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Job Is Corrected by God

5‘Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
² Surely vexation kills the fool,
   and jealousy slays the simple.
³ I have seen fools taking root,
   but suddenly I cursed their dwelling.
⁴ Their children are far from safety,
   they are crushed in the gate,
   and there is no one to deliver them.
⁵ The hungry eat their harvest,
   and they take it even out of the thorns;^*
   and the thirsty^* pant after their wealth.
⁶ For misery does not come from the earth,
   nor does trouble sprout from the ground;
⁷ but human beings are born to trouble
   just as sparks^* fly upward.

⁸ ‘As for me, I would seek God,
   and to God I would commit my cause.
⁹ He does great things and unsearchable,
   marvellous things without number.
¹⁰ He gives rain on the earth
   and sends waters on the fields;
¹¹ he sets on high those who are lowly,
   and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
¹² He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
   so that their hands achieve no success.
¹³ He takes the wise in their own craftiness;
   and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
¹⁴ They meet with darkness in the daytime,
   and grope at noonday as in the night.
¹⁵ But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,
   from the hand of the mighty.
¹⁶ So the poor have hope,
   and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷ ‘How happy is the one whom God reproves;
   therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.^*
18 For he wounds, but he binds up;
   he strikes, but his hands heal.
¹⁹ He will deliver you from six troubles;
   in seven no harm shall touch you.
²⁰ In famine he will redeem you from death,
   and in war from the power of the sword.
²¹ You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
   and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
²² At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
   and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.
²³ For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,
   and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.
²⁴ You shall know that your tent is safe,
   you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
²⁵ You shall know that your descendants will be many,
   and your offspring like the grass of the earth.
²⁶ You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
   as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing-floor in its season.
²⁷ See, we have searched this out; it is true.
   Hear, and know it for yourself.’

Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just

6Then Job answered:
² ‘O that my vexation were weighed,
   and all my calamity laid in the balances!
³ For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
   therefore my words have been rash.
⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty^* are in me;
   my spirit drinks their poison;
   the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
⁵ Does the wild ass bray over its grass,
   or the ox low over its fodder?
⁶ Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt,
   or is there any flavour in the juice of mallows?^*
7 My appetite refuses to touch them;
   they are like food that is loathsome to me.^*

⁸ ‘O that I might have my request,
   and that God would grant my desire;
⁹ that it would please God to crush me,
   that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
¹⁰ This would be my consolation;
   I would even exult^* in unrelenting pain;
   for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
¹¹ What is my strength, that I should wait?
   And what is my end, that I should be patient?
¹² Is my strength the strength of stones,
   or is my flesh bronze?
¹³ In truth I have no help in me,
   and any resource is driven from me.

¹⁴ ‘Those who withhold^* kindness from a friend
   forsake the fear of the Almighty.^*
15 My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed,
   like freshets that pass away,
¹⁶ that run dark with ice,
   turbid with melting snow.
¹⁷ In time of heat they disappear;
   when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
¹⁸ The caravans turn aside from their course;
   they go up into the waste, and perish.
¹⁹ The caravans of Tema look,
   the travellers of Sheba hope.
²⁰ They are disappointed because they were confident;
   they come there and are confounded.
²¹ Such you have now become to me;^*
   you see my calamity, and are afraid.
²² Have I said, “Make me a gift”?
   Or, “From your wealth offer a bribe for me”?
²³ Or, “Save me from an opponent’s hand”?
   Or, “Ransom me from the hand of oppressors”?

²⁴ ‘Teach me, and I will be silent;
   make me understand how I have gone wrong.
²⁵ How forceful are honest words!
   But your reproof, what does it reprove?
²⁶ Do you think that you can reprove words,
   as if the speech of the desperate were wind?
²⁷ You would even cast lots over the orphan,
   and bargain over your friend.

²⁸ ‘But now, be pleased to look at me;
   for I will not lie to your face.
²⁹ Turn, I pray, let no wrong be done.
   Turn now, my vindication is at stake.
³⁰ Is there any wrong on my tongue?
   Cannot my taste discern calamity?

Job: My Suffering Is without End

7‘Do not human beings have a hard service on earth,
   and are not their days like the days of a labourer?
² Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
   and like labourers who look for their wages,
³ so I am allotted months of emptiness,
   and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
⁴ When I lie down I say, “When shall I rise?”
   But the night is long,
   and I am full of tossing until dawn.
⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
   my skin hardens, then breaks out again.
⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
   and come to their end without hope.^*

⁷ ‘Remember that my life is a breath;
   my eye will never again see good.
⁸ The eye that beholds me will see me no more;
   while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.
⁹ As the cloud fades and vanishes,
   so those who go down to Sheol do not come up;
¹⁰ they return no more to their houses,
   nor do their places know them any more.

¹¹ ‘Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
   I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
   I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
¹² Am I the Sea, or the Dragon,
   that you set a guard over me?
¹³ When I say, “My bed will comfort me,
   my couch will ease my complaint”,
¹⁴ then you scare me with dreams
   and terrify me with visions,
¹⁵ so that I would choose strangling
   and death rather than this body.
¹⁶ I loathe my life; I would not live for ever.
   Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
¹⁷ What are human beings, that you make so much of them,
   that you set your mind on them,
¹⁸ visit them every morning,
   test them every moment?
¹⁹ Will you not look away from me for a while,
   let me alone until I swallow my spittle?
²⁰ If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?
   Why have you made me your target?
   Why have I become a burden to you?
²¹ Why do you not pardon my transgression
   and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
   you will seek me, but I shall not be.’