Category: Job

[1:1] There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

[1:2] There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

[1:3] He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

[1:4] His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

[1:5] And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

[1:6] Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

[1:7] The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

[1:8] And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

[1:9] Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?

[1:10] Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

[1:11] But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

[1:12] And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

[1:13] Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

[1:14] and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,

[1:15] and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

[1:16] While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

[1:17] While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

[1:18] While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

[1:19] and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

[1:20] Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.

[1:21] And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

[1:22] In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

[2:1] Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.

[2:2] And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

[2:3] And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”

[2:4] Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.

[2:5] But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”

[2:6] And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

[2:7] So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

[2:8] And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

[2:9] Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”

[2:10] But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

[2:11] Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.

[2:12] And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

[2:13] And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

[3:1] After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

[3:2] And Job said:

[3:3] “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’

[3:4] Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.

[3:5] Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

[3:6] That night—let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

[3:7] Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.

[3:8] Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.

[3:9] Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,

[3:10] because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.

[3:11] “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?

[3:12] Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

[3:13] For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,

[3:14] with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves,

[3:15] or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

[3:16] Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?

[3:17] There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.

[3:18] There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

[3:19] The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.

[3:20] “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,

[3:21] who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

[3:22] who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?

[3:23] Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

[3:24] For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.

[3:25] For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.

[3:26] I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

[6:1] Then Job answered and said:

[6:2] “Oh that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

[6:3] For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash.

[6:4] For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

[6:5] Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder?

[6:6] Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow?

[6:7] My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me.

[6:8] “Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope,

[6:9] that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!

[6:10] This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

[6:11] What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient?

[6:12] Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?

[6:13] Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?

[6:14] “He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

[6:15] My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away,

[6:16] which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself.

[6:17] When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.

[6:18] The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish.

[6:19] The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope.

[6:20] They are ashamed because they were confident; they come there and are disappointed.

[6:21] For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid.

[6:22] Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?

[6:23] Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?

[6:24] “Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.

[6:25] How forceful are upright words! But what does reproof from you reprove?

[6:26] Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?

[6:27] You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend.

[6:28] “But now, be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face.

[6:29] Please turn; let no injustice be done. Turn now; my vindication is at stake.

[6:30] Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?

[7:1] “Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?

[7:2] Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,

[7:3] so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

[7:4] When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’ But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn.

[7:5] My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.

[7:6] My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end without hope.

[7:7] “Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.

[7:8] The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.

[7:9] As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;

[7:10] he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore.

[7:11] “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

[7:12] Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?

[7:13] When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’

[7:14] then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

[7:15] so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones.

[7:16] I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

[7:17] What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him,

[7:18] visit him every morning and test him every moment?

[7:19] How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

[7:20] If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?

[7:21] Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

[8:1] Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

[8:2] “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?

[8:3] Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

[8:4] If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

[8:5] If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy,

[8:6] if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.

[8:7] And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.

[8:8] “For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out.

[8:9] For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.

[8:10] Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?

[8:11] “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?

[8:12] While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.

[8:13] Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.

[8:14] His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider’s web.

[8:15] He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.

[8:16] He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.

[8:17] His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones.

[8:18] If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’

[8:19] Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring.

[8:20] “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.

[8:21] He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.

[8:22] Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”