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You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.

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If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

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If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach;

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know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

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“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

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He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

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He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

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He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.

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He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

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His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.

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“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

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My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

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Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

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I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.

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My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

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Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

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All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

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My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

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“Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

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Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

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

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

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But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

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After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,

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Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.

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If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,

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be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

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Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

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“Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.

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I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.

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Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,

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that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?

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Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

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yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’

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He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.

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The eye which saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more see him.

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His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth.

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His bones are full of his youth, but youth shall lie down with him in the dust.

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“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,

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though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;

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yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.

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He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.

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He shall suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue shall kill him.

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He shall not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.

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That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.

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For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

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“Because he knew no quietness within him, he shall not save anything of that in which he delights.

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There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

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In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

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When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.

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He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through.

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He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

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All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

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The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him.

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The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.

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This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”

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Then Job answered,

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“Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

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Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.

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As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?

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Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

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When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

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“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

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

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Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

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Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.

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They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

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They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

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They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

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They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.

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What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

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Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

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“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?

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How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

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You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

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Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

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For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

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“Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?

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One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

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His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

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Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.

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They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.

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“Behold, I know your thoughts, the devices with which you would wrong me.

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For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

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Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,

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that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

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Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

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Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

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The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

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So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”

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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

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“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

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Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?

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Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?

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Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.

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For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

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You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

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But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.

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You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

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Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,