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or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.

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“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!

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You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

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Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’

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Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,

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who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

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who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’

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Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

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The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,

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saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed the remnant of them.’

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“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you.

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Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

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If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.

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Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

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The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.

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For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God.

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You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You shall pay your vows.

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You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you. Light shall shine on your ways.

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When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.

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He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

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Then Job answered,

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“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

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Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!

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I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

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I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me.

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Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me.

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There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

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“If I go east, he is not there; if west, I can’t find him;

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He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him.

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But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come forth like gold.

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My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned aside.

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I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

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But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does.

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For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.

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Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him.

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For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

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Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

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“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?

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There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

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They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

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They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

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Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

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They cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.

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They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

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They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

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There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,

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So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.

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They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

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From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.

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“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.

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The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.

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The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’ He disguises his face.

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In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.

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For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

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“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.

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Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.

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The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.

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He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.

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Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.

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God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.

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They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

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If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”

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Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

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“Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.

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Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?

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How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

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Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;

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How much less man, who is a worm, the son of man, who is a worm!”

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Then Job answered,

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“How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!

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How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

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To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came forth from you?

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“Those who are deceased tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

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Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

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He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.

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He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them.

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He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.

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He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.

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The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

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He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.

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By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.

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Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

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Job again took up his parable, and said,

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“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter.

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(For the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);

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surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, neither shall my tongue utter deceit.

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Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

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I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

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“Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

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For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

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Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

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Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?

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I will teach you about the hand of God. That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

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Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

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“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

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If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

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Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows shall make no lamentation.

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Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

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he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.

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He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.