1 Therefore, O Job, hear my discourse;listen to all my words.
2 Behold, now I open my mouth;my tongue and voice form words.
3 I will state directly what is in my mind,my lips shall speak knowledge clearly;
4 For the spirit of God made me,the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive.
5 If you are able, refute me;draw up your arguments and take your stand.
6 Look, I am like you before God,I too was pinched from clay.
7 Therefore fear of me should not dismay you,nor should I weigh heavily upon you.
8 But you have said in my hearing,as I listened to the sound of your words:
9 “I am clean, without transgression;I am innocent, there is no guilt in me.
10 Yet he invents pretexts against meand counts me as an enemy.
11 He puts my feet in the stocks,watches all my paths!”
12 In this you are not just, let me tell you;for God is greater than mortals.
13 Why, then, do you make complaint against himthat he gives no reply to their words?
14 For God does speak, once,even twice, though you do not see it:
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,when deep sleep falls upon mortalsas they slumber in their beds.
16 It is then he opens their earsand with a warning, terrifies them,
17 By turning mortals from actingand keeping pride away from a man,
18 He holds his soul from the pit,his life from passing to the grave.
19 Or he is chastened on a bed of pain,suffering continually in his bones,
20 So that to his appetite food is repulsive,his throat rejects the choicest nourishment.
21 His flesh is wasted, it cannot be seen;bones, once invisible, appear;
22 His soul draws near to the pit,his life to the place of the dead.
23 If then there be a divine messenger,a mediator, one out of a thousand,to show him what is right,
24 He will take pity on him and say,“Deliver him from going down to the pit;I have found him a ransom.”
25 Then his flesh shall become soft as a boy’s;he shall be again as in the days of his youth.
26 He shall pray and God will favor him;he shall see God’s face with rejoicing;for he restores a person’s righteousness.
27 He shall sing before all and say,“I sinned and did wrong,yet I was not punished accordingly.
28 He delivered me from passing to the pit,and my life sees light.”
29 See, all these things God does,two, even three times, for a man,
30 Bringing back his soul from the pitto the light, in the light of the living.
31 Be attentive, Job, listen to me!Be silent and I will speak.
32 If you have anything to say, then answer me.Speak out! I should like to see you justified.
33 If not, then you listen to me;be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.