Job
Chapter 1
1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and Job was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred pairs of oxen, and five hundred donkeys and a great many servants. He was the man who was the greatest of all the people of the East. 4 On each son’s assigned day, he would give a feast in his house. They would send and call for their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When the days of the feast were over, Job would send for them and he would consecrate them. He would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings for each of his children, for he would say, “It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Job always did this.
6 Then it was the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh. Satan also came with them. 7 Yahweh said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Then Satan answered Yahweh and said, “From wandering on the earth, from going back and forth on it.” 8 Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and turns from evil.” 9 Then Satan answered Yahweh and said, “Does Job fear God without reason? 10 Have you not put a barrier around him, around his house, and around all that is his from every side? You have blessed the deeds of his hands, and his cattle have burst forth in the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and see if he does not curse you to your face.” 12 Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him himself do not stretch out your hand.” Then Satan went away from the presence of Yahweh.
13 It came about that on a certain day, his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. 14 A messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them. 15 Then the Sabeans fell on them and took them away. As for the servants, they have struck them with the edge of the sword. I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants. I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups, attacked the camels, and have taken them away. As for the servants, they have struck them with the edge of the sword. I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. 19 A strong wind came from the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house. It fell on the young people, and they died. I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20 Then Job rose, tore his robe, shaved his head, lay facedown on the ground, and worshiped God. 21 He said, “I was naked when I came out of my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I will return there. It is Yahweh who gave, and it is Yahweh who has taken away. May the name of Yahweh be blessed.” 22 In all this matter, Job did not sin, nor did he accuse God of wrongdoing.
Chapter 2
1 Then it was the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh. Satan also came with them to present himself before Yahweh. 2 Yahweh said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Then Satan answered Yahweh and said, “From wandering on the earth, from going back and forth on it.” 3 Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil. He still holds fast to his integrity, although you misled me against him, to destroy him without cause.” 4 Satan answered Yahweh and said, “Skin for skin, indeed; a man will give all he has for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand now and touch his bones and his flesh, and see if he does not curse you to your face.” 6 Yahweh said to Satan, “See, he is in your hand; it is only his life that you must spare.”
7 Then Satan went away from the presence of Yahweh. He struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his feet to his head. 8 Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself with, and he sat down in the middle of ashes. 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You talk as a foolish woman talks. Should we receive the good from God and not receive the bad?” In all this matter, Job did not sin with his lips.
11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, each of them came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They set a time to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. 12 When they lifted up their eyes at a distance, they did not recognize him. They raised their voices and wept; each tore his robe and threw dust into the air and upon his own head. 13 Then they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights. No one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
Chapter 3
1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born.
2 He said,
3 “May the day on which I was born perish,
the night that said, ‘A boy has been conceived.’
4 May that day be dark;
may not God from above call it to mind,
neither may the sun shine on it.
5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.
May a cloud live over it;
may everything that makes the day black truly terrify it.
6 As for that night, may thick darkness seize it.
May it not rejoice among the days of the year;
may it not come into the number of the months.
7 See, may that night be barren;
may no joyful voice come into it.
8 May they curse that day,
those who know how to wake up Leviathan.
9 May the stars of that day’s dawn be dark.
May that day look for light, but find none;
neither may it see the eyelids of the dawn,
10 because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
and because it did not hide trouble from my eyes.
11 Why did I not die when I came out from the womb?
Why did I not give up my spirit when my mother bore me?
12 Why did her knees welcome me?
Why did her breasts receive me so that I should suck?
13 For now I would have been lying down quietly.
I would have slept and been at rest
14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built up tombs for themselves that are now in ruins.
15 Or I would have been lying with princes who once had gold,
who had filled their houses with silver.
16 Or perhaps I would have been stillborn,
like infants that never see the light.
17 There the wicked cease from trouble;
there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they do not hear the voice of the slave driver.
19 Both small and great people are there;
the servant is free from his master there.
20 Why is light given to him who is in misery?
Why is life given to the one who is bitter in soul,
21 to one who longs for death without it coming;
to one who digs for death more than for hidden treasure?
22 Why is light given to one who rejoices very much
and is glad when he finds the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
a man whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing happens instead of eating;
my groaning is poured out like water.
25 For the thing that I feared has come on me;
what I was afraid of has come to me.
26 I am not at ease, I am not quiet, and I have no rest;
trouble comes instead.”
Chapter 4
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2 If anyone tries to speak with you, will you be impatient?
But who can stop himself from speaking?
3 See, you have instructed many;
you have strengthened weak hands.
4 Your words have supported him who was falling;
you have made feeble knees firm.
5 But now trouble has come to you, and you are weary;
it touches you, and you are troubled.
6 Is not your fear your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 Think about this, please: Who has ever perished when innocent?
Or when were the upright people ever cut off?
8 According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap it.
9 By the breath of God they perish;
by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 The roaring of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
the teeth of the young lions—they are broken.
11 The old lion perishes for lack of victims;
the cubs of the lioness are scattered everywhere.
12 Now a certain matter was secretly brought to me,
and my ear received a whisper about it.
13 Then came thoughts from visions in the night,
when deep sleep falls on people.
14 It was at night when fear and trembling came upon me,
and all my bones shook.
15 Then a spirit passed before my face,
and the hair of my flesh stood up.
16 The spirit stood still, but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
there was silence, and I heard a voice that said,
17 “Can a mortal man be more righteous than God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 See, if God puts no trust in his servants;
if he accuses his angels of folly,
19 how much more is this true of those who live in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed sooner than a moth?
20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed;
they perish forever without anyone noticing them.
21 Are not their tent cords plucked up among them?
They die; they die without wisdom.
Chapter 5
1 Call out now; is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
2 For anger kills the foolish man;
jealousy kills the silly one.
3 I have seen a foolish person taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his home.
4 His children are far from safety;
they are crushed in the city gate.
There is no one to rescue them.
5 The hungry eat up their harvest;
they even take it from among the thorns.
The thirsty pant for their wealth.
6 For difficulties do not come out from the soil;
neither does trouble sprout from the ground.
7 Instead, mankind is born for trouble,
just as sparks fly upward.
8 But as for me, I would turn to God himself;
to him I would commit my cause—
9 he who does great and unsearchable things,
marvelous things without number.
10 He gives rain on the earth,
and sends water on the fields.
11 He does this in order to set up on high those who are low;
to raise to safety those who mourn.
12 He breaks the plans of the crafty people,
so that their hands cannot achieve success.
13 He traps wise people in their own crafty actions;
the plans of twisted people are hurried to their end.
14 They encounter darkness in the daytime,
and grope at noonday as if it were night.
15 But he saves the poor person from the sword in their mouths
and the needy person from the hand of mighty people.
16 So the poor person has hope,
and injustice shuts her own mouth.
17 See, blessed is the man whom God corrects;
therefore, do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
18 For he wounds and then binds up;
he wounds and then his hands heal.
19 He will rescue you out of six troubles;
indeed, in seven troubles, no evil will touch you.
20 In famine he will ransom you from death,
and in war from the hands of the sword.
21 You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue;
and you will not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
22 You will laugh at destruction and famine,
and you will not be afraid of beasts of the earth.
23 For you will have a covenant with the stones in your field,
and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.
24 You will know that your tent is in safety;
you will visit your sheepfold and you will not miss anything.
25 You will also know that your seed will be great,
that your offspring will be like the grass on the ground.
26 You will come to your grave at a full age,
like a stack of grain bundles that goes up at its time.
27 See, we have examined this matter; it is like this;
listen to it, and know it for yourself.”
Chapter 6
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “Oh, if only my anguish were weighed;
if only all my calamity were laid in the balance!
3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas.
That is why my words were reckless.
4 For the arrows of the Almighty are in me,
my spirit drinks up the poison;
the terrors of God have arranged themselves in array against me.
5 Does the wild donkey bray in despair when he has grass?
Or does the ox low in hunger when it has fodder?
6 Can that which has no taste be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
7 I refuse to touch them;
they are like disgusting food to me.
8 Oh, that I might have my request;
oh, that God would grant me the thing I long for:
9 that it would please God to crush me once,
that he would let loose his hand and cut me off from this life!
10 May this still be my consolation—
even if I exult in pain that does not lessen:
that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
11 What is my strength, that I should try to wait?
What is my end, that I should prolong my life?
12 Is my strength the strength of stones?
Or is my flesh made of bronze?
13 Is it not true that I have no help in myself,
and that wisdom has been driven out of me?
14 To the person who is about to faint, faithfulness should be shown by his friend;
even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15 But my brothers have been as faithful to me as a desert streambed,
as channels of water that pass away to nothing,
16 which are darkened because of ice over them,
and because of the snow that hides itself in them.
17 When they thaw out, they vanish;
when it is hot, they melt out of their place.
18 The caravans that travel by their way turn aside for water;
they wander into barren land and then perish.
19 Caravans from Tema looked there,
while companies of Sheba hoped in them.
20 They were disappointed because they had been confident of finding water.
They went there, but they were deceived.
21 For now you friends are nothing to me;
you see my dreadful situation and are afraid.
22 Did I say to you, ‘Give something to me’
or, ‘Offer me a gift from your wealth’
23 or, ‘Save me from my adversary’s hand’
or, ‘Ransom me from the hand of my oppressors’?
24 Teach me, and I will hold my peace;
make me understand where I have been wrong.
25 How painful are truthful words!
But your arguments, how do they actually rebuke me?
26 Do you plan to ignore my words,
treating the words of a desperate man like the wind?
27 Indeed, you cast lots for a fatherless child,
and haggle over your friend like merchandise.
28 Now, therefore, please look at me,
for surely I would not lie to your face.
29 Relent, I beg you; let there be no injustice with you;
Indeed, relent, for my cause is just.
30 Is there evil on my tongue?
Cannot my mouth detect malicious things?
Chapter 7
1 Does not man have hard labor on earth?
Are not his days like the days of a hired man?
2 Like a slave earnestly desires the shadows of evening,
like a hired man looks for his wages—
3 so I have been made to endure months of misery;
I have been given trouble-filled nights.
4 When I lie down, I say to myself,
‘When will I get up and when will the night be gone?’
I am full of tossing to and fro until the day’s dawning.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;
the sores in my skin harden up and then dissolve and run afresh.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle;
they pass without hope.
7 God, call to mind that my life is only a breath;
my eye will no more see good.
8 The eye of God, who sees me, will see me no more;
God’s eyes will be on me, but I will not exist.
9 As a cloud is consumed and vanishes away,
so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.
10 He will return no more to his house;
neither will his place know him again.
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.
12 Am I the sea or a sea monster
that you place a guard over me?
13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
and my couch will ease my complaint,’
14 then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me through visions,
15 so that I would choose strangling
and death rather than preserving these bones of mine.
16 I loathe my life; I would not wish to always be alive;
let me alone for my days are useless.
17 What is man that you should pay attention to him,
that you should set your mind on him,
18 that you should observe him every morning
and test him every moment?
19 How long will it be before you look away from me,
before you let me alone long enough for me to swallow down my own saliva?
20 Even if I have sinned, what would that do to you, you who watch men?
Why have you made a target of me,
so that I am a burden for you?
21 Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?
For now will I lie down in the dust;
you will seek me carefully, but I will not exist.”
Chapter 8
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
2 “How long will you say these things?
How long will the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
3 Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
4 Your children have sinned against him;
we know this, for he gave them into the hand of their sins.
5 But suppose you diligently sought God
and presented your request to the Almighty.
6 If you are pure and upright,
then he would surely stir himself on your behalf
and restore you to your rightful place.
7 Even though your beginning was small,
still your final condition would be much greater.
8 Please ask the former generations,
and give your attention to what our ancestors learned.
9 (We were only born yesterday and know nothing
because our days on earth are a shadow.)
10 Will they not teach you and tell you?
Will they not speak words from their hearts?
11 Can papyrus grow without a marsh?
Can reeds grow without water?
12 While they are still green and not cut down,
they wither before any other plant.
13 So also are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless will perish.
14 His confidence will break apart,
and his trust is as weak as a spider’s web.
15 He leans on his house, but it will not support him;
he takes hold of it, but it does not stand.
16 Under the sun he is green,
and his shoots go out over his entire garden.
17 His roots are wrapped about the heaps of stone;
they look for good places among the rocks.
18 But if this person is destroyed out of his place,
then that place will deny him and say, ‘I never saw you.’
19 See, this is the “joy” of such a person’s behavior;
other plants will sprout out of the same soil in his place.
20 See, God will not cast away an innocent man;
neither will he take the hand of evildoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
your lips with shouting.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame;
the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
Chapter 9
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “I truly know that this is so.
But how can a person be in the right with God?
3 If he wants to argue with God,
he cannot answer him once in a thousand times.
4 God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has ever hardened himself against him and succeeded?—
5 he who removes the mountains without warning anyone
when he overturns them in his anger—
6 he who shakes the earth out of its place
and sets its supports trembling.
7 It is the same God who tells the sun not to rise, and it does not,
and who covers up the stars,
8 who by himself stretches out the heavens
and tramples down the waves of the sea,
9 who makes the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades,
and the constellations of the south.
10 He does great and unsearchable things,
and wonderful things that cannot be counted.
11 See, he goes by me, and I do not see him;
he passes on also, but I do not perceive him.
12 If he takes something away, who can stop him?
Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13 God will not withdraw his anger;
the helpers of Rahab bow beneath him.
14 How much less could I answer him,
could I choose words to reason with him?
15 Even if I were righteous, I could not answer him;
I could only plead for mercy with my judge.
16 Even if I called and he answered me,
I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
17 For he breaks me with a tempest
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 He does not allow me to regain my breath;
but he fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
and though I am blameless, my words would prove me to be guilty.
21 I am blameless, but I do not care any more about myself;
I despise my own life.
22 It makes no difference, which is why I say
that he destroys blameless people and wicked people together.
23 When a whip suddenly kills,
he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of wicked people;
God covers the faces of its judges.
If it is not he who does it, then who is it?
25 My days are swifter than a running messenger;
my days flee away; they see no good anywhere.
26 They are as fast as papyrus reed boats,
and as fast as the eagle that swoops down on its victim.
27 If I said that I would forget about my complaints,
that I would take off my sad face and be happy,
28 I would be afraid of all my sorrows
because I know that you will not consider me innocent.
29 I will be condemned;
why, then, should I try in vain?
30 If I washed myself with snow water
and made my hands ever so clean,
31 God would plunge me in a ditch,
and my own clothes would be disgusted with me.
32 For God is not a man, as I am, that I could answer him,
that we could come together in court.
33 There is no judge between us
who might lay his hand upon us both.
34 There is no other judge who could take God’s rod off me,
who could keep his terror from frightening me.
35 Then would I speak up and not fear him.
But as things are now, I cannot do that.
Chapter 10
1 I am weary of my life;
I will give free expression to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, ‘Do not merely condemn me;
show me why you accuse me.
3 Is it good to you that you should oppress me,
to despise the work of your hands
while you smile on the plans of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see like a man sees?
5 Are your days like the days of mankind
or your years like the years of people,
6 that you inquire after my iniquity
and search after my sin,
7 although you know I am not guilty
and there is no one who can rescue me from your hand?
8 Your hands have framed and fashioned me
together round about, yet you are destroying me.
9 Call to mind, I beg you, that you have fashioned me like clay;
will you bring me into dust again?
10 Have you not poured me out like milk
and curdled me like cheese?
11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and covenant faithfulness;
your help has guarded my spirit.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart—
I know that this is what you were thinking:
14 that if I sinned, you would notice it;
you would not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I have acted wickedly, woe to me;
and even if I acted righteously,
I could not lift up my head,
since I am filled with disgrace—
see my affliction! 16 If my head were lifted up,
you would stalk me like a lion;
and again you would show yourself with marvellous acts of power against me.
17 You bring new witnesses against me
and increase your anger against me;
you attack me with fresh armies.
18 Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb?
I wish I had given up my spirit and that no eye had ever seen me.
19 I would have been as though I had never existed;
I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days only a few? Stop then,
let me alone, so that I may have a little rest
21 before I go from where I will not return,
to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death,
22 the land that is as dark as midnight,
the land of the shadow of death, without any order,
where the light is like midnight.’”
Chapter 11
1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,
2 “Should not such a multitude of words be answered?
Should this man, so full of talk, be believed?
3 Should your boasting make others remain silent?
When you mock, will no one make you feel ashamed?
4 For you say to God, ‘My beliefs are pure,
I am blameless in your eyes.’
5 But, oh, that God would speak
and open his lips against you;
6 that he would show you the secrets of wisdom!
For he is great in understanding.
Know then that God demands from you less than your iniquity deserves.
7 Can you understand God by searching for him?
Can you comprehend the Almighty perfectly?
8 The matter is as high as heaven; what can you do?
It is deeper than Sheol; what can you know?
9 Its measure is longer than the earth,
and wider than the sea.
10 If he passes through and shuts anyone up,
if he calls anyone to judgment, then who can stop him?
11 For he knows false people;
when he sees iniquity, does he not notice it?
12 But foolish people have no understanding;
they will get it when a wild donkey gives birth to a man.
13 But suppose that you had set your heart right
and had reached out with your hands toward God;
14 suppose that iniquity were in your hand, but that then you put it far away from you,
and did not let unrighteousness live in your tents.
15 Then you would certainly lift up your face without a sign of shame;
indeed, you would be steadfast and would not fear.
16 You would forget your misery;
you would remember it only like waters that have flowed away.
17 Your life would be brighter than the noonday;
though there were darkness, it would become like the morning.
18 You would be secure because there is hope;
indeed, you would find safety about you and would take your rest in safety.
19 Also you would lie down in rest, and none would make you afraid;
indeed, many would seek your favor.
20 But the eyes of wicked people will fail;
they will have no way to flee;
their only hope will be a last gasp of life.”
Chapter 12
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “No doubt you are the people;
wisdom will die with you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Indeed, who does not know such things as these?
4 I am something for my neighbor to laugh at—
I, one who called on God and who was answered by him!
I, a just and blameless man—I am now something to laugh at.
5 In the thought of someone who is at ease, there is contempt for misfortune;
he thinks in a way that brings more misfortune to those whose foot is slipping.
6 The tents of robbers prosper,
and those who provoke God feel secure;
their own hands are their gods.
7 But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
ask the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you.
8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;
the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Which animal among all these does not know
that the hand of Yahweh has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.
11 Does not the ear test words
just as the palate tastes its food?
12 With aged men is wisdom;
in length of days is understanding.
13 With God are wisdom and might;
he has counsel and understanding.
14 See, he breaks down, and it cannot be built again;
if he imprisons someone, there can be no release.
15 See, if he withholds the waters, they dry up;
and if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
16 With him are strength and wisdom;
people who are deceived and the deceiver are both in his power.
17 He leads counselors away barefoot in sorrow;
he turns judges into fools.
18 He takes off the chain of authority from kings;
he wraps a cloth about their waists.
19 He leads priests away barefoot in sorrow
and overthrows mighty people.
20 He removes the speech of those who had been trusted
and takes away the understanding of the elders.
21 He pours contempt upon princes
and unfastens the belt of strong people.
22 He reveals the deep things of darkness
and brings deep shadows into the light.
23 He makes nations strong, and he also destroys them;
He enlarges nations, and he also leads them along as prisoners.
24 He takes away understanding from the leaders of the people of the earth;
he causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no path.
25 They grope in the dark without light;
he makes them stagger like a drunk man.
Chapter 13
1 See, my eye has seen all this;
my ear has heard and understood it.
2 What you know, the same I also know;
I am not inferior to you.
3 However, I would rather speak with the Almighty;
I wish to reason with God.
4 But you whitewash the truth with lies;
you are all physicians of no value.
5 Oh, that you would altogether hold your peace!
That would be your wisdom.
6 Hear now my own reasoning;
listen to the pleading of my own lips.
7 Will you speak unrighteously for God,
and will you talk deceitfully for him?
8 Will you show him partiality?
Will you argue the case for God?
9 Will it be good for you when he searches you out?
Could you deceive him as you might deceive men?
10 He would surely reprove you
if in secret you showed partiality.
11 Will not his majesty terrify you,
and the dread of him fall upon you?
12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs made of ashes;
your defenses are defenses made of clay.
13 Hold your peace, let me alone, so that I may speak,
let come what may on me.
14 I will take my own flesh in my teeth;
I will take my life in my hands.
15 See, if he kills me, I will have no hope left;
nevertheless, I will defend my ways before him.
16 This will be the reason for my deliverance,
for no godless person would come before him.
17 God, listen carefully to my speech;
let my declaration come to your ears.
18 See now, I have set my defense in order;
I know that I am innocent.
19 Who is the one who would argue against me in court?
If you came to do so, and if I were proved wrong, then I would be silent and give up my life.
20 God, do only two things for me,
and then I will not hide myself from your face:
21 withdraw your oppressive hand from me,
and do not let your terrors make me afraid.
22 Then call me, and I will answer;
or let me speak to you, and you answer me.
23 How many are my iniquities and sins?
Let me know my transgression and my sin.
24 Why do you hide your face from me
and treat me like your enemy?
25 Will you persecute a driven leaf?
Will you pursue dry stubble?
26 For you write down bitter things against me;
you make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
27 You also put my feet in the stocks;
you closely watch all my paths;
you examine the ground where the soles of my feet have walked
28 although I am like a rotten thing that wastes away,
like a garment that moths have eaten.
Chapter 14
1 Man, who is born of woman,
lives only a few days and is full of trouble.
2 He sprouts from the ground like a flower and is cut down;
he flees like a shadow and does not last.
3 Do you look at any of these?
Do you bring me into judgment with you?
4 Who can bring something clean out of something unclean? No one.
5 Man’s days are determined.
The number of his months is with you;
you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass.
6 Look away from him that he may rest,
so that he may enjoy his day like a hired man if he can do so.
7 There can be hope for a tree;
if it is cut down, it might sprout again,
so that its tender stalk does not disappear.
8 Though its root grows old in the earth,
and its stump dies in the ground,
9 yet even if it only smells water, it will bud
and send out branches like a plant.
10 But man dies; he becomes weak;
indeed, man stops breathing, and then where is he?
11 As water disappears from a lake,
and as a river loses water and dries up,
12 so people lie down and do not rise again.
Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake
nor be roused out of their sleep.
13 Oh, that you would hide me away in Sheol away from troubles,
and that you would keep me in private until your wrath is over,
that you would set me a fixed time to stay there and then call me to mind!
14 If a man dies, will he live again?
If so, I would wish to wait all my weary time there
until my release should come.
15 You would call, and I would answer you.
You would have a desire for the work of your hands.
16 You would number and care for my footsteps;
you would not keep track of my sin.
17 My transgression would be sealed up in a bag;
you would cover up my iniquity.
18 But even mountains fall and come to nothing;
even rocks are moved out of their place;
19 the waters wear down the stones;
their flooding washes away the dust of the earth.
Like this, you destroy the hope of man.
20 You always defeat him, and he passes away;
you change his face and send him away to die.
21 If his sons are honored, he does not know it;
and if they are brought low, he does not see it.
22 He feels only the pain of his own body,
and he mourns for himself.
Chapter 15
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2 “Should a wise man answer with useless knowledge
and fill himself with the east wind?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk
or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4 Indeed, you diminish respect for God;
you obstruct devotion to him,
5 for your iniquity teaches your mouth;
you choose to have the tongue of a crafty man.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
indeed, your own lips testify against you.
7 Are you the first man that was born?
Were you brought into existence before the hills?
8 Have you heard the secret knowledge of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not also in us?
10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men
who are much older than your father.
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you,
the words that are gentle toward you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away?
Why do your eyes flash,
13 so that you turn your spirit against God
and bring out such words from your mouth?
14 What is man that he should be clean?
What is he who is born of a woman that he should be righteous?
15 See, God puts no trust even in his holy ones;
indeed, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16 how much less clean is one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks iniquity like water!
17 I will show you; listen to me;
I will announce to you the things I have seen,
18 the things that wise men have passed down from their fathers,
the things that their ancestors did not hide.
19 These were their ancestors, to whom alone the land was given,
and among whom no stranger ever passed.
20 The wicked man twists in pain all his days,
the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor to suffer.
21 A sound of terrors is in his ears;
while he is in prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him.
22 He does not think that he will return out of darkness;
the sword waits for him.
23 He goes to various places for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that the day of darkness is at hand.
24 Distress and anguish make him afraid;
they prevail against him, as a king ready for battle.
25 Because he has reached out with his hand against God
and has behaved proudly against the Almighty,
26 this wicked man runs at God with a stiff neck,
with a thick shield.
27 This is true, even though he has covered his face with his fat
and gathered fat on his loins,
28 and has lived in desolate cities;
in houses which no man inhabits now
and which were ready to become heaps.
29 He will not be rich; his wealth will not last
and his possessions will not spread over the land.
30 He will not depart out of darkness; [1]
a flame will dry up his stalks;
at the breath of God’s mouth he will go away. [2]
31 Let him not trust in useless things, deceiving himself;
for uselessness will be his reward.
32 It will happen before his time should come to die;
his branch will not be green.
33 He will drop his unripe grapes like a grapevine;
he will cast off his flowers like the olive tree.
34 For the company of godless people will be barren;
fire will consume their tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity;
their womb conceives deceit.”
Chapter 16
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “I have heard many such things;
you are all miserable comforters.
3 Will useless words ever have an end?
What is wrong with you that you answer like this?
4 I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could collect and join words together against you
and shake my head at you in mockery.
5 I would strengthen you with my mouth,
and the quivering of my lips will bring you relief!
6 If I speak, my grief is not lessened;
if I keep from speaking, how am I helped?
7 But now, God, you have made me weary;
you have made all my family desolate.
8 You have made me dry up, which itself is a witness against me;
the leanness of my body rises up against me,
and it testifies against my face.
9 God has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me;
He grinds his teeth in rage;
my enemy fastens his eyes on me as he tears me apart.
10 People have gaped with open mouth at me;
they have hit me reproachfully on the cheek;
they have gathered together against me.
11 God hands me over to ungodly people,
and throws me into the hands of wicked people.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart.
Indeed, he has taken me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he has also set me up as his target.
13 His archers surround me all around;
God pierces my kidneys and does not spare me;
he pours out my bile on the ground.
14 He smashes through my wall again and again;
he runs upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewn sackcloth on my skin;
I have thrust my horn into the ground.
16 My face is red with weeping;
on my eyelids is the shadow of death
17 although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 Earth, do not cover up my blood;
let my cry have no resting place.
19 Even now, see, my witness is in heaven;
he who vouches for me is on high.
20 My friends scoff at me,
but my eye pours out tears to God.
21 I ask for that witness in heaven to argue for this man with God
as a man does with his neighbor!
22 For when a few years have passed,
I will go to a place from where I will not return.
Chapter 17
1 My spirit is consumed, and my days are over;
the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers with me;
my eye must always see their provocation.
3 Give now a pledge, be a guarantee for me with yourself;
who else is there who will help me?
4 For you, God, have kept their hearts from understanding;
therefore, you will not exalt them over me.
5 He who denounces his friends for a reward,
the eyes of his children will fail.
6 But he has made me a byword of the people;
they spit in my face.
7 My eye is also dim because of sorrow;
all my body parts are as thin as shadows.
8 Upright men will be stunned by this;
the innocent man will stir himself up against godless men.
9 The righteous man will keep to his way;
he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, come on now;
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past; my plans are shattered,
and so are the desires of my heart. [1]
12 These people, these mockers, change the night into day;
light is near to darkness.
13 If the only home I hope for is Sheol;
and if I have spread my couch in the darkness;
14 and if I have said to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘You are my mother or my sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who can see any?
16 Will hope go down with me to the gates of Sheol
when we descend to the dust?”
Chapter 18
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
2 “When will you stop your talk?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
3 Why are we regarded as beasts, stupid in your sight?
4 You who tear at yourself in your anger,
should the earth be forsaken for you
or should the rocks be removed out of their places?
5 Indeed, the light of the wicked person will be put out;
the spark of his fire will not shine.
6 The light will be dark in his tent;
his lamp above him will be put out.
7 The steps of his strength will be made short;
his own plans will cast him down.
8 For he will be thrown into a net by his own feet;
he will walk into a pitfall.
9 A trap will take him by the heel;
a snare will lay hold on him.
10 A noose is hidden for him on the ground;
and a trap for him in the way.
11 Terrors will make him afraid on every side;
they will chase him at his heels.
12 His wealth will turn into hunger,
and calamity will be ready at his side.
13 The parts of his body will be devoured;
indeed, the firstborn of death will devour his parts.
14 He is torn from the safety of his tent
and marched off to the king of terrors.
15 People not his own will live in his tent
after they see that sulfur is scattered within his home.
16 His roots will be dried up beneath;
above will his branch be cut off.
17 His memory will perish from the earth;
he will have no name in the street.
18 He will be driven from light into darkness
and be chased out of this world.
19 He will have no son or son’s son among his people,
nor any remaining kinfolk where he had stayed.
20 Those who live in the west will be horrified at what happens to him one day;
those who live in the east will be frightened by it.
21 Surely such are the homes of unrighteous people,
the places of those who do not know God.”
Chapter 19
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “How long will you make me suffer
and break me into pieces with words?
3 These ten times you have reproached me;
you are not ashamed that you have treated me harshly.
4 If it is indeed true that I have erred,
my error remains my own concern.
5 If indeed you will exalt yourselves above me
and use my humiliation against me,
6 then you should know that God has done wrong to me
and has caught me in his net.
7 See, I cry out, “Violence!” but I get no answer.
I call out for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness in my path.
9 He has stripped me of my glory,
and he has taken the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone;
he has pulled up my hope like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me;
he regards me as one of his adversaries.
12 His troops come on together;
they cast up siege mounds against me
and encamp around my tent.
13 He has put my brothers far from me;
my acquaintances are wholly alienated from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed me;
my close friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who once stayed as guests in my house and my female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer
although I entreat him with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife;
I am even disgusting to those who were born from my mother’s womb.
18 Even young children despise me;
if I rise to speak, they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me;
those whom I love have turned against me.
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh;
I survive only by the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you pursue me like God does?
Will you ever be satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh, that my words were now written down!
Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh, that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at last he will stand on the earth;
26 after my skin, that is, this body, is destroyed,
then in my flesh I will see God.
27 I will see him with my own eyes—I, and not someone else.
My heart fails within me.
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!
The root of his troubles lies in him,’
29 then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment.”
Chapter 20
1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,
2 “My thoughts make me answer quickly
because of the worry that is in me.
3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
but a spirit from my understanding answers me.
4 Do you not know this fact from ancient times,
when God placed man on earth:
5 the triumph of a wicked man is short,
and the joy of a godless man lasts only for a moment?
6 Though his height reaches up to the heavens,
and his head reaches to the clouds,
7 yet such a person will perish permanently like his own feces;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8 He will fly away like a dream and will not be found;
indeed, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more;
his place will see him no longer.
10 His children will apologize to poor people;
his hands will have to give back his wealth.
11 His bones are full of youthful strength,
but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12 Although wickedness is sweet in his mouth,
although he hides it under his tongue,
13 although he holds it there and does not let it go
but keeps it still in his mouth—
14 the food in his intestines turns bitter;
it becomes the poison of asps inside him.
15 He swallows down riches, but he will vomit them up again;
God will cast them out of his stomach.
16 He will suck the poison of asps;
the viper’s tongue will kill him.
17 He will not enjoy the streams,
the torrents of honey and butter.
18 He will give back the fruit of his labor and will not be able to eat it;
he will not enjoy the wealth earned by his commerce.
19 For he has oppressed and neglected poor people;
he has violently taken away houses that he did not build.
20 Because he has known no satisfaction himself,
he will not be able to save anything in which he takes pleasure.
21 There is nothing left that he did not devour;
therefore his prosperity will not be permanent.
22 In the abundance of his wealth he will fall into trouble;
the hand of everyone who is in poverty will come against him.
23 When he is about to fill his stomach, God will throw the fierceness of his wrath on him;
God will rain it down on him while he is eating.
24 Although that man will flee from the iron weapon,
a bow of bronze will shoot him.
25 He pulls it out of his back
and the gleaming point comes out of his liver.
Terrors come over him.
26 Complete darkness is reserved for his treasures;
a fire not fanned will devour him;
it will consume what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him as a witness.
28 The wealth of his house will vanish;
his goods will flow away on the day of God’s wrath.
29 This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
the heritage reserved for him by God.”
Chapter 21
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “Listen carefully to my words,
and let this be the comfort you offer to me.
3 Put up with me, and I also will speak;
after I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my complaint to a person?
Why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be astonished,
and lay your hand upon your mouth.
6 When I think about my sufferings, I am terrified,
and trembling seizes my body.
7 Why do wicked people continue to live,
become old, and grow mighty in power?
8 Their descendants are established with them in their sight,
and their offspring are established before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear;
neither is the rod of God on them.
10 Their bull breeds; it does not fail to do so;
their cow gives birth and does not lose her calf prematurely.
11 They send out their little ones like a flock,
and their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp
and rejoice with the music of the flute.
13 They spend their days in prosperity,
and they go down quietly to Sheol.
14 They say to God, ‘Depart from us
for we do not wish any knowledge of your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should worship him?
What advantage would we get if we prayed to him?’
16 See, is not their prosperity in their own hands?
I have nothing to do with the advice of wicked people.
17 How often is it that the lamp of wicked people is put out,
or that their calamity comes upon them?
How often does it happen that God distributes sorrows to them in his anger?
18 How often is it that they become like stubble before the wind
or like chaff that the storm carries away?
19 You say, ‘God lays up one’s guilt for his children to pay.’
Let him pay it himself, so that he might know his guilt.
20 Let his eyes see his own destruction,
and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what does he care about his family after him
when the number of his months is cut off?
22 Can anyone teach God knowledge
since he judges even those who are high?
23 One man dies in his full strength,
being completely quiet and at ease.
24 His body is full of milk,
and the marrow of his bones is moist.
25 Another man dies in bitterness of soul,
one who has never experienced anything good.
26 They lie down alike in the dust;
the worms cover them both.
27 See, I know your thoughts,
and the ways in which you wish to wrong me.
28 For you say, ‘Where now is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked man once lived?’
29 Have you never asked traveling people?
Do you not know the evidence they can tell,
30 that the wicked man is kept from the day of calamity,
and that he is led away from the day of wrath?
31 Who will condemn the wicked man’s way to his face?
Who will repay him for what he has done?
32 Yet he will be borne to the grave;
men will keep watch over his tomb.
33 The clods of the valley will be sweet to him;
all people will follow after him,
as there were innumerable people before him.
34 How then do you comfort me with nonsense,
since in your answers there is nothing but falsehood?”
Chapter 22
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2 “Can a man be useful to God?
Can a wise man be useful to him?
3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous?
Is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
4 Is it because of your reverence for him that he rebukes you
and takes you to judgment?
5 Is not your wickedness great?
Is there no end to your iniquities?
6 For you have demanded guarantee of a loan from your brother for no reason,
and you have stripped away clothing from the naked.
7 You have not given water to weary people to drink;
you have withheld bread from hungry people
8 although you, a mighty man, possessed the earth,
although you, an honored man, lived in it.
9 You have sent widows away empty;
the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
10 Therefore, snares are all around you,
and sudden fear troubles you.
11 There is darkness, so that you cannot see;
an abundance of waters covers you.
12 Is not God in the heights of heaven?
Look at the height of the stars, how high they are!
13 You say, ‘What does God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he does not see us;
he walks on the vault of heaven.’
15 Will you keep the old way
that wicked men have walked—
16 those who were snatched away before their time,
those whose foundations have washed away like a river,
17 those who said to God, ‘Depart from us’;
those who said, ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things;
the plans of wicked people are far from me.
19 Righteous people see their fate and are glad;
innocent people laugh them to scorn.
20 They say, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off;
fire has consumed their possessions.’
21 Now agree with God and be at peace with him;
in that way, good will come to you.
22 Receive, I beg you, instruction from his mouth;
store up his words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up,
if you put unrighteousness far away from your tents.
24 Lay your treasure down in the dust,
the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks,
25 and the Almighty will be your treasure,
precious silver to you.
26 For then you will take pleasure in the Almighty;
you will lift up your face to God.
27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you;
you will pay your vows to him.
28 You will also decree anything, and it will be confirmed for you;
light will shine on your paths.
29 God humbles a proud man,
and he saves the one with lowered eyes.
30 He will rescue even the man who is not innocent;
who will be rescued through the cleanness of your hands.”
Chapter 23
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “Even today my complaint is bitter;
my hand [1] is heavy because of my groaning.
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him!
Oh, that I might come to his place!
4 I would lay my case in order before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would learn the words with which he would answer me
and would understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he argue against me in the greatness of his power?
No, he would pay attention to me.
7 There the upright person might argue with him.
In this way I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
8 See, I go eastward, but he is not there,
and westward, but I cannot perceive him.
9 To the north, where he is at work, but I cannot see him,
and to the south, where he hides himself so that I cannot see him.
10 But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.
11 My foot has held fast to his steps;
I have kept to his way and turned not aside.
12 I have not gone back from the commandment of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
13 But he is one of a kind, who can turn him back?
What he desires, he does.
14 For he carries out his decree against me;
there are many like them.
15 Therefore, I am terrified in his presence;
when I think about him, I am afraid of him.
16 For God has made my heart weak;
the Almighty has terrified me.
17 I have not been brought to an end by darkness,
because of the thick darkness that covers the gloom of my face.
Chapter 24
1 Why are times for judging wicked people not set by the Almighty?
Why do not those who are faithful to God see his days of judgment come?
2 There are wicked people who remove boundary markers;
there are wicked people who take away flocks by force and put them in their own pastures.
3 They drive away the donkey of those without fathers;
they take the widow’s ox as security.
4 They force needy people out of their path;
poor people of the earth all hide themselves from them.
5 See, these poor people go out to their work
like wild donkeys in the wilderness, looking carefully for food;
perhaps the Arabah will provide them food for their children.
6 Poor people reap in the night in other people’s fields;
they glean grapes from the harvest of those wicked people.
7 They lie naked all night without clothing;
they have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains;
they lie next to large rocks because they have no shelter.
9 There are wicked people who pluck orphans from their mothers’ breast,
and wicked people who take children as security from poor people.
10 But the poor people go about naked without clothing;
although they go hungry, they carry bundles of grain belonging to other people.
11 The poor people make oil within the walls of those wicked men;
they tread the wicked men’s winepresses, but they themselves suffer thirst.
12 From out of the city the dying groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries out for help.
But God does not ascribe blame
13 Some of these wicked people rebel against the light;
they know not its ways,
nor do they stay in its paths.
14 Before daylight the murderer rises
and he kills poor and needy people;
in the night he is like a thief.
15 Also, the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight;
he says, ‘No eye will see me.’
He disguises his face.
16 In the darkness wicked people dig into houses;
but they shut themselves up in the daytime;
they do not care for the light.
17 For all of them, thick darkness is like the morning;
for they are friends with the terrors of thick darkness.
18 Swiftly they pass away, however, like foam on the surface of the waters;
their portion of the land is cursed;
no one goes to work in their vineyards.
19 As drought and heat melt away the snow into waters,
so Sheol takes away those who have sinned.
20 The womb that bore him will forget him;
the worm will feed sweetly on him;
he will be remembered no more;
in this way, wickedness will be broken like a tree.
21 The wicked one devours the barren women who have not borne children;
he does no good to the widow.
22 Yet God drags away the mighty people by his power;
he rises up and does not strengthen them in life.
23 God allows them to think they are secure, and they are happy about that,
but his eyes are on their ways.
24 These people are exalted; still, in only a little while, they will be gone;
indeed, they will be brought low; they will be gathered up like all the others;
they will be cut off like the tops of ears of grain.
25 If it is not so, who can prove me to be a liar;
who can make my speech worth nothing?”
Chapter 25
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
2 “Dominion and fear are with him;
he makes order in his high places of heaven.
3 Is there any end to the number of his armies?
Upon whom does his light not shine?
4 How then can man be righteous with God?
How can he who is born of a woman be clean, acceptable to him?
5 See, even the moon has no brightness to him;
the stars are not pure in his sight.
6 How much less man, who is a worm—
a son of man, who is a worm!”
Chapter 26
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “How you have helped one who has no power!
How you have saved the arm that has no strength!
3 How you have advised one who has no wisdom
and announced to him sound knowledge!
4 With whose help have you spoken these words?
Whose spirit was it that came out from you?
5 The dead are made to tremble,
those who are beneath the waters
and all who dwell in them.
6 Sheol is naked before God;
destruction itself has no covering against him.
7 He stretches out the northern skies
over the empty space,
and he hangs the earth over nothing.
8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
but the clouds are not torn under them.
9 He covers the surface of the moon
and spreads his clouds on it.
10 He has engraved a circular boundary on the surface of the waters
as the line between light and darkness.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astonished at his rebuke.
12 He calmed the sea with his power;
by his understanding he shattered Rahab.
13 By his breath he made the skies clear;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
14 See, these are but the fringes of his ways;
how small a whisper do we hear of him!
Who can understand the thunder of his power?”
Chapter 27
1 Job resumed speaking and he said,
2 “As surely as God lives, who has taken away my justice,
the Almighty, who made my life bitter,
3 while my life is yet in me,
and the breath from God is in my nostrils,
this is what I will do.
4 My lips will not speak wickedness,
neither will my tongue speak deceit; 5 I will never admit that you three are right;
until I die I will never deny my integrity.
6 I hold fast to my righteousness and will not let it go;
my thoughts will not reproach me so long as I live.
7 Let my enemy be like a wicked man;
let him who rises up against me be like an unrighteous man.
8 For what is the hope of a godless man when God cuts him off,
when God takes away his life?
9 Will God hear his cry
when trouble comes upon him?
10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty
and call upon God at all times?
11 I will teach you concerning the hand of God;
I will not conceal the thoughts of the Almighty.
12 See, all of you have seen this yourselves;
why then have you spoken all this nonsense?
13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
the heritage of the oppressor that he receives from the Almighty:
14 If his children multiply, it is for the sword;
his offspring will never have enough food.
15 Those who survive him will be buried by plague,
and their widows will make no lament for them.
16 Though the wicked man heaps up silver like the dust,
and heaps up clothing like clay,
17 he may heap up clothing, but righteous people will put it on,
and innocent people will divide up the silver among themselves.
18 He builds his house like a spider,
like a hut that a guard makes.
19 He lies down in bed rich, but he will not keep doing so;
he opens his eyes, and everything is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like waters;
a storm takes him away in the night.
21 The east wind carries him away, and he leaves;
it sweeps him out of his place.
22 It throws itself at him and does not stop;
he tries to flee out of its hand.
23 It claps its hands at him
and hisses him from his place.
Chapter 28
1 Surely there is a mine for silver,
a place where they refine gold.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth;
copper is smelted out of the stone.
3 A man sets an end to darkness
and searches out, to the farthest limit,
the stones in obscurity and thick darkness.
4 He breaks open a shaft away from where people live,
places that are forgotten by anyone’s foot.
He hangs far away from people; he swings to and fro.
5 As for the earth, out of which comes bread,
it is turned up below as if by fire.
6 Its stones are the place where sapphires are found,
and its dust contains gold.
7 No bird of prey knows the path to it,
nor has the falcon’s eye seen it.
8 The proud animals have not walked such a path,
nor has the fierce lion passed there.
9 A man lays his hand on the flinty rock;
he overturns mountains by their roots.
10 He cuts out channels among the rocks;
his eye sees every valuable thing there.
11 He ties up the streams so they do not run;
what is hidden there he brings out to the light.
12 Where will wisdom be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
13 Man does not know its price;
neither is it found in the land of the living.
14 The deep waters under the earth say, ‘It is not in me’;
the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
15 It cannot be gotten for gold;
neither can silver be weighed as its price.
16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,
with precious onyx or sapphire.
17 Gold and crystal cannot equal it in worth;
neither can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention is worth making of coral or jasper;
indeed, the price of wisdom is more than rubies.
19 The topaz of Cush does not equal it;
neither can it be valued in terms of pure gold.
20 From where, then, comes wisdom?
Where is the place of understanding?
21 Wisdom is hidden from the eyes of all living things
and is kept hidden from the birds of the heavens.
22 Destruction and Death say,
‘We have heard just a rumor about it with our ears.’
23 God understands the way to it;
he knows its place.
24 For he looks to the very ends of the earth
and sees under all the heavens.
25 He made the force of the wind
and parceled out the waters by measure.
26 He made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunder.
27 Then he saw wisdom and announced it;
he established it, indeed, and he examined it.
28 To people he said,
‘See, the fear of the Lord—that is wisdom;
to depart from evil is understanding.’”
Chapter 29
1 Job resumed speaking and said,
2 “Oh, that I were as I was in the past months
when God cared for me,
3 when his lamp shined on my head,
and when I walked through darkness by his light.
4 Oh, that I were as I was in the ripeness of my days
when the friendship of God was on my tent,
5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
and my children were around me,
6 when my way was covered with cream,
and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
7 When I went out to the city gate,
when I sat in my place in the city square,
8 the young men saw me and kept their distance from me in respect,
and the aged people rose and stood for me.
9 The princes used to refrain from talking when I came;
they would lay their hand on their mouths.
10 The voices of the noblemen were hushed,
and their tongue clung to the roof of their mouths.
11 For after their ears heard me, they would then bless me;
after their eyes saw me, they would then give witness to me and approve of me
12 because I rescued the one who was poor when he cried out,
and the one who had no father when he had no one to help him.
13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came on me;
I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
my justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 I was eyes to blind people;
I was feet to lame people.
16 I was a father to needy people;
I would examine the case even of one whom I did not know.
17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous man;
I plucked the victim out from between his teeth.
18 Then I said, ‘I will die in my nest;
I will multiply my days like the grains of sand.
19 My roots are spread out to the waters,
and dew lies all night on my branches.
20 The honor in me is always fresh,
and the bow of my strength is always new in my hand.’
21 To me men listened; they waited for me;
they stayed silent to hear my advice.
22 After my words were done, they did not speak again;
my speech dropped like water on them.
23 They always waited for me as they waited for rain;
they opened their mouth wide to drink in my words,
as they would do for the latter rain.
24 I smiled on them when they did not expect it;
they did not reject the light of my face.
25 I selected their way and sat as their chief;
I lived like a king in his army,
like one who comforts mourners.
Chapter 30
1 Now those who are younger than I have nothing but mockery for me—
these young men whose fathers I would have refused to allow to work beside the dogs of my flock.
2 Indeed, the strength of their fathers’ hands, how could it have helped me—
men in whom the strength of their mature age had perished?
3 They were thin from poverty and hunger;
they gnawed at the dry ground in the darkness of wilderness and desolation.
4 They plucked saltwort and bushes’ leaves;
the roots of the broom tree were their food.
5 They were driven out from among people
who shouted after them as one would shout after a thief.
6 So they had to live in river valleys,
in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they brayed like donkeys
and they gathered together under the nettles.
8 They were the sons of fools, indeed, sons of nameless people!
They were driven out of the land with whips.
9 But now I have become the subject of their taunting song;
I have become a byword for them.
10 They abhor me and stand far off from me;
they do not refrain from spitting in my face.
11 For God has unstrung the string to my bow and afflicted me,
and those who taunt me cast off restraint before my face.
12 Upon my right hand rise the rabble;
they drive me away and
pile up against me their siege mounds.
13 They destroy my path;
they push forward disaster for me,
men who have no one to hold them back.
14 They come against me like an army through a wide hole in a city wall;
in the midst of the destruction they roll themselves in on me.
15 Terrors are turned upon me;
my honor is driven away as if by the wind;
my prosperity passes away as a cloud.
16 Now my life is pouring out from within me;
many days of suffering have laid hold on me.
17 In the night my bones in me are pierced;
the pains that gnaw at me take no rest.
18 God’s great force has seized my clothing;
it wraps around me like the collar of my tunic.
19 He has thrown me into the mud;
I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you, God, but you do not answer me;
I stand up, and you merely look at me.
21 You have changed and become cruel to me;
with the strength of your hand you persecute me.
22 You lift me up to the wind and cause it to drive me along;
you throw me back and forth in a storm. [1]
23 For I know that you will bring me to death,
to the house appointed for all the living.
24 However, does no one reach out with his hand to beg for help when he falls?
Does no one in trouble call out for help?
25 Did not I weep for him who was in trouble?
Did I not grieve for the needy man?
26 When I hoped for good, then evil came;
when I waited for light, darkness came instead.
27 My heart is troubled and does not rest;
days of affliction have come on me.
28 I have gone about like one who was living in the dark,
but not because of the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I am a brother to jackals,
a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is black and falls away from me;
my bones are burned with heat.
31 Therefore my harp is tuned for songs of mourning,
my flute for the singing of those who wail.
Chapter 31
1 I have made a covenant with my eyes;
how then should I look with desire on a virgin?
2 For what is the portion from God above,
the inheritance from the Almighty on high?
3 I used to think that calamity is for unrighteous people,
and that disaster is for doers of wickedness.
4 Does not God see my ways
and count all my steps?
5 If I have walked with falsehood,
if my foot has hurried to deceit,
6 let me be weighed in an even balance
so that God will know my integrity.
7 If my step has turned aside from the way,
if my heart has gone after my eyes,
if any spot has stuck to my hands,
8 then let me sow, and let another eat,
and let my crops be uprooted.
9 If my heart has been deceived by a woman,
if I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door,
10 then let my wife grind grain for another,
and let others bow down on her.
11 For that would be a terrible crime;
indeed, it would be a crime to be punished by judges.
12 For that is a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon,
and it would burn all my harvest to the root.
13 If I ignored the plea for justice from my male or female servant
when they argued with me,
14 what then would I do when God rises up to accuse me?
When he comes to judge me, how would I answer him?
15 Did the one who made me in the womb not make them also?
Did not the same one mold us all in the womb?
16 If I have withheld poor people from their desire,
or if I have caused the eyes of the widow to grow dim from crying,
17 or if I have eaten my morsel alone
and not allowed those without fathers to eat it also—
18 because from my youth the orphan grew up with me as with a father,
and I have guided his mother, a widow, from my own mother’s womb.
19 If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
or if I have seen that a needy man had no clothing;
20 if his heart has not blessed me
because he has not been warmed with the wool of my sheep,
21 if I have lifted up my hand against fatherless people
because I saw my support in the city gate,
then bring charges against me!
22 If I have done these things, then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade,
and let my arm be broken from its joint.
23 For I dreaded destruction from God;
because of his majesty, I was not able to do those things.
24 If I have made gold my hope,
and if I have said to fine gold, ‘You are what I am confident in’;
25 if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,
because my hand had gotten many possessions,
then bring charges against me!
26 If I have seen the sun when it shone,
or the moon walking in its brightness,
27 and if my heart has been secretly attracted,
so that my mouth has kissed my hand in worship of them—
28 this also would be a crime to be punished by judges,
for I would have denied the God who is above.
29 If I have rejoiced at the destruction of anyone who hated me
or congratulated myself when disaster overtook him,
then bring charges against me!
30 Indeed, I have not even allowed my mouth to sin
by asking for his life with a curse.
31 If the men of my tent have never said,
‘Who can find one who has not been filled with Job’s food?’
32 (even the foreigner has never had to stay in the city square,
because I have always opened my doors to the traveler),
and if that is not so, then bring charges against me!
33 If, like mankind, I have hidden my sins
by hiding my guilt inside my tunic
34 (because I feared the great multitude,
because the contempt of families terrified me,
so that I kept silent and would not go outside),
then bring charges against me!
35 Oh, if only I had someone to hear me!
See, here is my signature; let the Almighty answer me!
If only I had the indictment that my opponent has written!
36 Surely I would carry it openly on my shoulder;
I would put it on like a crown.
37 I would declare to him an accounting for my steps;
as a confident prince I would go up to him.
38 If my land ever cries out against me,
and its furrows weep together,
39 if I have eaten its harvest without paying for it
or have caused its owners to lose their lives,
40 then let thorns grow instead of wheat
and weeds instead of barley.”
The words of Job are finished.
Chapter 32
1 So these three men stopped answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 Then was kindled the anger of Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram; it was kindled against Job because he justified himself rather than God. 3 Elihu’s anger was also kindled against his three friends because they had found no answer to Job, and yet they had condemned Job. 4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because the other men were older than he. 5 However, when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of these three men, his anger was kindled.
6 Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up and said,
“I am young, and you are very old.
That is why I held back and did not dare to tell you my own opinion.
7 I said, “Length of days should speak;
a multitude of years should teach wisdom.
8 But there is a spirit in a man;
the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.
9 It is not only the great people who are wise,
nor the aged people alone who understand justice.
10 Therefore I say to you, ‘Listen to me;
I will also tell you my knowledge.’
11 See, I waited for your words;
I listened to your arguments
while you were thinking about what to say.
12 Indeed, I paid attention to you,
but, see, there was not one of you who could convince Job
or who could respond to his words.
13 Be careful not to say, ‘We have found wisdom!’
God will have to defeat Job; mere man cannot do it.
14 For Job has not directed his words against me,
so I will not answer him with your words.
15 These three men are dumbfounded; they can answer Job no longer;
they have not a word more to say.
16 Should I wait because they are not speaking,
because they stand there silent and answer no more?
17 No, I also will answer on my part;
I will also tell them my knowledge.
18 For I am full of words;
the spirit in me compels me.
19 See, my breast is like fermenting wine that has no vent;
like new wineskins, it is ready to burst.
20 I will speak so that I may be refreshed;
I will open my lips and answer.
21 I will not show favoritism;
neither will I give honorific titles to any man.
22 For I do not know how to give such titles;
if I did so, my Maker would soon take me away.
Chapter 33
1 So now, Job, I beg you, hear my speech;
listen to all my words.
2 See now, I have opened my mouth;
my tongue has spoken in my mouth.
3 My words come from the uprightness of my heart;
my lips speak pure knowledge.
4 The Spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty has given me life.
5 If you can, answer me;
set your words in order before me and stand up.
6 See, I am just as you are in God’s sight;
I also have been formed out of the clay.
7 See, terror of me will not make you afraid;
neither will my pressure be heavy upon you.
8 You have certainly spoken in my hearing;
I have heard the sound of your words saying,
9 ‘I am clean and without transgression;
I am innocent, and there is no sin in me.
10 See, God finds opportunities to attack me;
he regards me as his enemy.
11 He puts my feet in stocks;
he watches all my paths.’
12 See, in this you are not right—I will answer you,
for God is greater than man.
13 Why do you struggle against him?
He does not account for any of his doings.
14 For God speaks once—
yes, twice, though man does not notice it.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls upon men,
in slumber on the bed—
16 then God opens the ears of men,
and frightens them with threats,
17 in order to pull man back from his sinful purposes,
and keep pride from him.
18 God keeps man’s life back from the pit,
his life from crossing over to death.
19 Man is punished also with pain on his bed,
with constant agony in his bones,
20 so that his life abhors food,
and his soul abhors delicacies.
21 His flesh is consumed away so that it cannot be seen;
his bones, once not seen, now stick out.
22 Indeed, his soul draws close to the pit,
his life to those who wish to destroy it.
23 But if there is an angel who can be a mediator for him,
one out of a thousand,
to tell a man what is right for him,
24 to be gracious to him and say,
‘Save this person from going down to the pit;
I have found a ransom for him.’
25 Then his flesh will become fresher than a child’s;
it is restored to the days of his youth.
26 He will pray to God, and God will be kind to him,
so that he sees God’s face with joy.
God will give the person his triumph.
27 Then that person will sing in front of other people and say,
‘I sinned and perverted that which was right,
but my sin was not punished.
28 God has rescued my soul from going down into the pit;
my life will continue to see light.’
29 See, God does all these things with a person,
twice, yes, even three times,
30 to bring his soul back from the pit,
so that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
31 Pay attention, Job, and listen to me;
be silent and I will speak.
32 If you have anything to say, answer me;
speak, for I wish to prove that you are in the right.
33 If not, then listen to me;
remain silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”
Chapter 34
1 Moreover, Elihu continued to speak:
2 “Listen to my words, you wise men;
hear me, you who have knowledge.
3 For the ear tries words
as the palate tastes food.
4 Let us choose for ourselves what is just:
let us discover among ourselves what is good.
5 For Job has said, ‘I am righteous,
but God has taken away my rights.
6 Regardless of my rights, I am considered to be a liar.
My wound is incurable, although I am without sin.’
7 What man is like Job,
who drinks up mockery like water,
8 who goes around in the company of those who do evil,
and who walks with wicked men?
9 For he has said, ‘It is no use to a person
to take pleasure in doing what God wants.’
10 So listen to me, you men of understanding:
far be it from God that he should do wickedness;
far be it from the Almighty that he should commit sin.
11 For he pays back a person’s work;
he makes every man come upon the reward of his own ways.
12 Indeed, God does nothing wicked,
nor does the Almighty ever pervert justice.
13 Who put him in charge over the earth?
Who put the whole world under him?
14 If he ever set his intentions only on himself,
and if he ever gathered back to himself his spirit and his breath,
15 then all flesh would perish together;
mankind would return to dust again.
16 If now you have understanding, listen to this;
listen to the sound of my words.
17 Can one who hates justice govern?
Will you condemn God, who is righteous and mighty?
18 God, who says to a king, ‘You are vile,’
or says to nobles, ‘You are wicked’?
19 God, who does not show favoritism to leaders
and does not acknowledge rich people more than poor,
for they all are the work of his hands.
20 In a moment they will die;
at midnight people will be shaken and will pass away;
mighty people will be taken away, but not by human hands.
21 For God’s eyes are upon a person’s ways;
he sees all his steps.
22 There is no darkness, no thick gloom
where the doers of iniquity may hide themselves.
23 For God does not need to examine a person further;
there is no need for any person to go before him in judgment.
24 He breaks mighty men into pieces for their ways that need no further investigation;
he puts others in their places.
25 In this way he has knowledge of their deeds;
he overthrows these people in the night; they are destroyed.
26 In the open sight of others, he kills them for their wicked deeds like criminals
27 because they turned away from following him
and refused to acknowledge any of his ways.
28 In this way, they made the cry of poor people come to him;
he heard the cry of afflicted people.
29 When he stays silent, who can condemn him?
If he hides his face, who can perceive him?
He rules over nation and individual alike,
30 so that a godless man may not rule,
so that there may be no one to entrap people.
31 Suppose someone says to God,
‘I am certainly guilty, but I will not sin any longer;
32 teach me what I cannot see;
I have committed sin, but I will do it no longer.’
33 Do you think that God will punish that person’s sin, since you dislike what God does?
You must choose, not I.
So say what it is that you know.
34 Men of understanding will say to me—
indeed, every wise man who hears me will say,
35 ‘Job speaks without knowledge;
his words are without wisdom.’
36 If only Job were put on trial in the smallest details of his case
because of his talking like wicked men.
37 For he adds rebellion to his sin;
he claps his hands in mockery in our midst;
he piles up words against God.”
Chapter 35
1 Moreover Elihu continued, saying,
2 “Do you think this is just
when you say, ‘My right before God’?
3 For you ask, ‘What use is it to me?’
and, ‘Would I be better off if I had sinned?’
4 I will answer you,
both you and your friends.
5 Look up at the sky, and see it;
see the sky, which is higher than you.
6 If you have sinned, what harm do you do to God?
If your transgressions pile up high, what do you do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what can you give to him?
What will he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness may hurt a man, as you are a man,
and your righteousness might benefit another son of man.
9 Because of many acts of oppression, people cry out;
they call for help from the arms of mighty men.
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than he teaches the beasts of the earth,
and who makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
12 There they cry out, but God gives no answer
because of the pride of evil men.
13 God will certainly not hear a foolish cry;
the Almighty will pay no attention to it.
14 How much less will he answer you if you say that you do not see him,
that your case is before him, and that you are waiting for him!
15 Now you say that his anger does not punish,
and he does not take even a litte notice of transgression.
16 So Job opens his mouth only to speak foolishness;
he piles up words without knowledge.”
Chapter 36
1 Elihu continued on and said,
2 “Permit me to speak a little longer, and I will show you some things
because I have a little more to say in defense of God.
3 I will obtain my knowledge from far off;
I will acknowledge that righteousness belongs to my Maker.
4 For indeed, my words will not be false;
someone who is mature in knowledge is with you.
5 See, God is mighty, and despises no one;
he is mighty in strength of understanding.
6 He does not preserve the life of wicked people
but instead does what is right for those who suffer.
7 He does not withdraw his eyes from righteous people
but instead sets them on thrones like kings forever,
and they are lifted up.
8 If they are bound in chains
and trapped in cords of suffering,
9 then he reveals to them what they have done,
and their transgressions and their pride.
10 He also opens their ears to his instruction,
and commands them to turn back from iniquity.
11 If they listen to him and worship him,
they will spend their days in prosperity,
their years in contentment.
12 However, if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword;
they will die because they have no knowledge.
13 Those who are godless in heart store up their anger;
they do not cry out for help even when God ties them up.
14 They die in their youth;
their lives end among the cultic prostitutes.
15 God rescues afflicted people by means of their afflictions;
he opens their ears by means of their oppression.
16 Indeed, he would like to draw you out of distress
into a broad place where there is no hardship
and where your table would be set with food full of fatness.
17 But you are full of judgment on wicked people;
judgment and justice have laid hold of you.
18 Do not let your anger entice you to mockery,
or the greatness of a ransom to turn you aside.
19 Can your wealth benefit you, so that you will not be in distress,
or can all the force of your strength help you?
20 Do not desire the night, to commit sin against others,
when peoples are cut off in their place.
21 Be careful that you do not turn to sin
because you are being tested by suffering so that you will stay away from sinning.
22 See, God is exalted in his power;
who is a teacher like him?
23 Who has ever instructed him about his way?
Who can ever say to him, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’
24 Remember to praise his deeds,
of which people have sung.
25 All people have looked on those deeds,
but they see those deeds only from far away.
26 See, God is great, but we do not understand him well;
the number of his years is incalculable.
27 For he draws up the drops of water
that he distills as rain from his vapor, [1]
28 which the clouds pour down
and drop in abundance on mankind.
29 Indeed, can anyone understand the extensive spread of the clouds
and the thunder from his hut?
30 See, he spreads his lightning around him
and covers the roots of the sea.
31 In this way he judges the peoples
and gives food in abundance.
32 He fills his hands with the lightning
until he commands it to strike its mark.
33 Its thunder warns of the storm,
the cattle can also hear it is coming.
Chapter 37
1 Indeed, my heart trembles at this;
it is moved out of its place.
2 Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice,
the sound that goes out from his mouth.
3 He sends it out under the whole sky,
and he sends out his lightning to the edges of the earth.
4 A voice roars after it;
he thunders with the voice of his majesty;
he does not restrain the lightning bolts when his voice is heard.
5 God thunders marvelously with his voice;
he does great things that we cannot comprehend.
6 For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’;
likewise to the rain shower,
‘Become a great shower of rain.’
7 He stops the hand of every man from working,
so that all people whom he has made may see his deeds.
8 Then the beasts go into hiding
and stay in their dens.
9 The storm comes from its chamber in the south
and the cold from the scattering winds in the north.
10 By the breath of God ice is given;
the expanse of the waters is frozen like metal.
11 Indeed, he weighs down the thick cloud with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through the clouds.
12 He swirls the clouds around by his guidance,
so that they may do whatever he commands them
above the surface of the whole world.
13 He makes all of this happen; sometimes it happens for correction, sometimes for his land,
and sometimes as acts of covenant faithfulness.
14 Listen to this, Job;
stop and think about God’s marvelous deeds.
15 Do you know how God establishes the clouds
and makes the lightning bolts to flash in them?
16 Do you understand the floating of the clouds,
the marvelous deeds of God, who is perfect in knowledge?
17 Do you understand how your garments become hot
when the land is still because the wind comes from the south?
18 Can you spread out the sky as he can—
the sky, which is as strong as a mirror of cast metal?
19 Teach us what we should say to him,
for we cannot lay out our arguments in order because of the darkness of our minds.
20 Should he be told that I wish to speak with him?
Would a person wish to be swallowed up?
21 Now, people cannot look at the sun when it is bright in the sky
after the wind has passed through and has cleared it of its clouds.
22 Out of the north comes golden splendor—
over God is fearsome majesty.
23 As for the Almighty, we cannot find him!
He is great in power;
he does not oppress justice and abundant righteousness.
24 Therefore, people fear him.
He does not pay any attention to those who are wise in their own minds.”
Chapter 38
1 Then Yahweh called to Job out of a fierce storm and said,
2 “Who is this who brings darkness to plans
by means of words without knowledge?
3 Now gird up your loins like a man
for I will ask you questions, and you must answer me.
4 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
Tell me, if you have so much understanding.
5 Who determined its dimensions? Tell me, if you know.
Who stretched the measuring line over it?
6 On what were its foundations laid?
Who laid its cornerstone
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Who shut up the sea with doors
when it burst out, as if it had come out of the womb—
9 when I made clouds its clothing,
and thick darkness its swaddling bands?
10 That was when I marked out for the sea my boundary,
and when I placed its bars and doors,
11 and when I said to it, ‘You may come this far, but no farther;
here is where I will put a boundary to the pride of your waves.’
12 Have you given orders to the morning,
or caused the dawn to know its place,
13 so that it might take hold of the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth is changed in appearance like clay changes under a seal;
all things on it stand out clearly like the folds of a piece of clothing.
15 From wicked people their ‘light’ is taken away;
their uplifted arm is broken.
16 Have you gone to the sources of the waters of the sea?
Have you walked in the lowest parts of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18 Have you understood the earth in its expanse?
Tell me, if you know it all.
19 Where is the way to the resting place of light—
as for darkness, where is its place?
20 Can you lead light and darkness to their places of work?
Can you find the way back to their houses for them?
21 Undoubtedly you know, for you were born then;
the number of your days is so large!
22 Have you entered the storehouses for the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses for the hail,
23 these things that I have kept for times of trouble,
for days of battle and war?
24 What is the path to where the lightning bolts are distributed
or to where the winds are scattered from the east over the earth?
25 Who has created the channels for the floods of rain,
or who has made a path for the thunder,
26 to cause it to rain on lands where no person exists,
and on the wilderness, in which there is no one,
27 to satisfy the devastated and desolate places,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?
28 Does the rain have a father,
or, who fathers the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb did the ice come?
Who bore the white frost out of the sky?
30 The waters hide themselves and become like stone;
the surface of the deep becomes frozen.
31 Can you fasten chains on the Pleiades,
or undo the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead the constellations to appear at their proper times?
Can you guide the Bear with its children?
33 Do you know the regulations of the sky?
Could you set in place the sky’s rule over the earth?
34 Can you raise your voice up to the clouds,
so that an abundance of rainwater may cover you?
35 Can you send out bolts of lightning that they may go out,
that they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has put wisdom in the clouds
or has given understanding to the mists?
37 Who can number the clouds by his skill?
Who can pour out the water skins of the sky
38 when the dust runs into a hard mass
and the clods of earth clump tightly together?
39 Can you hunt down a victim for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of her young lion cubs
40 when they are crouching in their dens
and sheltering in hiding to lie in wait?
41 Who provides victims for the ravens
when their young ones cry out to God
and stagger about for lack of food?
Chapter 39
1 Do you know at what time the wild goats in the rocks bear their young?
Can you watch when the deer are having their fawns?
2 Can you count the months that they gestate?
Do you know the time when they bear their young?
3 They crouch down and birth their young,
and then they finish their labor pains.
4 Their young ones become strong and grow up in the open fields;
they go out and do not come back again.
5 Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who has untied the bonds of the swift donkey,
6 whose home I have made in the Arabah,
his house in the salt land?
7 He laughs in scorn at the noises in the city;
he does not hear the driver’s shouts.
8 He roams over the mountains as his pastures;
there he looks for every green plant to eat.
9 Will the wild ox be happy to serve you?
Will he consent to stay by your manger?
10 Can you use ropes to hold the wild ox in the furrows?
Will he harrow the valleys as he follows after you?
11 Will you trust him because his strength is great?
Will you leave your work to him to do?
12 Will you depend on him to bring your grain home,
to gather the grain for your threshing floor?
13 The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
14 For she leaves her eggs on the earth,
and she lets them keep warm in the dust;
15 she forgets that a foot might crush them
or that a wild beast might trample them.
16 She deals roughly with her young ones as if they were not hers;
she does not fear that her labor might have been in vain,
17 because God has deprived her of wisdom
and has not given her any understanding.
18 When she runs swiftly,
she laughs in scorn at the horse and its rider.
19 Have you given the horse his strength?
Did you clothe his neck with his flowing mane?
20 Have you ever made him jump like a locust?
The majesty of his snorting is fearsome.
21 He paws in might and rejoices in his strength;
he rushes out to meet the weapons.
22 He mocks fear and is not dismayed;
he does not turn back from the sword.
23 The quiver rattles against his flank,
along with the flashing spear and the javelin.
24 He swallows up ground with fierceness and rage;
at the trumpet’s sound, he cannot stand in one place.
25 Whenever the trumpet sounds, he says, ‘Aha!’
He smells the battle from far away—
the thunderous shouts of the commanders and the outcries.
26 Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,
that he stretches out his wings for the south?
27 Is it at your orders that the eagle mounts up
and makes his nest in high places?
28 He lives on cliffs and makes his home
on the peaks of cliffs, a stronghold.
29 From there he searches for victims;
his eyes see them from very far away.
30 His young also drink up blood;
where killed people are, there he is.”
Chapter 40
1 Yahweh continued to speak to Job; he said,
2 “Should anyone who wishes to criticize try to correct the Almighty?
He who argues with God, let him answer.”
3 Then Job answered Yahweh and said,
4 “See, I am insignificant; how can I answer you?
I put my hand over my mouth.
5 I spoke once, and I will not answer;
indeed, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
6 Then Yahweh answered Job out of a fierce storm and said,
7 “Now gird up your loins like a man,
for I will ask you questions, and you must answer me.
8 Will you actually say that I am unjust?
Will you condemn me so you may claim you are right?
9 Do you have an arm like God’s?
Can you thunder with a voice like him?
10 Now clothe yourself in glory and dignity;
array yourself in honor and majesty.
11 Scatter around the excess of your anger;
look at everyone who is proud and bring him down.
12 Look at everyone who is proud and bring him low;
trample down wicked people where they stand.
13 Bury them in the earth together;
imprison their faces in the hidden place.
14 Then will I also acknowledge about you
that your own right hand can save you.
15 Look now at the behemoth, which I made when I made you;
he eats grass like an ox.
16 See now, his strength is in his loins;
his power is in his belly’s muscles.
17 He makes his tail like a cedar;
the sinews of his thighs are joined together.
18 His bones are like tubes of bronze;
his legs are like bars of iron.
19 He is the chief of the creatures of God.
Only God, who made him, can defeat him.
20 For the hills provide him with food;
the beasts of the field play nearby.
21 He lies under the lotus plants
in the shelter of the reeds, in the marshes.
22 The lotus plants cover him with their shade;
the willows of the brook are all around him.
23 See, if a river floods its banks, he does not tremble;
he is confident, though the Jordan should surge up to his mouth.
24 Can anyone capture him with a hook,
or pierce his nose through with a snare?
Chapter 41
1 Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?
Or tie up his jaws with a cord?
2 Can you put a rope into his nose,
or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
3 Will he make many pleas to you?
Will he speak soft words to you?
4 Will he make a covenant with you,
that you should take him for a servant forever?
5 Will you play with him as you would with a bird?
Will you tie him up for your servant girls?
6 Will the groups of fishermen bargain for him?
Will they divide him up to trade among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8 Put your hand on him just once,
and you will remember the battle and do it no more.
9 See, the hope of anyone who does that is a lie;
will not anyone be thrown down to the ground just by the sight of him?
10 None is so fierce that he dare stir Leviathan up;
who, then, is he who can stand before me?
11 Who has first given anything to me in order that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole sky is mine.
12 I will not keep silent concerning Leviathan’s legs,
nor about the matter of his strength, nor about his graceful form.
13 Who can strip off his outer covering?
Who can penetrate his double armor?
14 Who can open the doors of his face—
ringed with his teeth, which are a terror?
15 his back is made up of rows of shields,
tight together as with a close seal.
16 One is so near to another
that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined to each other;
they stick together, so that they cannot be pulled apart.
18 Light flashes out from his snorting;
his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning dawn.
19 Out of his mouth go burning torches,
sparks of fire leap out.
20 Out of his nostrils goes smoke
like a boiling pot on a fire that has been fanned to be very hot.
21 His breath kindles coals into flame;
fires go out from his mouth.
22 In his neck is strength,
and terror dances in front of him.
23 The folds of his flesh are joined together;
they are firm on him; they cannot be moved.
24 His heart is as hard as a stone—
indeed, as hard as a lower millstone.
25 When he raises himself up, even the gods become afraid;
because of fear, they draw back.
26 If a sword strikes him, it does nothing—
and neither does a spear, an arrow, or any other pointed weapon.
27 He thinks of iron as if it were straw,
and of bronze as if it were rotten wood.
28 An arrow cannot make him flee;
to him sling stones become chaff.
29 Clubs are regarded as straw;
he laughs at the whirring flight of a spear.
30 His lower parts are like sharp pieces of broken pottery;
he leaves a spreading trail in the mud as if he were a threshing sledge.
31 He makes the deep to foam up like a pot of boiling water;
he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He makes a shining wake behind him;
one would think the deep had gray hair.
33 On earth there is no equal to him,
who has been made to live without fear.
34 He sees everything that is proud;
he is king over all the sons of pride.”
Chapter 42
1 Then Job answered Yahweh and said,
2 “I know that you can do all things,
that no purpose of yours can be stopped.
3 ‘Who is this who without knowledge conceals plans?’
Indeed, I have spoken things that I did not understand,
things too difficult for me to understand, which I did not know about.
4 You said to me, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak;
I will ask you things, and you will tell me.’
5 I had heard about you by my ear’s hearing,
but now my eye sees you.
6 So I despise myself;
I repent in dust and ashes.”
7 It came about that after he had said these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer, so that I may not deal with you after your folly. You have not said what is right about me, as my servant Job has done.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as Yahweh had commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.
10 When Job prayed for his friends, Yahweh restored his fortunes. Yahweh gave him twice as much as he had possessed before. 11 Then all Job’s brothers, and all his sisters, and all who knew him before, came to him and ate food with him in his house. They showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the disasters that Yahweh had brought upon him, and each of them gave Job a piece of silver and a ring of gold. 12 Yahweh blessed the final end of Job’s life more than the first; he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 In all the land no women were found as beautiful as Job’s daughters. Their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived 140 years; he saw his sons and his sons’ sons, up to four generations. 17 Then Job died, being old and full of days.