The Holy Bible

[13:1] “Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.

[13:2] What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

[13:3] But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.

[13:4] As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.

[13:5] Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom!

[13:6] Hear now my argument and listen to the pleadings of my lips.

[13:7] Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him?

[13:8] Will you show partiality toward him? Will you plead the case for God?

[13:9] Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?

[13:10] He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality.

[13:11] Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you?

[13:12] Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.

[13:13] “Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may.

[13:14] Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand?

[13:15] Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.

[13:16] This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him.

[13:17] Keep listening to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears.

[13:18] Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right.

[13:19] Who is there who will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die.

[13:20] Only grant me two things, then I will not hide myself from your face:

[13:21] withdraw your hand far from me, and let not dread of you terrify me.

[13:22] Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me.

[13:23] How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin.

[13:24] Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?

[13:25] Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff?

[13:26] For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

[13:27] You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; you set a limit for the soles of my feet.

[13:28] Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

[14:1] “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.

[14:2] He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.

[14:3] And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?

[14:4] Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.

[14:5] Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,

[14:6] look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

[14:7] “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.

[14:8] Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil,

[14:9] yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.

[14:10] But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?

[14:11] As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up,

[14:12] so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.

[14:13] Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

[14:14] If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.

[14:15] You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.

[14:16] For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin;

[14:17] my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.

[14:18] “But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;

[14:19] the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.

[14:20] You prevail forever against him, and he passes; you change his countenance, and send him away.

[14:21] His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he perceives it not.

[14:22] He feels only the pain of his own body, and he mourns only for himself.”

[15:1] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

[15:2] “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

[15:3] Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good?

[15:4] But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God.

[15:5] For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

[15:6] Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.

[15:7] “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

[15:8] Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

[15:9] What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?

[15:10] Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father.

[15:11] Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?

[15:12] Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash,

[15:13] that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth?

[15:14] What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

[15:15] Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight;

[15:16] how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!

[15:17] “I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare

[15:18] (what wise men have told, without hiding it from their fathers,

[15:19] to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them).

[15:20] The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

[15:21] Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.

[15:22] He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword.

[15:23] He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;

[15:24] distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.

[15:25] Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty,

[15:26] running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield;

[15:27] because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist

[15:28] and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins;

[15:29] he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth;

[15:30] he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.

[15:31] Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment.

[15:32] It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green.

[15:33] He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.

[15:34] For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.

[15:35] They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit.”

[16:1] Then Job answered and said:

[16:2] “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.

[16:3] Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

[16:4] I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you.

[16:5] I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

[16:6] “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

[16:7] Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company.

[16:8] And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.

[16:9] He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

[16:10] Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me.

[16:11] God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

[16:12] I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target;

[16:13] his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.

[16:14] He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior.

[16:15] I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust.

[16:16] My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness,

[16:17] although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

[16:18] “O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place.

[16:19] Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.

[16:20] My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,

[16:21] that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor.

[16:22] For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

[17:1] “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me.

[17:2] Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.

[17:3] “Lay down a pledge for me with you; who is there who will put up security for me?

[17:4] Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.

[17:5] He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property— the eyes of his children will fail.

[17:6] “He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.

[17:7] My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.

[17:8] The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

[17:9] Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

[17:10] But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.

[17:11] My days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.

[17:12] They make night into day: ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’

[17:13] If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness,

[17:14] if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

[17:15] where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?

[17:16] Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”

[18:1] Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

[18:2] “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak.

[18:3] Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?

[18:4] You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?

[18:5] “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.

[18:6] The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is put out.

[18:7] His strong steps are shortened, and his own schemes throw him down.

[18:8] For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on its mesh.

[18:9] A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare lays hold of him.

[18:10] A rope is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him in the path.

[18:11] Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels.

[18:12] His strength is famished, and calamity is ready for his stumbling.

[18:13] It consumes the parts of his skin; the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.

[18:14] He is torn from the tent in which he trusted and is brought to the king of terrors.

[18:15] In his tent dwells that which is none of his; sulfur is scattered over his habitation.

[18:16] His roots dry up beneath, and his branches wither above.

[18:17] His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the street.

[18:18] He is thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world.

[18:19] He has no posterity or progeny among his people, and no survivor where he used to live.

[18:20] They of the west are appalled at his day, and horror seizes them of the east.

[18:21] Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God.”

[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.”