¹Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

²Should a multitude of words not be answered, or should a man of lips be in the right?

³Will your empty talk silence men, and will you mock with no one to shame you?

⁴You said, My instruction is pure, and I am clean in your eyes.

⁵But if only God would speak, and would open his lips wide with you,

⁶and tell you the secrets of wisdom—for there is double to sound wisdom—and know that God causes you to forget some of your guilt.

⁷Will you find the searching of God? Or will you find the Almighty to the end?

⁸The heights of the skies—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

⁹Its measure is longer than the land and wider than the sea.

¹⁰If he passes through and shuts up and summons an assembly, who can turn him back?

¹¹For he knows men of emptiness; he sees wickedness; will he not take note?

¹²And a hollow man will get a mind, when a colt of a wild ass is born a man.

¹³If you yourself fix your heart, and spread out your palms toward him,

¹⁴if wickedness is in your hand, put it far away, and do not let injustice dwell in your tents.

¹⁵For then you will lift up your face without blemish, and you will be firmly set, and you will not fear.

¹⁶For you will forget toil; you will remember it like waters that have passed away.

¹⁷And life will rise up beyond noon; the dark will be like the morning.

¹⁸And you will trust, for there is hope; you will explore, and lie down in security.

¹⁹You will lie down crouching, with no one to put you in terror, and many will entreat your face.

²⁰And the eyes of the wicked will fail, and a place of escape is lost from them; their hope is the breathing out of a being.