When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?

Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.”

When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.

Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?

that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin—

clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?

If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished.

and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.

if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,

How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin.

For you write down bitter things against me and make me reap the sins of my youth.

Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.

My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.

Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty.

“If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’

“Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind was placed on the earth,

They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre; they make merry to the sound of the pipe.

“Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he judges even the highest?

Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?

As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.

The one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing.

Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?

For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged.

then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.

I have not allowed my mouth to sin by invoking a curse against their life—

if I have concealed my sin as people do, by hiding my guilt in my heart

My words come from an upright heart; my lips sincerely speak what I know.

‘I am pure, I have done no wrong; I am clean and free from sin.

And they will go to others and say, ‘I have sinned, I have perverted what is right, but I did not get what I deserved.

To his sin he adds rebellion; scornfully he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God.”

Yet you ask him, ‘What profit is it to me, and what do I gain by not sinning?’

If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him?

he tells them what they have done— that they have sinned arrogantly.

Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.