33 “But now, please hear my speeches,^[a] Job,
and hear^[b] all my words.
² Please look, I open my mouth;
my tongue in my mouth speaks.
³ My words declare my heart’s uprightness,
and my lips sincerely speak what my lips know.^[c]
4 The Spirit of God has made me,
and the breath of Shaddai gives life to me.
⁵ “If you are able, answer me.
Present your argument before me;^[d] take your stand.
⁶ Look, before God I am like you;^[e]
I myself was also formed from clay.
⁷ Look, dread of me should not terrify you,
and my hand will not be heavy upon you.
⁸ “Surely you have spoken in my ears,
and I have heard the sound of your words:^[f]
9 ‘I am clean, without transgression;
I am pure, and there is no guilt in me.
¹⁰ Look, he finds fault against me;
he reckons me as his enemy;
¹¹ he puts my feet in the block;
he watches all my paths.’
¹² “Look, in this you are not right—I will answer you:
Indeed, God is greater than a human being.
¹³ Why do you contend against him,
that he will not answer all a person’s words?
¹⁴ Indeed, God speaks in one way,
even^[g] in two,^[h] yet someone does not perceive it.
¹⁵ “In a dream, a vision of the night,
when a deep sleep falls on men slumbering on their bed,
¹⁶ then he opens the ear of men,
and he frightens them with a warning^[i]
17 to turn human beings aside from their deeds,
and he keeps man from pride.
¹⁸ He spares his life from the pit
and his life from passing over the river of death.
¹⁹ “And he is reproved with pain on his bed,
even^[j] with the strife of his bones continually,
²⁰ so that^[k] his life loathes bread,
and his inner self^[l] loathes appetizing food.^[m]
21 His flesh is wasted away from sight,
and his bones, which are invisible, are bared.
²² And he^[n] draws near to the pit
and his life to the killers.
²³ “If there is a messenger beside him, a mediator, one of a thousand,^[o]
to declare to a human being his uprightness
²⁴ so that^[p] he is gracious to him, and he says,
‘Deliver him from descending into the pit;
I have found a ransom.’
²⁵ His flesh is renewed with his youth;
he returns to the days of his youthful strength.
²⁶ He prays to God, then he accepts him,
and he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he repays to the human being his righteousness.
²⁷ “He will sing to men, and he will say,
‘I have sinned and have perverted what is right,
and it was not paid back to me.
²⁸ He redeemed my life from going down into the pit,
so^[q] I will enjoy the light.’^[r]
29 Look, God does all these things
twice, three times^[s] with a person
³⁰ to bring his life back from the pit
so that he may enjoy the light of life.^[t]
31 “Listen attentively, Job; listen to me;
be silent, and I will speak.
³² If you have anything to say,^[u] answer me;^[v]
speak, for I desire to justify you.^[w]
33 If not, you listen to me;
be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”