⁷Remember that my life is only wind,
 That my eye will not see good again.
⁸The eye that sees me now will not see me then;
 You will look for me but I will be gone.

⁹As a cloud dissolves and is gone,
 So a man goes down to Sheol never to return.
¹⁰He will never come to his house again;
  His place will know him no more.
¹¹Therefore I'll not hold my tongue;
  In the anguish of my spirit I will speak;
  I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the Lord of the Sea or the Dragon,
  That you set a watch over me?
¹³When I say, "My bed will comfort me;
  My couch will ease my complaint,"
¹⁴Then you frighten me with dreams
  And terrify me with visions
¹⁵Until my soul would choose strangling,
  Death I would prefer to these sickening bones.
¹⁶I will not live forever;
  Let me be, for my days are only a breath.

¹⁷What is man that you should raise him up
  And set your heart upon him,
¹⁸Inspect him each morning
  And be testing him every moment?
¹⁹Will you never turn your glance away
  Or give me leave to swallow my spittle?
²⁰If I sin, what is it to you, man watcher?
  Why choose me for your target?
  Why am I your burden? 
²¹Why not forgive my sin?
  For soon I shall lie in the dust;
  You will seek me, but I shall be no more.

 Job looks up. He is speaking to God (2nd person singular). 

Addressing the crowd. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To God again. (2nd sing.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

²How long will you keep on like this?
 For the words of your mouth are so much wind!
³Does God distort the course of justice?
 Or will the Almighty pervert what is right? 
⁴Your children, when they sinned against him,
 He delivered them into the power of their sin.
⁵You, if you will search out God
 And plead for the favor of the Almighty,
⁶And if you are pure and upright,
 Then even now he will awake for you
 And restore what was rightfully yours, 
⁷So that your beginnings will seem small 
 And your end will be greatly increased.
⁸Just inquire, I pray, of the former generations
 And consider the wisdom of the patriarchs.
⁹For we are as yesterday's child, knowing nothing,
 And our days are but a shadow on the earth.
¹⁰They will teach you, they will tell you;
  They will reveal the words of their understanding.

¹¹"Will the rush sprout up without marsh?
  Can reeds thrive without water?
¹²Though fresh and uncut,
  They wither more quickly than grass."
¹³Such is the fate of all who forget God;
  So do the hopes of the hypocrite perish.
¹⁴"He puts his confidence in a house of thread;
  He puts his trust in a spider's web --
¹⁵To carry his weight, but it cannot;
  He grasps it, but it will not hold."

¹⁶"Like a well-watered vine in the sun 
  He sends his shoots across the garden. 
¹⁷Round a rock pile his tendrils twist;; 
  A house of stone they find. 
¹⁸But tear him loose from his place 
  And it disowns him: 'I never saw you.' 
¹⁹Yet see how he continues on his way 
  And from the dust he sprouts anew." 

²⁰God will not reject the blameless;
  Neither will he take evildoers by the hand.
²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
  And your lips with shouts of joy.
²²The ones that hate you will be clothed with shame
  And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.

Bildad brings out a parchment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Reads. 
 
 

Looks up. 

Reads. 
 
 
 

He puts the parchment away, and picks up a tablet. 
 
 
 
 
 

Bildad stops reading. 

Speaking to Job. 
 
 

²Indeed, I know that this is so,
 But how can a man be acquitted before God?
³If he wants to summon him to court,
 Not one time in a thousand will he answer.
⁴And wise and strong as one might be,
 Who could defy him and come out whole?
⁵Without warning he rocks the mountains;
 In his anger he overturns them.
⁶He shakes the world from her place,
 Rattling the pillars of the earth.
⁷He tells the sun not to shine
 And sets a seal on the stars.
⁸Himself he frames the heavens 
 And tramples the back of the Sea. 
⁹He is the maker of the Bear and the Fool, 
 The Pleiades and the Chambers of the South, 
¹⁰Doer of great things unsearchable,
  Marvels beyond number.
¹¹When he is going by, I do not see him; 
  He passes on, undiscovered.
¹²He drags someone off, and who can stop him?
  Who will say to him, "What are you doing?"
¹³A god could not restrain his anger; 
  The minions of Rahab groveled at his feet. 
¹⁴How then could I answer him, 
  Or match my words with him?
¹⁵Though innocent, I would have no defense;
  I would be at the mercy of my accuser.

¹⁶And if I summoned him and he answered, 
  Still I doubt he would listen to me, 
¹⁷For he is one to crush me for a trifle, 
  To multiply my wounds without cause. 
¹⁸He does not let me catch my breath, 
  But he fills me with bitterness. 
¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, he wins! 
  But if a matter of justice, who can arraign him? 
²⁰Though I am in the right, he condemns me;
  I am innocent and he treats me like a crook.
²¹I am innocent; don't I know my own life?
  Hateful as it is to me!

²²It's all the same, so I will speak:
  The righteous and the wicked he destroys together.
²³When a sudden scourge brings death,
  He laughs at the despair of the innocent.
²⁴The world is given into the hands of the wicked;
  He blindfolds her judges.
  If not he, then who?

²⁵Now my days outpace a swift runner;
  They see no good; they speed away.
²⁶Like an eagle that stoops upon its prey
  Or like a reed-built river skiff they fly.
²⁷If I say, "I will forget my complaint;
  I will put off my sad face and take comfort,"
²⁸Then my suffering itself, it frightens me,
  And I know you will not acquit me.
²⁹I am already condemned;
  So why this hopeless struggle?
³⁰If I were to scrub myself with soap
  And wash my hands with lye,
³¹Then you would plunge me into a putrid pit
  So that my own clothes would abhor me.

³²He is not a man like me to be answered
  Or confronted in court.
³³There is no arbiter between us
  Who could take us both in hand.
³⁴Let him put away his rod
  And not dismay me with his terror.
³⁵Then I could speak without fear, 
  For I have not been forthright with him.

^10:1My soul wearies of life,
 So I will unstop my complaint
 And speak the bitterness within me.
²I will say to God: Do not condemn me,
 But tell me what is your charge against me?
³Does it please you to oppress me?
 Is it good to despise the work of your hands? 
 Is it right to shine upon the schemes of the wicked? 
⁴Have you eyes of flesh? 
 Do you see as a man sees?
⁵Are your days as the days of a mortal? 
 Are even your years numbered as a man's days, 
⁶That you should search out my error
 And keep looking for my sin,
⁷Though you know I am not wicked?
 But there is no rescue from your hands! 

⁸Your hands that made me, 
 Together they fashioned me about 
 And then turned to destroy me. 
⁹You remember you molded me from clay.
 Will you reduce me now to dust?
¹⁰Did you not pour me out like milk
  And curdle me like cheese,
¹¹Clothe me with skin and flesh
  And knit me together with bones and sinew?
¹²You gave me life and showed me kindness;
  You watched over my spirit to preserve me.
¹³But this is what you hid in your heart,
  And I know what was in your mind,
¹⁴That if I should sin, you would be witness
  And you would not acquit me of guilt.

¹⁵If I be wicked, then woe to me; 
  Or innocent, I bow my head, 
  Filled with shame and drunk with affliction. 
¹⁶I look up and you are stalking me like a lion; 
  Again you work your mighty wonders upon me! 
¹⁷You send new witnesses against me 
  And increase your anger towards me; 
  Troops in waves surround me. 
¹⁸Why did you bring me forth from the womb? 
  Would that I had died unseen,
¹⁹As though I had never been,
  Carried from the womb to the grave.
²⁰My days are few. Let me be.
  Turn your gaze that I may take comfort a little
²¹Before I go whence I shall not return,
  To a land of murk and gloom,
²²A land of deepest night,
  Of chaos and the shadow of death,
  where the light is as darkness.

Bitterly quoting Eliphaz back at him. Marvels, right, ambushing people! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Aside. 
 
 

Job pauses to reflect. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Job sags and his voice changes. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

He raises his arms to pray half-heartedly to God. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To his friends. 
 
 
 
 

Aside. 

Again he pauses to reflect. 
 
 
 

Job prays again, earnestly this time. 
 
 

Impiously shading his eyes, mimicking God. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Looking at his friends. 

Looking at the crowd. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A deep silence falls on everyone. Music.

²Is this fountain of words to go unanswered?
 Should this lip-talking man be believed?

³Can your empty words strike men dumb?
 Will you mock and none rebuke?
⁴You say, "My conduct is pure;
 I am clean in his eyes."
⁵O that God Himself would speak!
 That he would open His lips against you. 
⁶He would show you the hidden side of wisdom,
 For true wisdom has two sides.
 You would learn that
 God even forgets part of your guilt for you.

⁷Can you sound the depths of God?
 Or have you found the Almighty's outer limit?
⁸High as Heaven, so what can you do? 
 And deeper than the Pit, so what can you know? 
⁹Longer than the earth in measure,
 Wider than the sea.
¹⁰If He comes by and imprisons you, 
  Assembles a court against you, who can stop Him?
¹¹He knows the men who are false,
  And if He sees evil, will he stand aloof?

¹²But a witless man will be wise
  The day a donkey flies!

¹³Set your heart in order, if you will, 
  And stretch out your hand towards Him.
¹⁴If sin be in your hand then put it away,
  Banish crime from your door.
¹⁵Then you will lift up a face unblemished
  And be secure in your position and unafraid.
¹⁶Then you will forget your suffering
  Or remember it as waters gone by.
¹⁷Your years will be brighter than the noonday
  And the darkness then shall turn to dawn.
¹⁸Trusting again in your hopes, 
  You will look about and rest easy. 
¹⁹You will lie down with none to make you afraid 
  And many will court your favor. 

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked will dim;
  Escape will elude them 
  And their hope become a dying breath.

Addressing Eliphaz and Bildad. 
Addressing the crowd. 

Speaking to Job. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gesturing to the crowd. 

Zophar has been circling in, and now he bends down putting his long nose right in Job's face, but Job holds his own. The crowd hisses and Zophar backs off. 

Gesturing to Heaven. 

Job looks at the potsherd he is still holding. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On the offensive again.