Then Job answered and said,

How long will you grieve my soul
And crush me with your words?

These ten times you have reproached me;
You are not ashamed to deal wrongly with me.

And be it that I have erred,
My error remains with me.

If you indeed magnify yourselves against me
And use my reproach in argument against me,

Know then that God has  ¹subverted my cause
And compassed me about with His net.

Indeed, I cry out, Violence! and I am not answered;
I call for help, and there is no justice.

He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass;
And He has put darkness upon my paths.

He has stripped my  ¹glory from me
And taken away the  ¹crown on my head.

He has broken me all around, and I am gone;
And my  ¹hope is plucked up like a tree.

He has also kindled His  ¹anger against me,
And in Himself He considers me as His adversary.

His troops come together
And cast up their highway against me
And encamp all around my tent.

He has removed my brothers far from me,
And those who know me are wholly estranged from me.

My relatives have failed me,
And my acquaintances have forgotten me.

Those who sojourn in my house and my maids consider me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their eyes.

To my servant I call out, but he does not answer;
I entreat him with my mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife;
And  ¹my supplications, to the children of my mother's womb.

Even little children despise me:
I arise and they speak against me.

All the men whom I take counsel with abhor me,
And those whom I love have turned against me.

My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh,
And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Pity me, pity me, O my friends;
For the hand of God has touched me.

Why do you persecute me as God does
And are not satisfied with eating my flesh?

Oh, that my words were now written!
Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

That with an iron pen and with lead
They were engraved in rock forever!

But I know that my  ¹Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will stand upon the earth;

And after this body of mine is destroyed,
Outside my flesh I will look on God,

Whom I, even I, will look on for myself,
And my eyes will see; I, and no other.
My inward parts that long for God are consumed within me.

If you say, How will we persecute him?
For the root of the matter is found in him;

Be fearful of the sword,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
That you may know that there is a judgment.

Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

Because of this, my disquieting thoughts answer me;
And hence my haste is in me.

I hear the reproof that humiliates me,
And the spirit of my understanding answers me.

Do you not know this from of old,
Since man was set upon the earth,

That the joyous shouting of the wicked is short,
And the rejoicing of the profane is but for a moment?

Though his arrogance goes up to heaven,
And his head touches the clouds;

Like his own dung he perishes forever;
Those who have seen him say, Where is he?

Like a dream he flies away and is not found;
Indeed he is chased away like a vision of the night.

The eye looks on him then sees him no more,
Nor does his place observe him anymore.

His children seek the favor of the poor,
And his hands return his wealth.

His bones are full of youthful vigor,
Yet  ¹it lies down with him in the dust.

Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth,
Though he hides it under his tongue,

Though he favors it and will not forsake it,
But holds it in his mouth;

His food in his bowels is changed;
It is the venom of asps within him.

He swallows down riches and vomits them up;
God casts them forth from his stomach.

He sucks the poison of asps;
The tongue of the viper slays him.

He will not look on the rivers,
The streams flowing with honey and butter.

He will return what he toiled for and will not swallow it down;
And he will not rejoice according to the wealth of his trading.

For he has oppressed and abandoned the poor;
He has violently seized a house that he did not build.

Because he knew no respite in his craving,
Of that which he desired he will save nothing.

There will be nothing left of what he has devoured;
Thus his prosperity will not endure.

In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be distressed;
The hand of everyone in trouble will come against him.

In order to fill his belly,
 ¹God will send the burning fierceness of His wrath on him
And will rain it upon him as his food.

He will flee from the iron weapon,
But the bronze bow will strike him through.

He draws the arrow out, and it comes out of his body;
Indeed the glittering point goes forth from his gall.
Terrors come upon him.

Total darkness is laid up as his treasures;
A fire not fanned by man will devour him;
It will feed on what is left in his tent.

The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
And the earth will rise up against him.

The increase of his house will depart
As things swept away in the day of His wrath.

This is the wicked man's portion from God
And the inheritance decreed to him by God.

Then Job answered and said,

Listen carefully to my word,
And let this be your consolations.

Bear with me, and I will speak;
And after I have spoken, mock on.

As for me, is my complaint to man?
And why should my spirit not be impatient?

Look at me and be appalled;
And put your hand over your mouth.

Even when I remember, I am troubled,
And horror takes hold of my flesh.

Why do the wicked live,
Grow old, even become mighty in riches?

Their seed is established with them in their sight,
And their offspring, before their eyes.

Their houses are free from dread,
And the rod of God is not upon them.

 ¹Their bull breeds and does not fail;
 ¹Their cow calves and does not miscarry.

They send forth their little ones like a herd,
And their children dance.

They lift up their voices to the tambourine and lyre,
And they rejoice at the sound of the flute.

They spend their days in prosperity,
And in a moment they go down into Sheol.

And they say unto God, Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit is there, that we should pray to Him?

Indeed, their prosperity is not in their own hand.
The counsel of the wicked is far from  ¹Him.

How often is the lamp of the wicked put out,
So that their calamity comes upon them,
So that  ¹God distributes sorrows in His anger?

Do they become like straw before the wind
And like chaff that the storm carries off?

You say, God stores up the punishment of his iniquity for his children.
I say, Let Him recompense him, so that he knows it.

Let his eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink the wrath of the Almighty.

For what is there for him to delight in, in his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off?

Will someone teach knowledge to God,
Seeing that He judges those who are on high?

One dies in his full strength,
Being completely at ease and quiet;

His pails are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moist.

But another dies in bitterness of soul
And does not taste of good.

They lie down alike in the dust,
And the worm covers them.

Indeed, I know your thoughts,
And the devices by which you would wrong me.

For you say, Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?

Have you not asked those who travel the roads?
And do you not regard their evidence,

That the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity,
That they are led forth at the day of overflowing wrath?

Who will declare his way to his face?
And who will repay him what he has done?

When he is borne to the grave,
A watch is kept over the tomb.

The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
And all men go in procession after him,
And those who went before him are without number.

Why then do you comfort me with vanity?
For your responses leave only falsehood behind.