The Dialogues between Job and his Friends. The First Cycle

Job 4–14 (selections)

ca. 1200–332 BCE

Chapter 4

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite said in reply:

²If one ventures a word with you, will it be too much?

But who can hold back his words?

³See, you have encouraged many;

You have strengthened failing hands.

⁴Your words have kept him who stumbled from falling;

You have braced knees that gave way.

⁵But now that it overtakes you, it is too much;

It reaches you, and you are unnerved.

⁶Is not your piety your confidence,

Your integrity your hope?

⁷Think now, what innocent man ever perished?

Where have the upright been destroyed?

⁸As I have seen, those who plow evil

And sow mischief reap them.

⁹They perish by a blast from God,

Are gone at the breath of His nostrils. [ . . . ]

¹²A word came to me in stealth;

My ear caught a whisper of it.

¹³In thought-filled visions of the night,

When deep sleep falls on men,

¹⁴Fear and trembling came upon me,

Causing all my bones to quake with fright.

¹⁵A wind passed by me,

Making the hair of my flesh bristle.

¹⁶It halted; its appearance was strange to me;

A form loomed before my eyes;

I heard a murmur, a voice,

¹⁷“Can mortals be acquitted by God?

Can man be cleared by his Maker?

¹⁸If He cannot trust His own servants,

And casts reproach on His angels,

¹⁹How much less those who dwell in houses of clay,

Whose origin is dust,

Who are crushed like the moth,

²⁰Shattered between daybreak and evening,

Perishing forever, unnoticed. [ . . . ]”

Chapter 5

¹Call now! Will anyone answer you?

To whom among the holy beings will you turn?

²Vexation kills the fool;

Passion slays the simpleton. [ . . . ]

⁶Evil does not grow out of the soil,

Nor does mischief spring from the ground;

⁷For man is born to [do] mischief,

Just as sparks fly upward.

⁸But I would resort to God;

I would lay my case before God,

⁹Who performs great deeds which cannot be fathomed,

Wondrous things without number;

¹⁰Who gives rain to the earth,

And sends water over the fields;

¹¹Who raises the lowly up high,

So that the dejected are secure in victory;

¹²Who thwarts the designs of the crafty,

So that their hands cannot gain success; [ . . . ].

¹⁵But He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,

From the clutches of the strong.

¹⁶So there is hope for the wretched;

The mouth of wrongdoing is stopped.

¹⁷See how happy is the man whom God reproves;

Do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸He injures, but He binds up;

He wounds, but His hands heal.

¹⁹He will deliver you from six troubles;

In seven no harm will reach you:

²⁰In famine He will redeem you from death,

In war, from the sword.

²¹You will be sheltered from the scourging tongue;

You will have no fear when violence comes.

²²You will laugh at violence and starvation,

And have no fear of wild beasts.

²³For you will have a pact with the rocks in the field,

And the beasts of the field will be your allies.

²⁴You will know that all is well in your tent;

When you visit your wife^ayou will never fail.

²⁵You will see that your offspring are many,

Your descendants like the grass of the earth.

²⁶You will come to the grave in ripe old age,

As shocks of grain are taken away in their season.

²⁷See, we have inquired into this and it is so;

Hear it and accept it.

Chapter 6

¹Then Job said in reply:

²If my anguish were weighed,

My full calamity laid on the scales,

³It would be heavier than the sand of the sea;

That is why I spoke recklessly.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;

My spirit absorbs their poison;

God’s terrors are arrayed against me.

⁵Does a wild ass bray when he has grass?

Does a bull bellow over his fodder? [ . . . ]

⁸Would that my request were granted,

That God gave me what I wished for;

⁹Would that God consented to crush me,

Loosed His hand and cut me off.

¹⁰Then this would be my consolation,

As I writhed in unsparing pains:

That I did not suppress my words against the Holy One.

¹¹What strength have I, that I should endure?

How long have I to live, that I should be patient?

¹²Is my strength the strength of rock?

Is my flesh bronze? [ . . . ]

¹⁵My comrades are fickle, like a wadi,

Like a bed on which streams once ran.

¹⁶They are dark with ice;

Snow obscures them;

¹⁷But when they thaw, they vanish;

In the heat, they disappear where they are.

¹⁸Their course twists and turns;

They run into the desert and perish. [ . . . ]

²¹So you are as nothing:

At the sight of misfortune, you take fright.

²²Did I say to you, “I need your gift;

Pay a bribe for me out of your wealth;

²³Deliver me from the clutches of my enemy;

Redeem me from violent men”?

²⁴Teach me; I shall be silent;

Tell me where I am wrong.

²⁵How trenchant honest words are;

But what sort of reproof comes from you?

²⁶Do you devise words of reproof,

But count a hopeless man’s words as wind?

²⁷You would even cast lots over an orphan,

Or barter away your friend.

²⁸Now be so good as to face me;

I will not lie to your face.

²⁹Relent! Let there not be injustice;

Relent! I am still in the right.

³⁰Is injustice on my tongue?

Can my palate not discern evil?

Chapter 7

Truly man has a term of service on earth;

His days are like those of a hireling—

²Like a slave who longs for [evening’s] shadows,

Like a hireling who waits for his wage.

³So have I been allotted months of futility;

Nights of misery have been apportioned to me.

⁴When I lie down, I think,

“When shall I rise?” [ . . . ]

And I am sated with tossings till morning twilight.

⁵My flesh is covered with maggots and clods of earth;

My skin is broken and festering.

⁶My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle,

And come to their end ^bwithout hope.^b

⁷Consider that my life is but wind;

I shall never see happiness again.

⁸The eye that gazes on me will not see me;

Your eye will seek me, but I shall be gone.

⁹As a cloud fades away,

So whoever goes down to Sheol does not come up;

¹⁰He returns no more to his home;

His place does not know him.

¹¹On my part, I will not speak with restraint;

I will give voice to the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the sea or the Dragon,

That You have set a watch over me?

¹³When I think, “My bed will comfort me,

My couch will share my sorrow,”

¹⁴You frighten me with dreams,

And terrify me with visions,

¹⁵Till I prefer strangulation,

Death, to my wasted frame.

¹⁶I am sick of it.

I shall not live forever;

Let me be, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷What is man, that You make much of him,

That You fix Your attention upon him?

¹⁸You inspect him every morning,

Examine him every minute.

¹⁹Will You not look away from me for a while,

Let me be, till I swallow my spittle?

²⁰If I have sinned, what have I done to You,

Watcher of men?

Why make of me Your target,

And a burden to myself?

²¹Why do You not pardon my transgression

And forgive my iniquity?

For soon I shall lie down in the dust;

When You seek me, I shall be gone.

Chapter 8

¹Bildad the Shuhite said in reply:

²How long will you speak such things?

Your utterances are a mighty wind!

³Will God pervert the right?

Will the Almighty pervert justice?

⁴If your sons sinned against Him,

He dispatched them for their transgression.

⁵But if you seek God

And supplicate the Almighty,

⁶If you are blameless and upright,

He will protect you,

And grant well-being to your righteous home.

⁷Though your beginning be small,

In the end you will grow very great.

⁸Ask the generation past,

Study what their fathers have searched out

⁹—For we are of yesterday and know nothing;

Our days on earth are a shadow—

¹⁰Surely they will teach you and tell you,

Speaking out of their understanding.

¹¹Can papyrus thrive without marsh?

Can rushes grow without water?

¹²While still tender, not yet plucked,

They would wither before any other grass.

¹³Such is the fate of all who forget God;

The hope of the impious man comes to naught—

¹⁴Whose confidence is a thread of gossamer,

Whose trust is a spider’s web.

¹⁵He leans on his house—it will not stand;

He seizes hold of it, but it will not hold. [ . . . ]

²⁰Surely God does not despise the blameless;

He gives no support to evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,

And your lips with shouts of joy.

²²Your enemies will be clothed in disgrace;

The tent of the wicked will vanish.

Chapter 9

¹Job said in reply:

²Indeed I know that it is so:

Man cannot win a suit against God.

³If he insisted on a trial with Him,

He would not answer one charge in a thousand.

⁴Wise of heart and mighty in power—

Who ever challenged Him and came out whole?—[ . . . ]

¹⁴How then can I answer Him,

Or choose my arguments against Him?

¹⁵Though I were in the right, I could not speak out,

But I would plead for mercy with my judge.

¹⁶If I summoned Him and He responded,

I do not believe He would lend me His ear.

¹⁷For He crushes me for a hair;

He wounds me much for no cause.

¹⁸He does not let me catch my breath,

But sates me with bitterness.

¹⁹If a trial of strength—He is the strong one;

If a trial in court—who will summon Him for me?

²⁰Though I were innocent,

My mouth would condemn me;

Though I were blameless, He would prove me crooked.

²¹I am blameless—I am distraught;

I am sick of life.

²²It is all one; therefore I say,

“He destroys the blameless and the guilty.”

²³When suddenly a scourge brings death,

He mocks as the innocent fail.

²⁴The earth is handed over to the wicked one;

He covers the eyes of its judges.

If it is not He, then who? [ . . . ]

²⁸I know that You will not acquit me.

²⁹It will be I who am in the wrong;

Why then should I waste effort?

³⁰If I washed with soap,

Cleansed my hands with lye,

³¹You would dip me in muck

Till my clothes would abhor me.

³²He is not a man, like me, that I can answer Him,

That we can go to law together.

³³No arbiter is between us

To lay his hand on us both.

³⁴If He would only take His rod away from me

And not let His terror frighten me,

³⁵Then I would speak out without fear of Him [ . . . ].

Chapter 10

¹I am disgusted with life;

I will give rein to my complaint,

Speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I say to God, “Do not condemn me;

Let me know what You charge me with.

³Does it benefit You to defraud,

To despise the toil of Your hands,

While smiling on the counsel of the wicked?

⁴Do You have the eyes of flesh?

Is Your vision that of mere men?

⁵Are Your days the days of a mortal,

Are Your years the years of a man,

⁶That You seek my iniquity

And search out my sin?

⁷You know that I am not guilty,

And that there is none to deliver from Your hand.

⁸“Your hands shaped and fashioned me,

Then destroyed every part of me.

⁹Consider that You fashioned me like clay;

Will You then turn me back into dust?

¹⁰You poured me out like milk,

Congealed me like cheese;

¹¹You clothed me with skin and flesh

And wove me of bones and sinews;

¹²You bestowed on me life and care;

Your providence watched over my spirit.

¹³Yet these things You hid in Your heart;

I know that You had this in mind:

¹⁴To watch me when I sinned

And not clear me of my iniquity. [ . . . ]

¹⁸“Why did You let me come out of the womb?

Better had I expired before any eye saw me,

¹⁹Had I been as though I never was,

Had I been carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰My days are few, so desist!

Leave me alone, let me be diverted a while

²¹Before I depart—never to return—

For the land of deepest gloom;

²²A land whose light is darkness,

All gloom and disarray,

Whose light is like darkness.”

Chapter 11

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite said in reply:

²Is a multitude of words unanswerable?

Must a loquacious person be right?

³Your prattle may silence men;

You may mock without being rebuked,

⁴And say, “My doctrine is pure,

And I have been innocent in Your sight.”

⁵But would that God might speak,

And talk to you Himself.

⁶He would tell you the secrets of wisdom,

For there are many sides to sagacity;

And know that God has overlooked for you some of your iniquity.

⁷Would you discover the mystery of God?

Would you discover the limit of the Almighty?

⁸Higher than heaven—what can you do?

Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

⁹Its measure is longer than the earth

And broader than the sea. [ . . . ]

¹¹For He knows deceitful men;

When He sees iniquity, does He not discern it? [ . . . ]

¹³But if you direct your mind,

And spread forth your hands toward Him—

¹⁴If there is iniquity with you, remove it,

And do not let injustice reside in your tent—

¹⁵Then, free of blemish, you will hold your head high,

And, when in straits, be unafraid.

¹⁶You will then put your misery out of mind,

Consider it as water that has flowed past.

¹⁷Life will be brighter than noon;

You will shine, you will be like the morning.

¹⁸You will be secure, for there is hope,

And, entrenched, you will rest secure;

¹⁹You will lie down undisturbed;

The great will court your favor.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked pine away;

Escape is cut off from them;

They have only their last breath to look forward to.

Chapter 12

¹Then Job said in reply:

²Indeed, you are the [voice of] the people,

And wisdom will die with you.

³But I, like you, have a mind,

And am not less than you.

Who does not know such things? [ . . . ]

⁷But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

The birds of the sky, they will tell you,

⁸Or speak to the earth, it will teach you;

The fish of the sea, they will inform you.

⁹Who among all these does not know

That the hand of the Lord has done this?

¹⁰In His hand is every living soul

And the breath of all mankind.

¹¹Truly, the ear tests arguments

As the palate tastes foods.

¹²Is wisdom in the aged

And understanding in the long-lived?

¹³With Him are wisdom and courage;

His are counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Whatever He tears down cannot be rebuilt;

Whomever He imprisons cannot be set free.

¹⁵When He holds back the waters, they dry up;

When He lets them loose, they tear up the land.

¹⁶With Him are strength and resourcefulness;

Erring and causing to err are from Him.

¹⁷He makes counselors go about naked^c

And causes judges to go mad.

¹⁸He undoes the belts of kings,

And fastens loincloths on them.

¹⁹He makes priests go about naked,^c

And leads temple-servants astray.

²⁰He deprives trusty men of speech,

And takes away the reason of elders.

²¹He pours disgrace upon great men,

And loosens the belt of the mighty.

²²He draws mysteries out of the darkness,

And brings obscurities to light.

²³He exalts nations, then destroys them;

He expands nations, then leads them away.

²⁴He deranges the leaders of the people,

And makes them wander in a trackless waste.

²⁵They grope without light in the darkness;

He makes them wander as if drunk.

Chapter 13

¹My eye has seen all this;

My ear has heard and understood it.

²What you know, I know also;

I am not less than you.

³Indeed, I would speak to the Almighty;

I insist on arguing with God.

⁴But you invent lies;

All of you are quacks.

⁵If you would only keep quiet

It would be considered wisdom on your part. [ . . . ]

⁷Will you speak unjustly on God’s behalf?

Will you speak deceitfully for Him?

⁸Will you be partial toward Him?

Will you plead God’s cause?

⁹Will it go well when He examines you?

Will you fool Him as one fools men?

¹⁰He will surely reprove you

If in your heart you are partial toward Him. [ . . . ]

¹²Your briefs are empty platitudes;

Your responses are unsubstantial.

¹³Keep quiet; I will have my say,

Come what may upon me. [ . . . ]

¹⁵He may well slay me; I may have no hope;

Yet I will argue my case before Him.

¹⁶In this too is my salvation:

That no impious man can come into His presence.

¹⁷Listen closely to my words;

Give ear to my discourse.

¹⁸See now, I have prepared a case;

I know that I will win it.

¹⁹For who is it that would challenge me?

I should then keep silent and expire.

²⁰But two things do not do to me,

So that I need not hide from You:

²¹Remove Your hand from me,

And let not Your terror frighten me.

²²Then summon me and I will respond,

Or I will speak and You reply to me.

²³How many are my iniquities and sins?

Advise me of my transgression and sin.

²⁴Why do You hide Your face,

And treat me like an enemy?

²⁵Will You harass a driven leaf,

Will You pursue dried-up straw,

²⁶That You decree for me bitter things

And make me answer for the iniquities of my youth. [ . . . ]

Chapter 14

¹Man born of woman is short-lived and sated with trouble.

²He blossoms like a flower and withers;

He vanishes like a shadow and does not endure. [ . . . ]

⁵His days are determined;

You know the number of his months;

You have set him limits that he cannot pass.

⁶Turn away from him, that he may be at ease

Until, like a hireling, he finishes out his day.

⁷There is hope for a tree;

If it is cut down it will renew itself;

Its shoots will not cease.

⁸If its roots are old in the earth,

And its stump dies in the ground,

⁹At the scent of water it will bud

And produce branches like a sapling.

¹⁰But mortals languish and die;

Man expires; where is he? [ . . . ]

¹²So man lies down never to rise [ . . . ]

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Notes

Lit. “home.”

Or “when the thread runs out.”

A sign of madness.

Credits

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

The Dialogues between Job and his Friends. The First Cycle

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Notes

Credits

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The Dialogues between Job and his Friends. The First Cycle

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Notes

Credits

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Language:

Places:

Subjects:

Ancient Corpus:

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