Job

33 But hear what I have to say, Job,

and give ear to all my words.

2 Here I am opening my mouth,

my tongue is speaking under its roof,

3* My say is the sincere expression of my heart

and my lips utter the best of their knowledge.

4 Deity’s spirit made me

and Shaddai’s breath put life into me.

5 Answer me if you can,

join issue and stand up to me.

6* You will find me to be in the same relation to Deity as you;

I was kneaded out of clay as you were.

7 Here will terror of me not overwhelm you

nor my duress weigh you down.

8* “Only—you said in my hearing,

I heard a sound of such words,

9 ‘I am pure, free from crime,

I am clear and have no guilt about me.

10* Here he is inventing antagonisms against me

and counting me as an enemy of his,

11 Setting my feet in the stocks

and watching all my paths.’

12* Here you are not right in this, I answer you,

because God is more than man.

13 How come you setting up a case against him

because he does not answer all your words?

14* For Deity speaks once for all

and does not repeat it a second time.

15 In a dream, a vision of the night,

when trances fall on men,

in slumbers on the bed,

16* Then he makes disclosure to men

and dismays them with sights that they see,

17* To turn away man from his doings

and prune away pride from a man,

18* Hold back his life from the grave

and his being from rushing upon destruction.

19 And he is admonished by pain on the bed

and the discord in his bones is perpetual,

20 And his inclination loathes bread

and his appetite the food it naturally craves.

21* His flesh gets too wasted to look at

and his bones so bare nobody will look at them,

22* And his life is near to the grave

and his being to the place of the dead.

23 If he has over him an angel,

an interpreter, one out of a thousand,

to tell man his right course,

24* And he is gracious to him and says

‘Let him off from going down to the Pit;

I have been given satisfaction,’

25 His flesh will grow plumper than in childhood;

he will come back to his youth.

26* He will invoke God and God will accept him,

and he will see his face with shouts of joy;

and he will give the man back his standing for righteousness.

27 He will sing before men and say

‘I sinned, I turned fair play to foul,

and he did not give ma measure for measure,

28 He has redeemed my life from passing into the Pit,

and my being has the sight of the light.’

29 Here Deity does all these things

twice over, three times, with a man,

30 To turn his life back from the Pit

to be lighted with the light of life;

31 Listen, Job, hear me,

be silent for me to speak.

32 If there is anything to be said, answer me;

speak, because I should like you to be in the right.

33 If there is not, hear me yourself;

be silent and let me acquaint you with wisdom.”