Job - The Old Testament

¹ So, Job, please listen to my words and attend to all I have to say.

² Now as I open my mouth, and my tongue shapes words against my palate,

³ I shall utter words of wisdom from the heart, my lips will speak in all sincerity.

⁴ God's was the spirit that made me, Shaddai's the breath that gave me life.

⁵ Refute me, if you can. Prepare yourself, take up your position!

⁶ Look, I am your equal, not some god, like you I was moulded out of clay.

⁷ No fear of me, therefore, need affright you, my hand will not lie heavy over you.

⁸ How could you say in my hearing -- for the sound of your words did not escape me-

⁹ 'I am clean, and sinless, I am pure, without fault.

¹⁰ But he keeps inventing excuses against me and regards me as his enemy.

¹¹ He puts me in the stocks, he watches my every path'?

¹² In saying so, I tell you, you are wrong: for God is greater than any human being.

¹³ Why then quarrel with him for not replying to you, word for word?

¹⁴ God speaks first in one way, and then in another, although we do not realise it.

¹⁵ In dreams and in night-visions, when slumber has settled on humanity and people are asleep in bed,

¹⁶ he speaks in someone's ear, frightens him with apparitions

¹⁷ to turn him from what he is doing and to put an end to his pride.

¹⁸ And thus he preserves his soul from the abyss, his life from passing down the Canal.

¹⁹ Or again, he corrects by the sufferings of the sick-bed, when someone's bones tremble continuously

²⁰ and the thought of food revolts him, however tasty it is,

²¹ and his flesh rots away while you watch it and the bones beneath begin to show,

²² and his soul is drawing nearer to the abyss and his life to the dwelling of the dead.

²³ Then, if there is an Angel near him, a Mediator, one in a thousand, to remind him where his duty lies,

²⁴ to take pity on him and to say, 'Spare him from going down to the abyss: I have found the ransom for his life,'

²⁵ his flesh will recover its childhood freshness, he will return to the days of his youth.

²⁶ He will pray to God who has restored him to favour, and will come into his presence with joy. He will tell others how he has received saving justice

²⁷ and sing this hymn before his companions, 'I sinned and left the path of right, but God has not punished me as my sin deserved.

²⁸ He has spared my soul from going down to the abyss and is making my life see the light.'

²⁹ All this is what God keeps doing again and yet again for human beings,

³⁰ to snatch souls back from the abyss and to make the light of the living still shine.

³¹ Pay attention, Job, listen to me: keep quiet, I have more to say.

³² If you have anything to say, refute me, speak out, for I would gladly accept that you are upright.

³³ If not, then listen to me: keep quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.