4:1Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and bitterly. 4:2He came even before the king’s gate, for no one is allowed inside the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. 4:3In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. 4:4Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he didn’t receive it. 4:5Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was. 4:6So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to city square which was before the king’s gate. 4:7Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. 4:8He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people. 4:9Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. 4:10Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai: 4:11“All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.” 4:12They told to Mordecai Esther’s words. 4:13Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews. 4:14For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 4:15Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai, 4:16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” 4:17So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
5:1Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, next to the king’s house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house. 5:2When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near, and touched the top of the scepter. 5:3Then the king asked her, “What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom.” 5:4Esther said, “If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.” 5:5Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be done as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. 5:6The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.” 5:7Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and my request is this. 5:8If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.” 5:9Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he didn’t stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. 5:10Nevertheless Haman restrained himself, and went home. There, he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh his wife. 5:11Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. 5:12Haman also said, “Yes, Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow I am also invited by her together with the king. 5:13Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” 5:14Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet.” This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.
6:1On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king. 6:2It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who were doorkeepers, who had tried to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus. 6:3The king said, “What honor and dignity has been given to Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” 6:4The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outer court of the king’s house, to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. 6:5The king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman stands in the court.” The king said, “Let him come in.” 6:6So Haman came in. The king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman said in his heart, “Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?” 6:7Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 6:8let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a crown royal is set. 6:9Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’” 6:10Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.” 6:11Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!” 6:12Mordecai came back to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered. 6:13Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him.” 6:14While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
7:1So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. 7:2The king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition, queen Esther? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.” 7:3Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. 7:4For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for male and female slaves, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s loss.” 7:5Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he who dared presume in his heart to do so?” 7:6Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. 7:7The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden. Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. 7:8Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in front of me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 7:9Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were with the king said, “Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman’s house.” The king said, “Hang him on it!” 7:10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.
8:1On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her. 8:2The king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. 8:3Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his plan that he had planned against the Jews. 8:4Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the king. 8:5She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 8:6For how can I endure to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?” 8:7Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews. 8:8Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring; for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may not be reversed by any man.” 8:9Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language. 8:10He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal horses that were bred from swift steeds. 8:11In those letters, the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together, and to defend their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions, 8:12on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. 8:13A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 8:14So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. 8:15Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was glad. 8:16The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor. 8:17In every province, and in every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness, joy, a feast, and a good day. Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews was fallen on them.
9:1Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s commandment and his decree came near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them), 9:2the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them. No one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the people. 9:3All the princes of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who did the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. 9:4For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater. 9:5The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to those who hated them. 9:6In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 9:7They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 9:8Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9:9Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, 9:10the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy, but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder. 9:11On that day, the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was brought before the king. 9:12The king said to Esther the queen, “The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the citadel of Susa, including the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your further request? It shall be done.” 9:13Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.” 9:14The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons. 9:15The Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder. 9:16The other Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder. 9:17This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 9:18But the Jews who were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 9:19Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of sending presents of food to one another. 9:20Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, 9:21to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly, 9:22as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy. 9:23The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them; 9:24because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast “Pur”, that is the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; 9:25but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plan, which he had planned against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 9:26Therefore they called these days “Purim”, from the word “Pur.” Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them, 9:27the Jews established, and imposed on themselves, and on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and according to its appointed time, every year; 9:28and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their offspring, 9:29Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. 9:30He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, 9:31to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the matter of the fastings and their cry. 9:32The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.
10:1King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and on the islands of the sea. 10:2All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 10:3For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his descendants.
Job
1:1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. 1:2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 1:3His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east. 1:4His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. 1:5It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually. 1:6Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. 1:7Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” 1:8Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.” 1:9Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 1:10Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 1:11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.” 1:12Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh. 1:13It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 1:14that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, 1:15and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 1:16While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 1:17While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 1:18While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 1:19and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.” 1:20Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped. 1:21He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.” 1:22In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.
2:1Again, on the day when the God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh. 2:2Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” 2:3Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.” 2:4Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. 2:5But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.” 2:6Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.” 2:7So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. 2:8He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. 2:9Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.” 2:10But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips. 2:11Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. 2:12When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. 2:13So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
3:1After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. 3:2Job answered: 3:3“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’ 3:4Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it. 3:5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it. 3:6As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months. 3:7Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein. 3:8Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan. 3:9Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning, 3:10because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes. 3:11“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me? 3:12Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse? 3:13For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest, 3:14with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves; 3:15or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 3:16or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light. 3:17There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest. 3:18There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster. 3:19The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master. 3:20“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul, 3:21Who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, 3:22who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave? 3:23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? 3:24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water. 3:25For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me. 3:26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble comes.”
4:1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, 4:2“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking? 4:3Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands. 4:4Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees. 4:5But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled. 4:6Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope? 4:7“Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off? 4:8According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same. 4:9By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed. 4:10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. 4:11The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad. 4:12“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it. 4:13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, 4:14fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. 4:15Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up. 4:16It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying, 4:17‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? 4:18Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error. 4:19How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth! 4:20Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it. 4:21Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’
5:1“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? 5:2For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple. 5:3I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation. 5:4His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them, 5:5whose harvest the hungry eats up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance. 5:6For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground; 5:7but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. 5:8“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God, 5:9who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number; 5:10who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields; 5:11so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety. 5:12He frustrates the plans of the crafty, So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise. 5:13He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong. 5:14They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night. 5:15But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty. 5:16So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth. 5:17“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. 5:18For he wounds, and binds up. He injures, and his hands make whole. 5:19He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil shall touch you. 5:20In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword. 5:21You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes. 5:22At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth. 5:23For you shall be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you. 5:24You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing. 5:25You shall know also that your offspring shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth. 5:26You shall come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season. 5:27Look this, we have searched it, so it is. Hear it, and know it for your good.”
6:1Then Job answered, 6:2“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! 6:3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash. 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me. 6:5Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder? 6:6Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? 6:7My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me. 6:8“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for, 6:9even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! 6:10Be it still my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One. 6:11What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient? 6:12Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass? 6:13Isn’t it that I have no help in me, That wisdom is driven quite from me? 6:14“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 6:15My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away; 6:16Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself. 6:17In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. 6:18The caravans that travel beside them turn away. They go up into the waste, and perish. 6:19The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them. 6:20They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded. 6:21For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid. 6:22Did I say, ‘Give to me?’ or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance?’ 6:23or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand?’ or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?’ 6:24“Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred. 6:25How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove? 6:26Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind? 6:27Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend. 6:28Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I shall not lie to your face. 6:29Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous. 6:30Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?
7:1“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand? 7:2As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages, 7:3so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me. 7:4When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day. 7:5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh. 7:6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. 7:7Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good. 7:8The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be. 7:9As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more. 7:10He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more. 7:11“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 7:12Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me? 7:13When I say, ‘My bed shall comfort me. My couch shall ease my complaint;’ 7:14then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions: 7:15so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones. 7:16I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. 7:17What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him, 7:18that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment? 7:19How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle? 7:20If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself? 7:21Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”
8:1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, 8:2“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind? 8:3Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness? 8:4If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience. 8:5If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty. 8:6If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous. 8:7Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase. 8:8“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers. 8:9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.) 8:10Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart? 8:11“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water? 8:12While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed. 8:13So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish, 8:14Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider’s web. 8:15He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand. He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure. 8:16He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden. 8:17His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones. 8:18If he is destroyed from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’ 8:19Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others shall spring. 8:20“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers. 8:21He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting. 8:22Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more.”
9:1Then Job answered, 9:2“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God? 9:3If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand. 9:4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered? 9:5He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger. 9:6He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble. 9:7He commands the sun, and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars. 9:8He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea. 9:9He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south. 9:10He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number. 9:11Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him. 9:12Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ 9:13“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him. 9:14How much less shall I answer him, And choose my words to argue with him? 9:15Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge. 9:16If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice. 9:17For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause. 9:18He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness. 9:19If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’ 9:20Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse. 9:21I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life. 9:22“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked. 9:23If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent. 9:24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it? 9:25“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good. 9:26They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey. 9:27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;’ 9:28I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent. 9:29I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain? 9:30If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, 9:31yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me. 9:32For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment. 9:33There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both. 9:34Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid; 9:35then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.
10:1“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 10:2I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. 10:3Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked? 10:4Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees? 10:5Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years, 10:6that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin? 10:7Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand. 10:8“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me. 10:9Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again? 10:10Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese? 10:11You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. 10:12You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit. 10:13Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you: 10:14if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity. 10:15If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction. 10:16If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me. 10:17You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me. 10:18“‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me. 10:19I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. 10:20Aren’t my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, 10:21before I go where I shall not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death; 10:22the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”
11:1Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered, 11:2“Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified? 11:3Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed? 11:4For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’ 11:5But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you, 11:6that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves. 11:7“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty? 11:8They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know? 11:9Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. 11:10If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him? 11:11For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it. 11:12An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt. 11:13“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him. 11:14If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents. 11:15Surely then you shall lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear: 11:16for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it like waters that have passed away. 11:17Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning. 11:18You shall be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety. 11:19Also you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid. Yes, many shall court your favor. 11:20But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit.”
12:1Then Job answered, 12:2“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. 12:3But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? 12:4I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. 12:5In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. 12:6The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands. 12:7“But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. 12:8Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you. 12:9Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this, 12:10in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? 12:11Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? 12:12With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. 12:13“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. 12:14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. 12:15Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. 12:16With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. 12:17He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. 12:18He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. 12:19He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. 12:20He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. 12:21He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. 12:22He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. 12:23He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. 12:24He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. 12:25They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.