job

¹There was a man in the land of Uz named Job, and he was a simple and honest man, fearing God and withdrawing from evil.

²⁰Then Job got up and tore his garments, and, having shaved his head, he collapsed on the ground, and worshipped, ²¹and he said, “Naked I departed from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Just as it pleased the Lord, so has it been done. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” ²²In all this, Job did not sin by his lips, nor did he speak any foolish thing against God.

¹Then Job, responding to the Lord, said: ²I know that you are able to do all things, and that no thoughts are hidden from you. ³So, who is it that would disguise a lack of knowledge as counsel? Therefore, I have been speaking foolishly, about things whose measure exceeds my knowledge. ⁴Listen, and I will speak. I will question you, and you may answer me. ⁵By paying attention with the ear, I have heard you, but now my eye sees you. ⁶Therefore, I find myself reprehensible, and I will do penance in embers and ashes.

⁷And so, Satan departed from the face of the Lord and he struck Job with a very serious ulcer from the sole of the foot all the way to the crown of his head. ⁸So he took a shard of earthenware and scraped the discharge, while sitting on a heap of refuse. ⁹But his wife said to him, “Do you still continue in your simplicity? Bless God and die.” ¹⁰He said to her, “You have spoken like one of the foolish wives. If we accepted good things from the hand of God, why should we not accept bad things?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

¹⁰Likewise, the Lord was moved by the repentance of Job, when he prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave to Job twice as much as he had before. ¹¹Yet all his brethren came to him, and all his sisters, and everyone who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house. They also shook their heads over him and comforted him, because of all the bad things that God had inflicted on him. And each one of them gave him one female sheep, and one earring of gold. ¹²And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job even more than his beginning. And he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand pairs of oxen, and a thousand she-donkeys. ¹³And he had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴And he called the name of one, Daylight, and the name of the second, Cinnamon, and the name of the third, Horn of Cosmetics. ¹⁵And, in the whole world, there were not found women so beautiful as the daughters of Job. And so their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶But Job lived long after these events, for a hundred and forty years, and he saw his children, and his children’s children, all the way to the fourth generation, and he died an old man and full of days.

¹³So may the God of hope fill you with every joy and with peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope and in the virtue of the Holy Spirit.

²⁴Therefore, men will fear him, and all those who seem to themselves to be wise, will not dare to contemplate him.

¹But the Lord, responding to Job from a whirlwind, said: ²Who is this that wraps sentences in unskilled words? ³Gird your waist like a man. I will question you, and you must answer me. ⁴Where were you, when I set the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. ⁵Who set its measurements, if you know, or who stretched a line over it? ⁶Upon what have its bases been grounded, and who set forth its cornerstone,

¹¹Consider that we beatify those who have endured. You have heard of the patient suffering of Job. And you have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is merciful and compassionate.