CHAPTER 6

Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just

1. Then Job answered:

2. If my aggravation were weighed and all my calamity laid in the
balances,

3. they would be heavier than the sand of the sea. Therefore, my words
have been rash.

4. For the arrows of the Almighty are in me. My spirit drinks their poison.
The terrors of God are arrayed against me.

5. Does the wild ass bray over its grass or the ox low over its fodder?

6. Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt or is there any flavor in
the juice of mallows?

7. My appetite refuses to touch them. They are like food that is loathsome
to me.

8. Oh that I might have my request and that God would grant my desire;

9. that it would please God to crush me, that he would loose his hand and
cut me off!

10. This would be my consolation. I would even exult in unrelenting pain
for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

11. What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end that I
should be patient?

12. Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of bronze?

13. In truth, I have no help in me and any resource is driven from me.

14. Those who withhold kindness from a friend, forsake the love of the
Almighty.

15. My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed, like freshets that
pass away,

16. that run dark with ice, turbid with melting snow.

17. In time of heat they disappear. When it is hot, they vanish from their
place.

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

19. The caravans of Tema look. The travelers of Sheba hope.

20. They are disappointed because they were confident. They come there
and are confounded.

21. Such you have now become to me. You see my calamity and are
afraid.

22. Have I said, Make me a gift? Or, from your wealth offer a bribe for
me?

23. Or, save me from an opponent's hand? Or, ransom me from the hand
of oppressors.

24. Teach me and I will be silent. Make me understand how I have gone
wrong.

25. How forceful are honest words! But your reproof, what does it
reprove.

26. Do you think that you can reprove words as if the speech of the
desperate were wind?

27. You would even cast lots over the orphan and bargain over your
friend.

28. But now, be pleased to look at me for I will not lie to your face.

29. Turn, I pray, my vindication is at stake.

30. Is there any wrong on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern calamity?

CHAPTER 7

Job: My Suffering Is Without End

1. "Do not human beings have a hard service on earth and are not their
days like the days of a laborer?

2. Like a slave who longs for the shade and like laborers who anticipate
their wages,

3. so I am allotted months of emptiness and I am apportioned nights of
misery.

4. When I lie down I say, 'When shall I rise?' But the night is long and I
toss and turn until dawn.

5. My flesh is covered with worms and dirt. My skin heals and then breaks
open again.

6. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end
without hope.

7. Remember that my life is a breath. My eye will never again see good.

8. The eye that beholds me will see me no more. While your eyes are
upon me, I shall be gone.

9. As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Hell do not
come up.

10. They return no more to their houses nor do the places they visited
know them any more.

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 the Dragon that you set a guard over me?

13. When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my
complaint',

14. then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions

15. so that I contemplate strangling and death rather than this body.

16. I loathe my life. I have no desire to live forever. Leave me alone, for
my days are a breath.

17. What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set
your mind on them,

18. visit them every morning, test them every moment?

19. Will you not look away from me for a while. Leave me alone until I
swallow my spittle?

20. If I sin, what do I do to you, you watchers of humanity? Why have
you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you?

21. Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my
transgressions? It is time for me to die. You will look for me but I will be
dead."

CHAPTER 8

Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

1. Then Bildad the Shuite answered:

2. "How long will you say these things. Your words are like the wind!

3. Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert the right?

4. If your children sinned against Him, He delivered them into the power
of their transgressions.

5. If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty,

6. if you are pure and upright, surely then He will rouse Himself for you
and restore to you your rightful place.

7. Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.

8. Consider bygone generations and ponder what their ancestors have
found.

9. We here were born only yesterday and we know nothing. Our days on
the earth are just a shadow.

10. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their
understanding?

11. Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where
there is no water?

12. While yet in flower and not cut down they wither before any other
plant.

13. Such are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the Godless
shall perish.

14. Their confidence is a cobweb. There trust is a spider's house.

15. If one leans against its house, it will not stand. If one lays hold of it, it
will not endure.

16. The wicked thrive before the sun and their shoots spread over the
garden.

17. Their roots twine around the stoneheap. They live among the rocks.

18. If they are destroyed from their place, then it will deny them saying, I
have never seen you.

19. See these are their happy ways and out of the earth still others will
spring.

20. See, God will not reject a blameless person, nor take the hand of an
evildoer.

21. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of
joy.

22. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame and the tent of the
wicked will be no more.

CHAPTER 9

Job Replies; There Is No Mediator

1. Then Job answered:

2. Indeed I know that this is so, but how can a mortal be just before God?

3. If one wished to contend with Him, one could not answer Him once in a
thousand times.

4. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength - who has resisted Him and
succeeded?

5. He who removes mountains and they do not know it, when he overturns
them in his anger,

6. who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble,

7. who commands the sun and it does not rise, who seals up the stars,

8. who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea,

9. who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the
south,

10. who does great things beyond understanding and marvelous things
without number.

11. Look He passes by me and I do not see Him. He travels on but I do
not perceive him.

12. He snatches away, who can stop Him? Who will say to Him, 'What
are you doing?'

13. God will not turn back His anger, the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath
Him.

14. How then can I answer Him, choosing my words with him?

15. Though I am innocent, I cannot answer Him. I must appeal for mercy
to my accuser.

16. If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe that He
would listen to my voice.


17. For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without
cause.

18. He will not let me get my breath, but he fills me with bitterness.

19. If it is a contest of strength, He is the strong one! If it is a matter of
justice, who can summon Him?

20. Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me. Though I
am blameless, He would prove me corrupt.

21. I am blameless. I do not know myself. I loath my life.

22. It is all one. Therefore, I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the
wicked.'

23. When disaster brings sudden death, He mocks at the calamity of the
innocent.

24. The earth is given into the power of the wicked. He covers the eyes of
its judges. If it is not He, who then is it?

25. My days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see little
good.

26. They go by like skiffs of reed; like an eagle swooping on its prey.

27. If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad countenance
and be of good cheer',

28. I become afraid of all my suffering. For I know you will not hold me
innocent.

29. I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?

30. If I wash myself with soap and cleanse my hands with lye,

31. yet you will plunge me into filth and my own clothes will abhor me.

32. For He is not a mortal as I am that I might answer Him, that we should
come to trial together.

33. There is no umpire between us who might lay his hand on us both.

34. If He would take His rod away from me and not let dread of Him
terrify me,

35. then I would speak without fear of Him, for I know I am not the sinner
I am thought to be.

CHAPTER 10

Job: I Loathe My Life

1. I loathe my life. I will give free utterance to my complaint. I will
speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2. I will say to God, Do not condemn me. Let me know why you contend
against me.

3. Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands
and favor the schemes of the wicked?

4. Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as humans see?

5. Are your days like the days of mortals, are your years like human years

6. that you seek out my immorality and search for my sin

7. although you know that I am not guilty and there is no one to deliver
me out of your hands?

8. Your hands fashioned and made me and now you turn and destroy me.

9. Remember that you fashioned me like clay. Will you now turn and
destroy me?

10. Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?

11. You clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones
and sinews.

12. You have granted me life and steadfast love and your care has
preserved my spirit.

13. Yet these things you hid in your heart. I know that this was your
purpose.

14. If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my immorality.

15. If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head
for I am filled with disgrace and look upon my affliction.

16. Bold as a lion you hunt me, you repeat your exploits against me.

17. You renew your witness against me and increase your annoyance
toward me. You bring fresh troops against me.

18. Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died
before any eye had seen me

19. and were as though I had not been carried from the womb to the
grave.

20. Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone that I may find a little
comfort

21. before I go, never to return to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

22. the land of gloom and chaos where light is like darkness.

CHAPTER 11

Zophar Speaks: Job's Guilt Deserves Punishment

1. Then Zophar the Maamathite answered:

2. Should a multitude of words go unanswered and should one full of talk
be acquitted?

3. Should your babble put others to silence. When you mock shall no one
shame you?

4. For you say, My conduct is pure and I am clean in God's sight.

5. But oh, that God would speak and open His lips to you

6. and that He would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For wisdom then
that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.

7. Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of
the Almighty?

8. It is higher than heaven - what can you do? Deeper than Hell - what
can you know?

9. Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.

10. If He passes through and imprisons and assembles for judgment all of
humanity, who can hinder Him?

11. For He knows those who are worthless. When He sees immorality will
He not consider it?

12. But a stupid person will get understanding when a wild ass gives birth
to a human being.

13. If you direct your heart rightly, you will stretch out your hands toward
Him.

14. If immorality is in your hand, put it far away and do not let wickedness
reside in your tents.

15. Surely then you will lift up your face with blemish. You will be secure
and will not fear.

16. You will forget your misery. You will remember it as waters that have
passed away.

17. And your life will be brighter than the noonday. Its darkness will be
like the morning.

18. And you will have confidence because there is hope. You will be
protected and take your rest in safety.

19. You will lie down and no one will make you afraid. Many will entreat
your favor.

20. But the eyes of the wicked will fail. All avenues of escape will be lost
to them and their hope is to breathe their last.

CHAPTER 12

Job Replies: I Am a Laughingstock

1. Then Job answered:

2. No doubt you are the chosen of the people and wisdom will die with
you.

3. But I have understanding as well as you. I am not inferior to you. Who
does not know such things as these?

4. I am a laughingstock to my friends. I who called upon God and he
answered me, a just and blameless man, with unmitigated misery. I am a
laughingstock.

5. Those at ease have contempt for misfortune, but it is ready for those
whose feet are unstable.

6. The tents of robbers are at peace and those who provoke God are
secure; those who bring their idols in their hands.

7. But ask the animals and they will teach you; the birds of the air and they
will tell you.

8. Ask the plants of the earth and they will teach you; and the fish of the
sea will declare to you.

9. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done
this?

10. In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every
human being.

11. Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?

12. Is wisdom with the aged and understanding in length of days?

13. With God are wisdom and strength. He has counsel and
understanding.

14. If He tears down, no one can rebuild. If He shuts someone in, no one
can open up.

15. If He withholds the waters, they dry up. If He sends them out, they
overwhelm the land.

16. With Him are strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are
His.

17. He leads counselors away stripped and makes fools of judges.

18. He looses the sash of kings and binds a waistcloth on their loins.

19. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the mighty.

20. He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the
discernment of the elders.

21. He pours contempt on princes and looses the belt of the strong.

22. He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to
light.

23. He makes nations great and then destroys them. He enlarges nations
and then leads them away.

24. He strips understanding from the leaders of the earth and makes them
wander in a pathless waste.

25. They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like
drunkards.


CHAPTER 13

Job Replies: I Am A Laughingstock (continued)

1. Look my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.

2. What you know, I also know. I am not inferior to you.

3. But I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to argue my case with
Him.

4. As for you, you whitewash with lies, all of you are worthless physicians.

5. If you would only keep silent that would be your wisdom!

6. Hear now my reasoning and listen to the pleading of my lips.

7. Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for Him?

8. Will you show partiality toward Him? Will you plead the case for God?

9. Will it be well with you when He searches you out? Or can you deceive
Him as a person deceives another?

10. He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality.

11. Will not his majesty terrify you and the dread of Him fall upon you?

12. Your maxims are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of
clay.

13. Let me have silence and I will speak and let come on me what may.

14. I will take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand.

15. See He will kill me. I have no hope but I will defend my ways to His
face.

16. This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before Him.

17. Listen carefully to my words and let my declaration be in your ears.

18. I have indeed prepared my case, I know that I shall be vindicated

19. Who is there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent
and die.


Job's Despondent Prayer

20. Dear God, only grant two things to me then I will not hide myself
from your face.

21. Withdraw your hand far from me and do not let dread of you terrify
me.

22. Then call and I will answer. Or let me speak and you reply to me.

23. How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my
transgressions and my sin.

24. Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?

25. Will you frighten a windblown leaf and pursue dry chaff?

26. For you write bitter things against me and make me reap the iniquities
of my youth.

27. You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths. You set a
bound to the soles of my feet.

28. I waste away like a rotten thing; like a garment that is moth-eaten.

CHAPTER 14

Job's Despondent Prayer (continued)

1. A mortal, born of woman few of days and full of trouble

2. comes up like a flower and withers; flees like a shadow and does not
last.

3. Do you fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment
with you?

4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean one? No one can.

5. Since their days are determined and the number of their months is
known to you and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass.

6. Look away from them and desist that they may enjoy like laborers their
days.

7. For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down that it will sprout again and
that its shoots will not cease.

8. Though its roots grow old in the earth and its stump dies in the ground

9. yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young
plant.

10. But mortals die and are laid low. Human beings expire and where are
they?

11. As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up

12. so mortals lie down and do not rise again until the heavens are no
more. They will not awake or be roused out of their sleep.

13. Oh, that you would hide me in Hell; that you would conceal me until
your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember
me!

14. If mortals die, will they live again? All the days of my service I would
wait until my release should come.

15. You would call and I would answer you. You would long for the
work of your hands.

16. For then you would not number my steps, you would not keep watch
over my sin;

17. my transgressions would be sealed up in a bag and you would cover
over my immorality.

18. But the mountain falls and crumbles away and the rock is removed
form its place.

19. The waters wear away the stones, the torrents wash away the soil of
the earth so you destroy the hope of mortals.

20. You prevail forever against them and they pass away. You change
their countenance and send them away.

21 Their children come to honor and they do not know it. They are
brought low and it goes unnoticed.

22. They feel only the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for
themselves.

CHAPTER 15

Eliphaz Speaks: Job Undermines Religion

1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2. Should the wise answer with windy knowledge and fill themselves with
the east wind?

3. Should they argue in unprofitable talk or in words with which they can
do no good?

4. But you are doing away with the love of God and hindering meditation
before God.

5. For your immorality teaches your mouth and you choose the tongue of
the crafty.

6. Your own mouth condemns you and not I. Your own lips testify
against you.

7. Are you the firstborn of the human race? Were you brought forth
before the hills?

8. Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to
yourself?

9. What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that
is not clear to us?

10. The gray-haired and the aged are on our side; those older than your
father.

11. Are the consolations of God too small for you or the word that deals
gently with you?

12. Why does your heart carry you away and why do your eyes flash

13. so that you turn your spirit against God and let such words go out of
your mouth?

14. What are mortals that they can be clean? Or those born of woman that
they can be righteous?

15. God puts no trust even in his holy ones and the heavens are not clean
in His sight.

16. How much less one who is abominable and corrupt; one who drinks
immorality like water?

17. I will show you. Listen to me. What I have seen I will declare

18. what sages have told and their ancestors have not hidden;

19. to whom alone the land was given and no stranger passed among
them.

20. The wicked writhe in pain all their days through all the years that are
laid
up for the ruthless.

21. Terrifying sounds are in their ears. In prosperity, the destroyer will
come upon them.

22. They despair of returning from darkness and they are destined for the
sword.

23. They wander abroad for bread saying, 'Where is it?' They know that a
day of darkness is at hand.

24. Distress and anguish terrify them and prevail against them like a king
prepared for battle.

25. Because they stretched out their hands against God and bid defiance to
the Almighty,

26. running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield,

27. because they have covered their faces with their fat and gathered fat
upon their loins,

28. they will live in desolate cities in houses that no one should inhabit;
houses destined to become heaps of ruins.

29. They will not be rich and their wealth will not endure nor will they
strike root in the earth.

30. They will not escape from darkness. The flame will dry up their shoots
and their blossom will be swept away by the wind.

31. Let them not trust in emptiness deceiving themselves. For emptiness
will be their recompense.

32. It will be paid in full before their time and their branch will not be
green.

33. They will shake off their unripe grape like the vine and cast off their
blossoms like the olive tree.

34. For the company of the godless is barren and fire consumes the tents
of bribery.

35. They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares
deceit.

CHAPTER 16

Job Reaffirms His Innocence

1. Then Job answered:

2. I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters.

3. Have windy words no limit? Or what provokes you that you keep on
talking?

4. I also could talk as you do if I were in your place. I could join words
together against you and shake my head at you.

5. I could encourage you with my mouth and the solace of my lips would
assuage your pain.

6. If I speak my pain is not assuaged and if I forbear, how much of it
leaves me?

7. Surely now God has worn me out. He has made desolate all my
company.

8. And He has shriveled me up which is a witness against me. My leanness
has risen up against me and it testifies to my face.

9 He has torn me in His wrath and hated me. He has gnashed his teeth at
me. My adversary sharpens His eyes against me.

10. They have gaped at me with their mouths. They have struck me
insolently on the cheek. They mass themselves together against me.

11. God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the
wicked.

12. I was at ease and He broke me in two. He seized me by the neck and
dashed me to pieces. He set me up as His tarter.

13. His archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and shows no
mercy. He pours out my gall on the ground.

14. He bursts upon me again and again. He rushes at me like a warrior.

15. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the
dust.

16. My face is red with weeping and deep darkness is on my eyelids

17. though there is no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure.

18. O earth, do not soak up my blood. Let my outcry find no resting
place.

19. Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven and He that vouches for me
is on high.

20. My friends scorn me. My eye pours out tears to God

21. that He would maintain the right of a mortal to speak with God as one
does for a neighbor.

22. For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall
not return.

CHAPTER 17

Job Prays For Relief

1. My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.

2. Surely there are mockers around me and my eye dwells on their
provocation.

3. Lay down a pledge for me with yourself, who is there that will give
surety for me?

4. Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will
not let them triumph.

5. Those who denounce friends for reward, the eyes of their children will
fail.

6. He has made me a byword of the peoples and I am one before whom
people spit.

7. My eye has grown dim from grief and all my members are like a
shadow.

8. The upright are appalled at this and the innocent stir themselves up
against the godless.

9. Yet the righteous hold to their way and they that have clean hands grow
stronger and stronger.

10. But you come back now all of you and I shall not find a sensible
person among you.

11. My days are past, my plans are broken off , the desires of my heart
gone.

12. They make night into day. The Light they say, is near to the darkness.

13. If I look for Hell as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,

14. if I say to the Pit, 'You are my father and to the worm, My mother or
my sister',

15. where then is my hope?

16. Will it go down to the bars of Hell? Shall we descend together into
the dust?"

CHAPTER 18

Bildad Speaks: God Punishes The Wicked

1. Then Bildad the Shuite answered:

2. How long will you hunt for words? Consider and then we shall speak.

3. Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?

4. You who tear yourself in your anger - shall the earth be forsaken
because of you or the rock be removed out of its place?

5. Surely the light of the wicked is put out and the flame of their fire does
not shine.

6. The light is dark in their tent and the lamp above them is put out.

7. Their strong steps are shortened and their own schemes throw them
down.

8. For they are thrust into a net by their own feet and they walk into a
pitfall.

9. A trap seizes them by the heel. A snare lays hold of them.

10. A rope is hid for them, in the ground a trap for them in the path.

11. Terrors frighten them on every side and chase them at their heels.

12. Their strength is consumed by hunger and calamity is ready for their
stumbling.

13. By disease their skin is consumed. The firstborn of death consumes
their limbs.

14. They are torn form the tent in which they trusted and are brought to
the king of terrors.

15. In their tents nothing remains. Sulfur is scattered upon their
habitations.

16. Their roots dry up beneath and their branches wither above.

17. Their memory perishes from the earth and they have no name in the
street.

18. They are thrust from light into darkness and driven out of the world.

19. They have no offspring or descendant among their people and no
survivor where they used to live.

20. They of the west are appalled at their fate and horror seizes those of
the east.

21. Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly. Such is the place of
those who do not know God.

CHAPTER 19

Job Replies: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

1. Then Job answered:

2. How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with your
words?

3. Ten times you have rebuked me. Are you not ashamed to wrong me?

4. And even if it is true that I have erred, my error remains with me.

5. If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my humiliation
an argument against me,

6. know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed His net around
me.

7. Even when I cry out, 'Violence!' I am not answered. I call aloud but
there is no justice.

8. He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass and He has set darkness
upon my paths.

9. He has stripped my glory from me and taken the crown form my head.

10. He breaks me down on every side and I am gone. He has uprooted my
hope like a tree.

11. He has kindled His wrath against me and counts me as His adversary.

12. His troops come on together. They have thrown up siege works
against me and encamp around my tent.

13. He has put my family far from me and my acquaintances are wholly
estranged from me.

14. My relatives and my close friends have failed me.

15. The guests in my house have forgotten me. My serving girls count me
as a stranger. I have become an alien in their eyes.

16. I call to my servant but he gives me no answer. I must myself plead
with him.

17. My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am loathsome to my relatives.

18. Even young children despise me. When I rise, they talk against me.

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

20. My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh and I have escaped by the
skin of my teeth.

21. Have pity on me. Have pity on me, O you my friends for the hand of
God has touched me.

22. Why do you, like God, pursue me never satisfied with my flesh?

23 O that my words were written down. O that they were inscribed in a
book!

24. O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock
forever!

25. For I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last He will stand
upon the earth

26. and after my skin has been thus destroyed then in my flesh I shall see
God

27. whom I shall see on my side and my eyes shall behold and not another.
My heart faints within me!

28. If you say, 'How we will persecute him! and The root of the matter is
found in Him,

29. be afraid of the sword for wrath brings the punishment of the sword so
that you may know there is a judgment.

CHAPTER 20

Zophar Speaks: Wickedness Receives Just Retribution

1. Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

2. Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer because of the
agitation within me.

3. I hear censure that insults me and a spirit beyond my understanding
answers me.

4. Do you not know this from of old, ever since mortals were placed on
earth,

5. that the exulting of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless is but
for a moment?

6. Even though they mount up high as the heavens and their head reaches
to the clouds

7. they will perish forever like their own dung. Those who have seen them
will say, 'Where are they?'

8. They will fly away like a dream and not be found. They will be chased
away like a vision of the night.

9. The eye that saw them will see them no more nor will their place behold
them any longer.

10. Their children will seek the favor of the poor and their hands will give
back their wealth.

11. Their bodies once full of youth will lie down in the dust with them.

12. Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth, though they hide it under
their tongues,

13. though they are loath to let it go and hold it in their mouths,

14. yet their food is turned in their stomachs. It becomes the venom of
asps within them.

15. They swallow down riches and vomit them up again. God casts them
out of their bellies.

16. They will suck the poison of asps. The tongue of a viper will kill them.

17. They will not look on the rivers; the streams flowing with milk and
honey.

18. They will give back the fruit of their toil and will not swallow it down.
From the profit of their trading they will get no enjoyment.

19. For they have crushed and abandoned the poor. They have seized a
house that they did not build.

20 They knew no quiet in their bellies. In their greed, they let nothing
escape.

21. There was nothing left after they had eaten. Therefore, their prosperity
will not endure.

22. In full sufficiency they will be in distress. All the forces of misery will
come upon them.

23. To fill their belly to the full, God will send his fierce anger into them
and rain it upon them as their food.

24. They will flee from an iron weapon. A bronze arrow will strike them
through.

25. It is drawn forth and comes out of their body and the glittering point
comes out of their gall. Terrors come upon them.

26. Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures. A fire fanned by no one
will devour them. What is left in their tent will be consumed.

27. The heavens will reveal their immorality and the earth will rise up
against them.

28. The possessions of their house will be carried away, dragged off in the
day of God's wrath.

29. This is the portion of the wicked; the heritage decreed for them by God.

Chapter 21

Job Replies: The Wicked Often Go Unpunished

1. Then Job answered:

2. Listen carefully to my words and let this be your consolation.

3. Bear with me, and I will speak. Then after I have spoken, mock on.

4. As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals? Why should I not be
impatient?

5. Look at me and be appalled and lay you hand upon your mouth.

6. When I think of it, I am dismayed and shuddering seizes my flesh.

7. Why do the wicked live on to reach old age and grow mighty in power?

8 Their children are established in their presence and their offsprings
before their eyes.

9. Their houses are safe from fear and no rod of God is upon them.

10. Their bull breeds without fail. Their cow calves and never miscarries.

11. They send out their little ones like a flock and their children dance
around.

12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the
pipe.

13 They spend their days in prosperity and in peace they go down to Hell.

14. They say to God, 'Leave us alone! We do not desire to know your
ways.

15. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? And what profit do
we get if we pray to him?

16. Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement? The plans of the
wicked are repugnant to me.

17. How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does
calamity come upon them? How often does God distribute pains in his
anger?


18. How often are they like straw before the wind and like chaff that the
storm carries away?

19. You say God stores up their immorality for their children. Let it be
paid back to them so that they may know it.

20 Let their own eyes see their destruction and let them drink of the wrath
of the Almighty.

21. For what do they care for their house when the number of their months
is cut off?

22. Will any teach God knowledge seeing that he judges those that are on
high?

23. One dies in full prosperity being wholly at ease and secure,

24. his loins full of mil and the marrow of his bones moist.

25. Another dies in bitterness of soul never having tasted of good.

26. They lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them.

27. Oh, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.

28. For you say, So where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in
which the wicked lived?

29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads and do you not accept
their testimony

30. That the wicked are spared in the day of calamity and are rescued in
the day of wrath?

31. Who declares their way to their face and who repays them for what
they have done?

32. When they are carried to the grave, a watch is kept over their tomb.

33 The clods of the valley are sweet to them. Everyone will follow after
and those who went before are innumerable.

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

Chapter 22

Eliphaz Speaks: Job's Wickedness Is Great

1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2. Can a mortal be of use to God? Can even the wisest be of service to
Him?

3. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous or is it gain to
Him if you make your ways blameless?

4. Is it for your piety that He reproves you and enters in judgment with
you?

5. Is not your wickedness great? There is no end to your iniquities.

6. For you have exacted pledges from you family for no reason and
stripped the naked of their clothing.

7. You have given no water to the weary to drink and you have withheld
bread from the hungry.

8. The powerful possess the land and the favored live in it.

9. You have sent widows away empty-handed and the arms of the orphans
you have crushed.

10. Therefore, snares are around you and sudden terror overwhelms you

11. or darkness so that you cannot see a flood of water covers you.

12. Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they
are!

13. Therefore you say, What does God know? Can he judge through the
deep darkness?

14. Thick clouds enwrap him so that he does not see and he walks on the
dome of heaven.

15. Will you keep to the old way that the wicked have trod?

16. They were snatched away before their time. Their foundation was
washed away by a flood.

17 They said to God, 'Leave us alone! and What can the Almighty do to
us?

18 Yet He filled their houses with good things, but the plans of the wicked
are repugnant to me.

19. The righteous see it and are glad, the innocent laugh them to scorn

20. saying, 'Surely our adversaries are cut off and what they left, the fire
has consumed.'

21 Agree with God, and be at peace. In this way good will come to you.

22. Receive instruction from His mouth and lay up His words in your
heart.

23. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove
unrighteousness from your tents,

24. if you treat gold like dust and gold of Ophir like the stones of the
torrent-bed,

25. and if the Almighty is your gold and your precious silver,

26. then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to
God.

27. You will pray to Him and He will hear you and you will pay your
vows.

28. You will decide on a matter and it will be established for you and light
will shine on your ways.

29. When others are humiliated, you say it is pride for He saves the
humble.

30. He will deliver even those who are guilty. They will escape because of
the cleanness of your hands.

Chapter 23

Job Replies: My Complaint Is Bitter

1. Then Job answered:

2. Today also my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my
groaning.

3. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him that I might go to His dwelling!

4. I would lay my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.

5 I would learn what He would answer me and understand what He would
say to me.

6. Would He contend with me in the greatness of His power? No, but He
would give heed to me.

7. There, an upright person could reason with Him and I should be
acquitted forever by my judge.

8. However, if I go forward, He is not there, or backward, I cannot
perceive Him.

9. On the left He hides and I cannot behold Him. I turn to the right but I
cannot see Him.

10. But He knows the way that I take. When He has tested me, I shall
come out like gold.

11 My foot has held fast to His steps. I have kept His way and have not
turned aside.

12. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips. I have
treasured in my bosom the words of His mouth.

13. But He stands alone. Who can dissuade him? What he desires, that
He does.

14. For He will complete what He appoints from them and many such
things are in His mind.

15. Therefore, I am terrified at His presence. When I consider, I am in
dread of Him.


16. God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

17. If only I could vanish in darkness and if only thick darkness would
cover my face.

Chapter 24

Job Complains Of Violence On The Earth

1. Why are times not kept by the Almighty? And why do those who
know Him never see His days?

2. The wicked remove boundary markers. They seize flocks and pasture
them.

3. They drive away the donkey of the orphan. They take the widow's ox
for a pledge.

4. They thrust the needy on the road. The poor of the earth all hide
themselves.

5. Like wild asses in the desert, they go out to their toil scavenging in the
wasteland food for their young.

6. They reap in a field not their own and they glean in the vineyard of the
wicked.

7. They lie all night naked without clothing and have no covering in the
cold.

8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for
want of shelter.

9. There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast and take as
a pledge the infant of the poor.

10. They go about naked without clothing. Though hungry, they carry the
sheaves.

11. Between their terraces they press out oil. They tread the wine presses
but suffer thirst.

12 From the city the dying groan and the throat of the wounded cries for
help yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

13. There are those who rebel against the light who are not acquainted
with its ways and do not stay in its paths.

14. The murderer rises at dusk to kill the poor and needy and in the night
is like a thief.

15. The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight saying, 'No eye will
see me and he disguises his face'.

16. In the dark, they dig through houses. By day they shut themselves up.
They do not know the light.

17. For deep darkness is morning to all of them for they are friends with
their terrors of deep darkness.

18. Swift are they on the face of the waters their portion in the land is
cursed non treader turns toward their vineyards.

19. Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters so does Hell those
who have sinned.

20. The womb forgets them. The worm finds them sweet. They are no
longer remembered so wickedness is broken like a tree.

21. They harm the childless woman and do not good to the widow.

22. Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power. They rise up
when they despair of life.

23. He gives them security and they are supported. His eyes are upon
their ways.

24. They are exalted a little while and then are gone. They wither and fade
like the mallow. They are cut off like the heads of grain.

25. If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and who will say that there is
nothing in
what I have spoken?"

Chapter 25

Bildad Speaks: How Can A Mortal Be Righteous Before God?

1. Then Bildad the Shuite answered:

2. Dominion and love are with God. He makes peace in His high heaven

3. Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not
arise?

4. How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of
woman be pure?

5. If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in His sight

6. how much less a mortal who is a maggot and a human being who is a
worm!

Chapter 26

Job Replies: God's Majesty Is Unsearchable

1. Then Job answered:

2. How you have helped one who has no power! How you have assisted
the arm that has no strength!

3. How you have counseled one who has no wisdom and given much good
advice!

4. With whose help have you uttered words and whose spirit has come
forth from you?

5. The shades below tremble the waters and their inhabitants.

6. Hell is naked before God and Abaddon has no covering.

7. He stretches out Zaphon over the void and hangs the earth upon
nothing.

8. He binds up the waters in His thick clouds and the cloud is not torn
open by them.

9. He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it His cloud.

10. He has described a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary
between light and darkness.

11. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at His rebuke.

12. By His power He stilled the sea. By His understanding He struck
down Rahab.

13. By His wind the heavens were made fair. His hand pierced the fleeing
serpent.

14. These are indeed but the outskirts of His ways and how small a
whisper do we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can
understand it?

Chapter 27

Job Maintains His Integrity

1. Job again took up his discourse and said:

2. As God lives, Who has taken away my right and the Almighty who has
made my soul bitter.

3. As long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils

4. my lips will not speak falsehood and my tongue will not utter deceit.

5. Far be it for me to say that you are right. Until I die I will not put away
my integrity from me.

6. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. My heart does not
reproach me for any of my days.

7. May my enemy be like the wicked and may my opponent be like the
unrighteous.

8. For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts them off?; when
God takes away their lives?

9. Will God hear their cry when trouble comes upon them?

10. Will they take delight in the Almighty? Will they call upon God at all
times?

11. I will teach you concerning the hand of God. That which is with the
Almighty I will not conceal.

12. All of you have seen it yourselves. Why then have you become
altogether vain?

13. This is the portion of the wicked with God and the heritage that
oppressors receive from the Almighty.

14. If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword and their offspring
have not enough to eat.

15. Those who survive them, the pestilence buries and their widows make
no lamentation

16. Though they heap up silver like dust and pile up clothing like clay,

17. they may pile it up but the just will wear it and the innocent will divide
the silver.

18. They build their houses like nests; like booths made by sentinels of the
vineyard.

19. They go to bed with wealth but will do so no more. They open their
eyes and it is gone.

20. Terrors overtake them like a flood in the night. A whirlwind carries
them off.

21. The east wind lifts them up and they are gone. It sweeps them out of
their place.

22. It comes at them without pity. They flee from its power in headlong
flight.

23. It claps its hands at them and hisses at them from its place.

Chapter 28

Interlude: Where Wisdom Is Found

1. Surely there is a mine for silver and a place for gold to be refined.

2. Iron is taken out of the earth and copper is smelted from ore.

3. Miners put an end to darkness and search out to the farthest bound the
ore in the gloom and deep darkness of mines.

4. They open shafts in a valley away from human habitation. They are
forgotten by travelers. They sway suspended; remote from people.

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

6. Its stones are the place of sapphires and its dust contains gold.

7. That path no bird of prey knows and the falcon's eye has not seen it.

8. The proud wild animals have not trodden it, the lion has not passed over
it.

9. They put their hand to the flinty rock and overturn mountains by the
roots and their eyes see every precious thing.

11. The sources of the rivers they probe, hidden things they bring to light.

12. But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of
understanding?

13. Mortals do not know the way to it and it is not found in the land of the
living.

14. The deep says, It is not in me' and the sea says, It is not with me'.

15. It cannot be gotten for gold; and silver cannot be weighed out as its
price.

16. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir; in precious onyx or sapphire.

17. Gold and glass cannot equal it nor can it be exchanged for jewels or
fine gold.

18. No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal, the price of wisdom is
above pearls.

19. The chrysolite of Ethiopia cannot compare with it nor can it be valued
in pure gold.

20. Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of
understanding?

21. It is hidden from the eyes of all the living and concealed from the birds
of the air.

22. Abaddon and Death say, We have heard a rumor of it with out ears'.

23. God understands the way to it and He knows its place.

24. For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the
heavens.

25. When He gave to the wind its weight and apportioned out the water by
measure,

26. when He made a decree for the rain and a way for the thunderbolt,

27. then He saw it and declared it. He established it and searched it out.

28. And He said to humankind, Truly the love of the Lord is wisdom and
to depart from evil is understanding.

Chapter 29

Job Finishes His Defense

1. Job again took up his discourse and said:

2. Oh, if I could return to the months of old, to the days when God
watched over me.

3. When His lamp shone over my head and by His light I walked through
darkness.

4. When I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent,

5. when the Almighty was still with me, when my children were around
me,

6. when my steps were washed with mild and the rock poured out for me
streams of oil!

7. When I went out to the gate of the city and when I took my seat in the
square,

8. the young men saw me and withdrew and the aged rose up and stood.

9. The nobles refrained from talking and laid their hands on their mouths.

10 The voices of princes were hushed and their tongues stuck to the roof
of their mouths.

11. When the ear heard, it commended me. When the eye saw it approved

12. because I delivered the poor who cried and the orphan who had no
helper.

13. The blessing of the wretched came upon me and 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 the blind and feet to the lame.

16. I was a father to the needy and I championed the cause of the stranger.

17. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made them drop their prey
from their teeth.

18. In those day, I thought, 'I shall die in my nest and I shall multiply my
days like the phoenix.'

19. My roots spread out to the waters with the dew all night on my
branches.

20. My glory was fresh with me and my bow ever new in my hand.

21. They listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel.

22. After I spoke, they did not speak again and my word dropped upon
them like dew.

23. They waited for me as for the rain. They opened their mouths as for
the spring rain.

24. I smiled on them when they had no confidence and the light of my
countenance they did not extinguish.

25. I chose their way and sat as chief and I lived like a king among his
troops; like one who comforts mourners."

Chapter 30

Job Finishes His Defense (continued)

1. But now they make sport of me. Those who are younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

2. What could I gain from the strength of their hands? All their vigor is
gone.

3. Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground.

4. They pick mallow and the leaves of bushes and to warm themselves the
roots of broom.

5. They are driven out from society. People shout after them as after a
thief.

6. In the gullies of wadis, they must live in holes in the ground and in the
rocks.

7. Among the bushes they bray under the nettles and they huddle together.

8. A senseless disreputable brood they have been whipped out of the land.

9. And now they mock me in song. I am a byword to them.

10. They abhor me and they keep aloof from me. They do not hesitate to
spit at the sight of me.

11. Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me, they have
cast off restraint in my presence.

12. On my right hand, the rabble rise up and they send me sprawling and
build roads for my ruin.

13. They break up my path, they promote my calamity. No one restrains
them.

14. As through a wide breach, they come amid the crash they roll on.

15. Terrors are turned upon me. My honor is pursued as by the wind and
my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16. And now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have
taken hold of me.

17. The night racks my bones and the pain that gnaws me never stops.

18. With violence He seizes my garment. He grasps me by the collar of
my tunic.

19. He has cast me into the mire and I have become like dust and ashes.

20. I cry to you and you do not answer me, I stand and you merely look at
me.

21. You have turned cruel to me and with the might of your hand you
persecute me.

22. You lift me up on the wind. You make me ride on it and you toss me
about in the roar of the storm.

23. I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for
all the living.

24. Surely one does not turn against the needy when in disaster they cry
for help.

25. Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul
grieved for the poor?

26. But when I looked for good, evil came, and when I waited for light,
darkness came.

27. My inward parts are in turmoil and are never still. Days of affliction
come to meet me.

28. I go about in sunless gloom. I stand up in the assembly and cry for
help.

29. I am a brother to jackals and a companion to ostriches.

30. My skin turns black and falls from me and my bones burn with heat.

31. My lyre is turned to mourning and my pipe to the voice of those who
weep.

Chapter 31

Job Finishes His Defense (continued)

1. I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I look upon a
virgin?

2. What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the
Almighty on high?

3. Does not calamity befall the unrighteous and disaster the workers of
immorality?

4. Does He not see my ways and number all my steps?

5. If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hurried to deceit,

6. let me be weighed in a just balance and let God know my integrity!

7. If my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has followed my
eyes, and if any spot has clung to my hands,

8. then let me sow and another ear and let what grows for me be rooted
out.

9. If my heart has been enticed by a woman and I have lain in wait at my
neighbor's door,

10 then let my wife grind for another and let other men kneel over her.

11. For that would be a heinous crime; that would be a criminal offense;

12. that would be a fire consuming down to Abaddon and it would burn to
the root all my harvest.

13. If I have rejected the cause of my male and female slaves when they
brought a complaint against me,

14. what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what
shall I answer Him?

15. Did not he who made me in the womb, make them? And did not one
fashion us in the womb?

16. If I have withheld anything that the poor desired or have caused the
eyes of the widow to fail,

17. or have eaten my morsel alone and the orphan has not eaten from it,

18. for from my youth I reared the orphan like a father and from my
mother's womb I guided the widow.

19. If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing or a poor person
without covering

20. whose loins have not blessed me and who was not warmed with the
fleece of my sheep,

21. if I have raised my hand against the orphan because I saw I had
supporters at the gate,

22. then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder and let my arm be
broken from its socket.

23. For I was in terror of calamity from God and I could not have faced
His majesty.

24. If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence,

25. if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great or because my hand
had gotten much,

26 if I have looked at the sun when it shone or the moon moving in
splendor

27. and my heart has been secretly enticed and my mouth has kissed my
hand,

28 this also would be an immorality to be punished by the judges for I
should have been false to God above.

29. If I have rejoiced at the ruin of those who hated me or exulted when
evil overtook them

30. I have not let my mouth sin by asking for their lives with a curse.

31. If those of my tent ever said, 'O, that we might be sated with his flesh.'

32. The stranger has not lodged in the street. I have opened my doors to
the traveler.

33. If I have concealed my transgressions as others do by hiding my
immorality in my bosom

34. because I stood in great fear of the multitude and the contempt of
families terrified me so that I kept silence and did not go out of doors.

35 Oh, that I had one to hear me! ( Here is my signature! let the Almighty
answer me!) Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary.

36. Surely I would carry it on my shoulder. I would bind it on me like a
crown.

37. I would give Him an account of all my steps. Like a prince I would
approach Him.

38. If my land has cried out against me and its furrows have wept
together,

39. if I have eaten its yield without payment and caused the death of its
owners,

40. let thorns grow instead of wheat and foul weeds instead of barley.

The words of Job are ended.

Chapter 32

Elihu Rebukes Job's Friends

1. So these three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in
his own eyes.

2. Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite of the family of Ram, became
angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God.

3. He was also angry at Job's three friends because they had found no
answer; they had declared Job to be in the wrong.

4. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he.

5. But when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of these
three men, he became angry.

6. Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite answered:

I am young in years and you are aged. Therefore, I was timid and
afraid to declare my opinion to you.

7. I said, 'Let days speak and many years teach wisdom.'

8. But truly it is the spirit in a mortal; the breath of the Almighty that
makes for understanding.

9. It is not the old that are wise nor the aged that understand what is right.

10 Therefore I say, 'Listen to me, let me also declare my opinion.'

11. You see, I waited for your words, I listened for your wise sayings
while you searched out what to say.

12. I gave you my attention but there was in fact no one that rebutted Job,
no one among you that answered his words.

13. Yet do not say, 'We have found wisdom', God may vanquish him not a
human.

14. He has not directed his words against me and I will not answer him
with your speeches.

15. They are dismayed. They answer no more. They have not a word to
say.

16. And am I to wait because they do not speak because they stand there
and answer no more?

17. I too will give my answer. I also will declare my opinion.

18. For I am full of words. The spirit within constrains me.

19. My heart is indeed like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins, it is
ready to burst.

20. I must speak so that I may find relief. I must open my lips and answer.

21 I will not show partiality to any person or use flattery toward anyone.

22. For I do not know how to flatter. If I did, my Maker would soon put
an end to me!

Chapter 33

Elihu Rebukes Job

1. But now hear my speech O Job and listen to all my words.

2. See I open my mouth, the tongue in my mouth speaks.

3. My words declare the uprightness of my heart and what my lips know
they speak sincerely.

4. The spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me
life.

5. Answer me, if you can set your words in order before me. Take your
stand.

6. See, before God I am as you are. I too was formed from a piece of
clay.

7. No fear of me need terrify you. My pressure will not be heavy on you.

8. Surely you have spoken in my hearing and I have heard the sound of
your words.

9. You say, I am clean, without transgression. I am pure and there is no
immorality in me.

10 Look, He finds occasions against me. He counts me as His enemy.

11. He puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths.

12. But in this you are not right. I will answer you. God is greater than
any mortal.

13. Why do you contend against Him saying, 'He will answer none of my
words?'

14. For God speaks in one way and in two, though people do not perceive
it.

15. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals
while they slumber on their beds,

16. then He opens their ears and terrifies them with warnings

17. that He may turn them aside from their deeds and keep them from
pride

18. in order to spare their souls from Hell, their lives from traversing the
River.

19. They are also chastened with pain upon their beds and with continual
strife in their bones

20. so that their lives loathe bread and their appetites dainty food.

21. Their flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen and their bones
once invisible now stick out.

22. Their souls draw near the Hell and their lives to those who bring death.

23. Then if there should be for one of them an angel, a mediator, one of a
thousand, one who declares a person upright

24. and he is gracious to that person and says deliver him from going
down into the Hell. I have found a ransom.

25. Let his flesh become fresh with youth. Let him return to the days of
his youthful vigor.

26. Then he prays to God and is accepted by Him. He comes into His
presence with joy and God repays him for his righteous.

27. That person sings to others and says I sinned and perverted what was
right and it was not paid back to me.

28. He has redeemed my soul from going down to Hell and my life shall
see the light.

29. God indeed does all these things twice, three times with mortals

30. in order to bring back their souls from the brink of Hell so that they
may see the light of life.

31. Pay heed Job. Listen to me. Be silent and I will speak.

32. If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak for I desire to justify
you.

33. If not, listen to me. Be silent and I will teach you wisdom."

Chapter 34

Elihu Proclaims God's Justice

1. Then Elihu continued and said:

2. Hear my words you wise men and give ear to me you who know.

3. For the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.

4. Let us choose what is right. Let us determine among ourselves what is
good.

5. For Job has said, 'I am innocent and God has taken away my right.'

6. In spite of being right, I am counted a liar. My wound is incurable
though I am without transgression.

7. Who is there like Job who drinks up scoffing like water,

8. who goes in company with evildoers and walks with the wicked?

9. For he has said, 'it profits one nothing to take delight in God.'

10 Therefore, hear me you who have sense far be it from God that He
should do wickedness and from the Almighty that He should do wrong.

11. For according to their deeds He will repay them and according to their
ways He will make it befall them.

12. Of a truth, God will not do wickedly and the Almighty will not pervert
justice.

13. Who gave Him charge over the earth and who laid on Him the whole
world?

14. If He should take back His spirit himself and gather to himself His
breath

15. all flesh would perish together and all mortals return to dust.

16. If you have understanding hear this, listen to what I say.

17. Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn one who is
righteous and mighty,

18. who says to a king, 'You scoundrel!', and to princes 'You wicked men':

19. who shows no partiality to nobles nor regards the rich more than the
poor for they are all the work of His hands?

20. In a moment, they die at midnight. The people are shaken and pass
away and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

21. For His eyes are upon the ways of mortals and He sees all their steps.

22. There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide
themselves.

23. For he had not appointed a time for anyone to go before God in
judgment.

24. He shatters the mighty without investigation and sets others in their
place.

25. Thus knowing their works He overturns them in the night and they are
crushed.

26. He strikes them for their wickedness while others look on.

27. Because they turned aside from following Him and had no regard for
any of His ways.

28. so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him and He heard
the cry of the afflicted.

29. When He is quiet, who can condemn? When He hides His face, who
can behold him?, whether it be a nation or an individual,

30. so that the godless should not reign or those who ensnare the people.

31. For has anyone said to God, 'I have endured punishment. I will not
offend any more.'

32. Teach me what I do not see. If I have done immorality, I will do it no
more.'

33. Will He then pay back to suit you because you reject it? For you must
choose and not I, therefore declare what you know.

34. Those who have sense will say to me and the wise who hear me will
say

35. Job speaks without knowledge. His words are without insight.

36. Would that Job were tried to the limit because his answers are those of
the wicked.

37. For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us and
multiplies his words against God.

Chapter 35

Elihu Condemns Self-Righteousness

1. Elihu continued and said:

2. Do you think this to be just? You say, 'I am in the right before God'.

3. If you ask, 'What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had
sinned?'

4. I will answer you and your friends with you.

5. Look at the heavens and see. Observe the clouds which are higher than
you.

6. If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him? And if your
transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?

7. If you are righteous, what do you give to Him or what does He receive
from your hand?

8. Your wickedness affects others like you; and your righteousness other
human beings.

9. Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out. They call for
help because of the arm of the mighty.

10. But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives strength in the
night,

11. who teaches us more than the animals of the earth and makes us wiser
than the birds of the air?'

12. There they cry out but He does not answer because of the pride of
evildoers.

13. Surely God does not hear an empty cry nor does the Almighty regard
it.

14. How much less when you say that you do not see Him that the case is
before Him and you are waiting for Him!

15. And now, because His anger does not punish and He does not greatly
heed transgression,

16. Job opens his mouth in empty talk. He multiplies words without
knowledge.

Chapter 36

Elihu Exalts God's Goodness

1. Elihu continued and said:

2. Bear with me a little bit longer and I will show you, for I have yet
something to say on God's behalf.

3. I will bring my knowledge from far away and ascribe righteousness to
my Maker.

4. For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is
with you.

5. Surely God is mighty and does not despise anyone. He is mighty in
strength of understanding.

6. He does not keep the wicked alive but gives the afflicted their right.

7. He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous but with kings on the
throne He sets them forever and they are exalted.

8. And if they are bound in fetters and caught in the cords of affliction,

9. then he declares to them their work and their transgressions that they
are behaving arrogantly.

10. He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from
immorality.

11. If they listen and serve Him, they complete their days in prosperity and
their years in pleasantness.

12. But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword and die without
knowledge.

13. The godless in heart cherish anger. They do not cry for help when He
binds them.

14. They die in their youth and their lives end in shame.

15. He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears by
adversity.

16. He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was
no constraint and what was set on your table was full of fatness.

17. But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked. Judgment and
justice seize you.

18. Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing and do not let the
greatness of the ransom turn you aside.

19. Will your cry avail to keep you from distress or will all the force of
your strength?

20. Do not long for the night when people are cut off in their place.

21. Beware! Do not turn to immorality because of that you have been
tried by affliction.

22. See, God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him?

23. Who has prescribed for Him His way or who can say, you have done
wrong?

Elihu Proclaims God's Majesty

24. Remember to extol His work of which mortals have sung.

25. All people have looked on it. Everyone watches it from far away.

26. Surely God is great and we do not know Him. The number of His
years is beyond contemplation.

27. For He draws up the drops of water. He distills His mist into rain

28. which the skies pour down and drop upon mortals abundantly.

29. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds or the thunderings
of His pavilion?

30. See He scatters His lightening around Him and covers the roots of the
sea.

31. For by these, He governs people. He gives food in abundance.

32. He covers His hands with the lightening and commands it to strike the
mark.

33. Its crashing tells about Him. He is jealous with anger against
immorality.

Chapter 37

Elihu Proclaims God's Majesty (continued)

1. At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place.

2. Listen to the thunder of His voice and the rumblings that comes from
His mouth.

3. Under the whole heaven, He lets it loose and His lightening to the
corners of the earth.

4. After it His voice roars. He thunders with His majestic voice and He
does not restrain the lightening when His voice is heard.

5. God thunders wondrously with His voice. He does great things that we
cannot comprehend.

6. For to the snow He says fall on the earth and the shower of rain, His
heavy shower of rain,

7. serves as a sign on everyone's hand so that all whom He has made may
know it.

8. Then the animals go into their lairs and remain in their dens.

9. From its chamber comes the whirlwind and cold from the scattering
winds.

10. By the breath of God, ice is formed and the broad waters are frozen
fast.

11. He loads the thick cloud with moisture and the clouds scatter his
lightning.

12. They turn round and round by his guidance to accomplish all that He
commands them on the face of the world.

13. Whether for correction or for land or for love, He causes it to happen.

14. Hear this O Job. Stop and consider the wondrous works of God.

15. Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the
lightning of His cloud to shine?

16. Do you know the balancing of the clouds? the wondrous works of the
One whose knowledge is perfect?

17. You whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the
south wind?

18. Can you, like Him, spread out the skies hard as a molten mirror?

19. Teach us what we shall say to Him. We cannot draw up our case
because of darkness.

20. Should He be told that I want to speak? Did anyone ever wish to be
swallowed up?

21. Now, no one can look on the light when it is bright in the skies when
the wind has passed and cleared them.

22. Out of the north comes golden splendor. Around God is awesome
majesty.

23. The Almighty we cannot find Him. He is great in power and justice
and abundant righteousness He will not violate.

24. Therefore mortals love Him. He does not regard any who are wise in
their own conceit.

Chapter 38

The Lord Answers Job

1. Then the Lord answered Job out of the Whirlwind:

2. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

3. Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you and you will answer
me.

4. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you
have this information?

5. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who
stretched the line upon it?

6. On what were its bases sunk? Who laid its cornerstone

7. When the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings
shouted for joy?

8. Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?

9. When I make the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling
band

10. and prescribed bounds for it and set bars and doors

11. and said, 'Thus far shall you come and no farther. And here shall your
proud waves be stopped?'

12. Have you commanded the morning since your days began or caused
the dawn to know its place

13. so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be
shaken out of it?

14. It is changed like clay under the seal and it is dyed like a garment.

15. Light is withheld from the wicked and their uplifted arm is broken.

16. Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses
of the deep?

17. Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the
gates of deep darkness?

18. Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Say so if you know
all this!

19. Where is the way to the dwelling of light and where is the place of
darkness

20. that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths
to its home?

21. Surely you know for you were born then and the number of your days
is great!

22. Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or have you seen the
storehouses of the hail

23. which I have reserved for the time of trouble; for the day of battle and
war?

24. What is the way to the place where the light is distributed or where the
east wind is scattered upon the earth?

25. Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the
thunderbolt

26 to bring rain on a land where no one lives; on the desert which is empty
of human life

27. to satisfy the waste and desolate land and to make the ground put forth
grass?

28. Has the rain a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew?

29. From whose womb did the ice come forth and who has given birth to
the hoarfrost of heaven?

30. The waters become hard like stone and the face of the deep is frozen.

31. Can you bind the chains of Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?

32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season or can you guide the
Bear with its children?

33. Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their
rule on the earth?

34. Can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that a flood of waters may
cover you?

35 Can you send forth lightnings so that they may go and say to you, 'Here
we are?'

36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the
mind?

37. Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the
water skins of the heavens

38. when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together?

39. Can you hunt the prey for the lion or satisfy the appetite of the young
lions

40. when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their sanctuary?

41. Who provides the raven its prey when its young ones cry to God and
wander about for lack of food?"

Chapter 39

The Lord Answers (continued)

1. Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe
the calving of the deer?

2. Can you number the months that they fulfill and do you know the time
when they give birth

3. when they crouch to give birth to their offspring and are delivered of
their young?

4. Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open. They go
forth and do not return them.

5. Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the
swift ass

6. to which I have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its
dwelling place?

7. It scorns the tumult of the city it does not hear the shouts of the driver.

8. It ranges the mountains as its pasture and it searches after every green
thing.

9. Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night at your crib?

10. Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes or will it harrow the valleys
after you?

11. Will you depend on it because its strength is great and will you hand
over your labor to it?

12. Do you have faith in it that it will return and bring your grain to your
threshing floor?

13. The ostrich's wings flap wildly though its pinions lack plumage.

14. It leaves its eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground

15. forgetting that a foot may crush them or that a wild animal may
trample them.

16. It deals cruelly with its young as if they were not its own though its
labor should be in vain yet it has no fear

17. because God has made it forget wisdom and given it no share in
understanding.

18. When it spreads its plumes aloft it laughs at the horse and its rider.

19 Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane?

20. Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible.

21. It paws violently and exults mightily. It goes out to meet the weapons.

22 It laughs at fear and is not dismayed. It does not turn back from the
sword.

23. Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing spear and the javelin.

24 With fierceness and rage it traverses the ground. It cannot stand still at
the sound of the trumpet.

25. When the trumpet sounds it says Aha! From a distance it smells the
battle, the thunder of the captains and the shouting.

26. Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars and spreads its wings toward
the south?

27. Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on
high?

28. It lives on the rock and makes it home in the fastness of the rocky
crag.

29. From there it spies the prey. Its eyes see it from far away.

30. Its young ones suck up blood and where the slain are, there it is.

Chapter 40

The Lord Answers (continued)

1. Then the Lord said to Job,

2. Shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? Anyone who argues
with God must respond.


Job's Response To God

3. Then Job answered the Lord:

4. See I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on
my mouth.

5. I have spoken once and I will not answer twice but will proceed no
further.


God's Challenge To Job

6. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

7. Gird up you loins like a man. I will question you and you answer me.

8. Will you ever put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may
be justified?

9. Have you an arm like God and can you thunder with a voice like His?

10. Deck yourself with majesty and dignity, clothe yourself with glory and
splendor.

11. Pour out the overflowing of your anger and look on all who are proud
and abase them.

12. Look on all who are proud and bring them low. Tread down the
wicked where they stand.

13. Hide them all in the dust together. Bind their faces in the world below.

14. Then I will also acknowledge you that your own right hand can give
you victory.

15. Look at the Behemoth which I made just as I made you. It eats grass
like an ox.

16. Its strength is in its loins and its power in the muscles of its belly.

17. It makes its tail stiff like cedar. The sinews of its thighs are knit
together.

18. Its bones are tubes of bronze. Its limbs like bars of iron.

19 It is the first of the great acts of God only its Maker can approach it
with the sword.

20. For the mountains yield food for it where all the wild animals play.

21 Under the lotus plants it lies in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.

22 The lotus trees cover it for shade the willows of the wadi surround it.

23 Even if the river is turbulent it is not frightened it is confident though
the Jordan rushes against its mouth.

24. Can one take it with hooks or pierce its nose with a snare?

Chapter 41

God's Challenge to Job (continued)

1. Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down its tongue
with a cord?

2. Can you put a rope in its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?

3. Will it make many supplications to you? Will it speak soft words to
you?

4. Will it make a covenant with you to be taken as your servant forever?

5. Will you play with it as with a bird or will you put it on a leash for your
girls?

6. Will traders bargain over it? Will they divide it up among the
merchants?

7. Can you fill its skin with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?

8. Lay hands on it. Think of the battle. You will not do it again!

9. Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed. Were not even the gods
overwhelmed at the sight of it?

10 No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up. Who can stand before it?

11. Who can confront it and be safe? Under the whole heaven, who?

12. I will not keep silence concerning its limbs or its mighty strength or its
splendid frame.

13. Who can strip off its outer garment? Who can penetrate its double
coat of mail?

14. Who can open the doors of its face? There is terror all around its
teeth.

15. Its back is made of shields in rows shut up closely as with a seal.

16. One is so near to another that no air can come between them.

17 They are joined one to another. They clasp each other and cannot be
separated.

18 Its sneezes flash forth light and its eyes are like the eyelid of the dawn.

19. From its mouth go flaming torches sparks of fire leap out.

20 Out of its nostrils comes smoke as from a boiling pot and burning
rushes.

21 Its breath kindles coals and a flame comes out of its mouth.

22 In its neck abides strength and terror dances before it.

23 The folds of its flesh cling together. It is firmly cast and immovable.

24 Its heart is as hard as stone; as hard as the lower millstone.

25 When it raises itself up, the gods are afraid at the crashing. They are
beside themselves.

26 Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail; nor does the spear the
dart or the javelin.

27. It counts iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.

28 The arrow cannot make it flee. Slingstones for it are turned to chaff.

29 Clubs are counted as chaff. It laughs at the rattle of javelins.

30. Its underparts are like sharp potsherds. It spreads itself like a
threshing sledge on the mire.

31 It makes the deep boil like a pot. It makes the sea like a pot of
ointment.

32 It leaves a shining wake behind it. One would think the deep to be
white-haired.

33 On earth it has no equal. It is a creature without fear.

34 It surveys everything that is lofty. It is king over all that are proud.

Chapter 42

Job Is Humbled And Satisfied

1. Then Job answered the Lord:

2. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be
thwarted.

3. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have
uttered what I did not understand; things too wonderful for me which I did
not know.

4. Hear me. I questioned you and you answered me.

5. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eyes see you.

6. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

HOME