The Second Dialogue (JOB 14:22-21:34)

Eliphaz

[15:3] No one who is wise would talk the way you do or defend himself with such meaningless words.

[15:4] If you had your way, no one would fear God; no one would pray to him.

[15:5] Your wickedness is evident by what you say; you are trying to hide behind clever words.

[15:6] There is no need for me to condemn you; you are condemned by every word you speak.

[15:7] Do you think you were the first person born? Were you there when God made the mountains?

[15:8] Did you overhear the plans God made? Does human wisdom belong to you alone?

[15:9] There is nothing you know that we don't know.

[15:10] We learned our wisdom from gray-haired people— those born before your father.

[15:11] God offers you comfort; why still reject it? We have spoken for him with calm, even words.

[15:12] But you are excited and glare at us in anger.

[15:13] You are angry with God and denounce him.

[15:14] Can any human being be really pure? Can anyone be right with God?

[15:15] Why, God does not trust even his angels; even they are not pure in his sight.

[15:16] And we drink evil as if it were water; yes, we are corrupt; we are worthless.

[15:17] Now listen, Job, to what I know.

[15:18] Those who are wise have taught me truths which they learned from their ancestors, and they kept no secrets hidden.

[15:19] Their land was free from foreigners; there was no one to lead them away from God.

[15:20] The wicked who oppress others will be in torment as long as they live.

[15:21] Voices of terror will scream in their ears, and robbers attack when they think they are safe.

[15:22] They have no hope of escaping from darkness, for somewhere a sword is waiting to kill them,

[15:23] and vultures are waiting to eat their corpses. They know their future is dark;

[15:24] disaster, like a powerful king, is waiting to attack them.

[15:25] That is the fate of those who shake their fists at God and defy the Almighty. they stubbornly hold up their shields and rush to fight against God.

[15:28] They are the ones who captured cities and seized houses whose owners had fled, but war will destroy those cities and houses.

[15:29] They will not remain rich for long; nothing they own will last. Even their shadows will vanish,

[15:30] and they will not escape from darkness. They will be like trees whose branches are burned by fire, whose blossoms are blown away by the wind.

[15:31] If they are foolish enough to trust in evil, then evil will be their reward.

[15:32] Before their time is up they will wither, wither like a branch and never be green again.

[15:33] They will be like vines that lose their unripe grapes; like olive trees that drop their blossoms.

[15:34] There will be no descendants for godless people, and fire will destroy the homes built by bribery.

[15:35] These are the ones who plan trouble and do evil; their hearts are always full of deceit.

Job

the comfort you give is only torment.

[16:3] Are you going to keep on talking forever? Do you always have to have the last word?

[16:4] If you were in my place and I in yours, I could say everything you are saying. I could shake my head wisely and drown you with a flood of words.

[16:5] I could strengthen you with advice and keep talking to comfort you.

[16:6] But nothing I say helps, and being silent does not calm my pain.

[16:7] You have worn me out, God; you have let my family be killed.

[16:8] You have seized me; you are my enemy. I am skin and bones, and people take that as proof of my guilt.

[16:9] In anger God tears me limb from limb; he glares at me with hate.

[16:10] People sneer at me; they crowd around me and slap my face.

[16:11] God has handed me over to evil people.

[16:12] I was living in peace, but God took me by the throat and battered me and crushed me. God uses me for target practice

[16:13] and shoots arrows at me from every side— arrows that pierce and wound me; and even then he shows no pity.

[16:14] He wounds me again and again; he attacks like a soldier gone mad with hate.

[16:15] I mourn and wear clothes made of sackcloth, and I sit here in the dust defeated.

[16:16] I have cried until my face is red, and my eyes are swollen and circled with shadows,

[16:17] but I am not guilty of any violence, and my prayer to God is sincere.

[16:18] O Earth, don't hide the wrongs done to me! Don't let my call for justice be silenced!

[16:19] There is someone in heaven to stand up for me and take my side.

[16:20] My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God.

[16:21] I want someone to plead with God for me, as one pleads for a friend.

[16:22] My years are passing now, and I walk the road of no return.

[17:1] The end of my life is near. I can hardly breathe; there is nothing left for me but the grave.

[17:2] I watch how bitterly everyone mocks me.

[17:3] I am being honest, God. Accept my word. There is no one else to support what I say.

[17:4] You have closed their minds to reason; don't let them triumph over me now.

[17:5] In the old proverb someone betrays his friends for money, and his children suffer for it.

[17:6] And now people use this proverb against me; they come and spit in my face.

[17:7] My grief has almost made me blind; my arms and legs are as thin as shadows.

[17:8] Those who claim to be honest are shocked, and they all condemn me as godless.

[17:9] Those who claim to be respectable are more and more convinced they are right.

[17:10] But if all of them came and stood before me, I would not find even one of them wise.

[17:11] My days have passed; my plans have failed; my hope is gone.

[17:12] But my friends say night is daylight; they say that light is near, but I know I remain in darkness.

[17:13] My only hope is the world of the dead, where I will lie down to sleep in the dark.

[17:14] I will call the grave my father, and the worms that eat me I will call my mother and my sisters.

[17:15] Where is there any hope for me? Who sees any?

[17:16] Hope will not go with me when I go down to the world of the dead.

Bildad

If you stopped to listen, we could talk to you.

[18:3] What makes you think we are as stupid as cattle?

[18:4] You are only hurting yourself with your anger. Will the earth be deserted because you are angry? Will God move mountains to satisfy you?

[18:5] The light of the wicked will still be put out; its flame will never burn again.

[18:6] The lamp in their tents will be darkened.

[18:7] Their steps were firm, but now they stumble; they fall—victims of their own advice.

[18:8] They walk into a net, and their feet are caught;

[18:9] a trap catches their heels and holds them.

[18:10] On the ground a snare is hidden; a trap has been set in their path.

[18:11] All around them terror is waiting; it follows them at every step.

[18:12] They used to be rich, but now they go hungry; disaster stands and waits at their side.

[18:13] A deadly disease spreads over their bodies and causes their arms and legs to rot.

[18:14] They are torn from the tents where they lived secure, and are dragged off to face King Death.

[18:15] Now anyone may live in their tents— after sulfur is sprinkled to disinfect them!

[18:16] Their roots and branches are withered and dry.

[18:17] Their fame is ended at home and abroad; no one remembers them any more.

[18:18] They will be driven out of the land of the living, driven from light into darkness.

[18:19] They have no descendants, no survivors.

[18:20] From east to west, all who hear of their fate shudder and tremble with fear.

[18:21] That is the fate of evil people, the fate of those who care nothing for God.

Job

[19:3] Time after time you insult me and show no shame for the way you abuse me.

[19:4] Even if I have done wrong, how does that hurt you?

[19:5] You think you are better than I am, and regard my troubles as proof of my guilt.

[19:6] Can't you see it is God who has done this? He has set a trap to catch me.

[19:7] I protest his violence, but no one is listening; no one hears my cry for justice.

[19:8] God has blocked the way, and I can't get through; he has hidden my path in darkness.

[19:9] He has taken away all my wealth and destroyed my reputation.

[19:10] He batters me from every side. He uproots my hope and leaves me to wither and die.

[19:11] God is angry and rages against me; he treats me like his worst enemy.

[19:12] He sends his army to attack me; they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent.

[19:13] God has made my own family forsake me; I am a stranger to those who knew me;

[19:14] my relatives and friends are gone.

[19:15] Those who were guests in my house have forgotten me; my servant women treat me like a stranger and a foreigner.

[19:16] When I call a servant, he doesn't answer— even when I beg him to help me.

[19:17] My wife can't stand the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't come near me.

[19:18] Children despise me and laugh when they see me.

[19:19] My closest friends look at me with disgust; those I loved most have turned against me.

[19:20] My skin hangs loose on my bones; I have barely escaped with my life.

[19:21] You are my friends! Take pity on me! The hand of God has struck me down.

[19:22] Why must you persecute me the way God does? Haven't you tormented me enough?

[19:23] How I wish that someone would remember my words and record them in a book!

[19:24] Or with a chisel carve my words in stone and write them so that they would last forever.

[19:25] But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense.

[19:26] Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God.

[19:27] I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. My courage failed because you said,

[19:28] “How can we torment him?” You looked for some excuse to attack me.

[19:29] But now, be afraid of the sword— the sword that brings God's wrath on sin, so that you will know there is one who judges.

Zophar

[20:3] What you have said is an insult, but I know how to reply to you.

[20:4] Surely you know that from ancient times, when we humans were first placed on earth,

[20:5] no wicked people have been happy for long.

[20:6] They may grow great, towering to the sky, so great that their heads reach the clouds,

[20:7] but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.

[20:8] They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night, and never be seen again.

[20:9] The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;

[20:10] and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.

[20:11] Their bodies used to be young and vigorous, but soon they will turn to dust. that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavor.

[20:14] But in their stomachs the food turns bitter, as bitter as any poison could be.

[20:15] The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole; God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.

[20:16] What the evil people swallow is like poison; it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.

[20:17] They will not live to see rivers of olive oil or streams that flow with milk and honey.

[20:18] They will have to give up all they have worked for; they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,

[20:19] because they oppressed and neglected the poor and seized houses someone else had built.

[20:20] Their greed is never satisfied.

[20:21] When they eat, there is nothing left over, but now their prosperity comes to an end.

[20:22] At the height of their success all the weight of misery will crush them.

[20:23] Let them eat all they want! God will punish them in fury and anger.

[20:24] When they try to escape from an iron sword, a bronze bow will shoot them down.

[20:25] Arrows stick through their bodies; the shiny points drip with their blood, and terror grips their hearts.

[20:26] Everything they have saved is destroyed; a fire not lit by human hands burns them and all their family.

[20:27] Heaven reveals their sin, and the earth gives testimony against them.

[20:28] All their wealth will be destroyed in the flood of God's anger.

[20:29] This is the fate of wicked people, the fate that God assigns to them.

Job

that is all the comfort I ask from you.

[21:3] Give me a chance to speak and then, when I am through, sneer if you like.

[21:4] My quarrel is not with mortals; I have good reason to be impatient.

[21:5] Look at me. Isn't that enough to make you stare in shocked silence?

[21:6] When I think of what has happened to me, I am stunned, and I tremble and shake.

[21:7] Why does God let evil people live, let them grow old and prosper?

[21:8] They have children and grandchildren, and live to watch them all grow up.

[21:9] God does not bring disaster on their homes; they never have to live in terror.

[21:10] Yes, all their cattle breed and give birth without trouble.

[21:11] Their children run and play like lambs

[21:12] and dance to the music of harps and flutes.

[21:13] They live out their lives in peace and quietly die without suffering.

[21:14] The wicked tell God to leave them alone; they don't want to know his will for their lives.

[21:15] They think there is no need to serve God nor any advantage in praying to him.

[21:16] They claim they succeed by their own strength, but their way of thinking I can't accept.

[21:17] Was a wicked person's light ever put out? Did one of them ever meet with disaster? Did God ever punish the wicked in anger

[21:18] and blow them away like straw in the wind, or like dust carried away in a storm?

[21:19] You claim God punishes a child for the sins of his father. No! Let God punish the sinners themselves; let him show that he does it because of their sins.

[21:20] Let sinners bear their own punishment; let them feel the wrath of Almighty God.

[21:21] When our lives are over, do we really care whether our children are happy?

[21:22] Can anyone teach God, who judges even those in high places? they die happy and at ease, their bodies well-nourished.

[21:25] Others have no happiness at all; they live and die with bitter hearts.

[21:26] But all alike die and are buried; they all are covered with worms.

[21:27] I know what spiteful thoughts you have.

[21:28] You ask, “Where are the homes of great people now, those who practiced evil?”

[21:29] Haven't you talked with people who travel? Don't you know the reports they bring back?

[21:30] On the day God is angry and punishes, it is the wicked who are always spared.

[21:31] There is no one to accuse the wicked or pay them back for all they have done.

[21:32] When they are carried to the graveyard, to their well-guarded tombs,

[21:33] thousands join the funeral procession, and even the earth lies gently on their bodies.

[21:34] And you! You try to comfort me with nonsense! Every answer you give is a lie!