Category: Job

[19:1] Then Job answered and said:

[19:2] “How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?

[19:3] These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?

[19:4] And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

[19:5] If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me,

[19:6] know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.

[19:7] Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.

[19:8] He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.

[19:9] He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.

[19:10] He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

[19:11] He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.

[19:12] His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

[19:13] “He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

[19:14] My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me.

[19:15] The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

[19:16] I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

[19:17] My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.

[19:18] Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.

[19:19] All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.

[19:20] My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

[19:21] Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!

[19:22] Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

[19:23] “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

[19:24] Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

[19:25] For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

[19:26] And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,

[19:27] whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

[19:28] If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’

[19:29] be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

[20:1] Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

[20:2] “Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.

[20:3] I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

[20:4] Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,

[20:5] that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

[20:6] Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

[20:7] he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

[20:8] He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

[20:9] The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.

[20:10] His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.

[20:11] His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.

[20:12] “Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,

[20:13] though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,

[20:14] yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.

[20:15] He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.

[20:16] He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.

[20:17] He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.

[20:18] He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.

[20:19] For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.

[20:20] “Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

[20:21] There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.

[20:22] In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

[20:23] To fill his belly to the full, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.

[20:24] He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.

[20:25] It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him.

[20:26] Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.

[20:27] The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.

[20:28] The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.

[20:29] This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.”

[21:1] Then Job answered and said:

[21:2] “Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort.

[21:3] Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.

[21:4] As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?

[21:5] Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.

[21:6] When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.

[21:7] Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

[21:8] Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.

[21:9] Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.

[21:10] Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry.

[21:11] They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.

[21:12] They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

[21:13] They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.

[21:14] They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

[21:15] What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

[21:16] Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

[21:17] “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?

[21:18] That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?

[21:19] You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.

[21:20] Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

[21:21] For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?

[21:22] Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?

[21:23] One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure,

[21:24] his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.

[21:25] Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.

[21:26] They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.

[21:27] “Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.

[21:28] For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

[21:29] Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony

[21:30] that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

[21:31] Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done?

[21:32] When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.

[21:33] The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.

[21:34] How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

[22:1] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

[22:2] “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

[22:3] Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

[22:4] Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?

[22:5] Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.

[22:6] For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.

[22:7] You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

[22:8] The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it.

[22:9] You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

[22:10] Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you,

[22:11] or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

[22:12] “Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!

[22:13] But you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?

[22:14] Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.’

[22:15] Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?

[22:16] They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.

[22:17] They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

[22:18] Yet he filled their houses with good things— but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

[22:19] The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent one mocks at them,

[22:20] saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’

[22:21] “Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.

[22:22] Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

[22:23] If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,

[22:24] if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,

[22:25] then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.

[22:26] For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

[22:27] You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.

[22:28] You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.

[22:29] For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.

[22:30] He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

[25:1] Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

[25:2] “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.

[25:3] Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise?

[25:4] How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?

[25:5] Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes;

[25:6] how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”

[26:1] Then Job answered and said:

[26:2] “How you have helped him who has no power! How you have saved the arm that has no strength!

[26:3] How you have counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

[26:4] With whose help have you uttered words, and whose breath has come out from you?

[26:5] The dead tremble under the waters and their inhabitants.

[26:6] Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

[26:7] He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.

[26:8] He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them.

[26:9] He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it his cloud.

[26:10] He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

[26:11] The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke.

[26:12] By his power he stilled the sea; by his understanding he shattered Rahab.

[26:13] By his wind the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

[26:14] Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

[27:1] And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

[27:2] “As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,

[27:3] as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

[27:4] my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

[27:5] Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

[27:6] I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

[27:7] “Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

[27:8] For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life?

[27:9] Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?

[27:10] Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

[27:11] I will teach you concerning the hand of God; what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

[27:12] Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

[27:13] “This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

[27:14] If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his descendants have not enough bread.

[27:15] Those who survive him the pestilence buries, and his widows do not weep.

[27:16] Though he heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay,

[27:17] he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.

[27:18] He builds his house like a moth’s, like a booth that a watchman makes.

[27:19] He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more; he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.

[27:20] Terrors overtake him like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries him off.

[27:21] The east wind lifts him up and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

[27:22] It hurls at him without pity; he flees from its power in headlong flight.

[27:23] It claps its hands at him and hisses at him from its place.

[28:1] “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold that they refine.

[28:2] Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore.

[28:3] Man puts an end to darkness and searches out to the farthest limit the ore in gloom and deep darkness.

[28:4] He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.

[28:5] As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire.

[28:6] Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold.

[28:7] “That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

[28:8] The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it.

[28:9] “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots.

[28:10] He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing.

[28:11] He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

[28:12] “But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?

[28:13] Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living.

[28:14] The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

[28:15] It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price.

[28:16] It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.

[28:17] Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

[28:18] No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls.

[28:19] The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

[28:20] “From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?

[28:21] It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air.

[28:22] Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

[28:23] “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.

[28:24] For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

[28:25] When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure,

[28:26] when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder,

[28:27] then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out.

[28:28] And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”