Job 6

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 Ah, could my anguish but be measured and my calamity laid with it in the scales,
3 They would now outweigh the sands of the sea! Because of this I speak without restraint.
4 For the arrows of the Almighty pierce me, and my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
5 Does the wild ass bray when he has grass? Does the ox low over his fodder?
6 Can a thing insipid be eaten without salt? Is there flavor in the white of an egg?
7 I refuse to touch them; they are loathsome food to me.
8 Oh, that I might have my request, and that God would grant what I long for:
9 Even that God would decide to crush me, that he would put forth his hand and cut me off!
10 Then I should still have consolation and could exult through unremitting pain, because I have not transgressed the commands of the Holy One.
11 What strength have I that I should endure, and what is my limit that I should be patient?
12 Have I the strength of stones, or is my flesh of bronze?
13 Have I no helper, and has advice deserted me?
14 A friend owes kindness to one in despair, though he have forsaken the fear of the Almighty.
15 My brethren are undependable as a brook, as watercourses that run dry in the wadies;
16 Though they may be black with ice, and with snow heaped upon them,
17 Yet once they flow, they cease to be; in the heat, they disappear from their place.
18 Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the desert and perish.
19 The caravans of Tema search, the companies of Sheba have hopes;
20 They are disappointed, though they were confident; they come there and are frustrated.
21 It is thus that you have now become for me; you see a terrifying thing and are afraid.
22 Have I asked you to give me anything, to offer a gift for me from your possessions,
23 Or to deliver me from the enemy, or to redeem me from oppressors?
24 Teach me, and I will be silent; prove to me wherein I have erred.
25 How agreeable are honest words; yet how unconvincing is your argument!
26 Do you consider your words as proof, but the sayings of a desperate man as wind?
27 You would even cast lots for the orphan, and would barter away your friend!
28 Come, now, give me your attention; surely I will not lie to your face.
29 Think it over; let there be no injustice. Think it over; I still am right.
30 Is there insincerity on my tongue, or cannot my taste discern falsehood?

Job 7

1 Is not man's life on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of a hireling?
2 He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hireling who waits for his wages.
3 So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been told off for me.
4 If in bed I say, When shall I arise? then the night drags on; I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and scabs; my skin cracks and festers;
6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
7 Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.
8 The eye that now sees me shall no more behold me; as you look at me, I shall be gone.
9 As a cloud dissolves and vanishes, so he who goes down to the nether world shall come up no more.
10 He shall not again return to his house; his place shall know him no more.
11 My own utterance I will not restrain; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the sea, or a monster of the deep, that you place a watch over me? Why have you set me up as an object of attack; or why should I be a target for you?
13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint,
14 Then you affright me with dreams and with visions terrify me,
15 So that I should prefer choking and death rather than my pains.
16 I waste away: I cannot live forever; let me alone, for my days are but a breath.
17 What is man, that you make much of him, or pay him any heed?
18 You observe him with each new day and try him at every moment!
19 How long will it be before you look away from me, and let me alone long enough to swallow my spittle?
20 Though I have sinned, what can I do to you, O watcher of men?
21 Why do you not pardon my offense, or take away my guilt? For soon I shall lie down in the dust; and should you seek me I shall then be gone.

Job 8

1 Bildad the Shuhite spoke out and said:
2 How long will you utter such things? The words from your mouth are like a mighty wind!
3 Does God pervert judgment, and does the Almighty distort justice?
4 If your children have sinned against him and he has left them in the grip of their guilt,
5 Still, if you yourself have recourse to God and make supplication to the Almighty,
6 Should you be blameless and upright, surely now he will awake for you and restore your rightful domain;
7 Your former state will be of little moment, for in time to come you will flourish indeed.
8 If you inquire of the former generations, and give heed to the experience of the fathers
9 (As we are but of yesterday and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are but a shadow),
10 Will they not teach you and tell you and utter their words of understanding?
11 Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the reed grass flourish without water?
12 While it is yet green and uncut, it withers quicker than any grass.
13 So is the end of everyone who forgets God, and so shall the hope of the godless man perish.
14 His confidence is but a gossamer thread and his trust is a spider's web.
15 He shall rely upon his family, but it shall not last; he shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.
16 He is full of sap before sunrise, and beyond his garden his shoots go forth;
17 About a heap of stones are his roots entwined; among the rocks he takes hold.
18 Yet if one tears him from his place, it will disown him: I have never seen you!
19 There he lies rotting beside the road, and out of the soil another sprouts.
20 Behold, God will not cast away the upright; neither will he take the hand of the wicked.
21 Once more will he fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with rejoicing.
22 They that hate you shall be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked shall be no more.

Job 9

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 I know well that it is so; but how can a man be justified before God?
3 Should one wish to contend with him, he could not answer him once in a thousand times.
4 God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed?
5 He removes the mountains before they know it; he overturns them in his anger.
6 He shakes the earth out of its place, and the pillars beneath it tremble.
7 He commands the sun, and it rises not; he seals up the stars.
8 He alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the crests of the sea.
9 He made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
10 He does great things past finding out, marvelous things beyond reckoning.
11 Should he come near me, I see him not; should he pass by, I am not aware of him;
12 Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay? Who can say to him, What are you doing?
13 He is God and he does not relent; the helpers of Rahab bow beneath him.
14 How much less shall I give him any answer, or choose out arguments against him!
15 Even though I were right, I could not answer him, but should rather beg for what was due me.
16 If I appealed to him and he answered my call, I could not believe that he would hearken to my words;
17 With a tempest he might overwhelm me, and multiply my wounds without cause;
18 He need not suffer me to draw breath, but might fill me with bitter griefs.
19 If it be a question of strength, he is mighty; and if of judgment, who will call him to account?
20 Though I were right, my own mouth might condemn me; were I innocent, he might put me in the wrong.
21 Though I am innocent, I myself cannot know it; I despise my life.
22 It is all one! therefore I say: Both the innocent and the wicked he destroys.
23 When the scourge slays suddenly, he laughs at the despair of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hands of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges. If it is not he, who then is it?
25 My days are swifter than a runner, they flee away; they see no happiness;
26 They shoot by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping upon its prey.
27 If I say: I will forget my complaining, I will lay aside my sadness and be of good cheer,
28 Then I am in dread of all my pains; I know that you will not hold me innocent.
29 If I must be accounted guilty, why then should I strive in vain?
30 If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 Yet you would plunge me in the ditch, so that my garments would abhor me.
32 For he is not a man like myself, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.
33 Would that there were an arbiter between us, who could lay his hand upon us both
34 and withdraw his rod from me. Would that his terrors did not frighten me;
35 that I might speak without being afraid of him. Since this is not the case with me,

Job 10

1 I loathe my life. I will give myself up to complaint; I will speak from the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God: Do not put me in the wrong! Let me know why you oppose me.
3 Is it a pleasure for you to oppress, to spurn the work of your hands, and smile on the plan of the wicked?
4 Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?
5 Are your days as the days of a mortal, and are your years as a man's lifetime,
6 That you seek for guilt in me and search after my sins,
7 Even though you know that I am not wicked, and that none can deliver me out of your hand?
8 Your hands have formed me and fashioned me; will you then turn and destroy me?
9 Oh, remember that you fashioned me from clay! Will you then bring me down to dust again?
10 Did you not pour me out as milk, and thicken me like cheese?
11 With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together.
12 Grace and favor you granted me, and your providence has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things you have hidden in your heart; I know that they are your purpose:
14 If I should sin, you would keep a watch against me, and from my guilt you would not absolve me.
15 If I should be wicked, alas for me! if righteous, I dare not hold up my head, filled with ignominy and sodden with affliction!
16 Should it lift up, you hunt me like a lion: repeatedly you show your wondrous power against me,
17 You renew your attack upon me and multiply your harassment of me; in waves your troops come against me.
18 Why then did you bring me forth from the womb? I should have died and no eye have seen me.
19 I should be as though I had never lived; I should have been taken from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may recover a little
21 Before I go whence I shall not return, to the land of darkness and of gloom,
22 The black, disordered land where darkness is the only light.