurls at them without pity; they flee from its power in headlong flight. ²³It claps its hands at them, and hisses at them from its place.

28“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold to be refined. ²Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from ore. ³Miners put an end to darkness, and search out to the farthest bound the ore in gloom and deep darkness. ⁴They open shafts in a valley away from human habitation; they are forgotten by travelers, they sway suspended, remote from people. ⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread; but underneath it is turned up as by fire. ⁶Its stones are the place of sapphires, and its dust contains gold. ⁷“That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. ⁸The proud wild animals have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it. ⁹“They put their hand to the flinty rock, and overturn mountains by the roots. ¹⁰They cut out channels in the rocks, and their eyes see every precious thing. ¹¹The sources of the rivers they probe; hidden things they bring to light. ¹²“But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? ¹³Mortals do not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ ¹⁵It cannot be gotten for gold, and silver cannot be weighed out as its price. ¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. ¹⁷Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. ¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls. ¹⁹The chrysolite of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰“Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? ²¹It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air. ²²Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ ²³“God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. ²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees everything under the heavens. ²⁵When he gave to the wind its weight, and apportioned out the waters by measure; ²⁶when he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the thunderbolt; ²⁷then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. ²⁸And he said to humankind, ‘Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’”

29Job again took up his discourse and said: ²“Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me; ³when his lamp shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness; ⁴when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent; ⁵when the Almighty was still with me, when my children were around me; ⁶when my steps were washed with milk, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷When I went out to the gate of the city, when I took my seat in the square, ⁸the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose up and stood; ⁹the nobles refrained from talking, and laid their hands on their mouths; ¹⁰the voices of princes were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths. ¹¹When the ear heard, it commended me, and when the eye saw, it approved; ¹²because I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper. ¹³The blessing of the wretched came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. ¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. ¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. ¹⁶I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. ¹⁷I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth.

¹⁸Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix; ¹⁹my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches; ²⁰my glory was fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.’ ²¹“They listened to me, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel. ²²After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them like dew. ²³They waited for me as for the rain; they opened their mouths as for the spring rain. ²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence; and the light of my countenance they did not extinguish. ²⁵I chose their way, and sat as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.