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22Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: ²“Can a mortal be of use to God? Can even the wisest be of service to him? ³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless? ⁴Is it for your piety that he reproves you, and enters into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great? There is no end to your iniquities. ⁶For you have exacted pledges from your family for no reason, and stripped the naked of their clothing. ⁷You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. ⁸The powerful possess the land, and the favored live in it. ⁹You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the orphans you have crushed. ¹⁰Therefore snares are around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you, ¹¹or darkness so that you cannot see; a flood of water covers you. ¹²“Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are! ¹³Therefore you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness? ¹⁴Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the dome of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way that the wicked have trod? ¹⁶They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away by a flood. ¹⁷They said to God, ‘Leave us alone,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ ¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things— but the plans of the wicked are repugnant to me. ¹⁹The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent laugh them to scorn, ²⁰saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left, the fire has consumed.’

²¹“Agree with God, and be at peace; in this way good will come to you. ²²Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. ²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored, if you remove unrighteousness from your tents, ²⁴if you treat gold like dust, and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent-bed, ²⁵and if the Almighty is your gold and your precious silver, ²⁶then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God. ²⁷You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows. ²⁸You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways. ²⁹When others are humiliated, you say it is pride; for he saves the humble. ³⁰He will deliver even those who are guilty; they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”

23Then Job answered: ²“Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning. ³Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! ⁴I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. ⁵I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. ⁶Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. ⁷There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.

⁸“If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; ⁹on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. ¹⁰But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold. ¹¹My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside. ¹²I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth.

¹³But he stands alone and who can dissuade him? What he desires, that he does. ¹⁴For he will complete what he appoints for me; and many such things are in his mind. ¹⁵Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him. ¹⁶God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; ¹⁷If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!

24“Why are times not kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days? ²The wicked remove landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them. ³They drive away the donkey of the orphan; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. ⁴They thrust the needy off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves. ⁵Like wild asses in the desert they go out to their toil, scavenging in the wasteland food for their young. ⁶They reap in a field not their own and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked. ⁷They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. ⁸They are wet with the rain of the mountains, and cling to the rock for want of shelter. ⁹“There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast, and take as a pledge the infant of the poor. ¹⁰They go about naked, without clothing; though hungry, they carry the sheaves; ¹¹between their terraces they press out oil; they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst. ¹²From the city the dying groan, and the throat of the wounded cries for help; yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

¹³“There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths. ¹⁴The murderer rises at dusk to kill the poor and needy, and in the night is like a thief. ¹⁵The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me’; and he disguises his face. ¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light. ¹⁷For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

¹⁸“Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion in the land is cursed; no treader turns toward their vineyards. ¹⁹Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned. ²⁰The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered; so wickedness is broken like a tree. ²¹“They harm the childless woman, and do no good to the widow. ²²Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life. ²³He gives them security, and they are supported; his eyes are upon their ways. ²⁴They are exalted a little while, and then are gone; they wither and fade like the mallow; they are cut off like the heads of grain. ²⁵If it is not so, who will prove me a liar, and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

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.

30“But now they make sport of me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. ²What could I gain from the strength of their hands? All their vigor is gone. ³Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground, ⁴they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes, and to warm themselves the roots of broom. ⁵They are driven out from society; people shout after them as after a thief. ⁶In the gullies of wadis they must live, in holes in the ground, and in the rocks. ⁷Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together. ⁸A senseless, disreputable brood, they have been whipped out of the land. ⁹“And now they mock me in song; I am a byword to them. ¹⁰They abhor me, they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. ¹¹Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence. ¹²On my right hand the rabble rise up; they send me sprawling, and build roads for my ruin. ¹³They break up my path, they promote my calamity; no one restrains them. ¹⁴As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. ¹⁶“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. ¹⁷The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. ¹⁸With violence he seizes my garment; he grasps me by the collar of my tunic. ¹⁹He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. ²⁰I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me. ²¹You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. ²²You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. ²³I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. ²⁴“Surely one does not turn against the needy, when in disaster they cry for help. ²⁵Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? ²⁶But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came. ²⁷My inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still; days of affliction come to meet me. ²⁸I go about in sunless gloom; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. ²⁹I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches. ³⁰My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. ³¹My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

31“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin? ²What would be my portion from God above, and my heritage from the Almighty on high? ³Does not calamity befall the unrighteous, and disaster the workers of iniquity? ⁴Does he not see my ways, and number all my steps? ⁵“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit— ⁶let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!— ⁷if my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has followed my eyes, and if any spot has clung to my hands; ⁸then let me sow, and another eat; and let what grows for me be rooted out.

⁹“If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door; ¹⁰then let my wife grind for another, and let other men kneel over her. ¹¹For that would be a heinous crime; that would be a criminal offense; ¹²for that would be a fire consuming down to Abaddon, and it would burn to the root all my harvest. ¹³“If I have rejected the cause of my male or female slaves, when they brought a complaint against me; ¹⁴what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him? ¹⁵Did not he who made me in the womb make them? And did not one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶“If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, ¹⁷or have eaten my morsel alone, and the orphan has not eaten from it— ¹⁸for from my youth I reared the orphan like a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow— ¹⁹if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or a poor person without covering, ²⁰whose loins have not blessed me, and who was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; ²¹if I have raised my hand against the orphan, because I saw I had supporters at the gate; ²²then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket. ²³For I was in terror of calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty.

²⁴“If I have made gold my trust, or called fine gold my confidence; ²⁵if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, or because my hand had gotten much; ²⁶if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor, ²⁷and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand; ²⁸this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false to God above. ²⁹“If I have rejoiced at the ruin of those who hated me, or exulted when evil overtook them— ³⁰I have not let my mouth sin by asking for their lives with a curse— ³¹if those of my tent ever said, ‘O that we might be sated with his flesh!’ — ³²the stranger has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler—

³³if I have concealed my transgressions as others do, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom, ³⁴because I stood in great fear of the multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors— ³⁵Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! let the Almighty answer me!) Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary! ³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me like a crown; ³⁷I would give him an account of all my steps; like a prince I would approach him. ³⁸“If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept together; ³⁹if I have eaten its yield without payment, and caused the death of its owners; ⁴⁰let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.