Job 1:1 (Job's Character and Wealth) There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Job 1:2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.
Job 1:4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Job 1:5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
Job 1:6 (Satan Allowed to Test Job) Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
Job 1:7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
Job 1:8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?
Job 1:10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
Job 1:12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Job 1:13 (Satan Takes Job's Property and Children) Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,
Job 1:14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,
Job 1:15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Job 1:17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Job 1:18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,
Job 1:19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Job 1:20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
Job 1:21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job 1:22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Job 2:1 (Satan Attacks Job's Health) Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.
Job 2:2 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
Job 2:3 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”
Job 2:4 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.
Job 2:5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”
Job 2:6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
Job 2:7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
Job 2:8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.
Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Job 2:10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job 2:11 (Job's Three Friends) Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.
Job 2:12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.
Job 2:13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
Job 3:1 (Job Laments His Birth) After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
Job 3:2 And Job said:
Job 3:3 “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’
Job 3:4 Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.
Job 3:5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Job 3:6 That night—let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.
Job 3:7 Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.
Job 3:8 Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
Job 3:9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,
Job 3:10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
Job 3:11 “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
Job 3:12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
Job 3:13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
Job 3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
Job 3:15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
Job 3:16 Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
Job 3:17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
Job 3:18 There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
Job 3:19 The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
Job 3:20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,
Job 3:21 who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
Job 3:22 who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?
Job 3:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
Job 3:24 For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.
Job 3:25 For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
Job 3:26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
Job 4:1 (Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper) Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Job 4:2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking?
Job 4:3 Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Job 4:4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
Job 4:5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Job 4:6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
Job 4:7 “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
Job 4:8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
Job 4:9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
Job 4:10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.
Job 4:11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Job 4:12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it.
Job 4:13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
Job 4:14 dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
Job 4:15 A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.
Job 4:16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:
Job 4:17 ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Job 4:18 Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;
Job 4:19 how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.
Job 4:20 Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
Job 4:21 Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?’
Job 5:1 “Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Job 5:2 Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.
Job 5:3 I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
Job 5:4 His children are far from safety; they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.
Job 5:5 The hungry eat his harvest, and he takes it even out of thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
Job 5:6 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
Job 5:7 but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
Job 5:8 “As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause,
Job 5:9 who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:
Job 5:10 he gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields;
Job 5:11 he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
Job 5:12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.
Job 5:13 He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
Job 5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime and grope at noonday as in the night.
Job 5:15 But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth and from the hand of the mighty.
Job 5:16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
Job 5:17 “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
Job 5:18 For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.
Job 5:19 He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no evil shall touch you.
Job 5:20 In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.
Job 5:21 You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
Job 5:22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.
Job 5:23 For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
Job 5:24 You shall know that your tent is at peace, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
Job 5:25 You shall know also that your offspring shall be many, and your descendants as the grass of the earth.
Job 5:26 You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, like a sheaf gathered up in its season.
Job 5:27 Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good.”
Job 6:1 (Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just) Then Job answered and said:
Job 6:2 “Oh that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
Job 6:3 For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash.
Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Job 6:5 Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder?
Job 6:6 Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow?
Job 6:7 My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me.
Job 6:8 “Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope,
Job 6:9 that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
Job 6:10 This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
Job 6:11 What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient?
Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?
Job 6:13 Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?
Job 6:14 “He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
Job 6:15 My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away,
Job 6:16 which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself.
Job 6:17 When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
Job 6:18 The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish.
Job 6:19 The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope.
Job 6:20 They are ashamed because they were confident; they come there and are disappointed.
Job 6:21 For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid.
Job 6:22 Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?
Job 6:23 Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary's hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?
Job 6:24 “Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.
Job 6:25 How forceful are upright words! But what does reproof from you reprove?
Job 6:26 Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?
Job 6:27 You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend.
Job 6:28 “But now, be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face.
Job 6:29 Please turn; let no injustice be done. Turn now; my vindication is at stake.
Job 6:30 Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?
Job 7:1 (Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope) “Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
Job 7:2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
Job 7:3 so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
Job 7:4 When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’ But the night is long, and I toss and turn till the dawn.
Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
Job 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope.
Job 7:7 “Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.
Job 7:8 The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
Job 7:9 As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
Job 7:10 he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore.
Job 7:11 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 7:12 Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?
Job 7:13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’
Job 7:14 then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
Job 7:15 so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones.
Job 7:16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
Job 7:17 What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him,
Job 7:18 visit him every morning and test him every moment?
Job 7:19 How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
Job 7:20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?
Job 7:21 Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”
Job 8:1 (Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent) Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
Job 8:2 “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
Job 8:3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
Job 8:4 If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
Job 8:5 If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
Job 8:6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.
Job 8:7 And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.
Job 8:8 “For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out.
Job 8:9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.
Job 8:10 Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?
Job 8:11 “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
Job 8:12 While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
Job 8:13 Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.
Job 8:14 His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider's web.
Job 8:15 He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
Job 8:16 He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.
Job 8:17 His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones.
Job 8:18 If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
Job 8:19 Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring.
Job 8:20 “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
Job 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.
Job 8:22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
Job 9:1 (Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter) Then Job answered and said:
Job 9:2 “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?
Job 9:3 If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
Job 9:4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength— who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—
Job 9:5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,
Job 9:6 who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;
Job 9:7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;
Job 9:8 who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;
Job 9:9 who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
Job 9:10 who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.
Job 9:11 Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
Job 9:12 Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
Job 9:13 “God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
Job 9:14 How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?
Job 9:15 Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
Job 9:16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
Job 9:17 For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;
Job 9:18 he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
Job 9:19 If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
Job 9:20 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
Job 9:21 I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.
Job 9:22 It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
Job 9:23 When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?
Job 9:25 “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.
Job 9:26 They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.
Job 9:27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’
Job 9:28 I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.
Job 9:29 I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,
Job 9:31 yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.
Job 9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
Job 9:33 There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.
Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.
Job 9:35 Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.
Job 10:1 (Job Continues: A Plea to God) “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 10:2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.
Job 10:3 Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?
Job 10:4 Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?
Job 10:5 Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years,
Job 10:6 that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin,
Job 10:7 although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand?
Job 10:8 Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether.
Job 10:9 Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?
Job 10:10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?
Job 10:11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
Job 10:12 You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.
Job 10:13 Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose.
Job 10:14 If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
Job 10:15 If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction.
Job 10:16 And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me.
Job 10:17 You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me.
Job 10:18 “Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
Job 10:19 and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:20 Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
Job 10:21 before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
Job 10:22 the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.”
Job 11:1 (Zophar Speaks: You Deserve Worse) Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
Job 11:2 “Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and a man full of talk be judged right?
Job 11:3 Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you?
Job 11:4 For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God's eyes.’
Job 11:5 But oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you,
Job 11:6 and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For he is manifold in understanding. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.
Job 11:7 “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
Job 11:8 It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
Job 11:9 Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
Job 11:10 If he passes through and imprisons and summons the court, who can turn him back?
Job 11:11 For he knows worthless men; when he sees iniquity, will he not consider it?
Job 11:12 But a stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey's colt is born a man!
Job 11:13 “If you prepare your heart, you will stretch out your hands toward him.
Job 11:14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not injustice dwell in your tents.
Job 11:15 Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear.
Job 11:16 You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.
Job 11:17 And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.
Job 11:18 And you will feel secure, because there is hope; you will look around and take your rest in security.
Job 11:19 You will lie down, and none will make you afraid; many will court your favor.
Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last.”
Job 12:1 (Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This) Then Job answered and said:
Job 12:2 “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
Job 12:3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?
Job 12:4 I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called to God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
Job 12:5 In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip.
Job 12:6 The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand.
Job 12:7 “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
Job 12:8 or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Job 12:9 Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?
Job 12:10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
Job 12:11 Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?
Job 12:12 Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.
Job 12:13 “With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding.
Job 12:14 If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open.
Job 12:15 If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
Job 12:16 With him are strength and sound wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his.
Job 12:17 He leads counselors away stripped, and judges he makes fools.
Job 12:18 He looses the bonds of kings and binds a waistcloth on their hips.
Job 12:19 He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the mighty.
Job 12:20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment of the elders.
Job 12:21 He pours contempt on princes and loosens the belt of the strong.
Job 12:22 He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to light.
Job 12:23 He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away.
Job 12:24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a trackless waste.
Job 12:25 They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.
Job 13:1 (Job Continues: Still I Will Hope in God) “Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.
Job 13:2 What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
Job 13:3 But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.
Job 13:4 As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.
Job 13:5 Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom!
Job 13:6 Hear now my argument and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
Job 13:7 Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him?
Job 13:8 Will you show partiality toward him? Will you plead the case for God?
Job 13:9 Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?
Job 13:10 He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality.
Job 13:11 Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you?
Job 13:12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
Job 13:13 “Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may.
Job 13:14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand?
Job 13:15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.
Job 13:16 This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him.
Job 13:17 Keep listening to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears.
Job 13:18 Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right.
Job 13:19 Who is there who will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die.
Job 13:20 Only grant me two things, then I will not hide myself from your face:
Job 13:21 withdraw your hand far from me, and let not dread of you terrify me.
Job 13:22 Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me.
Job 13:23 How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin.
Job 13:24 Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?
Job 13:25 Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff?
Job 13:26 For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
Job 13:27 You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; you set a limit for the soles of my feet.
Job 13:28 Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Job 14:1 (Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All) “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.
Job 14:2 He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.
Job 14:3 And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
Job 14:5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
Job 14:6 look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
Job 14:7 “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
Job 14:8 Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil,
Job 14:9 yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.
Job 14:10 But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
Job 14:11 As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up,
Job 14:12 so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.
Job 14:13 Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 14:14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.
Job 14:15 You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
Job 14:16 For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin;
Job 14:17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
Job 14:18 “But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;
Job 14:19 the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.
Job 14:20 You prevail forever against him, and he passes; you change his countenance, and send him away.
Job 14:21 His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
Job 14:22 He feels only the pain of his own body, and he mourns only for himself.”
Job 15:1 (Eliphaz Accuses: Job Does Not Fear God) Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Job 15:2 “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
Job 15:3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good?
Job 15:4 But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God.
Job 15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Job 15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.
Job 15:7 “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
Job 15:8 Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
Job 15:9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
Job 15:10 Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father.
Job 15:11 Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?
Job 15:12 Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash,
Job 15:13 that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth?
Job 15:14 What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
Job 15:15 Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
Job 15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!
Job 15:17 “I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare
Job 15:18 (what wise men have told, without hiding it from their fathers,
Job 15:19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them).
Job 15:20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
Job 15:21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
Job 15:22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword.
Job 15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
Job 15:24 distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
Job 15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty,
Job 15:26 running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield;
Job 15:27 because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist
Job 15:28 and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
Job 15:29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth;
Job 15:30 he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
Job 15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment.
Job 15:32 It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green.
Job 15:33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
Job 15:34 For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
Job 15:35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit.”
Job 16:1 (Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You) Then Job answered and said:
Job 16:2 “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.
Job 16:3 Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
Job 16:4 I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you.
Job 16:5 I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
Job 16:6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
Job 16:7 Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company.
Job 16:8 And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.
Job 16:9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
Job 16:10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me.
Job 16:11 God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
Job 16:12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target;
Job 16:13 his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.
Job 16:14 He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior.
Job 16:15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust.
Job 16:16 My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
Job 16:17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
Job 16:18 “O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place.
Job 16:19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.
Job 16:20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,
Job 16:21 that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor.
Job 16:22 For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
Job 17:1 (Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?) “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me.
Job 17:2 Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.
Job 17:3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you; who is there who will put up security for me?
Job 17:4 Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.
Job 17:5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property— the eyes of his children will fail.
Job 17:6 “He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.
Job 17:7 My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.
Job 17:8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
Job 17:9 Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
Job 17:10 But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
Job 17:11 My days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.
Job 17:12 They make night into day: ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
Job 17:13 If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness,
Job 17:14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
Job 17:15 where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?
Job 17:16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”
Job 18:1 (Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked) Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
Job 18:2 “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak.
Job 18:3 Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?
Job 18:4 You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?
Job 18:5 “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.
Job 18:6 The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is put out.
Job 18:7 His strong steps are shortened, and his own schemes throw him down.
Job 18:8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on its mesh.
Job 18:9 A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare lays hold of him.
Job 18:10 A rope is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him in the path.
Job 18:11 Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels.
Job 18:12 His strength is famished, and calamity is ready for his stumbling.
Job 18:13 It consumes the parts of his skin; the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
Job 18:14 He is torn from the tent in which he trusted and is brought to the king of terrors.
Job 18:15 In his tent dwells that which is none of his; sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
Job 18:16 His roots dry up beneath, and his branches wither above.
Job 18:17 His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the street.
Job 18:18 He is thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world.
Job 18:19 He has no posterity or progeny among his people, and no survivor where he used to live.
Job 18:20 They of the west are appalled at his day, and horror seizes them of the east.
Job 18:21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God.”
Job 19:1 (Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives) Then Job answered and said:
Job 19:2 “How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?
Job 19:3 These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?
Job 19:4 And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
Job 19:5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me,
Job 19:6 know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.
Job 19:7 Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.
Job 19:8 He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
Job 19:9 He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.
Job 19:10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
Job 19:11 He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.
Job 19:12 His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
Job 19:13 “He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
Job 19:14 My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me.
Job 19:15 The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
Job 19:16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
Job 19:17 My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
Job 19:18 Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.
Job 19:19 All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
Job 19:20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Job 19:21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
Job 19:22 Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
Job 19:23 “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Job 19:24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
Job 19:26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
Job 19:27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Job 19:28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
Job 19:29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”
Job 20:1 (Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer) Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
Job 20:2 “Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
Job 20:3 I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
Job 20:4 Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,
Job 20:5 that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
Job 20:6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
Job 20:7 he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
Job 20:8 He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
Job 20:9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.
Job 20:10 His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.
Job 20:11 His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
Job 20:12 “Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,
Job 20:13 though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,
Job 20:14 yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.
Job 20:15 He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.
Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
Job 20:17 He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.
Job 20:18 He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.
Job 20:19 For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.
Job 20:20 “Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
Job 20:21 There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.
Job 20:22 In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
Job 20:23 To fill his belly to the full, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.
Job 20:24 He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.
Job 20:25 It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him.
Job 20:26 Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.
Job 20:27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
Job 20:28 The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God's wrath.
Job 20:29 This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.”
Job 21:1 (Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper) Then Job answered and said:
Job 21:2 “Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort.
Job 21:3 Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
Job 21:4 As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?
Job 21:5 Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.
Job 21:6 When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
Job 21:7 Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
Job 21:8 Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.
Job 21:9 Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.
Job 21:10 Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry.
Job 21:11 They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.
Job 21:12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
Job 21:13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.
Job 21:14 They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
Job 21:15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’
Job 21:16 Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Job 21:17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?
Job 21:18 That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
Job 21:19 You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
Job 21:20 Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
Job 21:21 For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?
Job 21:22 Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?
Job 21:23 One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure,
Job 21:24 his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.
Job 21:25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.
Job 21:26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.
Job 21:27 “Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.
Job 21:28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
Job 21:29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony
Job 21:30 that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
Job 21:31 Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done?
Job 21:32 When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
Job 21:33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.
Job 21:34 How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”
Job 22:1 (Eliphaz Speaks: Job's Wickedness Is Great) Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Job 22:2 “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
Job 22:3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
Job 22:4 Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?
Job 22:5 Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.
Job 22:6 For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.
Job 22:7 You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
Job 22:8 The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it.
Job 22:9 You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
Job 22:10 Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you,
Job 22:11 or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
Job 22:12 “Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
Job 22:13 But you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?
Job 22:14 Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.’
Job 22:15 Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?
Job 22:16 They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.
Job 22:17 They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
Job 22:18 Yet he filled their houses with good things— but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Job 22:19 The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent one mocks at them,
Job 22:20 saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’
Job 22:21 “Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.
Job 22:22 Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
Job 22:23 If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,
Job 22:24 if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
Job 22:25 then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.
Job 22:26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
Job 22:27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.
Job 22:28 You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.
Job 22:29 For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.
Job 22:30 He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”
Job 23:1 (Job Replies: Where Is God?) Then Job answered and said:
Job 23:2 “Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on account of my groaning.
Job 23:3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!
Job 23:4 I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
Job 23:5 I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me.
Job 23:6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; he would pay attention to me.
Job 23:7 There an upright man could argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
Job 23:8 “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him;
Job 23:9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
Job 23:10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
Job 23:11 My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
Job 23:12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
Job 23:13 But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does.
Job 23:14 For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.
Job 23:15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him.
Job 23:16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me;
Job 23:17 yet I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face.
Job 24:1 “Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?
Job 24:2 Some move landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them.
Job 24:3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
Job 24:4 They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Job 24:5 Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children.
Job 24:6 They gather their fodder in the field, and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
Job 24:7 They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
Job 24:8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter.
Job 24:9 (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast, and they take a pledge against the poor.)
Job 24:10 They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves;
Job 24:11 among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
Job 24:12 From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong.
Job 24:13 “There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.
Job 24:14 The murderer rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief.
Job 24:15 The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me’; and he veils his face.
Job 24:16 In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light.
Job 24:17 For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
Job 24:18 “You say, ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land; no treader turns toward their vineyards.
Job 24:19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.
Job 24:20 The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like a tree.’
Job 24:21 “They wrong the barren, childless woman, and do no good to the widow.
Job 24:22 Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life.
Job 24:23 He gives them security, and they are supported, and his eyes are upon their ways.
Job 24:24 They are exalted a little while, and then are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like the heads of grain.
Job 24:25 If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
Job 25:1 (Bildad Speaks: Man Cannot Be Righteous) Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
Job 25:2 “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.
Job 25:3 Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise?
Job 25:4 How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?
Job 25:5 Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
Job 25:6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”
Job 26:1 (Job Replies: God's Majesty Is Unsearchable) Then Job answered and said:
Job 26:2 “How you have helped him who has no power! How you have saved the arm that has no strength!
Job 26:3 How you have counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
Job 26:4 With whose help have you uttered words, and whose breath has come out from you?
Job 26:5 The dead tremble under the waters and their inhabitants.
Job 26:6 Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.
Job 26:7 He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.
Job 26:8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them.
Job 26:9 He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it his cloud.
Job 26:10 He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
Job 26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke.
Job 26:12 By his power he stilled the sea; by his understanding he shattered Rahab.
Job 26:13 By his wind the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
Job 26:14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
Job 27:1 (Job Continues: I Will Maintain My Integrity) And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
Job 27:2 “As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
Job 27:3 as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
Job 27:4 my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit.
Job 27:5 Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
Job 27:6 I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
Job 27:7 “Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life?
Job 27:9 Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?
Job 27:10 Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
Job 27:11 I will teach you concerning the hand of God; what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
Job 27:12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?
Job 27:13 “This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
Job 27:14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his descendants have not enough bread.
Job 27:15 Those who survive him the pestilence buries, and his widows do not weep.
Job 27:16 Though he heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay,
Job 27:17 he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.
Job 27:18 He builds his house like a moth's, like a booth that a watchman makes.
Job 27:19 He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more; he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.
Job 27:20 Terrors overtake him like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries him off.
Job 27:21 The east wind lifts him up and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
Job 27:22 It hurls at him without pity; he flees from its power in headlong flight.
Job 27:23 It claps its hands at him and hisses at him from its place.
Job 28:1 (Job Continues: Where Is Wisdom?) “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold that they refine.
Job 28:2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore.
Job 28:3 Man puts an end to darkness and searches out to the farthest limit the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
Job 28:4 He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.
Job 28:5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire.
Job 28:6 Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold.
Job 28:7 “That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon's eye has not seen it.
Job 28:8 The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it.
Job 28:9 “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots.
Job 28:10 He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing.
Job 28:11 He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
Job 28:12 “But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:13 Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living.
Job 28:14 The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
Job 28:15 It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price.
Job 28:16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.
Job 28:17 Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
Job 28:18 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls.
Job 28:19 The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.
Job 28:20 “From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air.
Job 28:22 Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
Job 28:23 “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
Job 28:24 For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.
Job 28:25 When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure,
Job 28:26 when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
Job 28:27 then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out.
Job 28:28 And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”
Job 29:1 (Job's Summary Defense) And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
Job 29:2 “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,
Job 29:3 when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
Job 29:4 as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
Job 29:5 when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me,
Job 29:6 when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
Job 29:7 When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
Job 29:8 the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;
Job 29:9 the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth;
Job 29:10 the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
Job 29:11 When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved,
Job 29:12 because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
Job 29:13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
Job 29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.
Job 29:15 I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
Job 29:16 I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
Job 29:17 I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
Job 29:18 Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,
Job 29:19 my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches,
Job 29:20 my glory fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.’
Job 29:21 “Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel.
Job 29:22 After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them.
Job 29:23 They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
Job 29:24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and the light of my face they did not cast down.
Job 29:25 I chose their way and sat as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.
Job 30:1 “But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
Job 30:2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone?
Job 30:3 Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;
Job 30:4 they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes, and the roots of the broom tree for their food.
Job 30:5 They are driven out from human company; they shout after them as after a thief.
Job 30:6 In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
Job 30:7 Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.
Job 30:8 A senseless, a nameless brood, they have been whipped out of the land.
Job 30:9 “And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them.
Job 30:10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
Job 30:11 Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.
Job 30:12 On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
Job 30:13 They break up my path; they promote my calamity; they need no one to help them.
Job 30:14 As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on.
Job 30:15 Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
Job 30:16 “And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me.
Job 30:17 The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
Job 30:18 With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
Job 30:19 God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
Job 30:20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.
Job 30:21 You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me.
Job 30:22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
Job 30:23 For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living.
Job 30:24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?
Job 30:25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
Job 30:26 But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came.
Job 30:27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me.
Job 30:28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
Job 30:29 I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches.
Job 30:30 My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.
Job 30:31 My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
Job 31:1 (Job's Final Appeal) “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?
Job 31:2 What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high?
Job 31:3 Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity?
Job 31:4 Does not he see my ways and number all my steps?
Job 31:5 “If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit;
Job 31:6 (Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!)
Job 31:7 if my step has turned aside from the way and my heart has gone after my eyes, and if any spot has stuck to my hands,
Job 31:8 then let me sow, and another eat, and let what grows for me be rooted out.
Job 31:9 “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door,
Job 31:10 then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down on her.
Job 31:11 For that would be a heinous crime; that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
Job 31:12 for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon, and it would burn to the root all my increase.
Job 31:13 “If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me,
Job 31:14 what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
Job 31:15 Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
Job 31:16 “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
Job 31:17 or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it
Job 31:18 (for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother's womb I guided the widow),
Job 31:19 if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or the needy without covering,
Job 31:20 if his body has not blessed me, and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,
Job 31:21 if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate,
Job 31:22 then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket.
Job 31:23 For I was in terror of calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty.
Job 31:24 “If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence,
Job 31:25 if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant or because my hand had found much,
Job 31:26 if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor,
Job 31:27 and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand,
Job 31:28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have been false to God above.
Job 31:29 “If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me, or exulted when evil overtook him
Job 31:30 (I have not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse),
Job 31:31 if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?’
Job 31:32 (the sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler),
Job 31:33 if I have concealed my transgressions as others do by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
Job 31:34 because I stood in great fear of the multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors—
Job 31:35 Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!) Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
Job 31:36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me as a crown;
Job 31:37 I would give him an account of all my steps; like a prince I would approach him.
Job 31:38 “If my land has cried out against me and its furrows have wept together,
Job 31:39 if I have eaten its yield without payment and made its owners breathe their last,
Job 31:40 let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
Job 32:1 (Elihu Rebukes Job's Three Friends) So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
Job 32:2 Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.
Job 32:3 He burned with anger also at Job's three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.
Job 32:4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he.
Job 32:5 And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger.
Job 32:6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you.
Job 32:7 I said, ‘Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.’
Job 32:8 But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.
Job 32:9 It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right.
Job 32:10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion.’
Job 32:11 “Behold, I waited for your words, I listened for your wise sayings, while you searched out what to say.
Job 32:12 I gave you my attention, and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job or who answered his words.
Job 32:13 Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom; God may vanquish him, not a man.’
Job 32:14 He has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your speeches.
Job 32:15 “They are dismayed; they answer no more; they have not a word to say.
Job 32:16 And shall I wait, because they do not speak, because they stand there, and answer no more?
Job 32:17 I also will answer with my share; I also will declare my opinion.
Job 32:18 For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me.
Job 32:19 Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst.
Job 32:20 I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer.
Job 32:21 I will not show partiality to any man or use flattery toward any person.
Job 32:22 For I do not know how to flatter, else my Maker would soon take me away.
Job 33:1 (Elihu Rebukes Job) “But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words.
Job 33:2 Behold, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks.
Job 33:3 My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely.
Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Job 33:5 Answer me, if you can; set your words in order before me; take your stand.
Job 33:6 Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.
Job 33:7 Behold, no fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy upon you.
Job 33:8 “Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words.
Job 33:9 You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.
Job 33:10 Behold, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy,
Job 33:11 he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths.’
Job 33:12 “Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.
Job 33:13 Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man's words’?
Job 33:14 For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.
Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds,
Job 33:16 then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings,
Job 33:17 that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man;
Job 33:18 he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.
Job 33:19 “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones,
Job 33:20 so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food.
Job 33:21 His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.
Job 33:22 His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death.
Job 33:23 If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him,
Job 33:24 and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom;
Job 33:25 let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;
Job 33:26 then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.
Job 33:27 He sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me.
Job 33:28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’
Job 33:29 “Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man,
Job 33:30 to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.
Job 33:31 Pay attention, O Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.
Job 33:32 If you have any words, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you.
Job 33:33 If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”
Job 34:1 (Elihu Asserts God's Justice) Then Elihu answered and said:
Job 34:2 “Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know;
Job 34:3 for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.
Job 34:4 Let us choose what is right; let us know among ourselves what is good.
Job 34:5 For Job has said, ‘I am in the right, and God has taken away my right;
Job 34:6 in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’
Job 34:7 What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water,
Job 34:8 who travels in company with evildoers and walks with wicked men?
Job 34:9 For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.’
Job 34:10 “Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.
Job 34:11 For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him.
Job 34:12 Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.
Job 34:13 Who gave him charge over the earth, and who laid on him the whole world?
Job 34:14 If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath,
Job 34:15 all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.
Job 34:16 “If you have understanding, hear this; listen to what I say.
Job 34:17 Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,
Job 34:18 who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’ and to nobles, ‘Wicked man,’
Job 34:19 who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?
Job 34:20 In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.
Job 34:21 “For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.
Job 34:22 There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves.
Job 34:23 For God has no need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.
Job 34:24 He shatters the mighty without investigation and sets others in their place.
Job 34:25 Thus, knowing their works, he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.
Job 34:26 He strikes them for their wickedness in a place for all to see,
Job 34:27 because they turned aside from following him and had no regard for any of his ways,
Job 34:28 so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted—
Job 34:29 When he is quiet, who can condemn? When he hides his face, who can behold him, whether it be a nation or a man?—
Job 34:30 that a godless man should not reign, that he should not ensnare the people.
Job 34:31 “For has anyone said to God, ‘I have borne punishment; I will not offend any more;
Job 34:32 teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?
Job 34:33 Will he then make repayment to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; therefore declare what you know.
Job 34:34 Men of understanding will say to me, and the wise man who hears me will say:
Job 34:35 ‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words are without insight.’
Job 34:36 Would that Job were tried to the end, because he answers like wicked men.
Job 34:37 For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God.”
Job 35:1 (Elihu Condemns Job) And Elihu answered and said:
Job 35:2 “Do you think this to be just? Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’
Job 35:3 that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’
Job 35:4 I will answer you and your friends with you.
Job 35:5 Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.
Job 35:6 If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
Job 35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?
Job 35:8 Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself, and your righteousness a son of man.
Job 35:9 “Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
Job 35:10 But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,
Job 35:11 who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’
Job 35:12 There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.
Job 35:13 Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.
Job 35:14 How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!
Job 35:15 And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not take much note of transgression,
Job 35:16 Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.”
Job 36:1 (Elihu Extols God's Greatness) And Elihu continued, and said:
Job 36:2 “Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God's behalf.
Job 36:3 I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
Job 36:4 For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
Job 36:5 “Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding.
Job 36:6 He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right.
Job 36:7 He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
Job 36:8 And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction,
Job 36:9 then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
Job 36:10 He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity.
Job 36:11 If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.
Job 36:12 But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.
Job 36:13 “The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them.
Job 36:14 They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.
Job 36:15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.
Job 36:16 He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.
Job 36:17 “But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you.
Job 36:18 Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
Job 36:19 Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength?
Job 36:20 Do not long for the night, when peoples vanish in their place.
Job 36:21 Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction.
Job 36:22 Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?
Job 36:23 Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?
Job 36:24 “Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung.
Job 36:25 All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar.
Job 36:26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.
Job 36:27 For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain,
Job 36:28 which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly.
Job 36:29 Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?
Job 36:30 Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea.
Job 36:31 For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance.
Job 36:32 He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark.
Job 36:33 Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises.
Job 37:1 (Elihu Proclaims God's Majesty) “At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place.
Job 37:2 Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
Job 37:3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
Job 37:4 After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.
Job 37:5 God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.
Job 37:6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.
Job 37:7 He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he made may know it.
Job 37:8 Then the beasts go into their lairs, and remain in their dens.
Job 37:9 From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds.
Job 37:10 By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.
Job 37:11 He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.
Job 37:12 They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world.
Job 37:13 Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.
Job 37:14 “Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
Job 37:15 Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
Job 37:16 Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,
Job 37:17 you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind?
Job 37:18 Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?
Job 37:19 Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.
Job 37:20 Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?
Job 37:21 “And now no one looks on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them.
Job 37:22 Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty.
Job 37:23 The Almighty—we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
Job 37:24 Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”
Job 38:1 (The Lord Answers Job) Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
Job 38:2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
Job 38:5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
Job 38:6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
Job 38:7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 38:8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,
Job 38:9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band,
Job 38:10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,
Job 38:11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
Job 38:12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,
Job 38:13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?
Job 38:14 It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment.
Job 38:15 From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken.
Job 38:16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
Job 38:18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
Job 38:19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness,
Job 38:20 that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home?
Job 38:21 You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
Job 38:22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
Job 38:23 which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?
Job 38:24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
Job 38:25 “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt,
Job 38:26 to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man,
Job 38:27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?
Job 38:28 “Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?
Job 38:29 From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?
Job 38:30 The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Job 38:31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?
Job 38:32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children?
Job 38:33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?
Job 38:34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you?
Job 38:35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
Job 38:36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?
Job 38:37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
Job 38:38 when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?
Job 38:39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
Job 38:40 when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their thicket?
Job 38:41 Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?
Job 39:1 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does?
Job 39:2 Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth,
Job 39:3 when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young?
Job 39:4 Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open; they go out and do not return to them.
Job 39:5 “Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,
Job 39:6 to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place?
Job 39:7 He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver.
Job 39:8 He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.
Job 39:9 “Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger?
Job 39:10 Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?
Job 39:11 Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?
Job 39:12 Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?
Job 39:13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
Job 39:14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground,
Job 39:15 forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them.
Job 39:16 She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,
Job 39:17 because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.
Job 39:18 When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.
Job 39:19 “Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
Job 39:20 Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrifying.
Job 39:21 He paws in the valley and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.
Job 39:22 He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword.
Job 39:23 Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin.
Job 39:24 With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
Job 39:25 When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
Job 39:26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south?
Job 39:27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?
Job 39:28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold.
Job 39:29 From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.
Job 39:30 His young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is he.”
Job 40:1 And the Lord said to Job:
Job 40:2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”
Job 40:3 (Job Promises Silence) Then Job answered the Lord and said:
Job 40:4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
Job 40:5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
Job 40:6 (The Lord Challenges Job) Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
Job 40:7 “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
Job 40:8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
Job 40:9 Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
Job 40:10 “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
Job 40:11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.
Job 40:12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand.
Job 40:13 Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below.
Job 40:14 Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.
Job 40:15 “Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox.
Job 40:16 Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly.
Job 40:17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
Job 40:18 His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.
Job 40:19 “He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!
Job 40:20 For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play.
Job 40:21 Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.
Job 40:22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him.
Job 40:23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.
Job 40:24 Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?
Job 41:1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?
Job 41:2 Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Job 41:3 Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words?
Job 41:4 Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?
Job 41:5 Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls?
Job 41:6 Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?
Job 41:7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?
Job 41:8 Lay your hands on him; remember the battle—you will not do it again!
Job 41:9 Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him.
Job 41:10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?
Job 41:11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.
Job 41:12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.
Job 41:13 Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle?
Job 41:14 Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.
Job 41:15 His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal.
Job 41:16 One is so near to another that no air can come between them.
Job 41:17 They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
Job 41:18 His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
Job 41:19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth.
Job 41:20 Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
Job 41:21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
Job 41:22 In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him.
Job 41:23 The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable.
Job 41:24 His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone.
Job 41:25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves.
Job 41:26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
Job 41:27 He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
Job 41:28 The arrow cannot make him flee; for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.
Job 41:29 Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins.
Job 41:30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
Job 41:31 He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
Job 41:32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired.
Job 41:33 On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear.
Job 41:34 He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”
Job 42:1 (Job's Confession and Repentance) Then Job answered the Lord and said:
Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Job 42:3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
Job 42:4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
Job 42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
Job 42:6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:7 (The Lord Rebukes Job's Friends) After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.
Job 42:8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
Job 42:9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.
Job 42:10 (The Lord Restores Job's Fortunes) And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job 42:11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
Job 42:12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42:14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch.
Job 42:15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
Job 42:16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.
Job 42:17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
