6Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. 7Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

8Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”

9Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”

12Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.”

So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh. 13It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14that a messenger came to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

16While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

17While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

18While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

20Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped. 21He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.” 22In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.

1Again, on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh. 2Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

3Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”

4Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. 5But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”

6Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.”

7So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. 8He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. 9Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”

10But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.

1After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. 2Job answered:

3“Let the day perish in which I was born,

the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

4Let that day be darkness.

Don’t let God from above seek for it,

neither let the light shine on it.

5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.

Let a cloud dwell on it.

Let all that makes the day black terrify it.

6As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it.

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year.

Let it not come into the number of the months.

7Behold, let that night be barren.

Let no joyful voice come therein.

8Let them curse it who curse the day,

who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

9Let the stars of its twilight be dark.

Let it look for light, but have none,

neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

10because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

11“Why didn’t I die from the womb?

Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

12Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

13For now I should have lain down and been quiet.

I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

14with kings and counselors of the earth,

who built up waste places for themselves;

15or with princes who had gold,

who filled their houses with silver;

16or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,

as infants who never saw light.

17There the wicked cease from troubling.

There the weary are at rest.

18There the prisoners are at ease together.

They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

19The small and the great are there.

The servant is free from his master.

20“Why is light given to him who is in misery,

life to the bitter in soul,

21who long for death, but it doesn’t come;

and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

22who rejoice exceedingly,

and are glad, when they can find the grave?

23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,

whom God has hedged in?

24For my sighing comes before I eat.

My groanings are poured out like water.

25For the thing which I fear comes on me,

that which I am afraid of comes to me.

26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest;

but trouble comes.”