1 “But now, please hear my speeches, Job, and hear all my words.
2 Please look, I open my mouth; my tongue in my mouth speaks.
3 My words declare my heart’s uprightness, and my lips sincerely speak what my lips know.
4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of Shaddai gives life to me.
5 “If you are able, answer me. Present your argument before me; take your stand.
6 Look, before God I am like you; I myself was also formed from clay.
7 Look, dread of me should not terrify you, and my hand will not be heavy upon you.
8 “Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words:
9 ‘I am clean, without transgression; I am pure, and there is no guilt in me.
10 Look, he finds fault against me; he reckons me as his enemy;
11 he puts my feet in the block; he watches all my paths.’
12 “Look, in this you are not right—I will answer you: Indeed, God is greater than a human being.
13 Why do you contend against him, that he will not answer all a person’s words?
14 Indeed, God speaks in one way, even in two, yet someone does not perceive it.
15 “In a dream, a vision of the night, when a deep sleep falls on men slumbering on their bed,
16 then he opens the ear of men, and he frightens them with a warning
17 to turn human beings aside from their deeds, and he keeps man from pride.
18 He spares his life from the pit and his life from passing over the river of death.
19 “And he is reproved with pain on his bed, even with the strife of his bones continually,
20 so that his life loathes bread, and his inner self loathes appetizing food.
21 His flesh is wasted away from sight, and his bones, which are invisible, are bared.
22 And he draws near to the pit and his life to the killers.
23 “If there is a messenger beside him, a mediator, one of a thousand, to declare to a human being his uprightness
24 so that he is gracious to him, and he says, ‘Deliver him from descending into the pit; I have found a ransom.’
25 His flesh is renewed with his youth; he returns to the days of his youthful strength.
26 He prays to God, then he accepts him, and he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he repays to the human being his righteousness.
27 “He will sing to men, and he will say, ‘I have sinned and have perverted what is right, and it was not paid back to me.
28 He redeemed my life from going down into the pit, so I will enjoy the light.’
29 Look, God does all these things twice, three times with a person
30 to bring his life back from the pit so that he may enjoy the light of life.
31 “Listen attentively, Job; listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.
32 If you have anything to say, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you.
33 If not, you listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”