8:1Then Baldad, the Suhite, answered, and said:
8:2How long wilt thou speak these things, and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
8:3Doth God pervert judgment, or doth the Almighty overthrow that which is just?
8:4Although thy children have sinned against him, and he hath left them in the hand of their iniquity:
8:5Yet if thou wilt arise early to God, and wilt beseech the Almighty:
8:6If thou wilt walk clean and upright, he will presently awake unto thee, and will make the dwelling of thy justice peaceable:
8:7In so much, that if thy former things were small thy latter things would be multiplied exceedingly.
8:8For inquire of the former generation, and search diligently into the memory of the fathers:
8:9(For we are but of yesterday, and are ignorant that our days upon earth are but a shadow
8:10And they shall teach thee: they shall speak to thee, and utter words out of their hearts.
8:11Can the rush be green without moisture? or sedge bush grow without water?
8:12When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked up with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.
8:13Even so are the ways of all that forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish:
8:14His folly shall not please him, and his trust shall be like the spider's web.
8:15He shall lean upon his house, and it shall not stand: he shall prop it up, and it shall not rise:
8:16He seemeth to have moisture before the sun cometh; and at his rising, his blossom shall shoot forth.
8:17His roots shall be thick upon a heap of stones; and among the stones he shall abide.
8:18If one swallow him up out of his place, he shall deny him, and shall say: I know thee not.
8:19For this is the joy of his way, that others may spring again out of the earth.
8:20God will not cast away the simple, nor reach out his hand to the evil doer:
8:21Until thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing.
8:22They that hate thee, shall be clothed with confusion: and the dwelling of the wicked shall not stand.
9:1And Job answered, and said:
9:2Indeed I know it is so, and that man cannot be justified, compared with God.
9:3If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one for a thousand.
9:4He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath resisted him, and hath had peace?
9:5Who hath removed mountains, and they whom he overthrew in his wrath, knew it not.
9:6Who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
9:7Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not: and shutteth up the stars, as it were, under a seal:
9:8Who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and walketh upon the waves of the sea
9:9Who maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and Hyades, and the inner parts of the south.
9:10Who doth things great and incomprehensible, and wonderful, of which there is no number.
9:11If he come to me, I shall not see him: if he depart, I shall not understand.
9:12If he examine on a sudden, who shall answer him? or who can say: Why dost thou so?
9:13God, whose wrath no man can resist, and under whom they stoop that bear up the world.
9:14What am I then, that I should answer him, and have words with him?
9:15I, who although I should have any just thing, would not answer, but would make supplication to my judge.
9:16And if he should hear me when I call, I should not believe that he had heard my voice.
9:17For he shall crush me in a whirlwind, and multiply my wounds even without cause.
9:18He alloweth not my spirit to rest, and he filleth me with bitterness.
9:19If strength be demanded, he is most strong: if equity of judgment, no man dare bear witness for me.
9:20If I would justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I would shew myself innocent, he shall prove me wicked.
9:21Although I should be simple, even this my soul shall be ignorant of, and I shall be weary of my life.
9:22One thing there is that I have spoken, both the innocent and the wicked he consumeth.
9:23If he scourge, let him kill at once, and not laugh at the pains of the innocent.
9:24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked, he covereth the face of the judges thereof: and if it be not he, who is it then?
9:25My days have been swifter than a post: they have fled away and have not seen good.
9:26They have passed by as ships carrying fruits, as an eagle flying to the prey.
9:27If I say: I will not speak so: I change my face, and am tormented with sorrow.
9:28I feared all my works, knowing that thou didst not spare the offender.
9:29But if so also I am wicked, why have I laboured in vain?
9:30If I be washed, as it were, with snow waters, and my hands shall shine ever so clean:
9:31Yet thou shalt plunge me in filth, and my garments shall abhor me.
9:32For I shall not answer a man that is like myself: nor one that may be heard with me equally in judgment.
9:33There is none that may be able to reprove both, and to put his hand between both.
9:34Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me.
9:35I will speak, and will not fear him: for I cannot answer while I am in fear.
10:1My soul is weary of my life, I will let go my speech against myself, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
10:2I will say to God: Do not condemn me: tell me why thou judgest me so?
10:3Doth it seem good to thee that thou shouldst calumniate me, and oppress me, the work of thy own hands, and help the counsel of the wicked?
10:4Hast thou eyes of flesh: or, shalt thou see as man seeth?
10:5Are thy days as the days of man, and are thy years as the times of men:
10:6That thou shouldst inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?
10:7And shouldst know that I have done no wicked thing, whereas there is no man that can deliver out of thy hand?
10:8Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me wholly round about, and dost thou thus cast me down headlong on a sudden?
10:9Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and thou wilt bring me into dust again.
10:10Hast thou not milked me as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
10:11Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh: thou hast put me together with bones and sinews:
10:12Thou hast granted me life and mercy, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
10:13Although thou conceal these things in thy heart, yet I know that thou rememberest all things.
10:14If I have sinned, and thou hast spared me for an hour: why dost thou not suffer me to be clean from my iniquity?
10:15And if I be wicked, woe unto me: and if just, I shall not lift up my head, being filled with affliction and misery.
10:16And for pride thou wilt take me as a lioness, and returning, thou tormentest me wonderfully.
10:17Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and multipliest thy wrath upon me, and pains war against me.
10:18Why didst thou bring me forth out of the womb? O that I had been consumed, that eye might not see me!
10:19I should have been as if I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.
10:20Shall not the fewness of my days be ended shortly? Suffer me, therefore, that I may lament my sorrow a little:
10:21Before I go and return no more, to a land that is dark and covered with the mist of death:
10:22A land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth.