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Did I say, ‘Give to me?’ or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance?’

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or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand?’ or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?’

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“Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

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How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?

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Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

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Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend.

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Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I shall not lie to your face.

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Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.

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Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?

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“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

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As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

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so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

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When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

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My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

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My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

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Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.

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The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.

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As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.

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He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

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“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

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Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?

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When I say, ‘My bed shall comfort me. My couch shall ease my complaint;’

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then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions:

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so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.

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I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

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What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,

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that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

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How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

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If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

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Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”

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Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

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“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

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Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

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If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.

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If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.

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If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

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Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.

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“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.

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(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

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Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?

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“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?

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While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.

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So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish,

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Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider’s web.

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He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand. He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.

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He is green before the sun. His shoots go forth over his garden.

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His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.

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If he is destroyed from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’

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Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others shall spring.

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“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.

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He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.

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Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more.”

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Then Job answered,

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“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?

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If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.

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God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?

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He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.

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He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.

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He commands the sun, and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars.

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He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.

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He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.

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He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.

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Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.

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Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’

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“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.

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How much less shall I answer him, And choose my words to argue with him?

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Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

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If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.

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For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

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He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

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If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’

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Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.

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I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.

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“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.

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If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

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The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

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“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,

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They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

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If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;’

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I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.

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I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?

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If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

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yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.

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For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

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There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.

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Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

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then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

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“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

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I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.

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Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

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Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

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Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,

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that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?

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Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

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“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

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Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

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Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?

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You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

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You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

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Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you: