“I am young in years,
    and you are aged;
therefore I was timid and afraid
    to declare my opinion to you.
⁷ I said, ‘Let days speak,
    and many years teach wisdom.’
⁸ But it is the spirit in man,
    the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.
⁹ It is not the old^[a] who are wise,
    nor the aged who understand what is right.
¹⁰ Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;
    let me also declare my opinion.’

¹¹ “Behold, I waited for your words,
    I listened for your wise sayings,
    while you searched out what to say.
¹² I gave you my attention,
    and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job
    or who answered his words.
¹³ Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom;
    God may vanquish him, not a man.’
¹⁴ He has not directed his words against me,
    and I will not answer him with your speeches.

¹⁵ “They are dismayed; they answer no more;
    they have not a word to say.
¹⁶ And shall I wait, because they do not speak,
    because they stand there, and answer no more?
¹⁷ I also will answer with my share;
    I also will declare my opinion.
¹⁸ For I am full of words;
    the spirit within me constrains me.
¹⁹ Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent;
    like new wineskins ready to burst.
²⁰ I must speak, that I may find relief;
    I must open my lips and answer.
²¹ I will not show partiality to any man
    or use flattery toward any person.
²² For I do not know how to flatter,
    else my Maker would soon take me away.

⁸ “Surely you have spoken in my ears,
    and I have heard the sound of your words.
⁹ You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression;
    I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.
¹⁰ Behold, he finds occasions against me,
    he counts me as his enemy,
¹¹ he puts my feet in the stocks
    and watches all my paths.’

¹² “Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you,
    for God is greater than man.
¹³ Why do you contend against him,
    saying, ‘He will answer none of man's^[b] words’?^[c]
14 For God speaks in one way,
    and in two, though man does not perceive it.
¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night,
    when deep sleep falls on men,
    while they slumber on their beds,
¹⁶ then he opens the ears of men
    and terrifies^[d] them with warnings,
¹⁷ that he may turn man aside from his deed
    and conceal pride from a man;
¹⁸ he keeps back his soul from the pit,
    his life from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹ “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed
    and with continual strife in his bones,
²⁰ so that his life loathes bread,
    and his appetite the choicest food.
²¹ His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,
    and his bones that were not seen stick out.
²² His soul draws near the pit,
    and his life to those who bring death.
²³ If there be for him an angel,
    a mediator, one of the thousand,
    to declare to man what is right for him,
²⁴ and he is merciful to him, and says,
    ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;
    I have found a ransom;
²⁵ let his flesh become fresh with youth;
    let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;
²⁶ then man^[e] prays to God, and he accepts him;
    he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he restores to man his righteousness.
²⁷     He sings before men and says:
‘I sinned and perverted what was right,
    and it was not repaid to me.
²⁸ He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,
    and my life shall look upon the light.’

²⁹ “Behold, God does all these things,
    twice, three times, with a man,
³⁰ to bring back his soul from the pit,
    that he may be lighted with the light of life.
³¹ Pay attention, O Job, listen to me;
    be silent, and I will speak.
³² If you have any words, answer me;
    speak, for I desire to justify you.
³³ If not, listen to me;
    be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

² “Hear my words, you wise men,
    and give ear to me, you who know;
³ for the ear tests words
    as the palate tastes food.
⁴ Let us choose what is right;
    let us know among ourselves what is good.
⁵ For Job has said, ‘I am in the right,
    and God has taken away my right;
⁶ in spite of my right I am counted a liar;
    my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’
⁷ What man is like Job,
    who drinks up scoffing like water,
⁸ who travels in company with evildoers
    and walks with wicked men?
⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing
    that he should take delight in God.’

¹⁰ “Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding:
    far be it from God that he should do wickedness,
    and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.
¹¹ For according to the work of a man he will repay him,
    and according to his ways he will make it befall him.
¹² Of a truth, God will not do wickedly,
    and the Almighty will not pervert justice.
¹³ Who gave him charge over the earth,
    and who laid on him^[f] the whole world?
¹⁴ If he should set his heart to it
    and gather to himself his spirit and his breath,
¹⁵ all flesh would perish together,
    and man would return to dust.

¹⁶ “If you have understanding, hear this;
    listen to what I say.
¹⁷ Shall one who hates justice govern?
    Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,
¹⁸ who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’
    and to nobles, ‘Wicked man,’
¹⁹ who shows no partiality to princes,
    nor regards the rich more than the poor,
    for they are all the work of his hands?
²⁰ In a moment they die;
    at midnight the people are shaken and pass away,
    and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

²¹ “For his eyes are on the ways of a man,
    and he sees all his steps.
²² There is no gloom or deep darkness
    where evildoers may hide themselves.
²³ For God^[g] has no need to consider a man further,
    that he should go before God in judgment.
²⁴ He shatters the mighty without investigation
    and sets others in their place.
²⁵ Thus, knowing their works,
    he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.
²⁶ He strikes them for their wickedness
    in a place for all to see,
²⁷ because they turned aside from following him
    and had no regard for any of his ways,
²⁸ so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him,
    and he heard the cry of the afflicted—
²⁹ When he is quiet, who can condemn?
    When he hides his face, who can behold him,
    whether it be a nation or a man?—
³⁰ that a godless man should not reign,
    that he should not ensnare the people.

³¹ “For has anyone said to God,
    ‘I have borne punishment; I will not offend any more;
³² teach me what I do not see;
    if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?
³³ Will he then make repayment to suit you,
    because you reject it?
For you must choose, and not I;
    therefore declare what you know.^[h]
34 Men of understanding will say to me,
    and the wise man who hears me will say:
³⁵ ‘Job speaks without knowledge;
    his words are without insight.’
³⁶ Would that Job were tried to the end,
    because he answers like wicked men.
³⁷ For he adds rebellion to his sin;
    he claps his hands among us
    and multiplies his words against God.”