Job 33.4
New International Version

¹ “But now, Job, listen to my words;
pay attention to everything I say.

² I am about to open my mouth;
my words are on the tip of my tongue.

³ My words come from an upright heart;
my lips sincerely speak what I know.

⁴ The Spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

⁵ Answer me then, if you can;
stand up and argue your case before me.

⁶ I am the same as you in God’s sight;
I too am a piece of clay.

⁷ No fear of me should alarm you,
nor should my hand be heavy on you.

⁸ “But you have said in my hearing —
I heard the very words —

⁹ ‘I am pure, I have done no wrong;
I am clean and free from sin.

¹⁰ Yet God has found fault with me;
he considers me his enemy.

¹¹ He fastens my feet in shackles;
he keeps close watch on all my paths.’

¹² “But I tell you, in this you are not right,
for God is greater than any mortal.

¹³ Why do you complain to him
that he responds to no one’s words?

¹⁴ For God does speak — now one way, now another —
though no one perceives it.

¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on people
as they slumber in their beds,

¹⁶ he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,

¹⁷ to turn them from wrongdoing
and keep them from pride,

¹⁸ to preserve them from the pit,
their lives from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹ “Or someone may be chastened on a bed of pain
with constant distress in their bones,

²⁰ so that their body finds food repulsive
and their soul loathes the choicest meal.

²¹ Their flesh wastes away to nothing,
and their bones, once hidden, now stick out.

²² They draw near to the pit,
and their life to the messengers of death.

²³ Yet if there is an angel at their side,
a messenger, one out of a thousand,
sent to tell them how to be upright,

²⁴ and he is gracious to that person and says to God,
‘Spare them from going down to the pit;
I have found a ransom for them —

²⁵ let their flesh be renewed like a child’s;
let them be restored as in the days of their youth’ —

²⁶ then that person can pray to God and find favor with him,
they will see God’s face and shout for joy;
he will restore them to full well-being.

²⁷ And they will go to others and say,
‘I have sinned, I have perverted what is right,
but I did not get what I deserved.

²⁸ God has delivered me from going down to the pit,
and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.’

²⁹ “God does all these things to a person —
twice, even three times —

³⁰ to turn them back from the pit,
that the light of life may shine on them.

³¹ “Pay attention, Job, and listen to me;
be silent, and I will speak.

³² If you have anything to say, answer me;
speak up, for I want to vindicate you.

³³ But if not, then listen to me;
be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”