3 “Perish the day on which I was to be born,

and the night that said ‘A man is conceived’!

4 Be that day darkness;

let God not concern himself with it from above

and no brightness beam into it.

5 Let darkness and gloom claim it,

let clouds settle over it,

let eclipses overwhelm it.

6* That night let blackness take;

let it not form part of the days of the year

nor come into the count of the months.

7 O be that night bleak and bare,

let no jubilation come into it;

8 Let day-cursers lay a curse on it,

those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

9 Let its twilight-stars be dark,

let it hope for light and there be none,

and let it not descry the eyelashes of the dawn,

10* Because it did not shut the doors of the body I was in

and shut off torment from my eyes.

11* Why was I not to die in birth,

come out of my mother’s body and perish?

12 How came it that knees welcomed me,

and breasts for me to suck?

13 For now I should be lying down quiet,

asleep and so at rest,

14 With kings and statesmen of earth

who built for themselves sites that lie waste

15 Or with generals who owned gold,

who filled their houses with silver,

16 Or like an abortion tucked underground I should not exist,

like infants that had never seen light.

17 There wicked men forbear to rage,

and there exhausted men rest,

18 Prisoners are at ease together,

hear no overseer’s voice.

19 Small and great are there,

and a slave is free from his owner.

20 Why give light to a tormented man,

and life to men of aching hearts,

21 Who wait for death and it is not there,

and hunt more industriously for it than for buried treasure,

22 Who are gleefully glad at it,

overjoyed when they find a grave?

23 To a man whose road is curtained off

and God has fenced him in?

24* For my moans come in before my bread

and my roars pour out like water.

25* For when I dread a thing it arrives,

and what I have quailed at the thought of comes true for me.

26 I have had no comfort, no quiet time,

no rest, and a spasm comes.”

2 “Shall we try a word to you? you will be impatient,

but who can keep in words?

3 Here you have been schooling many

and nerving slack hands;

4 Your words set a stumbling man on his feet

and you braced failing knees;

5 Now that it comes to you you are impatient;

it touches you and you are disconcerted.

6 Is not your piety your reliance

and your conscientious life your hope?

7 Remember: what innocent man has perished,

where were upright men annihilated?

8* As I see it, those who plow villainy

and sow trouble reap it;

9 They perish by God’s breath,

are made an end of by the air from his nostrils.

10 The lion’s roar, the voice of the king of beasts,

and the two-year-old lion’s teeth, are broken,

11 The great lion perishes for lack of prey,

and the lioness’s cubs lose touch with each other.

12* “And a word once stole upon me,

my ear took in a whisper of it,

13 In thoughts brought by night visions

when trances fall on men.

14* A terror beset me, and a quaking,

and terrified every bone in me,

15 And a breeze ran over my face,

made the hair on my flesh prickle up:

16** It stood there, but I could not make out what it looked like;

There was a form before my eyes,

I heard a hushed voice:

17 ‘Is a human being to be more in the right than God,

a man to be cleaner than his Maker?

18* Why, he does not trust his own servants

and charges his angels with frailties;

19 How much more those who inhabit houses of clay!

such as have their foundations on the earth

and are beaten down before a moth,

20 Between morning and evening they are shattered,

are lost for all time without anyone’s noticing it.

21 A fiber pulls out within them

and they die unaccountably.’

5 “Call: is there one that will answer you?

and to which of the Holy Ones will you turn?

2 For vexation kills an ignorant man

and jealousy brings a simpleton to death.

3 I have seen an ignoramus take root,

but suddenly the ground he stood on was lost.

4 His sons are far from succor,

are overborne in the gate and there is no deliverer;

5* What they have harvested a hungry man eats,

and thirsty men gulp their abundance.

6 For misfortune does not come out of the earth

nor trouble sprout from the soil;

7** For man breeds trouble,

and sparks fly high.

8 But I would apply to Deity

and state my problem to God,

9 Who does things great and inscrutable,

wonderful things in uncountable number,

10 Him who gives rain over earth

and sends water over all outdoors,

11 While he sets lowly men on high

and men that wore black mount to triumph;

12 Who frustrates shrewd men’s plans,

and their hands do nothing that makes sense;

13 Who catches wise men in their own shrewdness,

and crafty men’s policy goes rash.

14 In the daytime they meet with darkness

and they grope as if in the night at noon,

15* And he saves from their swords an orphan

and from a strong man’s hands a needy man,

16 And the poor man comes to have hope

and foul play shuts its mouth.

17 Happy the man whom God corrects;

do not reject Shaddai’s discipline;

18 For he hurts and he bandages,

He mangles and his hands heal.

19 In six distresses he will deliver you

and in seven no harm shall touch you;

20 In famine he will have paid your ransom from death

and in war from the power of the sword;

21* When a tongue scourges, you shall be hidden,

and you shall not be afraid of havoc when it comes.

22 At havoc and at starvation you shall laugh,

and of the wild beasts you shall not be afraid,

23 Because you have your pact with the stones of the field

and the wild beasts have made peace with you.

24 You shall know that all is well in your tent

and shall inspect your pastures and miss nothing,

25 And shall know that your issue is plentiful

and your offspring like the herbage of the earth;

26 You shall come to your grave in rugged vigor

as a stack of grain goes up at its due time.

27 We have examined into this; it is so;

listen to it and know it for yourself.”

2 “If only my vexation were to be weighed

and they were to take up my catastrophe altogether on the scales,

3* Because it would then outweigh the sand of the sea!

that is why my words were so rash.

4 For I have Shaddai’s arrows in me,

their poison drinking out my spirit;

God’s overwhelmings are in the field against me.

5 Will a wild ass bray over greensward

or a cow moo over its mess of barley?

6* Is flour paste to be eaten without salt,

or is there flavor in marshmallow?

7* My appetite refuses to touch,

loathes my food like the discharges of my disease.

8 If only what I ask would come,

and God would give what I am hoping for,

9 And God would be pleased to fell me,

would turn his hand loose and finish me off!

10* And it would yet be my comfort,

and I should break away in the pang that he does not spare,

because I have never hushed up the say of the Holy One.

11 What is my strength, that I should wait?

and what is my end, that I should be patient?

12 Or is my strength the strength of stones?

or is my flesh bronze?

13 —Or do I have in me no help for myself

and are sensible ideas knocked out of me?

14* One who fails to get friendship from his friend

will leave off the fear of Shaddai.

15 My brothers have played false like an arroyo,

like a bed of arroyo-streams that run off,

16 That are black with winter weather,

on which snow goes out of sight;

17* At the scorching time they are wiped out;

in the heat they disappear from their place;

18 The line of their course twists about,

they go up into nothingness and are lost.

19 The wayfarers from Teman were looking,

the caravans from Sheba were hoping for them;

20** They were disappointed because they had relied on them;

they came to them and were discomfited.

21* You have now been the same to me;

you see a horror and are afraid.

22 Was I saying ‘Give me’

or ‘Pay a tip for me out of your means

23 And get me off out of a foeman’s hands

and ransom me out of the hands of ruffians’?

24 Instruct me and I will be silent;

make it clear to me what missteps I have made.

25* How telling are frank utterances!

but what does correction from you correct?

26 Do you think of correcting talk?

but a despairing man’s say amounts to wind.

27* Will you even fall upon a man of conscientious life

and charge down upon your friend?

28 Now please face me;

I will not lie to your faces.

29* Come back; let us have no foul play;

come back, I still have my honesty in it.

30 Is there foul play on my tongue?

or does my palate not discriminate catastrophes?

7 “Does not a man have a term of duty on earth,

and is not his time like a hired hand’s?

2 Like a slave panting for a shadow

and a hired hand looking forward to his pay,

3 So I have been assigned moons of futility

and nights of trouble are counted off for me.

4 When I lie down I think ‘When can I get up?’

evening stretches on, and I have all I can hold of tossing till daybreak.

5* My flesh is clothed in maggots and clods;

my skin sets and liquefies.

6 My days go faster than a shuttle

and come to an end with no sort of hope.

7* Remember, God, that my life is a breath of wind;

my eye will never get back to seeing good;

8 The eye of him who is seeing me will not behold me,

while your eyes are on me I am gone.

9 A cloud clears up and goes off;

just so one who goes down to the world below will never come up.

10 He will never come back to his house

and his place will not greet him again.

11 I on my part will not check my mouth,

will speak in the distress of my spirit,

will protest in the ache of my heart.

12 Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,

that you set a watch over me?

13 When I think ‘my bed will comfort me,

my couch will help carry my grievance,’

14 You dismay me with dreams

and overwhelm me with visions,

15* And my soul chooses strangling,

rather death than my woes.

16 I will not take it; I shall not live forever;

let me be, because my days are a puff of air.

17 What is man that you should make much of him

and fix your attention on him

18 And inspect him every morning,

test him every moment?

19 How long will you never glance away from me,

not let up long enough for me to swallow my spittle?

20 I sinned; what am I doing

to you, Keeper of man?

Why do you set me as a thing in your way

and have me as a load to carry,

21 And not pardon my crime

and set my guilt aside?

For right off I shall be lying in the clay,

and you will go in quest of me and I shall not be there.”

2 “Till when will you keep up this talk

and shall the words of your mouth be a big wind?

3 Will Deity play tricks with justice

or Shaddai with right?

4* If your sons sinned against him

he let them bear the consequences of their crime;

5 If you will direct your quest toward Deity

and beseech Shaddai,

6* If you are pure and right-minded

he will rouse for you now

and revive your righteous standing,

7 And your past will have been little

and your future will be right ample.

8 For ask a past generation

and observe their fathers’ researches,

9** Because we are yesterday’s growth; we do not know;

for our days on earth are a shadow.

10 Will not they instruct you, tell you,

and bring out words from their hearts?

11 Will papyrus stalks make a jungle in anything but a morass?

will reeds thrive without water?

12 Still unripe, unplucked,

before any grass they dry out.

13* Such are the paths of all who forget Deity,

and the hope of an irreligious man comes to nothing,

14 One whose reliance is a gossamer

and the object of his confidence is a spider’s tent.

15 He leans on his house and does not stand,

takes hold of it and does not get on his feet.

16* He is lush before the sun

and his runners run out over his garden,

17** His roots are matted about a stone-heap,

he takes hold of a structure of rocks.

18 If He annihilates him from his place

it will disavow him, ‘I never saw you.’

19* That is the triumphant climax of his career,

and another sprouts up from the ground.

20* Deity does not repudiate a conscientious man

nor lend a hand to evil-doers.

21* He will yet fill your mouth with laughter

and your lips with hurrahs.

22 Those who hate you will be wrapped in shame,

and wrong-doers’ tent will be nowhere.”

2 “Certainly, I know it is so,

and how is a human being to be in the right with Deity?

3 If he chooses to argue a case with him

he will not answer him one point out of a thousand.

4 Wise in heart and mighty in strength,

who has defied him and remained safe and sound?

5 Him who displaces mountains before they know it,

as he has overthrown them in his anger;

6 Him who shakes earth loose from its place

and its pillars quiver;

7 Him who says a thing to the sun and it does not break out,

and seals off stars;

8 Sole spreader of sky,

treader on heights of sea,

9 Maker of Aldebaran, Orion,

and the Pleiades and the chambers of the south,

10 Doer of great things inscrutable

and wonders innumerable.

11 Here he comes by me and I do not see him,

goes past and I do not perceive him—

12* Here he comes down on me, who will turn him back?

who will say to him ‘What are you doing?’

13 God will not turn back his anger;

Rahab’s helpers sank under him,

14 Not to speak of such a thing as that I should answer him,

choose my words with him,

15 I who if I were in the right would not answer,

would beg as a favor for what was my right.

16 If I called and he answered me

I would not believe that he would give ear to my voice,

17 He who deals me hurts in a tempest

and multiplies my sores for nothing,

18 Does not let me get back my breath

but gives me all the bitter mouthfuls I can hold.

19* As for stark strength, there it is!

but as for judgment, who will set me a date?

20* If I am in the right my own mouth will put me in the wrong;

I am virtuous and he has made a crook of me.

21* I am virtuous—I do not think of my person—

I want nothing of my life—

22 It is all one; therefore I say,

he makes a clean sweep of virtuous man and rogue.

23 If a scourge brings sudden death

he makes fun of innocent men’s despair.

24** A country is given into a rogue’s hands;

he covers its judges’ faces.

If not then, who is it that does?

25 And my days are swifter than a runner,

have gone off without seeing anything good,

26* Have passed like reed boats,

like a vulture shooting toward food

27* If I say I will forget my grievance,

will quit my dismalness and brighten up,

28 I quail at all my woes,

I know I shall not be acquitted.

29 I am the one to be found guilty—

what should I take useless trouble for?

30 If I take a snow bath

and clean my hands with alkali,

31 Then he will dip me in a mudhole

and my garments will abominate me.

32 For he is not a man like me whom I should answer,

we should go into court together;

33 There is no adjudicator between us

who will lay his hands on us both.

34 Let him take his cudgel away from over me

and his terror not overwhelm me;

35 I will speak and not be afraid of him,

because I am not like that to my knowledge.

10 My soul loathes being alive;

I will quit grieving to myself,

I will speak in the ache of my heart.

2 I will say to God ‘Do not declare me guilty,

let me know what you are prosecuting me for.

3 Does it do you good to deny justice,

to repudiate what your hands have toiled on

and beam upon the policy of wrong-doers?

4 Do you have a mortal’s eyes

or see as mankind sees,

5 Are your days like a human being’s days

or your years like a man’s days,

6 That you hunt up my guilt

and make a search for my sin,

7* Notwithstanding your knowledge that I shall not prove to be doing wrong

and there is nobody to deliver out of your hands?

8 Your hands molded me and made me;

afterward you swing round and wipe me out.

9 Remember that you made me in clay

and are putting me back in the loam.

10 Did you not pour me like milk

and curdle me like cheese,

11 Clothe me with skin and flesh

and frame me with bones and sinews,

12* Make life in me, befriend me,

and your thoughtfulness guarded my spirit—

13 And you had these things hidden in your heart;

I know you have had this in mind.

14 If I sinned you would watch me

and not acquit me of my guilt;

15* If I did wrong, woe to me;

or right, I should not lift up my head,

Eating my fill of indignities

and drinking my fill of misery,

16* Or if I bridled up you would hunt me like a lion

and come back to your mysterious dealings with me,

17* Confront me with new witnesses

and multiply your grievances against me,

mobilize fresh divisions against me.

18 And why did you bring me out of a womb?

I should have perished and no eye have seen me,

19 Been as if I had not existed,

been taken from mother’s body to grave.

20 Is not my lifetime small? leave off,

glance away from me and let me brighten up a little

21 Before I go, never to return,

to a land of darkness and gloom,

22 A land of sable dusk,

gloom and disorder,

that beams sable rays.’”

2* “Is quantity of talk to go unanswered,

or a loose-tongued man to pass for having right on his side?

3 Are your fine words to silence men,

and are you to scoff uncriticized

4 And say ‘My doctrine is flawless

and I was irreproachable under your eyes’?

5 But I would that God would speak

and open his lips to debate with you,

6 And tell you the secrets of wisdom,

because he is double in sense!

Know that God is overlooking part of your guilt!

7 Will you explore God

or exhaustively investigate Shaddai?

8* Higher than the sky—what will you do?

deeper than the realm of death—what will you know?

9 Its measure is longer than the earth

and wider than the sky.

10 If he goes past and locks a door

and convenes a court, who will turn him back?

11 For he knows paltry men

and sees villainy without paying attention.

12* But an empty-headed man gets brains

when a wild ass’s colt is born human.

13 If you condition your heart

and spread out your hands to him,

14 If there is villainy in your hands put it far away,

and let foul play not lodge in your tents,

15 Why, then you will lift your face out of discredit

and be in hard straits and not be afraid,

16 Because you will forget trouble,

will remember it like water that has run past,

17 Life will stand up to surpass noontime,

dusk will be like daybreak,

18 And you will rest assured, because there is hope,

will look about at everything and go to bed in security

19 And lie with no one to alarm you,

and many will seek your favor.

20 But wrong-doers’ eyes will wear out with watching,

they will not have any place left to run to,

and their hope will be exhaustion of heart.”

2 “You are indeed a people

with whom wisdom will die!

3* I have brains like you,

am not inferior to you,

and who does not have things like these on hand?

4 ‘A butt for his neighbor’s laughter’ am I,

‘one who called on God and he answered him,

an honest conscientious man is a butt.’

5* ‘To the thinking of one who is at ease, disaster is to be pooh-poohed;

for one whose foot is giving way it is a solid certainty.’

6 ‘Marauders’ tents prosper

and there is security for those who disturb Deity,

for the one who brings God in his hand.’

7 But ask beasts and they will inform you,

the birds of the air and they will tell you,

8* Or crawlers of the earth and they will inform you,

and the fishes of the sea will tell you the story:

9* Who does not know by all these

that Jehovah’s hand made this,

10 In whose hand is the soul of everything living

and the breath of all flesh of men?

11 Does not an ear test words

and a palate do its tasting of food?

12 In graybeards is wisdom,

and length of life is intelligence—

13 With him is wisdom and efficiency,

his are skill and intelligence.

14 Where he demolishes, there is no rebuilding;

he locks a man up and there is no unlocking;

15 When he shuts off the water, it dries out;

he lets it loose and it tears up the earth.

16 With him are might and sagacity;

to him belong misled and misleader.

17 One who sets counselors to going stripped

and judges to running wild,

18 Undoes kings’ control

and ties a loincloth on their waists,

19 One who sets priests to going stripped

and upsets immemorial status,

20* One who makes reliable men’s tongues slip

and takes away old men’s sagacity,

21 One who pours contempt on nobles

and slackens irresistible men’s girdles,

22 One who unveils abysmal things out of darkness

and brings gloom to light,

23* One who makes nations immense and destroys them,

spreads out folk upon folk and leaves them lying,

24 One who turns aside the minds of the heads of the populace

and sets them wandering in pathless nothingness,

25* Groping in unlighted darkness;

and he makes them wander about like a drunken man.

13 There, my eye has seen everything,

my ear has heard and understood it;

2 I too know the same things you know,

am not inferior to you.

3 But I am speaking to Shaddai

and would like to argue with Deity.

4 But you are whitewashers,

quack doctors all of you.

5 Would that you would hold your tongues

so that it should become wisdom for you!

6* Hear out my argument

and listen to the contentions of my lips!

7 Will you talk unfairly for Deity

and stream out fraud for him?

8 Will you be partial to his side,

or champion Deity’s cause?

9 Is it a good thing that he should investigate you,

or would you hoax him as one hoaxes a man?

10 He will be calling you to account

if you show private partiality.

11 Should not his majesty overwhelm you

and the dread of him fall upon you?

12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes,

your shield-bosses turn out to be crockery.

13** Be still, and I will do the talking,

come what may.

14* I will pick up my flesh in my teeth,

take my life in my hand.

15 Suppose he slays me: I will not wait,

I will just argue my course to his face.

16 He will become salvation to me too,

because an ungodly man will not be admitted before him.

17 Hear my word, do,

and take my demonstration into your ears.

18 Here I have formulated my case:

I know I am the one that will turn out to be in the right.

19 Who will join issue with me?

for I would now hold my tongue and pass away.

20 Only do not do two things with me,

then I will not screen myself from your face:

21 Take your hand away from me

and let your terror not overwhelm me,

22 And call, and I will answer;

or I will speak, and return me a reply.

23 How much of guilts and sins do I have?

let me know my crime and sin.

24 Why do you veil your face from me

and count me as an enemy of yours?

25 Would you terrorize a driven leaf

or chase dry straw,

26 That you list bitter things against me

and saddle me with the guilts of my boyhood

27* And set my feet in the stocks,

and watch all my paths,

and mark a line round the soles of my feet—

28* And he is like a worn-out water-bag,

like a moth-eaten blanket.

14* “Man, the woman-born,

has a scanty lifetime and an overload of difficulties.

2 Like a flower he came out and wilted,

fled away like a shadow and does not stand.

3* Upon even this you open your eyes

and summon him to appear against you for trial!

4 Who shall produce a clean thing out of unclean?

not one.

5 If his time is decided,

you have his number of months,

you have drawn his bounds and he is not to go beyond,

6* Glance away from him and leave off

till, like a hired man, he takes the satisfaction of his day.

7 For there is hope for a tree:

if it is cut down, it starts again,

and its shoot will not fail to come;

8 If its root grows old in the ground

and its trunk dies in the soil,

9 At the scent of water it will sprout

and make a twig like a young tree newly set.

10 But a man dies and lies lifeless;

a human being breathes his last, and where is he?

11 Water goes away from a sea

and a river dries off and out,

12 And a man lies down and will not get up;

till the sky wears out they will not wake

nor rouse from their sleep.

13 O that you would stow me away in the world below,

screen me till your anger turned back,

fix a date for me and remember me!

14 If a man dies will he come to life?

I would wait all the time I had to serve

till my relief came;

15 You would call and I would answer you;

you would have a yearning for the work of your hands.

16 For then you would be counting my steps,

not watching for my sin,

17 My crime would be packed up under seal,

and you would whitewash my guilt.

18 “But a mountain tumbles down, wears out,

and a rock shifts from its place;

19 Water pulverizes stones;

a cloudburst washes away soil;

and you have crushed man’s hope.

20 You force him permanently out, and he goes;

you change his face and turn him off.

21 His sons rise to honor and he does not know it,

or sink into insignificance and he does not find out about them;

22 Only his flesh feels pain upon himself

and his soul is mournful over himself.”

2* “Would a wise man answer with windy ideas

and fill himself up with east wind,

3 Arguing with unserviceable talk

and useless phrases?

4* You, besides, are breaking up fear of the Deity

and lessening thoughtfulness before him,

5 Because your guilt is tutoring your mouth

and you choose artful men’s language.

6 Your own mouth shall prove you in the wrong, not I,

and your own lips shall testify against you.

7 Are you the first of men to be born?

were you brought forth before the hills?

8 Did you listen into God’s private conference

and sequester some wisdom for yourself?

9 What do you know that we do not,

perceive that we are not aware of?

10 We have among us graybeard and patriarch,

further on in years than your father.

11 Are Deity’s consolations too little for you,

and talk that is easy on you?

12* Why does your heart carry you away,

and what do your eyes fasten on,

13* That you send your breath back to Deity

and pour phrases out of your mouth?

14 What is man that he should be pure

and that one born of woman should be in the right?

15 Here, he does not put trust in his holy ones

and sky is not pure to his eyes,

16 To say nothing of an abominable and degenerate being,

a man who drinks rascality like water.

17 “I will show you; give me a hearing;

I have recognized this and will tell you about it,

18 What wise men state

and their fathers have not kept back.

19 They had the country given to them alone,

and no stranger came through among them.

20 All a wrong-doer’s life he is in expectation,

the number of years that are laid up for the violent man.

21 Sounds of dread are in his ears,

in peace there is a ravager coming to him;

22* He does not count on coming back out of darkness,

and he is marked for the sword;

23** He has an appointment to be a meal for a kite;

he knows his disaster is a settled thing;

24* A day of darkness will overwhelm him,

distress and hard straits will overpower him,

like a king ready for the onslaught,

25 Because he stretched out his hand against Deity

and blustered against Shaddai,

26* Running at him headlong

with thick shield-fronts.

27* Because he covered his face with fat

and put on flesh in his waist,

28 And planted himself in extirpated cities,

houses that were never to be lived in,

which had been made ready to become heaps of stones,

29** His means shall not be rich, shall not grow up to stalks,

shall not bend ears earthward;

30* He shall not get out of darkness; flame shall dry up his shoot,

and his buds shall blow off in the wind;

31* Let him not trust to rambling futility,

for futility will be his purchase;

32 His fronds shall wither untimely

and his new fronds not grow verdant;

33 He shall blast his berries like a grapevine

and drop his blossoms like an olive-tree.

34 For a godless man’s company is stony ground,

and fire has devoured the tents of bribery;

35* There is breeding of trouble and giving birth to villainy,

and inside them fraud is shaping up.”

2 “I have heard plenty like that;

you are plaguy comforters all of you.

3 Is there any end to windy talk?

or what is galling you, that you answer?

4 I too might speak as you do

if your souls were in the place of mine;

I might string phrases together about you

and shake my head over you;

5* I might brace you up with my mouth,

and the comfort of my lips might check—

6 If I speak my pain is not checked,

and if I refrain what passes away from me?

7** He has just tired me out now;

you have laid all my company desolate,

8 And you have gripped me, it has become a witness,

and my leanness stands up against me, testifies to my face.

9* His anger tore me and flung me down;

he ground his teeth at me;

my foe sharpens his eyes for me.

10* They have opened their mouths at me,

insolently struck my cheeks,

collected in full force against me.

11 The Deity gives me up to a foul-player

and thrusts me into the hands of wrong-doers.

12 I was in quietness and he jerked me,

took me by the back of my neck and burst me,

And sets me up for his target,

13 his marksmen surround me,

And he cuts through my kidneys unsparingly,

lets my gall run out on the ground,

14 Wounds me with wound across wound,

runs at me like a warrior.

15 I have stitched a sackcloth on my hide

and run my horn into the clay,

16 My face is inflamed with weeping

and there is gloom over my eyelashes,—

17 For no violence that I have on my hands;

and my prayer is pure.

18 Earth, do not cover my blood,

and let there be no place for my outcry!

19 Even now my witness is there, in the heavens,

and I have my voucher aloft,

20* My friend is my interpreter;

to God my eye drips,

21 That he would arbitrate for a man with a God

and between a human being and his fellow.

22 For a few years are to come

and I shall go on the track I shall not come back on.

17 My spirit is blighted,

my days are snuffed out,

graves are mine.

2** Decidedly I have triflers about me

and my eyes grow tired resting on their ungovernableness.

3 Give yourself bail for me;

who would there be to strike into my hand?

4 For you have kept their hearts closeted from sense;

therefore you will not set them on high.

5* He notifies friends for a share,

and his sons’ eyes are worn out with looking and longing.

6** But you have set me up for a byword of peoples,

and I am a phenomenon before them,

7* And my eyes are dim with vexation

and my figure dissolves like a shadow.

8* Upright men will stand aghast at this,

and an innocent man be stirred up against an ungodly;

9 But a right-doer will hold his course

and a cleanhanded man grow increasingly resolute.

10 But you may all come again

and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11* My days have gone past; I am annihilated;

my heartstrings are snapped.

12* They make night into day,

‘light is near, coming away from darkness.’

13 If I hope, the realm of death is my house;

I have made up my couch in the darkness;

14 I have called decay my father,

the maggot my mother and sister,—

15 And where is hope of mine?

and who is to behold good fortune of mine?

16* Will they go down with me to the realm of death?

or shall we go underground together?”

2 “How long will you be snaring phrases?

See the point, and afterward we may talk.

4* you that tear yourself in your anger?

Is earth to be forsaken on your account,

and a rock shifted from its place?

5 A wrong-doer’s light does go out,

and the blaze of his fire gives no radiance.

6 Light turns dark in his tent,

and his lamp goes out over him.

7 His vigorous steps will be cramped

and his own purposes will upset him,

8* For he runs his feet into a net

and walks along on wickerwork.

9* A trap will grip his heel

and a noose clutch him.

10 The cord for him is hidden on the earth

and the snare for him along the path.

11* On all sides wraiths overwhelm him

and chevy him wherever he goes.

12 His vigor is famished

and calamity stands ready for his weakening.

13* His skin is eaten away by disease;

the firstborn of death eats his members.

14* He is torn out of his tent, what he trusted to,

and is marched to the king of wraiths.

15** There shall be living in his tent something that is not his;

brimstone shall be sprinkled over his lands.

16 His roots shall die out underneath

and his twigs wither overhead.

17 The memory of him is lost from earth

and there is no name of his over the wide world.

18* He is pushed out of light into darkness

and sent flitting out of the world.

19 He has neither chick nor child among his people

nor any survivor in the places he has visited.

20* Over the day that comes for him men of the west shall stand aghast

and men of the east be taken with a shudder.

21* Altogether such are the dwellings of a malefactor,

and like this is the place of one who knows not Deity.”

2 “How long will you make my soul miserable

and beat me down with phrases?

3 This is ten times you have been humiliating me,

you are not embarrassed to keep saying spiteful things about me.

4 But even take it that I really have made a misstep:

it is with me my misstep is lodged.

5 If you are really taking high ground with me

and proving my ignominy against me,

6 Know that it is God has done the unfair thing by me

and set his toils round me.

7 Suppose I cry murder, I am not answered;

I shout an appeal and there is no administration of justice.

8 He has walled off my road and I cannot pass;

he has spread darkness over my paths.

9 He has stripped my honor off me

and taken away the crown from my head.

10 He tears down every side of me, and I am gone,

and he has cleared away my hope like a piece of timber.

11 He is angry with me

and thinks of me as he does of his foes.

12 His raiders come on unitedly

and have built their road against me

and are camped round my tent.

13* He has set my brothers to standing aloof from me,

and my acquaintances are altogether estranged from me.

14* My nearest and dearest have quit,

my housemates have forgotten me,

15 And my serving-maids think me a stranger,

I seem to them a foreigner.

16 I have called my slave and he does not answer—

I beg him for favors with my own mouth.

17 My breath is hateful to my wife

and I smell foul to the sons of my body.

18 Even children think nothing of me;

let me stand up, they talk at me.

19 All my bosom friends abhor me,

and whom I loved have turned on me.

20** My bones stick to my skin,

and I come off with my flesh in my teeth.

21 Be kind to me, be kind to me, you friends of mine,

because God’s hand has touched me.

22 Why is it you chase me down as Deity does

and can never get enough of my flesh?

23 O that what I have to say were written down,

were registered in a document,

24 With iron pen and lead,

carved in rock forevermore!

25* But as for me, I know my vindicator is alive,

and one in future will stand up above ground,

26 And behind my skin, which has borne this,

out of my flesh I shall behold God,

27 Whom I shall behold for myself;

it will be my eyes that saw, and not a stranger—

my heart is spent in my bosom!

28 When you think ‘What of his shall we chase down

and find ground for a case in him?’

29** Quail on your own account for fear of a sword,

because those are offenses to bring down the sword,

so that you may know there is an arbiter.”

2* “For that my thoughts give me response,

and by reason of it I am hurried on.

3 I hear a tutoring that humiliates me

and wind rather than sense answers me—

4 Have you known this from of yore,

since man was set on earth?

5 For wrong-doers’ caroling is shortsighted,

and an ungodly man’s merrymaking is momentary.

6 If he lifts his crest to the sky

and his head touches the cloud,

7 Like his dung he perishes utterly;

those who saw him say ‘Where is he?’

8 Like a dream he takes wing and one cannot find him;

he flits away like a vision of the night.

9 An eye has glimpsed him, but does so no more,

and his place will not behold him again.

10* His sons must give satisfaction to poor men,

his hands give back his goods.

11 His bones are full of his virility,

but with him it lies down in the clay.

12 If evil is sweet in his mouth,

he hides it under his tongue,

13 Saves it up, will not let go of it,

keeps it snug in the roof of his mouth,

14* His dinner turns in his bowels,

he has vipers’ gall within him,

15 He has swallowed wealth but must throw it up,

Deity ousts it from his stomach.

16 He sucks vipers’ poison,

a sand-adder’s tongue will kill him.

17* He must never look on outflows of oil,

streams of honey and clabber.

18* Because of old age he will not swallow what he has spent his

strength on,

he will not be gay in proportion to the wealth he has traded for,

19 Because he victimized and abandoned poor men,

stole a house, and does no building on it.

20 Because he had no quiet in his stomach,

in his wishes he let nothing get away,

21 There was nothing left over from his eating,

therefore his good time will not persist.

22* In his full plenty let him come into distress,

all the force of trouble come over him.

23 Let him have his bellyful,

let Him turn His anger loose on him

and shower it on him into his entrails.

24 He takes flight from arms of iron;

a bow of bronze drives through him;

25* He pulls and it comes out of his back,

comes flashing away from his gall.

Terrors are upon him;

26* all darkness lurks for him.

Let an unblown fire consume him,

feed on survivors in his tent;

27 Let the heavens uncover his guilt

and earth be an adversary to him;

28 Let the progeny of his house be swept out of the country,

drifted wreckage on the day of His anger.

29 This is a wicked man’s lot from God,

and the estate named for him by Deity.”

2 “Do hear what I have to say,

and let this be your comforting.

3 Bear me, and I myself will speak;

and after I speak you shall make your fun.

4 Is my grievance against man?

and how should I not be impatient?

5 Face toward me and stand aghast

and lay your hands over your mouths!

6* And if I bethink myself I am in consternation,

and a shudder seizes my flesh.

7 How comes it that wrong-doers live,

come to advanced age and are still notably robust?

8* Their posterity is firmly established before them;

their offspring is numerous under their eyes.

9 Their houses are at peace from dread,

and God’s cudgel is not on them.

10 His bull covers and does not miss,

his cow calves and does not slink.

11 They let out their brats like sheep and goats,

and their children caper about.

12* They sing with tambourine and lyre

and make merry to the sound of the pipe.

13 They wear out their days in comfort,

and all of a sudden they go down to the world below.

14 And they have said to the Deity ‘Get out of our way,

we do not care to know your courses.

15 What is Shaddai that we should worship him,

and what good should we do when we invoked him?’

16 Here it is not in their hands that their comfort lies,

wrong-doers’ principles are far from him—

17 How often do wrong-doers’ lamps go out

and their calamity come upon them,

cords grip them by his anger,

18 Do they become like straw before a wind

and like chaff that a gale filches?

19* Let him not lay his misfortune away for his sons;

let him pay it up to himself and let him know it.

20* Let his eyes see his calamity

and let him drink ire of Shaddai.

21 For what concern has he for his family after him,

when his number of months has been cut off?

22 —Should one teach the Deity knowledge,

when it is he judges those on high?

23 This one dies in perfect soundness,

all quiet and at ease,

24 His crocks are full of milk

and the marrow of his bones has its drink,

25 And that one dies in bitter soul

and has never eaten a comfortable meal;

26 Together they lie down on the clay

and maggots cover them over.

27 Here, I know your ideas

and such designs as you contemplate against me,

28 That you say ‘Where is an aristocrat’s house?

and where are wrong-doers’ dwellings?’

29 Have you not asked travelers,

and do you not recognize their tokens?

30** That the bad man is kept back on the day of calamity,

gets the better of the day of wrath?

31 And who tells him of his course to his face?

and if he has done a thing who pays him back?

32* And he is brought to burial

and his mound is attended to.

33 Arroyo clods are sweet to him,

and all men pour along after him

and innumerable before him.

34 And how are you to comfort me with thin air,

when your answers sift down to unreliability?”

2 “Is a man to be serviceable to God?

why, it is to himself that a capable man is serviceable.

3 Does Shaddai have any concern that you should do right,

or any profit when you follow a conscientious course?

4 Would it be for your piety that he would reprove you

and arraign you for judgment?

5 Is it not that your wickedness is great

and your guilt infinite,

6 Because you demand pawns of your brothers without reason

and strip off naked men’s garments,

7 Do not give a drink of water to a fainting man

and refuse bread to a hungry man,

8 But a strong-handed man has the country for his own,

and an influential man is to live in it;

9 You turn widows away empty-handed

and batter orphans’ arms?

10 That is why there are traps around you

and dread throws you into sudden consternation,

11 Light has turned dark for you, you cannot see,

and spray of water covers you.

12 Of course, God stands high in the heavens

and sees the heads of the stars, lofty though they be,

13 And you think ‘What does God know?

will he judge through thick air?

14 Clouds are a screen to him and he will not see;

and he will be walking the vault of the heavens.’

15* Will you keep to the foul-players’ path,

the one villains have trodden,

16 Who were seized untimely,

a river pouring upon their foundation,

17 Those who said to Deity ‘Get out of our way’

and ‘What should Shaddai do to us?’

18 When it was he that had filled their houses with good things;

wrong-doers’ principles are far from him.

19 Honest men see and are glad,

and an innocent man derides them:

20* ‘They are positively annihilated, every mother’s son,

and fire has consumed the last remnant of them.’

21 Get used to him and on good terms with him;

by that what comes to you will be good.

22 Take an instruction from his mouth

and lodge his say in your heart.

23 If you go back to Shaddai, humbling yourself,

put foul play far off from your tent,

24 Lay ore in dust

and Ophir gold among arroyo rocks,

25* Then Shaddai will be your nuggets

and peak-silver to you.

26 For then you will be happy over Shaddai

and raise your face to God,

27 You will invoke him and he will hear you

and you will be paying your vows,

28 And you will decide on a thing and have it hold good for you,

and light will be beaming over your paths.

29* For he brings low the lofty and proud man,

and the man of downcast eyes he saves.

30* He will bring to safety one who is not innocent,

and he shall be brought to safety by the cleanness of your hands.”

2 “Today too my complaint is rebellion!

my hand lies heavy on my moans.

3 If only I knew how to find him,

come to his seat!

4 I would formulate my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments;

5 I should find out what points he would make in answer to me,

should see what he would say to me.

6* Would he maintain his contention against me by superior strength?

not he, he would just pay attention to me.

7* There I should have one who was candid arguing with me,

and I should definitively get clear from my judge.

8 Here I go east and he is not there,

and west and I do not perceive him,

9 I look for him in the north and do not behold him,

swing round to the south and do not see him,

10** While he knows which way I stand;

were he to test me, I should come out like gold.

11 My foot holds on to his tracks,

I watch his course and do not swerve,

12 From the command of his lips I do not shift,

in my bosom I have laid up the say of his mouth.

13* But when he has his mind made up who will turn him back?

he hankers and he acts.

14 For he will go through with what he has marked out for me,

and has in store plenty of things like that.

15 That is why I am affrighted at him;

I realize the situation and stand in dread of him,

16 And Deity has unnerved me

and left me terror-struck.

17* For I do not break down at darkness

and at being covered with blackness.

24 “How comes it times are not reserved by Shaddai

and those who know him do not behold his days?

2* These displace boundary-marks,

steal a flock and pasture it,

3 Drive off orphans’ donkeys,

take a widow’s cow and hold it as a pawn,

4 Force needy men off the road;

earth’s downtrodden go into hiding together.

5* They go out in the wilderness like wild asses

in their activities in quest of anything that can be eaten;

he has desert wastes as food for the boys.

6 On the range they make a harvest of its cattle-feed,

they go through a wicked man’s vineyard for belated grapes.

7 They pass the night naked for want of clothing

and coverless in the cold.

8 They are wet with mountain rainstorms

and hug rocks for lack of shelter.

9** They steal orphan from breast

and take in pawn a poverty-stricken man’s baby.

10* They go about naked for want of clothing,

and while they go hungry they carry shocks of grain,

11* Between their walls they press oil,

they tread winepresses and go thirsty.

12* Out of cities dying men groan

and souls of men mortally wounded shriek.

And God does not find any fault.

13 Those are rebels against light,

do not recognize its routes

nor settle in its paths.

14* When it is not light a murderer stands up,

kills a downtrodden and needy man;

and in the night a thief goes about.

15 And an adulterer’s eye watches for dusk,

thinking ‘No eye will espy me,’

and he muffles up his face.

16* One breaks into houses in the dark.

By day they shut themselves in;

they make no acquaintance with light;

17** For alike are morning to them and gloom,

because they are familiar with the wraiths of gloom.

18** He is light on the surface of water;

their share in the land shall be cursed;

a treader shall not turn to their vineyard.

19* Drought, heat too, steal snow-water;

the realm of death, who have sinned.

20* The womb that fashioned him will forget him,

his loftiness will not go on to be remembered,

and foul play breaks like a piece of wood.

21* One who does injuries to a barren woman that bears no children,

and no good to a widow,

22** And drags down needy men by his power,

stands up and does not put faith in living;

23 He grants him to have confidence and reliance,

and his eyes are on their courses.

24* They have been lofty a little while, and there is nothing of them

and they are laid low, collapse like alkali-sorrel,

and are cut down like heads of grain.

25 If not, then, who will show me up as a liar

and reduce my claims to nothing?”

2 “Dominion and terror are about him;

he makes peace in his realms aloft.

3** Is there any counting his regiments?

and over whom does his light not stand up?

4 How is a human being to be in the right with Deity?

and how is one born of woman to be pure?

5 Here the very moon is not bright

and stars are not pure to his eyes,

6 To say nothing of a human being, a maggot;

of a son of mankind, a worm!”

2 “What a help you have been to one without strength,

what a salvation to an arm without energy,

3 What a counselor to one without wisdom,

and in what abundance you have imparted common sense!

4 Whom have you told what to say?

and whose breath came out from you?

5* The shades writhe

underneath the water and its denizens.

6 The realm of death lies naked before him

and the land of the gone forever has no cover.

7 He stretches the north over vacancy,

hangs earth on nothing,

8 Bundles up water in his thunderclouds

and the cloud does not tear under it,

9* Encloses the face of the full moon,

spreading his cloud over it.

10** He has drawn a boundary circle on the face of the water

at the extremity of light, where it meets darkness.

11 The pillars of the sky

rock and are confounded at his rebuke.

12 By his power he stirred the sea

and by his understanding he mangled Rahab.

13* By his wind the sky is swept bare,

and his hand pierced the elusive snake.

14 There, these are the edges of his course,

and what a whispered thing it is that we hear of him!

but the thunder of his energies who may perceive?”

2 “By the Deity, who has brushed aside my rights,

and Shaddai, who has embittered my life,

3 When my breath was still all in me

and God’s wind in my nostrils,

4 My lips shall not speak amiss

nor my tongue voice false pretenses.

5 Away with the thought of my putting you in the right;

till I breathe my last I will not throw off my conscientiousness.

6 I hold fast to my righteous cause and will not loosen my hold;

my heart feels no remorse for any of my days.

7* May my enemy be in the state of a wrong-doer

and my adversary in that of a knave!

8 For what is an ungodly man’s hope

when God is cutting off and pulling out his soul?

9 Will Deity hear his cry

when distress comes upon him,

10 Or will he be happy over Shaddai,

call on God on every occasion?

11 I will instruct you as to the Deity’s hand;

what Shaddai has in mind I will not conceal from you.

12 Here you have all of you seen the sights,

what do you go into flights of fancy for?

13 This is a wicked man’s lot in the Deity’s plan,

and the estate violent men are to get from Shaddai.

14 If his sons are numerous, the sword is for them,

and his offspring will not have their fill of bread.

15 His survivors will be buried in death

and his widows will not weep.

16 If he piles up silver like earth

and lays up clothing as if it were clay,

17 He will lay it in and an honest man will wear it

and innocent men share the silver among them.

18* He has built his house like a spider’s,

like a booth a watchman makes.

19* He goes to bed rich, but is so no more;

he opens his eyes and it is not there.

20** Dissolution descends upon him like water;

in the night a gale snatches him,

21 An east wind picks him up and he goes,

and it sweeps him out of his place.

22 He pelts him unsparingly;

he is in constant flight from his hand.

23* He strikes his hands together over him

and whistles at him from his place.

28 “For there is a mine for silver

and a place for gold that they wash out.

2 Iron is taken out of earth,

and one melts stone to copper.

3* Man has set an end to darkness,

and to every extremity he ransacks

stone of blackness and gloom.

4 An intruding people breaks into ravines

that were forgotten by feet;

they suffer privations, they rove from men

5 To a country from which bread has gone out

and whose underpart turns to be like fire,

6 A place whose stones are malachite

and which has clods of gold,

7 A path no bird of prey knows

nor has a kite’s eye glimpsed it,

8 Which boldest beasts have not trodden

nor lion passed along it.

9 He puts his hand to the pyrite rock,

turns mountains up by their roots;

10* He rips out channels among the rocks,

and his eye sees everything valuable.

11** He explores the sources of rivers

and brings to light an undiscovered thing.

12 But where is wisdom to be had from,

and what is the place for insight?

13 No man knows the road to it,

and it is not to be found in the land of the living.

14 The deep says ‘it is not in me’

and the sea ‘I do not have it here.’

15 Solid gold is not to be given for it

nor silver to be weighed out as its price;

16 It is not to be balanced against nuggets from Ophir,

against the most precious beryl, or lapis lazuli;

17 Gold and glass will not match it,

a thing of red gold be an exchange for it;

18* Pearls and alabaster are not to be mentioned,

and wisdom is more of a prize than coral;

19 The Nubian chrysolite will not match it,

nor against pure nugget-gold is it to be balanced;

20 And where does wisdom come from?

and what is the place for insight?

21* It lies out of sight of any living thing

and screened from the birds of the air.

22 Death and the land of the gone forever say

‘We have heard a hearsay of it.’

23 God understands the road to it,

he knows the place for it,

24 Because he looks to the ends of the earth,

sees under all the sky,

25* Determining a weight for the wind

and proportioning the water by measure.

26 When he made a law of nature for the rain

and a course for the lightning of thunder,

27 Then he saw it and described it,

made it sure and thoroughly searched it out,

28 And he said to man

‘Here, fearing the Lord is wisdom

and shunning what is bad is insight.’”

2 “Would that I were as in old-time months,

as in the days when God watched over me,

3 When he let his lamp beam over my head

and by his light I walked through darkness!

4* As I was in my days of ripeness,

when God had a fence round my home,

5 When Shaddai was still with me,

my boys were around me,

6* When my callers washed their dust off in clabber

and rocks on my grounds poured rills of oil.

7* When I went out of gate to town,

prepared to take my seat in the square,

8 Young men saw me and hid

and graybeards rose and stood;

9 Captains checked what they had to say

and laid hand on their mouths;

10* Magistrates’ voices hid

and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

11 For ears heard and deemed me happy,

eyes saw and bore witness to me,

12 That I brought a downtrodden suppliant out of trouble,

and an orphan, and one whom none would help;

13 The blessing of one who was perishing came upon me

and I set a widow’s heart caroling.

14** I clothed myself in right,

and like a robe and tiara justice clothed me.

15 I was eyes for the blind man,

and feet for the lame man was I.

16 I was a father to the needy,

and investigated the claims of the man I did not know

17 And smashed a knave’s fangs

and knocked prey out of his teeth.

18** And I thought I should breathe my last with my nestlings

and have my days as numerous as the sand,

19 With my roots spreading out to water

and dew on my twigs through the night,

20 My honors fresh about me

and my bow coming new in my hand.

21 They listened for me and waited,

kept still to get my advice;

22 After my word they did not speak again,

and my discourse came sprinkling down on them.

23 They waited for me as if for rain

and held their mouths wide open for a spring shower.

24* I gave them a laugh, they did not believe;

and my face shone, they did not let theirs fall.

25 I chose their course and sat as head,

and lived like a king in a raiding-party,

as if he were comforting mourners.

30 But now my juniors are laughing at me,

whose fathers I had rejected for placing with my sheep-dogs.

2 Of what use was even the strength of their hands to me,

men in whom solid vigor was lost,

gaunt with destitution and starvation?

3** Those who gnaw arid downs,

the emesh of blast and blight,

4 Who pluck alkali-sorrel, wormwood leaves,

and have broom-roots for their bread;

5* They are driven out of a community,

they yell at them as they would at a thief.

6 They have to live in the sides of arroyos,

in holes in the ground and between stones.

7 They bray between wormwood bushes,

snuggle together under weeds.

8 Sons of rascals, sons of nobody that can be named,

they are whipped out of the country.

9 —And now I am the butt of their jingles

and have become a byword of theirs.

10 They abhor me, stand far away from me,

do not keep their spit out of my face.

11* For he has undone my bowstring and made me helpless,

and they loosen their reins before me.

12 On the right a horde stand up,

unsettle my footing,

and build their tracks of calamity against me.

13* They tear up my path,

do great work for catastrophe,

have nobody to help them.

14 They come like coming through a broad breach,

roll along under the crash of ruin.

15 Dissolution turns upon me,

my dignity is chased off as if by the wind,

and my hope of succor passes like a cloud.

16 And now I have my life draining out,

days of suffering are gripping me,

17** In the night my bones are being dug away

and my sinews get no repose.

18* My garment takes strong hold,

lies snug on me like the neck of my shirt.

19 He has laid me for clay,

and I am made like earth and ashes.

20** I clamor to you and you do not answer me;

I stand there and you observe me,

21 You turn brutal toward me,

you wreak your grudge on me with the vast strength of your hand.

22 You pick me up into the air, ride me on the wind,

let storm toss me.

23 For I know you will bring me back to death,

to the rendezvous of everything alive.

24* Only he does not lay hands on a heap of ruin;

or by his disaster will there be lucre for them?

25 I did weep for the man who was having a hard time,

my soul grieved for the needy man;

26 I hoped for good, and evil came;

I awaited light, and murky darkness came.

27 My vitals are boiling, never still;

days of suffering confront me.

28* I go in mourning without sunshine,

stand up and clamor publicly.

29 I am brother to jackals

and fellow to ostriches.

30 My skin blackens and comes off,

and my bones are hot with fever.

31 And my lyre has turned to mourning

and my pipe to the voices of weepers.

31 “I put my eyes under a contract,

and how was I to take notice of a maiden?

2 And what is God’s allotment from above

and Shaddai’s assignment from on high?

3 Is it not calamity for a knave

and mishap for villains?

4 Does not he see my courses

and count all my steps?

5 If I walked with false pretense

and my foot hurried toward fraud,

6 Let God weigh me in a fair balance

and know about my conscientiousness.

7 If my tread has swerved from the course

and my eye has followed my heart

and anything has stuck to my hands,

8 Let me sow and another eat,

and what grows for me be uprooted.

9 If my heart has been inveigled after a woman

and I have lain in wait at my friend’s doorway,

10 Let my wife grind for another

and others crouch over her.

11 For that would be lewdness,

it would be guilt to come before a court.

12* For that is a fire that would eat down to the land of the gone forever

and take out the roots of all my produce.

13 If I refused the rights of my slaves

when they had a dispute with me,

14 What should I do when Deity stands up,

and when he is punishing what answer should I make to him?

15 Did not he who made me in a mother’s body make them,

and was it not one who worked us into shape in the womb?

16 If I withheld what poor men wanted

and let a widow’s eyes wear out with looking and longing,

17 And ate my snack alone

and an orphan did not eat part

18* (For from my boyhood I raised him as a father would,

and ever since my birth I helped her along),

19 If I saw one perishing for lack of clothing

and that a needy man had nothing to cover him,

20* If his back did not bless me

and he get warmth out of the fleeces of my sheep,

21*** If I shook my fist at a quiet man

because I saw I had friends in court,

22* May my arm drop off from its shoulder,

may it be broken through its long bone.

23** For Deity’s calamity is a thing I dread,

and I cannot cope with his majesty.

24 If I have made gold my reliance

and spoken of kethem as my confidence,

25 If I was gladdened because my wealth was great

and I had a great deal at my disposal,

26 If I saw the light as it beamed

and the moon walking sublimely

27* And I was secretly so simpleminded

that my mouth kissed my hand,

28 That too would be guilt to come before a court,

for I should have been lying to Deity above.

29 If I was glad of a disaster to one who hated me

and was elated because evil had found him—

30 Why, I did not let my throat sin

asking his life with a curse;

31 If the men of my tent did not say

‘Who will bring somebody that has not had all he wanted of his meat?’—

32 No visitor from abroad spent the night in the street;

I opened my doors to the wayfarer.

33 If in human fashion I covered up my crime,

burying my guilt under my cloak,

34 Because I stood in awe of a great crowd

and the contempt of clans dismayed me,

And I kept quiet, not going out of the doorway—

35* I wish I had someone to hear me!

Here is my signature, let Shaddai answer me!

And a bill that my opponent had written,

36* wouldn’t I carry it on my shoulder,

lace it on as a crown for me!

37 I would report to him the number of my steps,

would receive him as a lord high steward should.

38 If my soil cries out against me

and its furrows are weeping together,

39 If I have eaten its strength without paying money

and have let the life go out of its owners,

40* Instead of wheat let briers come out,

and instead of barley nightshade.”

End of the words of Job.

7 I thought ‘Let days speak

and number of years disclose wisdom.’

8 But it is a spirit in man, after all,

and Shaddai’s breath makes them understand things.

9* It is not men of many days that are wise

nor old men that understand what is right.

10 So I say, Hear me;

I too will state my view.

11 Here I did wait for your words,

listened for your discernments,

Till you should hunt out something to say,

12 and applied my attention to you,

And found Job had nobody to confute him,

to answer his say, among you.

13 For fear you should say ‘We have discovered wisdom,’

Deity shall put him to rout, not a man.

14 And he has not marshaled points against me,

nor will I answer him with what you said.

15 “They were dismayed, no longer made any answer,

their phrases had moved out,

16 And was I to wait when they were not speaking,

when they were at a standstill, no longer made any answer?

17 I will make the answer that is my portion,

I too will state my view,

18 For I am full of things to be said,

the spirit in my waist is putting me under a strain,

19 I feel my waist like wine that is not being opened;

as with skins of new wine, an explosion is coming.

20 I will speak and get relief,

will open my lips and answer.

21 May I not show partiality to any man;

and to no human being will I pay compliments,

22 For I do not know how to pay compliments;

my Maker might easily snatch me away.

33 But hear what I have to say, Job,

and give ear to all my words.

2 Here I am opening my mouth,

my tongue is speaking under its roof,

3* My say is the sincere expression of my heart

and my lips utter the best of their knowledge.

4 Deity’s spirit made me

and Shaddai’s breath put life into me.

5 Answer me if you can,

join issue and stand up to me.

6* You will find me to be in the same relation to Deity as you;

I was kneaded out of clay as you were.

7 Here will terror of me not overwhelm you

nor my duress weigh you down.

8* “Only—you said in my hearing,

I heard a sound of such words,

9 ‘I am pure, free from crime,

I am clear and have no guilt about me.

10* Here he is inventing antagonisms against me

and counting me as an enemy of his,

11 Setting my feet in the stocks

and watching all my paths.’

12* Here you are not right in this, I answer you,

because God is more than man.

13 How come you setting up a case against him

because he does not answer all your words?

14* For Deity speaks once for all

and does not repeat it a second time.

15 In a dream, a vision of the night,

when trances fall on men,

in slumbers on the bed,

16* Then he makes disclosure to men

and dismays them with sights that they see,

17* To turn away man from his doings

and prune away pride from a man,

18* Hold back his life from the grave

and his being from rushing upon destruction.

19 And he is admonished by pain on the bed

and the discord in his bones is perpetual,

20 And his inclination loathes bread

and his appetite the food it naturally craves.

21* His flesh gets too wasted to look at

and his bones so bare nobody will look at them,

22* And his life is near to the grave

and his being to the place of the dead.

23 If he has over him an angel,

an interpreter, one out of a thousand,

to tell man his right course,

24* And he is gracious to him and says

‘Let him off from going down to the Pit;

I have been given satisfaction,’

25 His flesh will grow plumper than in childhood;

he will come back to his youth.

26* He will invoke God and God will accept him,

and he will see his face with shouts of joy;

and he will give the man back his standing for righteousness.

27 He will sing before men and say

‘I sinned, I turned fair play to foul,

and he did not give ma measure for measure,

28 He has redeemed my life from passing into the Pit,

and my being has the sight of the light.’

29 Here Deity does all these things

twice over, three times, with a man,

30 To turn his life back from the Pit

to be lighted with the light of life;

31 Listen, Job, hear me,

be silent for me to speak.

32 If there is anything to be said, answer me;

speak, because I should like you to be in the right.

33 If there is not, hear me yourself;

be silent and let me acquaint you with wisdom.”

2 “Wise men, hear my words;

give ear to me, men of knowledge;

3 For ears test words

and a palate tastes food.

4 Let us pick out rights

and come to an understanding of what is good,

5 Because Job says ‘I am virtuous

but Deity has taken away my rights;

6** Against my rights I am to be lying

and I have a festering arrow in me without a crime.’

7 Who is such a man as Job,

who drinks scurrility like water

8* And takes the route to fellowship with villains

and to company with criminals?

9 Because he says ‘It is of no advantage to a man

to be on good terms with God.’

10 So, men of sense, hear me:

away with the thought of wrong-doing on Deity’s part,

foul play on Shaddai’s,

11 For he will pay man back appropriately to what he does,

and give each one the experiences proper to the path he takes.

12 In real truth Deity does not do wrong

nor Shaddai play tricks with justice.

13* Who put him in charge of earth?

and who established the whole universe?

14* If he should draw his spirit back to himself

and take up to himself his breath,

15 All creatures of flesh would expire together

and man would go back to clay.

16* And if you are in your senses, listen to me;

give ear to the point I make.

17 Is it even to be that one who hates justice holds sway

or a great right-doer does wrong?

18 He who says ‘reprobate’ to a king

and ‘iniquitous’ to noblemen,

19 Who does not defer to generals

nor recognize a prominent man before a poor man,

because they are all the work of his hands?

20** They die in a moment, at midnight;

he touches prominent men and they pass by,

and removes a formidable fighter without turning a hand.

21 For his eyes are on a man’s courses

and he sees all his steps;

22 There is no darkness, no gloom,

that villains may be veiled in.

23* For a man does not have a date set him

to go to Deity for a trial;

24 He breaks great men without an investigation

and sets up others in their place.

25 So he is aware of their works,

and overthrows in the night and they are beaten down.

26* For wrong-doers he cuffs them

in a place with spectators,

27 Seeing that they had turned off from following him

and not been regardful of any of his courses,

28 Bringing in before him a poor man’s outcry

and letting him hear the outcry of downtrodden men.

29* But if he is quiet who is to condemn?

or if he veils his face who is to behold him?

be it over a nation or over a man alike,

30* That an ungodly man may not be king,

a people’s trap.

31*** For does he say to Deity

‘I bear; I will not do harmful things;

32 What I do not see, teach me yourself;

if I have done amiss I will not keep on’?

33 Was he to make requital on the basis of your ideas,

that you are vetoing?

For you are to choose, not I;

what you know, speak out!

34 Men of brains will say to me,

and a wise man who hears me,

35* Job speaks not by knowledge

and his words do not run by common sense.

36* Let Job be kept under test permanently

for answers that put him among villains!

37* For he adds rebelliousness to his sin,

slaps his hands between us

and talks volubly to the Deity.”

2* “Do you think this right,

say ‘my good case before Deity,’

3 That you ask how it benefits you,

‘What good do I get more than by my sinning?’

4 I give you the answer,

and your comrades with you,

5 Look at the sky and see,

and behold the ether so high above you;

6 If you have sinned what are you doing to him,

and if your crimes are many what effect has it on him?

7 If you have done right what are you giving to him,

or what is he getting at your hands?

8 Your wrong-doing pertains to a man like yourself

and your right-doing to a human being.

9** They cry out over the great number of denials of justice,

they clamor over powerful men’s high hand,—

10* And one has not said ‘Where is God my Maker,

who gives songs in the night,

11 Who teaches us more than the beasts of earth

and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

12* It is there that they cry unanswered

because of the pride of bad men,

13* All in vain—Deity does not hear

and Shaddai does not regard it.

14 Even when you say you do not behold him,

he has the case before him and you are to wait for him.

15* And now because he does not set his anger to work

he does not thoroughly know the offense!

16* But Job is opening his mouth to let out air,

uttering big phrases without knowing what he is talking about.”

2 “Wait a bit and I will show you,

for there is more to say for God.

3* I will take a broad view

and credit my Maker with doing right.

4* What I have to say is no falsification;

you have with you one who is sincere in his views.

5 Lo, Deity is supreme and will not be disdainful,

supreme in power of mind.

6 He will not let a wrong-doer live

and will give downtrodden men their rights.

7* He will not minimize his attention to a right-doer,

but with kings will enthrone them permanently,

and they shall be exalted.

8 And if they are bound in fetters,

caught in cords of misery,

9 He tells them of their doings

and their offenses, that they were overweening,

10 And makes disciplinary disclosures to them

and says they are to turn back from vileness.

11 If they listen and submit

they shall finish their days in good living

and their years in comfort;

12* But if they do not listen they will rush upon destruction

and come to their end by lack of knowledge.

13* But men of godless heart take to anger,

do not cry out petitions when he binds them;

14* Their vital spark shall die off in youth

and their lives as do sodomite boys.

15 He rescues an unfortunate man in his misfortune

and makes disclosures to them in privations.

16*** And he has been enticing you out of the mouth of distress too,

unconstrained roominess under it,

and the setting down of your table full of rich food.

17* And you are full of the sentence on a wrong-doer;

judgment and sentence take hold,

18 For let not choler entice you into mockery

nor abundance of composition-money deflect you.

19 Will your clamor take effect without distress,

and all exertions of strength?

20* Do not pant for the night,

to have peoples go up where they stand.

21* Beware, do not turn to depravity,

for you have been preferring this to suffering.

22 Lo, Deity shows himself supernal in his strength;

who is such a preceptor as he?

23 Who has appointed his course for him,

and who has said ‘You have done amiss’?

24 Remember to extol his work,

of which men have sung.

25 All mankind view it,

man looks at it from afar.

26* Lo, Deity is great beyond our knowledge;

the number of his years is incalculable.

27* For he takes away drops from the sea

to filter as rain for his mist,

28 Which the heavens let trickle down

and let drop upon many a man.

29 Or does one understand the spreading of clouds either?

the resoundings of his bower?

30* Lo, he spreads his mist about him

and covers mountaintops.

31* For by them he provisions peoples,

gives food on a great scale.

32** He covers a stone with light

and orders it to strike a mark,

33* Assailing mischief and wrong

and wreaking jealous anger on foul play.

37 My heart is alarmed too at this

and jumps out of its place.

2* Hear, hear the commotions of his voice

and what comes as a mutter from his mouth!

3* He sends it abroad under all the sky

and his light over the edges of the earth.

4* Behind it a voice roars;

he thunders with his sublime voice

and does not hold them back when his voice is heard;

5** Deity thunders with his voice wondrously.

He does things great beyond our knowledge,

6* For he says to the snow ‘Fall to earth’

and showers down his mighty rains.

7* He seals up every human being’s hands

that all men may know his work;

8 And beasts go into coverts

and lodge in their dens.

9 Out of the Chamber comes a gale

and out of Mezarim cold weather.

10 By Deity’s breath ice is put in

and the breadth of water is in curbs.

11* Also he loads a cloud with refreshment,

cloudy sky scatters his fall rain,

12* And it goes circling about by his guidance

that they may do all that he orders them to

over the world on the ground,

13* If for a cudgel, if for his earth,

if for kindness he sends it to its goal.

14 Give ear to this, Job;

stand still and realize Deity’s wonders.

15* Do you know how God lays their charge on them

and the light of his clouds beams out?

16* Do you know about the hovering of clouds,

the wonders of him who is faultless in skill?

17 Will you whose clothes grow hot

when earth has quietness from the south

18 Be with him to consolidate heavens

strong as a metal mirror?

19 Let us know what to say to him;

we cannot get it in order for darkness.

20* Is he to be told the story of my speaking?

or does any man think of being swept away?

21 And now they do not see light,

it is a bright spot in the heavens;

but a wind goes over and clears them.

22** From the north comes resplendence;

over God there is a refulgence that is terrible.

23* Shaddai—our minds do not reach to him,

ample in strength and justice

and great in right-dealing; he will not victimize.

24** So men fear him;

he does not take notice of any wise-headed men.”

2* “Who is this that is befogging a discussion

by phrases without knowledge?

3 Gird your loins like a man

so that I may ask you questions and you inform me.

4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of earth?

tell, if you have competent knowledge.

5 Who determined its dimensions? for you know!

or who stretched a measuring-line over it?

6 On what were its under-foundations planted?

or who laid its cornerstone

7* While the morning stars shouted together

and all the angels hurrahed?

8* Who enclosed the sea with doors

when it came bursting out of the womb,

9 When I made clouds its clothing

and thick air its wrapping

10 And broke a boundary for it

and set a bar and doors,

11 And said ‘You are to come to here but not beyond,

and here the pride of your waves shall break’?

12 Did you ever in your life command a morning,

let a dawn know its place

13 To take hold of earth’s edges

that wrong-doers may be shaken out of it?

14** It takes shape like clay printed with a stamp,

and colors like a dress,

15 And wrong-doers have their light withheld,

and a high-raised arm is broken.

16 Have you come to the sources of the sea

and gone inspecting through the deep?

17* Have the gates of death been laid open for you,

or the gatemen of gloom been afraid at sight of you?

18 Have you applied your attention to the breadths of earth?

tell, if you know it all.

19 In which direction does light have its home,

and which is the place for darkness?

20* Because you get it at its domain

and are expert in the paths to its house.

21 You know, because you were born then

and the number of your days is great!

22 Have you been into the reserves of snow,

and seen the reserves of hail

23 Which I am holding back for a day of crisis,

a day of battle and war?

24* In which direction is wind divided,

east wind scattered over earth?

25* Who laid out a system of channels for floods

and a course for the lightning of thunder,

26 To send rain on a country without a man,

a wilderness with no human being in it,

27* To satisfy the hunger of blasted and blighted places

and to make a thirsty place grow vegetation?

28 Does the rain have a father?

or who brought dewdrops to birth?

29* Out of whose body did the ice come?

and who gave birth to hoarfrost?

30* Water masks itself like a stone

and the surface of the deep coheres.

31* Shall you be tying the laces of the Pleiades

or unhitching the traces of Orion,

32** Making Mazzaroth come out at its time

and guiding Aldebaran with its sons under it?

33 Do you know the laws of the sky

or are you ordaining its supervision of the earth?

34* Will you send your voice aloft to the cloud

and have a spray of water cover you?

35 Will you send lightnings abroad, and have them go

and say to you ‘Here we are’?

36* Who implanted wisdom in the ibis?

or who gave discernment to the cock?

37 Who counts in wisdom the threads of mare’s-tail clouds,

and the water-bags of the sky who tips down

38 When loam runs into metal

and clods cling together?

39 Will you hunt prey for a lioness

and fill the need of two-year-old lions

40 When they are down in the lairs,

sitting in ambush in a covert?

41 Who gets its provision ready for the raven

when its young are clamoring to Deity,

wandering about in want of food?

39* Do you know crag ibexes’ birth,

watch does’ calving?

2 Do you count the months they fill out,

and know their birth-date?

3 They crouch down, detach their young,

let go what they have been hampered with;

4 Their children are robust, grow big in the wilds,

go out and never come back.

5 Who set free a wild ass

and unhitched an onager’s halter,

6 Of which I have made desert the home,

alkali plains the habitation?

7* It laughs at town noises,

hears no vociferations of a driver.

8 It explores mountains as its pasture

and searches after any green thing.

9 Will a ure be willing to work for you

or come to your crib for the night?

10* Will you tie a yoke on him with cords

or will he harrow vales after you?

11 Will you put confidence in him because his strength is great,

and leave to him the results of your toil?

12* Will you rely on him to come back,

get in your seed to your threshing-floor?

13 An ostrich’s wing is for pleasure;

or is it a kindly pinion and plume,

14 When she leaves her eggs on the ground

and warms them on the earth,

15 And has forgotten that feet will smash them

and wild animals tread them to pieces?

16** She is hardhearted to her young as if they were not hers;

her labor goes for nothing without alarming her,

17* Because God has made her unmindful of wisdom

and given her no allowance of sense.

18* The minute she goes off high

she laughs at the pony and its rider.

19* Do you give the ponies mettle?

do you clothe their necks with mane?

20 Do you set them in commotion like grasshoppers?

the thrill of their snorting is a terror.

21 They paw in the vale and are joyous,

go out in strength to meet an armament,

22 Laugh at terrors and are not dismayed,

and do not turn back before swords.

23 On them ring quiver,

spearhead, and javelin.

24* Twitching and fidgeting they pit the earth

and do not believe there is a sound of a ram-horn.

25 At every ram-horn they say ‘Ha!’

and scent battle afar,

thunder of captains and cheering.

26 Is it by your sagacity a hawk takes wing,

soars off to the south,

27 Or is it by your direction that a vulture goes high

and that it sets its nest aloft,

28 Perches on a crag and spends the night

on a crag-tooth and a fastness,

29 Searches from there for food,

its eyes looking far away,

30* And feeds its chicks with blood,

and where there are corpses, there the bird is?”

2 “Does an admonisher dispute with Shaddai?

let him who corrects God answer it.”

4 “Here I am, insignificant—what reply should I make?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

5 I did speak once, but will not answer—

and twice; but I will do it no more.”

7 “Gird your loins like a man

so that I may ask you questions and you inform me.

8 Will you even quash my judgment,

hold me in the wrong so that you may be in the right?

9 Or do you have an arm like God’s,

do you thunder with a voice like his?

10 Bedeck yourself with dignity and sublimity,

robing yourself in majesty and splendor,

11* Hurl the rages of your anger,

and see every proud one and bring him low,

12* See every overweening one and humble him,

crumple wrong-doers where they stand,

13* Bury them in the ground together,

envelop their faces in sod,

14 And I too will praise you

that your right hand has made good your cause.

15* Here is Behemoth, that I made with you;

it eats grass like cattle.

16 Here is the strength in its back

and the vigor in the muscles of its belly.

17* It holds its tail stiff as a cedar;

the sinews of its hams are ropy.

18* Its bones are copper pipes,

its backbone like a bar of iron.

19* First of Deity’s undertakings is this,

made as he was bringing on his chisel.

20** For mountains bear growth for it,

and all beasts of the wilds play there.

21 Under jujube-trees it lies,

in a blind of reeds and morass,

22* Jujube-trees cover it with its shade,

arroyo poplars surround it.

23** Suppose a river overflows, it is not nervous;

it is undaunted though a Jordan bursts against its mouth;

24* In its eyes it takes it;

it has its nose bored with baits.

41 Will you pull Leviathan about with a fishhook

and press its tongue down with a line?

2 Will you run a rush through its nose

and punch its gills with a thorn?

3 Will it give you profuse appeals for grace,

or speak submissively to you?

4 Will it make terms with you

and you take it as permanent slave?

5 Will you play with it as you would with a bird

and tie it up for your girls,

6 Cooperators bargain over it,

divide it between dealers?

7 Will you fill its skin with darts,

its head with fish-harpoons?

8 Lay your hand on it, think of fighting—

do not try it again.

9** Here his expectation has been belied,

at the very sight of it he is sent flying,

10 He is not fierce enough to rouse it—

and who will stand his ground before me?

11* Who has confronted me and come off safe and sound?

under all the sky mine he is.

12 I will not be silent as to its members,

and the matter of powerfulness, and the symmetry of its build.

13* Who uncovers the surface of its coat?

who will get inside its double coat of mail?

14* Who opens the doors of its mouth?

the circuit of its teeth is a terror.

15* Its back is ridged with shields,

closed in tight sealing,

16* One coming up to another

with no gap intervening,

17* Each keeping contact with the next,

inseparably linked.

18 Its sneezing sends beams of light

and its eyes are like the eyelashes of the dawn;

19 Out of its mouth fly torches,

sparks of fire escape;

20* Out of its nostrils smoke streams out

like that from a heated pot and rushes.

21 Its breath sets coals ablaze,

and a flame comes out of its mouth.

22 Force lodges on its neck

and despair bounds before it.

23* The underparts of its flesh cling fast,

are immovably welded on.

24* Its heart is solid as a stone

and solid as a lower millstone.

25** At its rearing up heroes quail,

at bone-breaking strokes they fall into dismay.

26* One who hits it with a sword finds that that does not bite,

a spear nor a bolt nor a mail-piercer.

27 It thinks iron is threshed straw

and bronze rotten wood.

28 A shaft from a bow will not put it to flight;

stones from a sling turn to straw for it.

29* A club counts as a straw for it,

and it laughs at the vibration of a javelin.

30 Under it are sharp chips of crockery;

it runs a toothed plank over mud.

31 It makes ooze boil up like a pot,

makes sea like a perfumer’s saucepan.

32* It leaves a shining wake behind it;

one thinks the deep is gray-haired.

33 Over the earth there is nothing that masters it,

it that is made to be without dismay.

34* Every high one fears it;

it is king over all proud beasts.?

2 “I know that you can do everything

and nothing you may think of is impossible to you.

3* Who is this that is muddling a discussion without knowing anything about it?

so I have been asserting things I do not understand,

things too mysterious for me, which I do not know:

4 ‘Listen, and I will speak;

I will put questions; inform me.’

5 I had heard of you by hearsay,

but now my eye has seen you;

6* Therefore I recant and repent

in the ashes on the ground.”