“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
        To which of the holy ones will you turn?
    Surely vexation kills the fool,
        and jealousy slays the simple.
    I have seen the fool taking root,
        but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
    His children are far from safety;
        they are crushed in the gate,
        and there is no one to deliver them.
    The hungry eat his harvest,
        and he takes it even out of thorns,
        and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
    For affliction does not come from the dust,
        nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
    but man is born to trouble
        as the sparks fly upward.
    
    
    “As for me, I would seek God,
        and to God would I commit my cause,
    who does great things and unsearchable,
        marvelous things without number:
    he gives rain on the earth
        and sends waters on the fields;
    he sets on high those who are lowly,
        and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
    He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
        so that their hands achieve no success.
    He catches the wise in their own craftiness,
        and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
    They meet with darkness in the daytime
        and grope at noonday as in the night.
    But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth
        and from the hand of the mighty.
    So the poor have hope,
        and injustice shuts her mouth.
    
    
    “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
        therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
    For he wounds, but he binds up;
        he shatters, but his hands heal.
    He will deliver you from six troubles;
        in seven no evil shall touch you.
    In famine he will redeem you from death,
        and in war from the power of the sword.
    You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue,
        and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
    At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
        and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.
    For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,
        and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
    You shall know that your tent is at peace,
        and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
    You shall know also that your offspring shall be many,
        and your descendants as the grass of the earth.
    You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
        like a sheaf gathered up in its season.
    Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.
        Hear, and know it for your good.”
    
    
      Then Job answered and said:

    “Oh that my vexation were weighed,
        and all my calamity laid in the balances!
    For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
        therefore my words have been rash.
    For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;
        my spirit drinks their poison;
        the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
    Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass,
        or the ox low over his fodder?
    Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt,
        or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow?
    My appetite refuses to touch them;
        they are as food that is loathsome to me.
    
    
    “Oh that I might have my request,
        and that God would fulfill my hope,
    that it would please God to crush me,
        that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
    This would be my comfort;
        I would even exult in pain unsparing,
        for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
    What is my strength, that I should wait?
        And what is my end, that I should be patient?
    Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?
    Have I any help in me,
        when resource is driven from me?
    
    
    “He who withholds kindness from a friend
        forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
    My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed,
        as torrential streams that pass away,
    which are dark with ice,
        and where the snow hides itself.
    When they melt, they disappear;
        when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
    The caravans turn aside from their course;
        they go up into the waste and perish.
    The caravans of Tema look,
        the travelers of Sheba hope.
    They are ashamed because they were confident;
        they come there and are disappointed.
    For you have now become nothing;
        you see my calamity and are afraid.
    Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’?
        Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?
    Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’?
        Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?
    
    
    “Teach me, and I will be silent;
        make me understand how I have gone astray.
    How forceful are upright words!
        But what does reproof from you reprove?
    Do you think that you can reprove words,
        when the speech of a despairing man is wind?
    You would even cast lots over the fatherless,
        and bargain over your friend.
    
    
    “But now, be pleased to look at me,
        for I will not lie to your face.
    Please turn; let no injustice be done.
        Turn now; my vindication is at stake.
    Is there any injustice on my tongue?
        Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?
    
    
        “Has not man a hard service on earth,
        and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
    Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
        and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
    so I am allotted months of emptiness,
        and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
    When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
        But the night is long,
        and I toss and turn till the dawn.
    My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
        my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
    My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle
        and come to their end without hope.
    
    
    “Remember that my life is a breath;
        my eye will never again see good.
    The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
        while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
    As the cloud fades and vanishes,
        so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
    he returns no more to his house,
        nor does his place know him anymore.
    
    
    “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
        I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
        I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
    Am I the sea, or a sea monster,
        that you set a guard over me?
    When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
        my couch will ease my complaint,’
    then you scare me with dreams
        and terrify me with visions,
    so that I would choose strangling
        and death rather than my bones.
    I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
        Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
    What is man, that you make so much of him,
        and that you set your heart on him,
    visit him every morning
        and test him every moment?
    How long will you not look away from me,
        nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
    If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
        Why have you made me your mark?
        Why have I become a burden to you?
    Why do you not pardon my transgression
        and take away my iniquity?
    For now I shall lie in the earth;
        you will seek me, but I shall not be.” (ESV)

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

  If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

  But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (ESV)