² “Hear my words, you wise men,
and listen to me, you who know,
³ for the ear tests words,
and the palate tastes food.^[c]
4 Let us choose justice for ourselves;
let us determine among ourselves what is good—
⁵ for Job has said, ‘I am righteous,
but God has taken away my justice.
⁶ Should I lie concerning my justice?
Though I am without transgression, my wound caused by an arrow is incurable.’
⁷ What man is like Job,
who drinks scorn like water?
⁸ And he goes on the road in company with instigators of mischief,
and walks with men of wickedness.
⁹ Indeed, he says, ‘A man does not profit
when he takes delight in God.’
¹⁰ “Therefore, listen to me, people who have sense:^[d]
far be it from God that he should commit wickedness^[e]
and that Shaddai should do wrong.^[f]
11 Indeed, he will repay according to a human being’s deeds,
and according to a man’s way he will let it happen to him.
¹² What’s more, God truly does not act wickedly,
and Shaddai does not pervert justice.
¹³ Who gave him charge over the earth?
Or^[g] who laid on him the whole world?
¹⁴ If he should set his heart to it,
and he should gather his spirit and his breath to himself,
¹⁵ all flesh would perish together,
and humankind would return to dust.
¹⁶ “But^[h] if you have understanding, hear this;
listen to what I say.^[i]
17 Shall he who hates justice really govern?
Or will you^[j] declare the Righteous One, the Mighty, guilty?—
¹⁸ the one who says to a king,
‘You worthless man,’ to noblemen, ‘You wicked man,’
¹⁹ who shows no partiality to officials^[k]
and who does not take note of the noble more than of the insignificant,^[l]
for all of them are the work of his hands?
²⁰ In a moment they die,
and in the middle of the night the people are shaken, and they pass away,
and they take away the mighty effortlessly.^[m]
21 “Indeed, his eyes are upon the ways of man,
and he sees all his steps.
²² There is no darkness, and there is no deep shadow
where instigators of mischief might hide themselves.
²³ Indeed, he has not yet appointed a time for man
to go to God in the judgment.
²⁴ He shatters the mighty without investigation,
and he sets others in their place.
²⁵ Therefore he knows their works,
and he overturns them in the night
so that^[n] they are crushed.
²⁶ He strikes them where the wicked stood,^[o]
where there are onlookers,^[p]
27 because they have turned aside from him
and have not understood any of his ways,
²⁸ so that they cause the cry of distress from the helpless to come to him,
and he hears the cry of distress from the needy,
²⁹ but he remains quiet, and who can condemn?
And he hides his face, and who can behold him?
Yet^[q] he is over a nation and over a person alike,
³⁰ so that godless human beings should not reign,
nor those who ensnare the people.
³¹ “Indeed, does anyone say to God, ‘I have endured chastisement;
I will not act corruptly again;
³² teach me yourself what I cannot see;^[r]
if I have done wrong, I will not repeat it’?
³³ According to your judgment,^[s] must he repay it because you rejected this?
Indeed, you must choose, and not I, so^[t] declare what you know.
³⁴ Those who have sense^[u] say to me,
and the wise man hearing me says:
³⁵ ‘Job speaks without knowledge,
and his words are without insight.
³⁶ Would that Job were tested up to the end
because his answers are like those from men of mischief,
³⁷ for he adds transgression to his sin;
he claps hands among us,
and he multiplies his words against God.’”