Job Is Corrected by God

1‘Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?

To which of the holy ones will you turn?

2Surely vexation kills the fool,

and jealousy slays the simple.

3I have seen fools taking root,

but suddenly I cursed their dwelling.

4Their children are far from safety,

they are crushed in the gate,

and there is no one to deliver them.

5The hungry eat their harvest,

and they take it even out of the thorns;5.5 Meaning of Heb uncertain

and the thirsty5.5 Aquila Symmachus Syr Vg: Heb snare pant after their wealth.

6For misery does not come from the earth,

nor does trouble sprout from the ground;

7but human beings are born to trouble

just as sparks5.7 Or birds; Heb sons of Resheph fly upward.

8‘As for me, I would seek God,

and to God I would commit my cause.

9He does great things and unsearchable,

marvellous things without number.

10He gives rain on the earth

and sends waters on the fields;

11he sets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

12He frustrates the devices of the crafty,

so that their hands achieve no success.

13He takes the wise in their own craftiness;

and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

14They meet with darkness in the daytime,

and grope at noonday as in the night.

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

from the hand of the mighty.

16So the poor have hope,

and injustice shuts its mouth.

17‘How happy is the one whom God reproves;

therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.5.17 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai

18For he wounds, but he binds up;

he strikes, but his hands heal.

19He will deliver you from six troubles;

in seven no harm shall touch you.

20In famine he will redeem you from death,

and in war from the power of the sword.

21You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,

and shall not fear destruction when it comes.

22At destruction and famine you shall laugh,

and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.

23For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.

24You shall know that your tent is safe,

you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

25You shall know that your descendants will be many,

and your offspring like the grass of the earth.

26You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,

as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing-floor in its season.

27See, we have searched this out; it is true.

Hear, and know it for yourself.’