Job 1-5 (Amplified Bible)

Job 1

 ¹THERE WAS a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who [reverently] feared God and abstained from and shunned evil [because it was wrong].

    ²And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

    ³He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very great body of servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East.

    ⁴His sons used to go and feast in the house of each on his day (birthday) in turn, and they invited their three sisters to eat and drink with them.^(A)

    ⁵And when the days of their feasting were over, Job sent for them to purify and hallow 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 cursed or disowned God in their hearts. Thus did Job at all [such] times.

    ⁶Now there was a day when the sons (the angels) of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the adversary and accuser) also came among them.^(B)

    ⁷And the Lord said to Satan, From where did you come? Then Satan answered the Lord, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.

    ⁸And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who [reverently] fears God and abstains from and shuns evil [because it is wrong]?

    ⁹Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job [reverently] fear God for nothing?

    ¹⁰Have You not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have conferred prosperity and happiness upon him in the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

    ¹¹But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face.

    ¹²And the Lord said to Satan (the adversary and the accuser), Behold, all that he has is in your power, only upon the man himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

    ¹³And there was a day when [Job's] sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house [on his birthday],

    ¹⁴And there came a messenger to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,

    ¹⁵And the Sabeans swooped down upon them and took away [the animals]. Indeed, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

    ¹⁶While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The fire of God (lightning) has fallen from the heavens and has burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

    ¹⁷While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The Chaldeans divided into three bands and made a raid upon the camels and have taken them away, yes, and have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

    ¹⁸While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,

    ¹⁹And behold, there came a great [whirlwind] from the desert, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

    ²⁰Then Job arose and rent his robe and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped

    ²¹And said, Naked (without possessions) came I [into this world] from my mother's womb, and naked (without possessions) shall I depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed (praised and magnified in worship) be the name of the Lord!

    ²²In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly.

   

Job 2

 ¹AGAIN THERE was a day when the sons of God [the angels] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the adversary and the accuser) came also among them to present himself before the Lord.

    ²And the Lord said to Satan, From where do you come? And Satan (the adversary and the accuser) answered the Lord, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.

    ³And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who [reverently] fears God and abstains from and shuns all evil [because it is wrong]? And still he holds fast his integrity, although you moved Me against him to destroy him without cause.

    ⁴Then Satan answered the Lord, Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has will he give for his life.

    ⁵But put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse and renounce You to Your face.

    ⁶And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.

    ⁷So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with loathsome and painful sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

    ⁸And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself, and he sat [down] among the ashes.

    ⁹Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your blameless uprightness? Renounce God and die!

    ¹⁰But he said to her, You speak as one of the impious and foolish women would speak. What? Shall we accept [only] good at the hand of God and shall we not accept [also] misfortune and what is of a bad nature? In [spite of] all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

    ¹¹Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, for they had made an appointment together to come to condole with him and to comfort him.

    ¹²And when they looked from afar off and saw him [disfigured] beyond recognition, they lifted up their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe, and they cast dust over their heads toward the heavens.

    ¹³So they sat down with [Job] on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief and pain were very great.

   

Job 3

 ¹AFTER THIS, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day (birthday).

    ²And Job said,

    ³Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which announced, There is a man-child conceived.

    ⁴Let that day be darkness! May not God above regard it, nor light shine upon it.

    ⁵Let gloom and deep darkness claim it for their own; let a cloud dwell upon it; let all that blackens the day terrify it (the day that I was born).

    ⁶As for that night, let thick darkness seize it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

    ⁷Yes, let that night be solitary and barren; let no joyful voice come into it.

    ⁸Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled in rousing up Leviathan.

    ⁹Let the stars of the early dawn of that day be dark; let [the morning] look in vain for the light, nor let it behold the day's dawning,

    ¹⁰Because it shut not the doors of my mother's womb nor hid sorrow and trouble from my eyes.

    ¹¹Why was I not stillborn? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bore me?

    ¹²Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should suck?

    ¹³For then would I have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then would I have been at rest [in death]

    ¹⁴With kings and counselors of the earth, who built up [now] desolate ruins for themselves,

    ¹⁵Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

    ¹⁶Or [why] was I not a miscarriage, hidden and put away, as infants who never saw light?

    ¹⁷There [in death] the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.

    ¹⁸There the [captive] prisoners rest together; they hear not the taskmaster's voice.

    ¹⁹The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master.^(C)

    ²⁰Why is light [of life] given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,

    ²¹Who long and wait for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

    ²²Who rejoice exceedingly and are elated when they find the grave?

    ²³[Why is the light of day given] to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?

    ²⁴For my sighing comes before my food, and my groanings are poured out like water.

    ²⁵For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, and that of which I am afraid befalls me.

    ²⁶I was not or am not at ease, nor had I or have I rest, nor was I or am I quiet, yet trouble came and still comes [upon me].

   

Job 4

 ¹THEN ELIPHAZ the Temanite answered and said,

    ²If we venture to converse with you, will you be offended? Yet who can restrain himself from speaking?

    ³Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.

    ⁴Your words have held firm him who was falling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees.

    ⁵But now it is come upon you, and you faint and are grieved; it touches you, and you are troubled and dismayed.

    ⁶Is not your [reverent] fear of God your confidence and the integrity and uprightness of your ways your hope?

    ⁷Think [earnestly], I beg of you: who, being innocent, ever perished? Or where were those upright and in right standing with God cut off?

    ⁸As I myself have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble and mischief reap the same.

    ⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

    ¹⁰The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.

    ¹¹The old and strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.

    ¹²Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.

    ¹³In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

    ¹⁴Fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

    ¹⁵Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up!

    ¹⁶[The spirit] stood still, but I could not discern the appearance of it. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, and then I heard a voice, saying,

    ¹⁷Can mortal man be just before God, or be more right than He is? Can a man be pure before his Maker, or be more cleansed than He is?^(D)

    ¹⁸Even in His [heavenly] servants He puts no trust or confidence, and His angels He charges with folly and error--

    ¹⁹How much more those who dwell in houses (bodies) of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.

    ²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed; without anyone noticing it they perish forever.

    ²¹Is not their tent cord plucked up within them [so that the tent falls]? Do they not die, and that without [acquiring] wisdom?

   

Job 5

 ¹CALL NOW--is there any who will answer you? And to which of the holy [angels] will you turn?

    ²For ^[a]vexation and rage kill the foolish man; jealousy and indignation slay the simple.

    ³I have seen the foolish taking root [and outwardly prospering], but suddenly I saw that his dwelling was cursed [for his doom was certain].

    ⁴His children are far from safety; [involved in their father's ruin] they are crushed in the [court of justice in the city's] gate, and there is no one to deliver them.

    ⁵His harvest the hungry eat and take it even [when it grows] among the thorns; the snare opens for [his] wealth.

    ⁶For affliction comes not forth from the dust, neither does trouble spring forth out of the ground.

    ⁷But man is born to trouble as the sparks and the flames fly upward.

    ⁸As for me, I would seek God and inquire of and require Him, and to God would I commit my cause--

    ⁹Who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number,

    ¹⁰Who gives rain upon the earth and sends waters upon the fields,

    ¹¹So that He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn He lifts to safety.

    ¹²He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise or anything of [lasting] worth.

    ¹³He catches the [so-called] wise in their own trickiness, and the counsel of the schemers is brought to a quick end.^(E)

    ¹⁴In the daytime they meet in darkness, and at noon they grope as in the night.

    ¹⁵But [God] saves [the fatherless] from the sword of their mouth, and the needy from the hand of the mighty.

    ¹⁶So the poor have hope, and iniquity shuts her mouth.

    ¹⁷Happy and fortunate is the man whom God reproves; so do not despise or reject the correction of the Almighty [subjecting you to trial and suffering].

    ¹⁸For He wounds, but He binds up; He smites, but His hands heal.

    ¹⁹He will rescue you in six troubles; in seven nothing that is evil [for you] will touch you.

    ²⁰In famine He will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.

    ²¹You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

    ²²At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the living creatures of the earth.

    ²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.

    ²⁴And you shall know that your tent shall be in peace, and you shall visit your fold and your dwelling and miss nothing [from them].

    ²⁵You shall know also that your children shall be many, and your offspring as the grass of the earth.

    ²⁶You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, and as a shock of grain goes up [to the threshing floor] in its season.

    ²⁷This is what we have searched out; it is true. Hear and heed it and know for yourself [for your good].