5:1 “Call now! Is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
5:2 For wrath kills the foolish person,
and anger slays the silly one.
5:3 I myself have seen the fool taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his place of residence.
5:4 His children are far from safety,
and they are crushed at the place where judgment is rendered,
nor is there anyone to deliver them.
5:5 The hungry eat up his harvest,
and take it even from behind the thorns,
and the thirsty swallow up their fortune.
5:6 For evil does not come up from the dust,
nor does trouble spring up from the ground,
5:7 but people are born to trouble,
as surely as the sparks fly upward.
5:8 “But as for me, I would seek God,
and to God I would set forth my case.
5:9 He does great and unsearchable things,
marvelous things without number;
5:10 he gives rain on the earth,
and sends water on the fields;
5:11 he sets the lowly on high,
that those who mourn are raised to safety.
5:12 He frustrates the plans of the crafty
so that their hands cannot accomplish
what they had planned!
5:13 He catches the wise in their own craftiness,
and the counsel of the cunning is brought to a quick end.
5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime,
and grope about in the noontime as if it were night.
5:15 So he saves from the sword that comes from their mouth,
even the poor from the hand of the powerful.
5:16 Thus the poor have hope,
and iniquity shuts its mouth.
5:17 “Therefore, blessed is the man whom God corrects,
so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
5:18 For he wounds, but he also bandages;
he strikes, but his hands also heal.
5:19 He will deliver you from six calamities;
yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
5:20 In time of famine he will redeem you from death,
and in time of war from the power of the sword.
5:21 You will be protected from malicious gossip,
and will not be afraid of the destruction when it comes.
5:22 You will laugh at destruction and famine
and need not be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
5:23 For you will have a pact with the stones of the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
5:24 And you will know that your home
will be secure,
and when you inspect your domains,
you will not be missing anything.
5:25 You will also know that your children will be numerous,
and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
5:26 You will come to your grave in a full age,
As stacks of grain are harvested in their season.
5:27 Look, we have investigated this, so it is true.
Hear it, and apply it for your own good.”
6:1 Then Job responded:
6:2 “Oh, if only my grief could be weighed,
and my misfortune laid on the scales too!
6:3 But because it is heavier than the sand of the sea,
that is why my words have been wild.
6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me;
my spirit drinks their poison;
God’s sudden terrors are arrayed against me.
6:5 “Does the wild donkey bray when it is near grass?
Or does the ox low near its fodder?
6:6 Can food that is tasteless be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
6:7 I have refused to touch such things;
they are like loathsome food to me.
6:8 “Oh that my request would be realized,
and that God would grant me what I long for!
6:9 And that God would be willing to crush me,
that he would let loose his hand
and kill me.
6:10 Then I would yet have my comfort,
then I would rejoice,
in spite of pitiless pain,
for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.
6:11 What is my strength, that I should wait?
and what is my end,
that I should prolong my life?
6:12 Is my strength like that of stones?
or is my flesh made of bronze?
6:13 Is not my power to help myself nothing,
and has not every resource been driven from me?
6:14 “To the one in despair, kindness should come from his friend
even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
6:15 My brothers have been as treacherous as a seasonal stream,
and as the riverbeds of the intermittent streams
that flow away.
6:16 They are dark because of ice;
snow is piled up over them.
6:17 When they are scorched, they dry up,
when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
6:18 Caravans turn aside from their routes;
they go into the wasteland and perish.
6:19 The caravans of Tema looked intently for these streams;
the traveling merchants of Sheba hoped for them.
6:20 They were distressed,
because each one had been so confident;
they arrived there, but were disappointed.
6:21 For now you have become like these streams that are no help;
you see a terror, and are afraid.
6:22 “Have I ever said, ‘Give me something,
and from your fortune make gifts in my favor’?
6:23 Or ‘Deliver me from the enemy’s power,
and from the hand of tyrants ransom me’?
6:24 “Teach me and I, for my part, will be silent;
explain to me how I have been mistaken.
6:25 How painful are honest words!
But what does your reproof prove?
6:26 Do you intend to criticize mere words,
and treat the words of a despairing man as wind?
6:27 Yes, you would gamble for the fatherless,
and auction off your friend.
6:28 “Now then, be good enough to look at me;
and I will not lie to your face!
6:29 Relent, let there be no falsehood;
reconsider, for my righteousness is intact!
6:30 Is there any falsehood on my lips?
Can my mouth not discern evil things?
7:1 “Does not humanity have hard service on earth?
Are not their days also
like the days of a hired man?
7:2 Like a servant longing for the evening shadow,
and like a hired man looking for his wages,
7:3 thus I have been made to inherit
months of futility,
and nights of sorrow
have been appointed to me.
7:4 If I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise?’,
and the night stretches on
and I toss and turn restlessly
until the day dawns.
7:5 My body is clothed with worms and dirty scabs;
my skin is broken and festering.
7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle
and they come to an end without hope.
7:7 Remember that my life is but a breath,
that my eyes will never again see happiness.
7:8 The eye of him who sees me now will see me no more;
your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.
7:9 As a cloud is dispersed and then disappears,
so the one who goes down to the grave
does not come up again.
7:10 He returns no more to his house,
nor does his place of residence know him any more.
7:11 “Therefore, I will not refrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
7:12 Am I the sea, or the creature of the deep,
that you must put me under guard?
7:13 If I say, “My bed will comfort me,
my couch will ease my complaint,”
7:14 then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
7:15 so that I would prefer strangling,
and death more than life.
7:16 I loathe it; I do not want to live forever;
leave me alone, for my days are a vapor!
7:17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them,
and that you pay attention to them?
7:18 And that you visit them every morning,
and try them every moment?
7:19 Will you never look away from me,
will you not let me alone
long enough to swallow my spittle?
7:20 If I have sinned – what have I done to you,
O watcher of men?
Why have you set me as your target?
Have I become a burden to you?
7:21 And why do you not pardon my transgression,
and take away my iniquity?
For now I will lie down in the dust,
and you will seek me diligently,
but I will be gone.”