² ‘Nothing that a man can do will help God.
    Even a wise man cannot help God.
³ If you are a righteous person,
    it does nothing to help Almighty God.
If you live a completely good life,
    it still does not help him.
⁴ It is not because you respect and obey God
    that he punishes you.
It is not because you are a good person
    that he accuses you.
⁵ No! It is because you are a very wicked person.
You have done too many evil things for anyone to count them.
    That is why he is punishing you.

⁶ You took things from your friends when you lent money to them.
    You had no reason to do that.
You even took away the only clothes that poor people were wearing.^[b]
7 When you met people who were weak and tired,
    you did not give them any water to drink.
You refused to feed hungry people.
⁸ You were a powerful man,
    with land that belonged to you.
People respected you.
    Your land gave you a good life.
⁹ But you refused to help widows.
    You were cruel to children who have no family.
¹⁰ That is why you have so many troubles.
    That is why you shake with fear.
¹¹ It seems to you that you are in the dark
    and you cannot see.
You feel as if a flood of deep water covers you.

¹² God lives high above us in heaven.
    Look up at the stars and see how high they are!
¹³ So you say, “God does not know about us.
He cannot judge us,
    because darkness hides us from him.
¹⁴ Thick clouds cover him,
    so that he does not see us.
He moves around high above the sky.”

¹⁵ Job, you must not continue to turn against God.
    That is the way that evil people lived long ago.
¹⁶ Those people died before they should have done.
    A great flood of water took them away.
    They had no safe place to stand.^[c]
17 They said to God, “Leave us alone!”
    They thought that Almighty God could not hurt them.
¹⁸ But it was God who gave them many good things to enjoy.
    So I cannot accept the ideas of wicked people.
¹⁹ God punishes wicked people.
When righteous people see that happen,
    they are happy.
Good people then laugh at wicked people.
²⁰ They say, “God has destroyed our enemies.
    He has burned all their valuable things in a fire.”

    Have peace in your mind about him.
Then you will again have good success.
²² Listen to his teaching.
    Remember carefully what he tells you.
²³ Turn back to the Almighty God,
    so that you become strong again.
Stop all the evil things that happen in your house.
²⁴ Throw away your gold things.
    Throw your pure gold among the rocks in the streams.
²⁵ Then the Almighty God will be like gold for you.
    He will be like your valuable silver.^[d]
26 You will be happy that Almighty God is your friend.
    You will look up to him to help you.
²⁷ You will pray to him, and he will answer you.
    You will do the things that you have promised to him.
²⁸ You will be able to do everything that you decide to do.
    Light from God will show you the right way to go.
²⁹ You will pray for God to help people who are in trouble.
    God will save those people who are humble.
³⁰ God will rescue even people who are guilty.
Because you do what is right,
    God will save those people.’