# Job Corpus: World English Bible Language: English Script: Latin Edition: World English Bible, 2020 stable text edition Source: https://ebible.org/eng-web/index.htm License: https://ebible.org/eng-web/copyright.htm ## Chapters - [Chapter 1](/texts/bible/en/web/job/001.md) (22 verses) - [Chapter 2](/texts/bible/en/web/job/002.md) (13 verses) - [Chapter 3](/texts/bible/en/web/job/003.md) (26 verses) - [Chapter 4](/texts/bible/en/web/job/004.md) (21 verses) - [Chapter 5](/texts/bible/en/web/job/005.md) (27 verses) - [Chapter 6](/texts/bible/en/web/job/006.md) (30 verses) - [Chapter 7](/texts/bible/en/web/job/007.md) (21 verses) - [Chapter 8](/texts/bible/en/web/job/008.md) (22 verses) - [Chapter 9](/texts/bible/en/web/job/009.md) (35 verses) - [Chapter 10](/texts/bible/en/web/job/010.md) (22 verses) - [Chapter 11](/texts/bible/en/web/job/011.md) (20 verses) - [Chapter 12](/texts/bible/en/web/job/012.md) (25 verses) - [Chapter 13](/texts/bible/en/web/job/013.md) (28 verses) - [Chapter 14](/texts/bible/en/web/job/014.md) (22 verses) - [Chapter 15](/texts/bible/en/web/job/015.md) (35 verses) - [Chapter 16](/texts/bible/en/web/job/016.md) (22 verses) - [Chapter 17](/texts/bible/en/web/job/017.md) (16 verses) - [Chapter 18](/texts/bible/en/web/job/018.md) (21 verses) - [Chapter 19](/texts/bible/en/web/job/019.md) (29 verses) - [Chapter 20](/texts/bible/en/web/job/020.md) (29 verses) - [Chapter 21](/texts/bible/en/web/job/021.md) (34 verses) - [Chapter 22](/texts/bible/en/web/job/022.md) (30 verses) - [Chapter 23](/texts/bible/en/web/job/023.md) (17 verses) - [Chapter 24](/texts/bible/en/web/job/024.md) (25 verses) - [Chapter 25](/texts/bible/en/web/job/025.md) (6 verses) - [Chapter 26](/texts/bible/en/web/job/026.md) (14 verses) - [Chapter 27](/texts/bible/en/web/job/027.md) (23 verses) - [Chapter 28](/texts/bible/en/web/job/028.md) (28 verses) - [Chapter 29](/texts/bible/en/web/job/029.md) (25 verses) - [Chapter 30](/texts/bible/en/web/job/030.md) (31 verses) - [Chapter 31](/texts/bible/en/web/job/031.md) (40 verses) - [Chapter 32](/texts/bible/en/web/job/032.md) (22 verses) - [Chapter 33](/texts/bible/en/web/job/033.md) (33 verses) - [Chapter 34](/texts/bible/en/web/job/034.md) (37 verses) - [Chapter 35](/texts/bible/en/web/job/035.md) (16 verses) - [Chapter 36](/texts/bible/en/web/job/036.md) (33 verses) - [Chapter 37](/texts/bible/en/web/job/037.md) (24 verses) - [Chapter 38](/texts/bible/en/web/job/038.md) (41 verses) - [Chapter 39](/texts/bible/en/web/job/039.md) (30 verses) - [Chapter 40](/texts/bible/en/web/job/040.md) (24 verses) - [Chapter 41](/texts/bible/en/web/job/041.md) (34 verses) - [Chapter 42](/texts/bible/en/web/job/042.md) (17 verses) ## Chapter 1 ### Verse 1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. ### Verse 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. ### Verse 3 His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east. ### Verse 4 His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. ### Verse 5 It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually. ### Verse 6 Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. ### Verse 7 Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” ### Verse 8 Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.” ### Verse 9 Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ### Verse 10 Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. ### Verse 11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.” ### Verse 12 Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh. ### Verse 13 It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ### Verse 14 that a messenger came to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, ### Verse 15 and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ### Verse 16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ### Verse 17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ### Verse 18 While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ### Verse 19 and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.” ### Verse 20 Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped. ### Verse 21 He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.” ### Verse 22 In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing. ## Chapter 2 ### Verse 1 Again, on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh. ### Verse 2 Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” ### Verse 3 Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.” ### Verse 4 Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. ### Verse 5 But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.” ### Verse 6 Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.” ### Verse 7 So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. ### Verse 8 He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. ### Verse 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.” ### Verse 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips. ### Verse 11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. ### Verse 12 When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. ### Verse 13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. ## Chapter 3 ### Verse 1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. ### Verse 2 Job answered: ### Verse 3 “Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’ ### Verse 4 Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it. ### Verse 5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the day black terrify it. ### Verse 6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months. ### Verse 7 Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein. ### Verse 8 Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan. ### Verse 9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning, ### Verse 10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes. ### Verse 11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me? ### Verse 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse? ### Verse 13 For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest, ### Verse 14 with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves; ### Verse 15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver; ### Verse 16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light. ### Verse 17 There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest. ### Verse 18 There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster. ### Verse 19 The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master. ### Verse 20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul, ### Verse 21 who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, ### Verse 22 who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave? ### Verse 23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? ### Verse 24 For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water. ### Verse 25 For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me. ### Verse 26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.” ## Chapter 4 ### Verse 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, ### Verse 2 “If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking? ### Verse 3 Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands. ### Verse 4 Your words have supported him who was falling, you have made the feeble knees firm. ### Verse 5 But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled. ### Verse 6 Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope? ### Verse 7 “Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off? ### Verse 8 According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same. ### Verse 9 By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed. ### Verse 10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. ### Verse 11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad. ### Verse 12 “Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it. ### Verse 13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, ### Verse 14 fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. ### Verse 15 Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up. ### Verse 16 It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying, ### Verse 17 ‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? ### Verse 18 Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error. ### Verse 19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth! ### Verse 20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it. ### Verse 21 Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’ ## Chapter 5 ### Verse 1 “Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? ### Verse 2 For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple. ### Verse 3 I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation. ### Verse 4 His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them, ### Verse 5 whose harvest the hungry eat up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance. ### Verse 6 For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground; ### Verse 7 but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. ### Verse 8 “But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God, ### Verse 9 who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number; ### Verse 10 who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields; ### Verse 11 so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety. ### Verse 12 He frustrates the plans of the crafty, so that their hands can’t perform their enterprise. ### Verse 13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong. ### Verse 14 They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night. ### Verse 15 But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty. ### Verse 16 So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth. ### Verse 17 “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. ### Verse 18 For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole. ### Verse 19 He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you. ### Verse 20 In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword. ### Verse 21 You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes. ### Verse 22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth. ### Verse 23 For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you. ### Verse 24 You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing. ### Verse 25 You will know also that your offspring will be great, your offspring as the grass of the earth. ### Verse 26 You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season. ### Verse 27 Behold, we have researched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.” ## Chapter 6 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered, ### Verse 2 “Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! ### Verse 3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore my words have been rash. ### Verse 4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me. ### Verse 5 Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder? ### Verse 6 Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? ### Verse 7 My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me. ### Verse 8 “Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for, ### Verse 9 even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! ### Verse 10 Let it still be my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One. ### Verse 11 What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient? ### Verse 12 Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of bronze? ### Verse 13 Isn’t it that I have no help in me, that wisdom is driven away from me? ### Verse 14 “To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty. ### Verse 15 My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away; ### Verse 16 which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself. ### Verse 17 In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. ### Verse 18 The caravans that travel beside them turn away. They go up into the waste, and perish. ### Verse 19 The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them. ### Verse 20 They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded. ### Verse 21 For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid. ### Verse 22 Did I ever say, ‘Give to me’? or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance’? ### Verse 23 or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors’? ### Verse 24 “Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand my error. ### Verse 25 How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove? ### Verse 26 Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind? ### Verse 27 Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend. ### Verse 28 Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I will not lie to your face. ### Verse 29 Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous. ### Verse 30 Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things? ## Chapter 7 ### Verse 1 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand? ### Verse 2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages, ### Verse 3 so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me. ### Verse 4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day. ### Verse 5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh. ### Verse 6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. ### Verse 7 Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good. ### Verse 8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be. ### Verse 9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more. ### Verse 10 He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more. ### Verse 11 “Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ### Verse 12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me? ### Verse 13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’ ### Verse 14 then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions, ### Verse 15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones. ### Verse 16 I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. ### Verse 17 What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him, ### Verse 18 that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment? ### Verse 19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle? ### Verse 20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself? ### Verse 21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.” ## Chapter 8 ### Verse 1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, ### Verse 2 “How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind? ### Verse 3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness? ### Verse 4 If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience. ### Verse 5 If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty. ### Verse 6 If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous. ### Verse 7 Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase. ### Verse 8 “Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers. ### Verse 9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.) ### Verse 10 Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart? ### Verse 11 “Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water? ### Verse 12 While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed. ### Verse 13 So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish, ### Verse 14 whose confidence will break apart, whose trust is a spider’s web. ### Verse 15 He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will cling to it, but it will not endure. ### Verse 16 He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden. ### Verse 17 His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones. ### Verse 18 If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’ ### Verse 19 Behold, this is the joy of his way. Out of the earth, others will spring. ### Verse 20 “Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers. ### Verse 21 He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting. ### Verse 22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.” ## Chapter 9 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered, ### Verse 2 “Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God? ### Verse 3 If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand. ### Verse 4 God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered? ### Verse 5 He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger. ### Verse 6 He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble. ### Verse 7 He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars. ### Verse 8 He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea. ### Verse 9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south. ### Verse 10 He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number. ### Verse 11 Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him. ### Verse 12 Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ ### Verse 13 “God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him. ### Verse 14 How much less will I answer him, and choose my words to argue with him? ### Verse 15 Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge. ### Verse 16 If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice. ### Verse 17 For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause. ### Verse 18 He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness. ### Verse 19 If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’ ### Verse 20 Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse. ### Verse 21 I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life. ### Verse 22 “It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked. ### Verse 23 If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent. ### Verse 24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it? ### Verse 25 “Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good. ### Verse 26 They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey. ### Verse 27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up,’ ### Verse 28 I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me innocent. ### Verse 29 I will be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain? ### Verse 30 If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, ### Verse 31 yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me. ### Verse 32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment. ### Verse 33 There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both. ### Verse 34 Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid; ### Verse 35 then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself. ## Chapter 10 ### Verse 1 “My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. ### Verse 2 I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. ### Verse 3 Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked? ### Verse 4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees? ### Verse 5 Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years, ### Verse 6 that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin? ### Verse 7 Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand. ### Verse 8 “‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me. ### Verse 9 Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again? ### Verse 10 Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese? ### Verse 11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. ### Verse 12 You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit. ### Verse 13 Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you: ### Verse 14 if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity. ### Verse 15 If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction. ### Verse 16 If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me. ### Verse 17 You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me. ### Verse 18 “‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me. ### Verse 19 I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. ### Verse 20 Aren’t my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, ### Verse 21 before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death; ### Verse 22 the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’” ## Chapter 11 ### Verse 1 Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered, ### Verse 2 “Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified? ### Verse 3 Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, will no man make you ashamed? ### Verse 4 For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’ ### Verse 5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you, ### Verse 6 that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves. ### Verse 7 “Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty? ### Verse 8 They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know? ### Verse 9 Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. ### Verse 10 If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him? ### Verse 11 For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it. ### Verse 12 An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt. ### Verse 13 “If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him. ### Verse 14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents. ### Verse 15 Surely then you will lift up your face without spot. Yes, you will be steadfast, and will not fear, ### Verse 16 for you will forget your misery. You will remember it like waters that have passed away. ### Verse 17 Life will be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it will be as the morning. ### Verse 18 You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety. ### Verse 19 Also you will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. Yes, many will court your favor. ### Verse 20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.” ## Chapter 12 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered, ### Verse 2 “No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. ### Verse 3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? ### Verse 4 I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. ### Verse 5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. ### Verse 6 The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands. ### Verse 7 “But ask the animals now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. ### Verse 8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you. ### Verse 9 Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this, ### Verse 10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? ### Verse 11 Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? ### Verse 12 With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. ### Verse 13 “With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. ### Verse 14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ### Verse 15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. ### Verse 16 With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. ### Verse 17 He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. ### Verse 18 He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. ### Verse 19 He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. ### Verse 20 He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. ### Verse 21 He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. ### Verse 22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. ### Verse 23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. ### Verse 24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. ### Verse 25 They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man. ## Chapter 13 ### Verse 1 “Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it. ### Verse 2 What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you. ### Verse 3 “Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God. ### Verse 4 But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value. ### Verse 5 Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise. ### Verse 6 Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips. ### Verse 7 Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him? ### Verse 8 Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God? ### Verse 9 Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him? ### Verse 10 He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality. ### Verse 11 Won’t his majesty make you afraid and his dread fall on you? ### Verse 12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay. ### Verse 13 “Be silent! Leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will. ### Verse 14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand? ### Verse 15 Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him. ### Verse 16 This also will be my salvation, that a godless man will not come before him. ### Verse 17 Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears. ### Verse 18 See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous. ### Verse 19 Who is he who will contend with me? For then I would hold my peace and give up the spirit. ### Verse 20 “Only don’t do two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face: ### Verse 21 withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid. ### Verse 22 Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me. ### Verse 23 How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin. ### Verse 24 Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy? ### Verse 25 Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble? ### Verse 26 For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. ### Verse 27 You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet, ### Verse 28 though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten. ## Chapter 14 ### Verse 1 “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. ### Verse 2 He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue. ### Verse 3 Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you? ### Verse 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. ### Verse 5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass. ### Verse 6 Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day. ### Verse 7 “For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease. ### Verse 8 Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground, ### Verse 9 yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant. ### Verse 10 But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he? ### Verse 11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up, ### Verse 12 so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep. ### Verse 13 “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me! ### Verse 14 If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come. ### Verse 15 You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands. ### Verse 16 But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin? ### Verse 17 My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity. ### Verse 18 “But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place. ### Verse 19 The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man. ### Verse 20 You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away. ### Verse 21 His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them. ### Verse 22 But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.” ## Chapter 15 ### Verse 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, ### Verse 2 “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? ### Verse 3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good? ### Verse 4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God. ### Verse 5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty. ### Verse 6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you. ### Verse 7 “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills? ### Verse 8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? ### Verse 9 What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us? ### Verse 10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father. ### Verse 11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you? ### Verse 12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash, ### Verse 13 that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? ### Verse 14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? ### Verse 15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; ### Verse 16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water! ### Verse 17 “I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare ### Verse 18 (which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it; ### Verse 19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them): ### Verse 20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor. ### Verse 21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him. ### Verse 22 He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword. ### Verse 23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. ### Verse 24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. ### Verse 25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty, ### Verse 26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers, ### Verse 27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs. ### Verse 28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps. ### Verse 29 He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth. ### Verse 30 He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth. ### Verse 31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward. ### Verse 32 It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green. ### Verse 33 He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree. ### Verse 34 For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery. ### Verse 35 They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.” ## Chapter 16 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered, ### Verse 2 “I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters! ### Verse 3 Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? ### Verse 4 I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you, ### Verse 5 but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you. ### Verse 6 “Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased? ### Verse 7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate. ### Verse 8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face. ### Verse 9 He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me. ### Verse 10 They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me. ### Verse 11 God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. ### Verse 12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target. ### Verse 13 His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my bile on the ground. ### Verse 14 He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant. ### Verse 15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust. ### Verse 16 My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids, ### Verse 17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. ### Verse 18 “Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest. ### Verse 19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high. ### Verse 20 My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God, ### Verse 21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor! ### Verse 22 For when a few years have come, I will go the way of no return. ## Chapter 17 ### Verse 1 “My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me. ### Verse 2 Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation. ### Verse 3 “Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me? ### Verse 4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore you will not exalt them. ### Verse 5 He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail. ### Verse 6 “But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face. ### Verse 7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow. ### Verse 8 Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless. ### Verse 9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. ### Verse 10 But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man among you. ### Verse 11 My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart. ### Verse 12 They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness. ### Verse 13 If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, ### Verse 14 if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ ### Verse 15 where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it? ### Verse 16 Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?” ## Chapter 18 ### Verse 1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, ### Verse 2 “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak. ### Verse 3 Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight? ### Verse 4 You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place? ### Verse 5 “Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out. The spark of his fire won’t shine. ### Verse 6 The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out. ### Verse 7 The steps of his strength will be shortened. His own counsel will cast him down. ### Verse 8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh. ### Verse 9 A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him. ### Verse 10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path. ### Verse 11 Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels. ### Verse 12 His strength will be famished. Calamity will be ready at his side. ### Verse 13 The members of his body will be devoured. The firstborn of death will devour his members. ### Verse 14 He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors. ### Verse 15 There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation. ### Verse 16 His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above. ### Verse 17 His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street. ### Verse 18 He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. ### Verse 19 He will have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived. ### Verse 20 Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened. ### Verse 21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.” ## Chapter 19 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered, ### Verse 2 “How long will you torment me, and crush me with words? ### Verse 3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me. ### Verse 4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself. ### Verse 5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach, ### Verse 6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net. ### Verse 7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice. ### Verse 8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths. ### Verse 9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. ### Verse 10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree. ### Verse 11 He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries. ### Verse 12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent. ### Verse 13 “He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. ### Verse 14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me. ### Verse 15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight. ### Verse 16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth. ### Verse 17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother. ### Verse 18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me. ### Verse 19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me. ### Verse 20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. ### Verse 21 “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me. ### Verse 22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? ### Verse 23 “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! ### Verse 24 That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! ### Verse 25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. ### Verse 26 After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh, ### Verse 27 whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me. ### Verse 28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me, ### Verse 29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.” ## Chapter 20 ### Verse 1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered, ### Verse 2 “Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me. ### Verse 3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me. ### Verse 4 Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth, ### Verse 5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment? ### Verse 6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, ### Verse 7 yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ ### Verse 8 He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night. ### Verse 9 The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more. ### Verse 10 His children will seek the favor of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth. ### Verse 11 His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust. ### Verse 12 “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, ### Verse 13 though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth, ### Verse 14 yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him. ### Verse 15 He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly. ### Verse 16 He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him. ### Verse 17 He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter. ### Verse 18 He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten. ### Verse 19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up. ### Verse 20 “Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights. ### Verse 21 There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure. ### Verse 22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him. ### Verse 23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. ### Verse 24 He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through. ### Verse 25 He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. ### Verse 26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent. ### Verse 27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him. ### Verse 28 The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath. ### Verse 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.” ## Chapter 21 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered, ### Verse 2 “Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation. ### Verse 3 Allow me, and I also will speak. After I have spoken, mock on. ### Verse 4 As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient? ### Verse 5 Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth. ### Verse 6 When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh. ### Verse 7 “Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? ### Verse 8 Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes. ### Verse 9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. ### Verse 10 Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry. ### Verse 11 They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance. ### Verse 12 They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. ### Verse 13 They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol. ### Verse 14 They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways. ### Verse 15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’ ### Verse 16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me. ### Verse 17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger? ### Verse 18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away? ### Verse 19 You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it. ### Verse 20 Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. ### Verse 21 For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off? ### Verse 22 “Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high? ### Verse 23 One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. ### Verse 24 His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened. ### Verse 25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good. ### Verse 26 They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them. ### Verse 27 “Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me. ### Verse 28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’ ### Verse 29 Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences, ### Verse 30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, that they are led out to the day of wrath? ### Verse 31 Who will declare his way to his face? Who will repay him what he has done? ### Verse 32 Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men will keep watch over the tomb. ### Verse 33 The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. All men will draw after him, as there were innumerable before him. ### Verse 34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?” ## Chapter 22 ### Verse 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, ### Verse 2 “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. ### Verse 3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect? ### Verse 4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment? ### Verse 5 Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities. ### Verse 6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. ### Verse 7 You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. ### Verse 8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. ### Verse 9 You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. ### Verse 10 Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you, ### Verse 11 or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you. ### Verse 12 “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are! ### Verse 13 You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness? ### Verse 14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’ ### Verse 15 Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden, ### Verse 16 who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream, ### Verse 17 who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’ ### Verse 18 Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. ### Verse 19 The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them, ### Verse 20 saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’ ### Verse 21 “Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you. ### Verse 22 Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. ### Verse 23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents. ### Verse 24 Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. ### Verse 25 The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you. ### Verse 26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God. ### Verse 27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows. ### Verse 28 You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways. ### Verse 29 When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person. ### Verse 30 He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” ## Chapter 23 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered, ### Verse 2 “Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. ### Verse 3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! ### Verse 4 I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. ### Verse 5 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me. ### Verse 6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me. ### Verse 7 There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge. ### Verse 8 “If I go east, he is not there. If I go west, I can’t find him. ### Verse 9 He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him. ### Verse 10 But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I will come out like gold. ### Verse 11 My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned away. ### Verse 12 I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. ### Verse 13 But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does. ### Verse 14 For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him. ### Verse 15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him. ### Verse 16 For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me. ### Verse 17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face. ## Chapter 24 ### Verse 1 “Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days? ### Verse 2 There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them. ### Verse 3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. ### Verse 4 They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves. ### Verse 5 Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children. ### Verse 6 They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked. ### Verse 7 They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. ### Verse 8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter. ### Verse 9 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor, ### Verse 10 so that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves. ### Verse 11 They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst. ### Verse 12 From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly. ### Verse 13 “These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths. ### Verse 14 The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief. ### Verse 15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face. ### Verse 16 In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light. ### Verse 17 For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness. ### Verse 18 “They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards. ### Verse 19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned. ### Verse 20 The womb will forget him. The worm will feed sweetly on him. He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree. ### Verse 21 He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow. ### Verse 22 Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life. ### Verse 23 God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways. ### Verse 24 They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain. ### Verse 25 If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?” ## Chapter 25 ### Verse 1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, ### Verse 2 “Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places. ### Verse 3 Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise? ### Verse 4 How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean? ### Verse 5 Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight; ### Verse 6 How much less man, who is a worm, and the son of man, who is a worm!” ## Chapter 26 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered, ### Verse 2 “How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength! ### Verse 3 How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge! ### Verse 4 To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came out of you? ### Verse 5 “The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them. ### Verse 6 Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering. ### Verse 7 He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing. ### Verse 8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them. ### Verse 9 He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it. ### Verse 10 He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness. ### Verse 11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke. ### Verse 12 He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab. ### Verse 13 By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent. ### Verse 14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?” ## Chapter 27 ### Verse 1 Job again took up his parable, and said, ### Verse 2 “As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter ### Verse 3 (for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils); ### Verse 4 surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, neither will my tongue utter deceit. ### Verse 5 Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. ### Verse 6 I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live. ### Verse 7 “Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. ### Verse 8 For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? ### Verse 9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him? ### Verse 10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times? ### Verse 11 I will teach you about the hand of God. I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty. ### Verse 12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain? ### Verse 13 “This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty. ### Verse 14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread. ### Verse 15 Those who remain of him will be buried in death. His widows will make no lamentation. ### Verse 16 Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay; ### Verse 17 he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver. ### Verse 18 He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes. ### Verse 19 He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not. ### Verse 20 Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night. ### Verse 21 The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place. ### Verse 22 For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand. ### Verse 23 Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place. ## Chapter 28 ### Verse 1 “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine. ### Verse 2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore. ### Verse 3 Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness. ### Verse 4 He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth. ### Verse 5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. ### Verse 6 Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold. ### Verse 7 That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it. ### Verse 8 The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there. ### Verse 9 He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots. ### Verse 10 He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing. ### Verse 11 He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light. ### Verse 12 “But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? ### Verse 13 Man doesn’t know its price, and it isn’t found in the land of the living. ### Verse 14 The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’ ### Verse 15 It can’t be gotten for gold, neither will silver be weighed for its price. ### Verse 16 It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. ### Verse 17 Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. ### Verse 18 No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies. ### Verse 19 The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it. It won’t be valued with pure gold. ### Verse 20 Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding? ### Verse 21 Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky. ### Verse 22 Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ ### Verse 23 “God understands its way, and he knows its place. ### Verse 24 For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky. ### Verse 25 He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure. ### Verse 26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder, ### Verse 27 then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out. ### Verse 28 To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’” ## Chapter 29 ### Verse 1 Job again took up his parable, and said, ### Verse 2 “Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me; ### Verse 3 when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, ### Verse 4 as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was in my tent, ### Verse 5 when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me, ### Verse 6 when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me, ### Verse 7 when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street. ### Verse 8 The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood. ### Verse 9 The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. ### Verse 10 The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. ### Verse 11 For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me, ### Verse 12 because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him, ### Verse 13 the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. ### Verse 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem. ### Verse 15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. ### Verse 16 I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know. ### Verse 17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth. ### Verse 18 Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand. ### Verse 19 My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch. ### Verse 20 My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’ ### Verse 21 “Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel. ### Verse 22 After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them. ### Verse 23 They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain. ### Verse 24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face. ### Verse 25 I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners. ## Chapter 30 ### Verse 1 “But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs. ### Verse 2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished? ### Verse 3 They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. ### Verse 4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food. ### Verse 5 They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief, ### Verse 6 so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks. ### Verse 7 They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles. ### Verse 8 They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land. ### Verse 9 “Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them. ### Verse 10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face. ### Verse 11 For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me. ### Verse 12 On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet. They cast their ways of destruction up against me. ### Verse 13 They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help. ### Verse 14 As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin. ### Verse 15 Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud. ### Verse 16 “Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me. ### Verse 17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest. ### Verse 18 My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic. ### Verse 19 He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes. ### Verse 20 I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me. ### Verse 21 You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me. ### Verse 22 You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm. ### Verse 23 For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living. ### Verse 24 “However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? ### Verse 25 Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy? ### Verse 26 When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came. ### Verse 27 My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me. ### Verse 28 I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help. ### Verse 29 I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. ### Verse 30 My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat. ### Verse 31 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep. ## Chapter 31 ### Verse 1 “I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? ### Verse 2 For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high? ### Verse 3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity? ### Verse 4 Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps? ### Verse 5 “If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit ### Verse 6 (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity); ### Verse 7 if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands, ### Verse 8 then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out. ### Verse 9 “If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, ### Verse 10 then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her. ### Verse 11 For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, ### Verse 12 for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase. ### Verse 13 “If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, ### Verse 14 what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? ### Verse 15 Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb? ### Verse 16 “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, ### Verse 17 or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it ### Verse 18 (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); ### Verse 19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; ### Verse 20 if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; ### Verse 21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate; ### Verse 22 then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone. ### Verse 23 For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing. ### Verse 24 “If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’ ### Verse 25 If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; ### Verse 26 if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor, ### Verse 27 and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth; ### Verse 28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have denied the God who is above. ### Verse 29 “If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him ### Verse 30 (I have certainly not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse); ### Verse 31 if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’ ### Verse 32 (the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler); ### Verse 33 if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart, ### Verse 34 because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door— ### Verse 35 oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment! ### Verse 36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and I would bind it to me as a crown. ### Verse 37 I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him like a prince. ### Verse 38 If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; ### Verse 39 if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life, ### Verse 40 let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended. ## Chapter 32 ### Verse 1 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ### Verse 2 Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God. ### Verse 3 Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. ### Verse 4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he. ### Verse 5 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled. ### Verse 6 Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, “I am young, and you are very old. Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion. ### Verse 7 I said, ‘Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’ ### Verse 8 But there is a spirit in man, and the Spirit of the Almighty gives them understanding. ### Verse 9 It is not the great who are wise, nor the aged who understand justice. ### Verse 10 Therefore I said, ‘Listen to me; I also will show my opinion.’ ### Verse 11 “Behold, I waited for your words, and I listened for your reasoning, while you searched out what to say. ### Verse 12 Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who convinced Job, or who answered his words, among you. ### Verse 13 Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom. God may refute him, not man;’ ### Verse 14 for he has not directed his words against me; neither will I answer him with your speeches. ### Verse 15 “They are amazed. They answer no more. They don’t have a word to say. ### Verse 16 Shall I wait, because they don’t speak, because they stand still, and answer no more? ### Verse 17 I also will answer my part, and I also will show my opinion. ### Verse 18 For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me. ### Verse 19 Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst. ### Verse 20 I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer. ### Verse 21 Please don’t let me respect any man’s person, neither will I give flattering titles to any man. ### Verse 22 For I don’t know how to give flattering titles, or else my Maker would soon take me away. ## Chapter 33 ### Verse 1 “However, Job, please hear my speech, and listen to all my words. ### Verse 2 See now, I have opened my mouth. My tongue has spoken in my mouth. ### Verse 3 My words will utter the uprightness of my heart. That which my lips know they will speak sincerely. ### Verse 4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ### Verse 5 If you can, answer me. Set your words in order before me, and stand up. ### Verse 6 Behold, I am toward God even as you are. I am also formed out of the clay. ### Verse 7 Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you. ### Verse 8 “Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I have heard the voice of your words, saying, ### Verse 9 ‘I am clean, without disobedience. I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me. ### Verse 10 Behold, he finds occasions against me. He counts me for his enemy. ### Verse 11 He puts my feet in the stocks. He marks all my paths.’ ### Verse 12 “Behold, I will answer you. In this you are not just, for God is greater than man. ### Verse 13 Why do you strive against him, because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters? ### Verse 14 For God speaks once, yes twice, though man pays no attention. ### Verse 15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbering on the bed, ### Verse 16 then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction, ### Verse 17 that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. ### Verse 18 He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. ### Verse 19 “He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones, ### Verse 20 so that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty food. ### Verse 21 His flesh is so consumed away that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out. ### Verse 22 Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers. ### Verse 23 “If there is beside him an angel, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him, ### Verse 24 then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’ ### Verse 25 His flesh will be fresher than a child’s. He returns to the days of his youth. ### Verse 26 He prays to God, and he is favorable to him, so that he sees his face with joy. He restores to man his righteousness. ### Verse 27 He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me. ### Verse 28 He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life will see the light.’ ### Verse 29 “Behold, God does all these things, twice, yes three times, with a man, ### Verse 30 to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of the living. ### Verse 31 Mark well, Job, and listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will speak. ### Verse 32 If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak, for I desire to justify you. ### Verse 33 If not, listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom.” ## Chapter 34 ### Verse 1 Moreover Elihu answered, ### Verse 2 “Hear my words, you wise men. Give ear to me, you who have knowledge. ### Verse 3 For the ear tries words, as the palate tastes food. ### Verse 4 Let us choose for us that which is right. Let us know among ourselves what is good. ### Verse 5 For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right. ### Verse 6 Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’ ### Verse 7 What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water, ### Verse 8 who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men? ### Verse 9 For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.’ ### Verse 10 “Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity. ### Verse 11 For the work of a man he will give to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways. ### Verse 12 Yes surely, God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice. ### Verse 13 Who put him in charge of the earth? Or who has appointed him over the whole world? ### Verse 14 If he set his heart on himself, if he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath, ### Verse 15 all flesh would perish together, and man would turn again to dust. ### Verse 16 “If now you have understanding, hear this. Listen to the voice of my words. ### Verse 17 Should even one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty, ### Verse 18 who says to a king, ‘Vile!’ or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’? ### Verse 19 He doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respect the rich more than the poor, for they all are the work of his hands. ### Verse 20 In a moment they die, even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand. ### Verse 21 “For his eyes are on the ways of a man. He sees all his goings. ### Verse 22 There is no darkness, nor thick gloom, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. ### Verse 23 For he doesn’t need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment. ### Verse 24 He breaks mighty men in pieces in ways past finding out, and sets others in their place. ### Verse 25 Therefore he takes knowledge of their works. He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed. ### Verse 26 He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others; ### Verse 27 because they turned away from following him, and wouldn’t pay attention to any of his ways, ### Verse 28 so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted. ### Verse 29 When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? He is over a nation or a man alike, ### Verse 30 that the godless man may not reign, that there be no one to ensnare the people. ### Verse 31 “For has any said to God, ‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more. ### Verse 32 Teach me that which I don’t see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’? ### Verse 33 Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it? For you must choose, and not I. Therefore speak what you know. ### Verse 34 Men of understanding will tell me, yes, every wise man who hears me: ### Verse 35 ‘Job speaks without knowledge. His words are without wisdom.’ ### Verse 36 I wish that Job were tried to the end, because of his answering like wicked men. ### Verse 37 For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.” ## Chapter 35 ### Verse 1 Moreover Elihu answered, ### Verse 2 “Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’ ### Verse 3 that you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’ ### Verse 4 I will answer you, and your companions with you. ### Verse 5 Look to the skies, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you. ### Verse 6 If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? ### Verse 7 If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand? ### Verse 8 Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit a son of man. ### Verse 9 “By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty. ### Verse 10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, ### Verse 11 who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’ ### Verse 12 There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men. ### Verse 13 Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it. ### Verse 14 How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him! ### Verse 15 But now, because he has not visited in his anger, neither does he greatly regard arrogance, ### Verse 16 therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.” ## Chapter 36 ### Verse 1 Elihu also continued, and said, ### Verse 2 “Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf. ### Verse 3 I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. ### Verse 4 For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. ### Verse 5 “Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding. ### Verse 6 He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted. ### Verse 7 He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted. ### Verse 8 If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions, ### Verse 9 then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly. ### Verse 10 He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity. ### Verse 11 If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. ### Verse 12 But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge. ### Verse 13 “But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them. ### Verse 14 They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean. ### Verse 15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression. ### Verse 16 Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness. ### Verse 17 “But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you. ### Verse 18 Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside. ### Verse 19 Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength? ### Verse 20 Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place. ### Verse 21 Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction. ### Verse 22 Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? ### Verse 23 Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’? ### Verse 24 “Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung. ### Verse 25 All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off. ### Verse 26 Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable. ### Verse 27 For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor, ### Verse 28 which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly. ### Verse 29 Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion? ### Verse 30 Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea. ### Verse 31 For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance. ### Verse 32 He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. ### Verse 33 Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up. ## Chapter 37 ### Verse 1 “Yes, at this my heart trembles, and is moved out of its place. ### Verse 2 Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, the sound that goes out of his mouth. ### Verse 3 He sends it out under the whole sky, and his lightning to the ends of the earth. ### Verse 4 After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his majesty. He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard. ### Verse 5 God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can’t comprehend. ### Verse 6 For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain. ### Verse 7 He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he has made may know it. ### Verse 8 Then the animals take cover, and remain in their dens. ### Verse 9 Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north. ### Verse 10 By the breath of God, ice is given, and the width of the waters is frozen. ### Verse 11 Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning. ### Verse 12 It is turned around by his guidance, that they may do whatever he commands them on the surface of the habitable world, ### Verse 13 whether it is for correction, or for his land, or for loving kindness, that he causes it to come. ### Verse 14 “Listen to this, Job. Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. ### Verse 15 Do you know how God controls them, and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? ### Verse 16 Do you know the workings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge? ### Verse 17 You whose clothing is warm when the earth is still by reason of the south wind? ### Verse 18 Can you, with him, spread out the sky, which is strong as a cast metal mirror? ### Verse 19 Teach us what we will tell him, for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness. ### Verse 20 Will it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up? ### Verse 21 Now men don’t see the light which is bright in the skies, but the wind passes, and clears them. ### Verse 22 Out of the north comes golden splendor. With God is awesome majesty. ### Verse 23 We can’t reach the Almighty. He is exalted in power. In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress. ### Verse 24 Therefore men revere him. He doesn’t regard any who are wise of heart.” ## Chapter 38 ### Verse 1 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind, ### Verse 2 “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? ### Verse 3 Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me! ### Verse 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. ### Verse 5 Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it? ### Verse 6 What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone, ### Verse 7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ### Verse 8 “Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb, ### Verse 9 when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness, ### Verse 10 marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors, ### Verse 11 and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’? ### Verse 12 “Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place, ### Verse 13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it? ### Verse 14 It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment. ### Verse 15 From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken. ### Verse 16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep? ### Verse 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? ### Verse 18 Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all. ### Verse 19 “What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place, ### Verse 20 that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house? ### Verse 21 Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! ### Verse 22 Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, ### Verse 23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? ### Verse 24 By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth? ### Verse 25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm, ### Verse 26 to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man, ### Verse 27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow? ### Verse 28 Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew? ### Verse 29 Whose womb did the ice come out of? Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky? ### Verse 30 The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen. ### Verse 31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion? ### Verse 32 Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs? ### Verse 33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth? ### Verse 34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you? ### Verse 35 Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? ### Verse 36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind? ### Verse 37 Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the containers of the sky, ### Verse 38 when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together? ### Verse 39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, ### Verse 40 when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket? ### Verse 41 Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food? ## Chapter 39 ### Verse 1 “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns? ### Verse 2 Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth? ### Verse 3 They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains. ### Verse 4 Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again. ### Verse 5 “Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey, ### Verse 6 whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place? ### Verse 7 He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver. ### Verse 8 The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing. ### Verse 9 “Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough? ### Verse 10 Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you? ### Verse 11 Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor? ### Verse 12 Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor? ### Verse 13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love? ### Verse 14 For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust, ### Verse 15 and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them. ### Verse 16 She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear, ### Verse 17 because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding. ### Verse 18 When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider. ### Verse 19 “Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane? ### Verse 20 Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome. ### Verse 21 He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men. ### Verse 22 He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword. ### Verse 23 The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin. ### Verse 24 He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet. ### Verse 25 As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. ### Verse 26 “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south? ### Verse 27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high? ### Verse 28 On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold. ### Verse 29 From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off. ### Verse 30 His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.” ## Chapter 40 ### Verse 1 Moreover Yahweh answered Job, ### Verse 2 “Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” ### Verse 3 Then Job answered Yahweh, ### Verse 4 “Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. ### Verse 5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.” ### Verse 6 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind: ### Verse 7 “Now brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me. ### Verse 8 Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified? ### Verse 9 Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him? ### Verse 10 “Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty. ### Verse 11 Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low. ### Verse 12 Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place. ### Verse 13 Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place. ### Verse 14 Then I will also admit to you that your own right hand can save you. ### Verse 15 “See now behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox. ### Verse 16 Look now, his strength is in his thighs. His force is in the muscles of his belly. ### Verse 17 He moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together. ### Verse 18 His bones are like tubes of bronze. His limbs are like bars of iron. ### Verse 19 He is the chief of the ways of God. He who made him gives him his sword. ### Verse 20 Surely the mountains produce food for him, where all the animals of the field play. ### Verse 21 He lies under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed, and the marsh. ### Verse 22 The lotuses cover him with their shade. The willows of the brook surround him. ### Verse 23 Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble. He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth. ### Verse 24 Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with a snare? ## Chapter 41 ### Verse 1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord? ### Verse 2 Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his jaw through with a hook? ### Verse 3 Will he make many petitions to you, or will he speak soft words to you? ### Verse 4 Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever? ### Verse 5 Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls? ### Verse 6 Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants? ### Verse 7 Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears? ### Verse 8 Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more. ### Verse 9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him? ### Verse 10 None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? ### Verse 11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine. ### Verse 12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame. ### Verse 13 Who can strip off his outer garment? Who will come within his jaws? ### Verse 14 Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. ### Verse 15 Strong scales are his pride, shut up together with a close seal. ### Verse 16 One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. ### Verse 17 They are joined to one another. They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart. ### Verse 18 His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. ### Verse 19 Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out. ### Verse 20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. ### Verse 21 His breath kindles coals. A flame goes out of his mouth. ### Verse 22 There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him. ### Verse 23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can’t be moved. ### Verse 24 His heart is as firm as a stone, yes, firm as the lower millstone. ### Verse 25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing. ### Verse 26 If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail; nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. ### Verse 27 He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. ### Verse 28 The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him. ### Verse 29 Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin. ### Verse 30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. ### Verse 31 He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. ### Verse 32 He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair. ### Verse 33 On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear. ### Verse 34 He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.” ## Chapter 42 ### Verse 1 Then Job answered Yahweh: ### Verse 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained. ### Verse 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know. ### Verse 4 You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’ ### Verse 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. ### Verse 6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” ### Verse 7 It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken 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 the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. ### Verse 8 Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.” ### Verse 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job. ### Verse 10 Yahweh restored Job’s prosperity when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before. ### Verse 11 Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, came to him and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold. ### Verse 12 So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. ### Verse 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. ### Verse 14 He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch. ### Verse 15 In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. ### Verse 16 After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations. ### Verse 17 So Job died, being old and full of days.