21 Then Job answered,

² Hear diligently my speech, and let this [your attention] be your consolation [given me].

³ Allow me, and I also will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on.

⁴ As for me, is my complaint to man or of him? And why should I not be impatient and my spirit be troubled?

⁵ Look at me and be astonished (appalled); and lay your hand upon your mouth.

⁶ Even when I remember, I am troubled and afraid; horror and trembling take hold of my flesh.

⁷ Why do the wicked live, become old, and become mighty in power?

⁸ Their children are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.

⁹ Their houses are safe and in peace, without fear; neither is the rod of God upon them.

¹⁰ Their bull breeds and fails not; their cows calve and do not miscarry.

¹¹ They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children skip about.

¹² They themselves lift up their voices and sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

¹³ They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol (the unseen state) in a moment and peacefully.

¹⁴ Yet they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.

¹⁵ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?^(A)

¹⁶ But notice, [you say] the prosperity of the wicked is not in their power; the mystery [of God’s dealings] with the ungodly is far from my comprehension.

¹⁷ How often [then] is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains and sorrows to them in His anger?^(B)

¹⁸ That they are like stubble before the wind and like chaff that the storm steals and carries away?

¹⁹ You say, God lays up [the punishment of the wicked man’s] iniquity for his children. Let Him recompense it to the man himself, that he may know and feel it.

²⁰ Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹ For what pleasure or interest has a man in his house and family after he is dead, when the number of his months is cut off?

²² Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing that He judges those who are on high?^(C)

²³ One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;

²⁴ His pails are full of milk [his veins are filled with nourishment], and the marrow of his bones is fresh and moist,

²⁵ Whereas another man dies in bitterness of soul and never tastes of pleasure or good fortune.

²⁶ They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm spreads a covering over them.

²⁷ Behold, I know your thoughts and plans and the devices with which you would wrong me.

²⁸ For you say, Where is the house of the rich and liberal prince [meaning me]? And where is the tent in which the wicked [Job] dwelt?

²⁹ Have you not asked those who travel this way, and do you not accept their testimony and evidences—

³⁰ That the evil man is [now] spared in the day of calamity and destruction, and they are led forth and away on the day of [God’s] wrath?

³¹ But who declares [a man’s] way [and rebukes] him to his face? And who pays him back for what he has done?

³² When he is borne to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.

³³ The clods of the valley are sweet to him, and every man shall follow him to a grave, as innumerable people [have gone] before him.

³⁴ How then can you comfort me with empty and futile words, since in your replies there lurks falsehood?

22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered [Job],

² Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he that is wise is profitable to himself.^(A)

³ Is it any pleasure or advantage to the Almighty that you are righteous (upright and in right standing with Him)? Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways perfect?^(B)

⁴ Is it for your [reverential] fear of Him that He [thus] reproves you, that He enters with you into judgment?

⁵ Is not your wickedness great? There is no end to your iniquities.

⁶ For you have taken pledges of your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷ You have not given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.^(C)

⁸ But [you, Job] the man with power possessed the land, and the favored and accepted man dwelt in it.

⁹ You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

¹⁰ Therefore snares are round about you, and sudden fear troubles and overwhelms you;

¹¹ Your light is darkened, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

¹² Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

¹³ Therefore you say, How and what does God know [about me]? Can He judge through the thick darkness?

¹⁴ Thick clouds are a covering to Him, so that He does not see, and He walks on the vault of the heavens.

¹⁵ Will you pay attention and keep to the old way that wicked men trod [in Noah’s time],^(D)

¹⁶ Men who were snatched away before their time, whose foundations were poured out like a stream [during the flood]?

¹⁷ They said to God, Depart from us, and, What can the Almighty do for or to us?

¹⁸ Yet He filled their houses with good [things]. But the counsel of the ungodly is far from me.

¹⁹ The righteous see it and are glad; and the innocent laugh them to scorn [saying],

²⁰ Surely those who rose up against us are cut off, and that which remained to them the fire has consumed.

²¹ Acquaint now yourself with Him [agree with God and show yourself to be conformed to His will] and be at peace; by that [you shall prosper and great] good shall come to you.

²² Receive, I pray you, the law and instruction from His mouth and lay up His words in your heart.^(E)

²³ If you return to the Almighty [and submit and humble yourself before Him], you will be built up; if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents,

²⁴ If you lay gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brook [considering them of little worth],

²⁵ And make the Almighty your gold and [the Lord] your precious silver treasure,

²⁶ Then you will have delight in the Almighty, and you will lift up your face to God.

²⁷ You will make your prayer to Him, and He will hear you, and you will pay your vows.

²⁸ You shall also decide and decree a thing, and it shall be established for you; and the light [of God’s favor] shall shine upon your ways.

²⁹ When they make [you] low, you will say, [There is] a lifting up; and the humble person He lifts up and saves.

³⁰ He will even deliver the one [for whom you intercede] who is not innocent; yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.^(F)

23 Then Job answered,

² Even today is my complaint rebellious and bitter; my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

³ Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat!

⁴ I would lay my cause before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵ I would learn what He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me.

⁶ Would He plead against me with His great power? No, He would give heed to me.^(A)

⁷ There the righteous [one who is upright and in right standing with God] could reason with Him; so I should be acquitted by my Judge forever.

⁸ Behold, I go forward [and to the east], but He is not there; I go backward [and to the west], but I cannot perceive Him;

⁹ On the left hand [and to the north] where He works [I seek Him], but I cannot behold Him; He turns Himself to the right hand [and to the south], but I cannot see Him.

¹⁰ But He knows the way that I take [He has concern for it, appreciates, and pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I shall come forth as refined gold [pure and luminous].^(B)

¹¹ My foot has held fast to His steps; His ways have I kept and not turned aside.

¹² I have not gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed and treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³ But He is unchangeable, and who can turn Him? And what He wants to do, that He does.

¹⁴ For He performs [that which He has] planned for me, and of many such matters He is mindful.

¹⁵ Therefore am I troubled and terrified at His presence; when I consider, I am in dread and afraid of Him.

¹⁶ For God has made my heart faint, timid, and broken, and the Almighty has terrified me,

¹⁷ Because I was not cut off before the darkness [of these woes befell me], neither has He covered the thick darkness from my face.

24 Why [seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty] does He not set seasons for judgment? Why do those who know Him see not His days [for punishment of the wicked]?^(A)

² Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks and pasture them [appropriating land and flocks openly].

³ They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

⁴ They crowd the poor and needy off the road; the poor and meek of the earth all hide themselves.

⁵ Behold, as wild asses in the desert, [the poor] go forth to their work, seeking diligently for prey and food; the wilderness yields them bread for their children [in roots and herbage].

⁶ They reap each one his fodder in a field [that is not his own], and they glean the vintage of the wicked man.

⁷ They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

⁸ They are wet with the showers of the mountains and cling to the rock for want of shelter.

⁹ [The violent men whose wickedness seems unnoticed] pluck the fatherless infants from the breast [to sell or make them slaves], and take [the clothing on] the poor for a pledge,

¹⁰ So that the needy go about naked for lack of clothing, and though hungry, they must carry [but not eat from] the sheaves.

¹¹ Among the olive rows [of the wicked, the poor] make oil; they tread [the fresh juice of the grape from] the presses, but suffer thirst.

¹² From out of the populous city men groan, and the very life of the wounded cries for help; yet God [seemingly] regards not the wrong done them.

¹³ These wrongdoers are of those who rebel against the light; they know not its ways nor stay in its paths.

¹⁴ The murderer rises with the light; he kills the poor and the needy, and in the night he becomes as a thief.

¹⁵ The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, and he puts a disguise upon his face.

¹⁶ In the dark, they dig through [the penetrable walls of] houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the sunlight.

¹⁷ For midnight is morning to all of them; for they are familiar with the terrors of deep darkness.

¹⁸ [You say] Swiftly such men pass away on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth; [no treader] turns into their vineyards.

¹⁹ Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so does Sheol (the place of the dead) those who have sinned.

²⁰ The womb shall forget him, the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered, and unrighteousness shall be broken like a tree [which cannot be healed].^(B)

²¹ [The evil man] preys upon the barren, childless woman and does no good to the widow.

²² Yet [God] prolongs the life of the [wicked] mighty by His power; they rise up when they had despaired of life.

²³ God gives them security, and they rest on it; and His eyes are upon their ways.

²⁴ They are exalted for a little while, and then are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others are and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

²⁵ And if this is not so, who will prove me a liar and make my speech worthless?