1And immediately my wife came near me and crying aloud and weeping she said: "Job! Job! How long wilt thou sit upon the dung-hill outside of the city, pondering yet for a while and expecting to obtain your hoped-for salvation!"
2And I have been wandering from place to place, roaming about as a hired servant, behold thy memory has already died away from earth.
3And my sons and the daughters that I carried on my bosom and the labors and pains that I sustained have been for nothing
4And thou sittest in the malodorous state of soreness and worms, passing the nights in the cold air.
5And I have undergone all trials and troubles and pains, day and night until I succeeded in bringing bread to thee.
6For your surplus of bread is no longer allowed to me; and as I can scarcely take my own food and divide it between us, I pondered in my heart that it was not right that thou shouldst be in pain and hunger for bread.
7And so I ventured to go to the market without bashfulness, and when the bread-seller told me: "Give me money. and thou shalt have bread’’. I disclosed to him our state of distress.
8Then I heard him say: "If thou hast no money, hand me the hair of thy head, and take three loaves of bread in order that ye may live on these for three days’’.
9And I yielded to the wrong and said to him: "Rise and cut off my hair!’’, and he rose and in disgrace cut off with the scissors the hair of my head on the market place while the crowd stood by and wondered.
10Who would then not be astonished saying: "Is this Sitis, the wife of Job, who had fourteen curtains to cover her inner sitting room, and doors within doors so that he was greatly honored who would be brought near her, and now behold, she barters off her hair for bread!
11Who had camels laden with goods. and they were brought into remote lands to the poor, and now she sells her hair for bread!
12Behold her who had seven tables immovably set in her house at which each poor man and each stranger ate, and now she sells her hair for bread!
13Behold her who had the basin wherewith to wash her feet made of gold and silver, and now she walks upon the ground and [sells her hair for bread!]
14Behold her who had her garments made of byssus interwoven with gold, and now she exchanges her hair for bread!
15Behold her who had couches of gold and of silver, and now she sells her hair for bread!"
16In short then, Job, after the many things that have been said to me, I now say in one word to thee:
17"Since the feebleness of my heart has crushed my bones, rise then and take these loaves of bread and enjoy them, and then speak some word against the Lord and die!
18For I too, would exchange the torpor of death for the sustenance of my body".
19But I replied to her: "Behold I have been for these seven years plague-stricken, and I have stood the worms of my body, and I was not weighed down in my soul by all these pains.
20And as to the word which thou sayest: ‘Speak some word against God and die!‘, together with thee I will sustain the evil which thou seest. and let us endure the ruin of all that we have.
21Yet thou desirest that we should say some word against God and that He should be exchanged for the great Pluto [the god of the nether world.]
22Why dost thou not remember those great goods which we possessed? If these goods come from the hands of the Lord, should not we also endure evils and be high-minded in everything until the Lord will have mercy again and show pity to us?
23Dost thou not see the Seducer stand behind thee and confound thy thoughts in order that thou shouldst beguile me?
24And he turned to Satan and said: "Why dost thou not come openly to me? Stop hiding thyself thou wretched one,
25Does the lion show his strength in the weasel cage? Or does the bird fly in the basket? I now tell thee: Go away and wage thy war against me".
26Then he went off from behind my wife and placed himself before me crying and he said: Behold, Job, I yield and give way to thee who art but flesh while I am a spirit.
27Thou art plague-stricken, but I am in great trouble.
28For I am like a wrestler contesting with a wrestler who has, in a single-handed combat, torn down his antagonist and covered him with dust and broken every limb of his, whereas the other one who lies beneath, having displayed his bravery, gives forth sounds of triumph testifying to his own superior excellence.
29Thus thou, O Job, art beneath and stricken with plague and pain, and yet thou hast carried the victory in the wrestling-match with me, and behold, I yield to thee".
30Then he left me abashed.
31Now my children, do you also show a firm heart in all the evil that happens to you, for greater than all things is firmness of heart.