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Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”

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But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.

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Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

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When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.

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So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

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After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.

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Job answered:

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“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

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Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.

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Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.

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As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

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Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

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Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

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Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

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because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

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“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

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Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

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For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

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with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

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or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

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or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

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There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

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There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

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The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.

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“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,

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Who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

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who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

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Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

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For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.

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For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.

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I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble comes.”

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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

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“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

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Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.

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Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees.

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But now it is come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.

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Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?

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“Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?

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According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.

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By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

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The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

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The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.

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“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.

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In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

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fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

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Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.

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It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,

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Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

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Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.

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How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

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Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

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Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’

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“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

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For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.

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I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

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His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

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whose harvest the hungry eats up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.

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For affliction doesn’t come forth from the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;

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but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

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“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,

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who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;

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who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;

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so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.

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He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.

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He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

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They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.

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But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

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So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

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“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

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For he wounds, and binds up. He injures, and his hands make whole.

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He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.

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In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.

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You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

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At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth.

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For you shall be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.

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You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing.

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You shall know also that your seed shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth.

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You shall come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.

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Look this, we have searched it, so it is. Hear it, and know it for your good.”

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Then Job answered,

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“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

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For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash.

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For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

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Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder?

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Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

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My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.

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“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for,

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even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

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Be it still my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

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What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

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Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?

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Isn’t it that I have no help in me, That wisdom is driven quite from me?

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“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

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My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;

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Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.

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In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

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The caravans that travel beside them turn aside. They go up into the waste, and perish.

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The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them.

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They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.

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For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.