2 

“As God lives, who has wronged me,

as the Almighty lives, who has embittered me,

4 

I swear I speak the truth,

no lie upon my lips,

5 

when I maintain (by God!) that you are wrong,

when I assert that I am innocent!

3 

For I am sound and sane;

God’s breath is in me.

6 

I hold unflinching to my innocence;

not for one hour need I reproach myself.

• • • • •

12 

You have all seen this for yourselves;

then why vapour so vainly?”

7 Zophar the Minsean replied:

“May my worst enemy fare like the wicked,

may my foe die the death of the unjust!

8 

For what hope has a godless man,

when God demands his soul?

9 

Will God ever listen to his cry,

when woe befalls him?

10 

Will he obtain his wish from 10 the Almighty?

Will the Almighty heed him when he calls?

11 

I can show you how God’s n power works,

I will disclose the dealings of the Almighty.

13 

Here is what God awards an 13 evil man,

what the Almighty bestows upon a tyrant:

14 

if his children grow up, some fall by the sword,

some starve;

15 

his sons are victims of the plague,

their widows cannot wail for them;

16 

he may store silver up like dust,

and prepare robes abundant as the clay;

17 

he may prepare them, but the just shall wear them,

and good men shall divide his silver;

18 

the house he builds is like a spider’s,

flimsy as a watchman’s shelter.

19 

He lies down rich--it is the end!

he opens his eyes, to find that all is over!

20 

Terrors seize him in the day,

a tempest carries him off by night;

21 

an east wind whirls him clean away,

sweeping him from his site.

22 

God pelts him without pity,

though fain he would escape;

23 

God openly derides him,

and hisses scorn at him from heaven.