for light and have none;
May it not see the glimmerings of the dawn—
10Because it did not block my mother’s womb,
And hide trouble from my eyes.
11Why did I not die at birth,
Expire as I came forth from the womb?
12Why were there knees to receive me,
Or breasts for me to suck?
13For now would I be lying in repose, asleep and at rest,
14With the world’s kings and counselors who rebuild ruins for
themselves,
15Or with nobles who possess gold and who fill their houses
with silver.
16Or why was I not like a buried stillbirth,
Like babies who never saw the light?
17There the wicked cease from troubling;
There rest those whose strength is spent.
18Prisoners are wholly at ease;
They do not hear the taskmaster’s voice.
19Small and great alike are there,
And the slave is free of his master.
20Why does He give light to the sufferer
And life to the bitter in spirit;
21To those who wait for death but it does not come,
Who search for it more than for treasure,
22Who rejoice to exultation,
And are glad to reach the grave;
23To the man who has lost his way,
Whom God has hedged about?
24My groaning serves as my bread;
My roaring pours forth as water.
25For what I feared has overtaken me;
What I dreaded has come upon me.
26I had no repose, no quiet, no rest,
And trouble came.
4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite said in reply:
2If one ventures a word with you, will it be too much?
But who can hold back his words?
3See, you have encouraged many;
You have strengthened failing hands.
4Your words have kept him who stumbled from falling;
You have braced knees that gave way.
5But now that it overtakes you, it is too much;
It reaches you, and you are unnerved.
6Is not your piety your confidence,
Your integrity your hope?
7Think now, what innocent man ever perished?
Where have the upright been destroyed?
8As I have seen, those who plow evil
And sow mischief reap them.
9They perish by a blast from God,
Are gone at the breath of His nostrils.
10The lion may roar, the cub may howl,
But the teeth of the king of beasts a-are broken.-a
11The lion perishes for lack of prey,
And its whelps are scattered.
12A word came to me in stealth;
My ear caught a whisper of it.
13In thought-filled visions of the night,
When deep sleep falls on men,
14Fear and trembling came upon me,
Causing all my bones to quake with fright.
15A wind passed by me,
Making the hair of my flesh bristle.
16It halted; its appearance was strange to me;
A form loomed before my eyes;
I heard a murmur, a voice,
17“Can mortals be acquitted by God?
Can man be cleared by his Maker?
18If He cannot trust His own servants,
And casts reproacha on His angels,
19How much less those who dwell in houses of clay,
Whose origin is dust,
Who are crushed like the moth,
20Shattered between daybreak and evening,
Perishing forever, unnoticed.
21Their cord is pulled up
And they die, and not with wisdom.”
5
Call now! Will anyone answer you?
To whom among the holy beings will you turn?
2Vexation kills the fool;
Passion slays the simpleton.
3I myself saw a fool who had struck roots;
Impulsively, I cursed his home:
4May his children be far from success;
May they be oppressed in the gate with none to deliver them;
5May the hungry devour his harvest,
a-Carrying it off in baskets;
May the thirsty swallow their wealth.-a
6Evil does not grow out of the soil,
Nor does mischief spring from the ground;
7For man is born to [do] mischief,
Just as sparks fly upward.
8But I would resort to God;
I would lay my case before God,
9Who performs great deeds which cannot be fathomed,
Wondrous things without number;
10Who gives rain to the earth,
And sends water over the fields;
11Who raises the lowly up high,
So that the dejected are secure in victory;
12Who thwarts the designs of the crafty,
So that their hands cannot gain success;
13Who traps the clever in their own wiles;
The plans of the crafty go awry.
14By day they encounter darkness,
At noon they grope as in the night.
15But He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,
From the clutches of the strong.
16So there is hope for the wretched;
The mouth of wrongdoing is stopped.
17See how happy is the man whom God reproves;
Do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.
18He injures, but He binds up;
He wounds, but His hands heal.
19He will deliver you from six troubles;
In seven no harm will reach you:
20In famine He will redeem you from death,
In war, from the sword.
21You will be sheltered from the scourging tongue;
You will have no fear when violence comes.
22You will laugh at violence and starvation,
And have no fear of wild beasts.
23For you will have a pact with the rocks in the field,
And the beasts of the field will be your allies.
24You will know that all is well in your tent;
When you visit your wifeb you will never fail.
25You will see that your offspring are many,
Your descendants like the grass of the earth.
26You will come to the grave a-in ripe old age,-a
As shocks of grain are taken away in their season.
27See, we have inquired into this and it is so;
Hear it and accept it.
6 Then Job said in reply:
2If my anguish were weighed,
My full calamity laid on the scales,
3It would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
That is why I spoke recklessly.a
4For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;
My spirit absorbs their poison;
God’s terrors are arrayed against me.
5Does a wild ass bray when he has grass?
Does a bull bellow over his fodder?
6Can what is tasteless be eaten without salt?
Does a-mallow juice-a have any flavor?
7I refuse to touch them;
They are like food when I am sick.
8Would that my request were granted,
That God gave me what I wished for;
9Would that God consented to crush me,
Loosed His hand and cut me off.
10Then this would be my consolation,
a-As I writhed in unsparing-a pains:
That I did not b-suppress my words against the Holy One.-b
11What strength have I, that I should endure?
How long have I to live, that I should be patient?
12Is my strength the strength of rock?
Is my flesh bronze?
13Truly, I cannot help myself;
I have been deprived of resourcefulness.
14a-A friend owes loyalty to one who fails,
Though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty;-a
15My comrades are fickle, like a wadi,
Like a bed on which streams once ran.
16a-They are dark with ice;
Snow obscures them;-a
17But when they thaw, they vanish;
In the heat, they disappear where they are.
18Their course twists and turns;
They run into the desert and perish.
19Caravans from Tema look to them;
Processions from Sheba count on them.
20They are disappointed in their hopes;
When they reach the place, they stand aghast.
21So you are as nothing:c
At the sight of misfortune, you take fright.
22Did I say to you, “I need your gift;
Pay a bribe for me out of your wealth;
23Deliver me from the clutches of my enemy;
Redeem me from violent men”?
24Teach me; I shall be silent;
Tell me where I am wrong.
25a-How trenchant honest words are;-a
But what sort of reproof comes from you?
26Do you devise words of reproof,
But count a hopeless man’s words as wind?
27You would even cast lots over an orphan,
Or barter away your friend.
28Now be so good as to face me;
I will not lie to your face.
29Relent! Let there not be injustice;
Relent! I am still in the right.
30Is injustice on my tongue?
Can my palate not discern evil?
7
Truly man has a term of service on earth;
His days are like those of a hireling—
2Like a slave who longs for [evening’s] shadows,
Like a hireling who waits for his wage.
3So have I been allotted months of futility;
Nights of misery have been apportioned to me.
4When I lie down, I think,
“When shall I rise?”
Night a-drags on,-a
And I am sated with tossings till morning twilight.
5My flesh is covered with maggots and clods of earth;
My skin is broken and festering.
6My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle,
And come to their end b-without hope.-b
7Consider that my life is but wind;
I shall never see happiness again.
8The eye that gazes on me will not see me;
Your eye will seek me, but I shall be gone.
9As a cloud fades away,
So whoever goes down to Sheol does not come up;
10He returns no more to his home;
His place does not know him.
11On my part, I will not speak with restraint;
I will give voice to the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12Am I the sea or the Dragon,c
That You have set a watch over me?
13When I think, “My bed will comfort me,
My couch will share my sorrow,”
14You frighten me with dreams,
And terrify me with visions,
15Till I prefer strangulation,
Death, to my wasted frame.
16I am sick of it.
I shall not live forever;
Let me be, for my days are a breath.
17What is man, that You make much of him,
That You fix Your attention upon him?
18You inspect him every morning,
Examine him every minute.
19Will You not look away from me for a while,
Let me be, till I swallow my spittle?
20If I have sinned, what have I done to You,
Watcher of men?
Why make of me Your target,
And a burden to myself?
21Why do You not pardon my transgression
And forgive my iniquity?
For soon I shall lie down in the dust;
When You seek me, I shall be gone.
8 Bildad the Shuhite said in reply:
2How long will you speak such things?
Your utterances are a mighty wind!
3Will God pervert the right?
Will the Almighty pervert justice?
4If your sons sinned against Him,
He dispatched them for their transgression.
5But if you seek God
And supplicate the Almighty,
6If you are blameless and upright,
He will protect you,
And grant well-being to your righteous home.
7Though your beginning be small,
In the end you will grow very great.
8Ask the generation past,
Study what their fathers have searched out
9—For we are of yesterday and know nothing;
Our days on earth are a shadow—
10Surely they will teach you and tell you,
Speaking out of their understanding.
11Can papyrus thrive without marsh?
Can rushes grow without water?
12While still tender, not yet plucked,
They would wither before any other grass.
13Such is the fate of all who forget God;
The hope of the impious man comes to naught—
14Whose confidence is a a-thread of gossamer,-a
Whose trust is