“I am young in years,
    and you are aged;
therefore I was timid and afraid
    to declare my opinion to you.
⁷ I said, ‘Let days speak,
    and many years teach wisdom.’
⁸ But it is the spirit in man,
    the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.
⁹ It is not the old^[a] who are wise,
    nor the aged who understand what is right.
¹⁰ Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;
    let me also declare my opinion.’

¹¹ “Behold, I waited for your words,
    I listened for your wise sayings,
    while you searched out what to say.
¹² I gave you my attention,
    and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job
    or who answered his words.
¹³ Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom;
    God may vanquish him, not a man.’
¹⁴ He has not directed his words against me,
    and I will not answer him with your speeches.

¹⁵ “They are dismayed; they answer no more;
    they have not a word to say.
¹⁶ And shall I wait, because they do not speak,
    because they stand there, and answer no more?
¹⁷ I also will answer with my share;
    I also will declare my opinion.
¹⁸ For I am full of words;
    the spirit within me constrains me.
¹⁹ Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent;
    like new wineskins ready to burst.
²⁰ I must speak, that I may find relief;
    I must open my lips and answer.
²¹ I will not show partiality to any man
    or use flattery toward any person.
²² For I do not know how to flatter,
    else my Maker would soon take me away.

⁸ “Surely you have spoken in my ears,
    and I have heard the sound of your words.
⁹ You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression;
    I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.
¹⁰ Behold, he finds occasions against me,
    he counts me as his enemy,
¹¹ he puts my feet in the stocks
    and watches all my paths.’

¹² “Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you,
    for God is greater than man.
¹³ Why do you contend against him,
    saying, ‘He will answer none of man's^[b] words’?^[c]
14 For God speaks in one way,
    and in two, though man does not perceive it.
¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night,
    when deep sleep falls on men,
    while they slumber on their beds,
¹⁶ then he opens the ears of men
    and terrifies^[d] them with warnings,
¹⁷ that he may turn man aside from his deed
    and conceal pride from a man;
¹⁸ he keeps back his soul from the pit,
    his life from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹ “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed
    and with continual strife in his bones,
²⁰ so that his life loathes bread,
    and his appetite the choicest food.
²¹ His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,
    and his bones that were not seen stick out.
²² His soul draws near the pit,
    and his life to those who bring death.
²³ If there be for him an angel,
    a mediator, one of the thousand,
    to declare to man what is right for him,
²⁴ and he is merciful to him, and says,
    ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;
    I have found a ransom;
²⁵ let his flesh become fresh with youth;
    let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;
²⁶ then man^[e] prays to God, and he accepts him;
    he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he restores to man his righteousness.
²⁷     He sings before men and says:
‘I sinned and perverted what was right,
    and it was not repaid to me.
²⁸ He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,
    and my life shall look upon the light.’

²⁹ “Behold, God does all these things,
    twice, three times, with a man,
³⁰ to bring back his soul from the pit,
    that he may be lighted with the light of life.
³¹ Pay attention, O Job, listen to me;
    be silent, and I will speak.
³² If you have any words, answer me;
    speak, for I desire to justify you.
³³ If not, listen to me;
    be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”