4 Your words have supported those who were stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.
12 “Now a word came stealing to me, my ear received the whisper of it.
13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals,
14 dread came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh bristled.
16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:
17 ‘Can mortals be righteous before God? Can a human beings be pure before their Maker?
18 Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth.
20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish for ever without any regarding it.
21 Their tent-cord is plucked up within them, and they not die devoid of wisdom.’
Job 5
5 “Call now; is there any one 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 the fool 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 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 would I commit my cause;
9 who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous 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 her mouth.
17 “How happy is the man whom God reproves; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
18 For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, 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 also 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 6
6 Then 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 his fodder?
6 Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the jiuce 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 travelers 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 orphans, 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 7
7 “Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a laborer?
2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers 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 arise?’ But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the 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 yours eyes are on 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 house, 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 bitter
ness of my soul.
12 Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that thou 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 forever. 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.”
Job 8
8 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
4 If your children sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgression.
5 If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty,
6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place.
7 Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.
8 “For inquire no of bygone generations, and consider what their ancestors have found;
9 for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?
11 “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12 While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.
14 Their confidence is gossamer, a spider’s house their trust.
15 If one leans against its house, it will not stand; in one lays hold of it, it will not endure.
16 The wicked thrive before the sun, and their shoots spread over the garden.
17 Their roots twine around the stoneheap; they live among the rocks.
18 If they are destroyed from their place, then it will deny them, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
19 See, these are their happy ways; and out of the earth others will spring.
20 “See, God will not reject a blameless person, nor take the hand of evildoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
Job 9
9 Then Job answered:
2 “Indeed I know that this is so: But how can a mortal be just before God?
3 If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength—who has resisted him, and succeeded? —
5 he who removes mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger;
6 who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;
7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;
8 who alone stretched out the heavens, and trampled the waves of the Sea;
9 who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10 who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number.
11 Lo, he passes by me, and I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12 He snatches away; who can stop him? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13 “God will not turn back his anger; the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.
14 How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he would listen to my voice.
17 For he crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18 he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20 Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21 I am blameless; I do not know myself; I loathe my life.
22 It is all one; therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23 When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges—if it is not he, who then is it?
25 “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good.
26 They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad countenance, and be of good cheer,’
28 I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you wilt not hold me innocent.
29 I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I wash myself with soap and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 yet you wilt plunge me into dilth, and my own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
33 There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both.
34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.
35 then I would speak without fear of him, for I know I am not what I am thought to be.
Job 10
10 “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as humans see?
5 Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years like human years,
6 that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin,
7 although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand?
8 Your hands fashioned and made me; and now you turn and destroy me.
9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay; and will you turn me to dust again?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You hast granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose.
14 If I sin, you watch me, and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me! If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction.
16 Bold as a lion you hunt me; you repeat your exploits against me.
17 You renew your witnesses against me, and increase yours vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me.
18 “Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me,
19 and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.
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