Job 33:5-22

New International Version

⁵ Answer me^(A) then, if you can;
    stand up^(B) and argue your case before me.^(C)
6 I am the same as you in God’s sight;^(D)
    I too am a piece of clay.^(E)
7 No fear of me should alarm you,
    nor should my hand be heavy on you.^(F)

⁸ “But you have said in my hearing—
    I heard the very words—
⁹ ‘I am pure,^(G) I have done no wrong;^(H)
    I am clean and free from sin.^(I)
10 Yet God has found fault with me;
    he considers me his enemy.^(J)
11 He fastens my feet in shackles;^(K)
    he keeps close watch on all my paths.’^(L)

¹² “But I tell you, in this you are not right,
    for God is greater than any mortal.^(M)
13 Why do you complain to him^(N)
    that he responds to no one’s words^[a]?^(O)
14 For God does speak^(P)—now one way, now another^(Q)—
    though no one perceives it.^(R)
15 In a dream,^(S) in a vision^(T) of the night,^(U)
    when deep sleep^(V) falls on people
    as they slumber in their beds,
¹⁶ he may speak^(W) in their ears
    and terrify them^(X) with warnings,^(Y)
17 to turn them from wrongdoing
    and keep them from pride,^(Z)
18 to preserve them from the pit,^(AA)
    their lives from perishing by the sword.^[b](AB)

¹⁹ “Or someone may be chastened^(AC) on a bed of pain^(AD)
    with constant distress in their bones,^(AE)
20 so that their body finds food^(AF) repulsive
    and their soul loathes the choicest meal.^(AG)
21 Their flesh wastes away to nothing,
    and their bones,^(AH) once hidden, now stick out.^(AI)
22 They draw near to the pit,^(AJ)
    and their life to the messengers of death.^[c](AK)