6Look, you and I both belong to God.

I, too, was formed from clay.

7So you don’t need to be afraid of me.

I won’t come down hard on you.

8“You have spoken in my hearing,

and I have heard your very words.

9You said, ‘I am pure; I am without sin;

I am innocent; I have no guilt.

10God is picking a quarrel with me,

and he considers me his enemy.

11He puts my feet in the stocks

and watches my every move.’

12“But you are wrong, and I will show you why.

For God is greater than any human being.

13So why are you bringing a charge against him?

Why say he does not respond to people’s complaints?

14For God speaks again and again,

though people do not recognize it.

15He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night,

when deep sleep falls on people

as they lie in their beds.

16He whispers in their ears

and terrifies them with warnings.

17He makes them turn from doing wrong;

he keeps them from pride.

18He protects them from the grave,

from crossing over the river of death.

19“Or God disciplines people with pain on their sickbeds,

with ceaseless aching in their bones.

20They lose their appetite

for even the most delicious food.

21Their flesh wastes away,

and their bones stick out.

22They are at death’s door;

the angels of death wait for them.

23“But if an angel from heaven appears—

a special messenger to intercede for a person

and declare that he is upright—

24he will be gracious and say,

‘Rescue him from the grave,

for I have found a ransom for his life.’

25Then his body will become as healthy as a child’s,

firm and youthful again.

26When he prays to God,

he will be accepted.

And God will receive him with joy

and restore him to good standing.

27He will declare to his friends,

‘I sinned and twisted the truth,

but it was not worth it.fn

28God rescued me from the grave,

and now my life is filled with light.’

==29“Yes, God does these things

again and again for people.==

30==He rescues them from the grave

so they may enjoy the light of life.==