Job

Job Chapter 1

The calamities of Job

1 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.
2 He had seven sons and three daughters.
3 He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a very large number of servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
4 His sons would go and hold feasts in their houses, each on his own day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
5 When the days of feasting had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them. Early in the morning he would offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil.”
9 Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11 But stretch out your hand now and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
13 One day Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at their oldest brother’s house.
14 A messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,
15 when the Sabeans attacked and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the shepherds, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on the camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house,
19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them, and they are all dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
20 At this, Job got up, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground in worship,
21 and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

Job Chapter 2

1 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.
2 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, even though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
4 Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! A man will give all he has for his life.
5 But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
6 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, he is in your hands; only spare his life.”
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
8 Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10 He replied, “You speak like one of the foolish women. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
11 When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, heard of all this trouble that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, for they had made an arrangement to come together to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

12 When they looked up from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they wept aloud. Each of them tore his robe, and the three of them threw dust on their heads toward heaven.
13 They sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, because they saw that his grief was very great.

Job Chapter 3

Job curses the day he was born

1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.
2 Job cried out and said:
3 “ May the day on which I was born perish, and the night on which it was said, ‘A man is conceived! ’
4 May that day be dark, and may God from above not care for it, nor light shine upon it.
5 May darkness and the shadow of death cover it; may a cloud lie over it, making it dreadful like a hazy day.
6 May gloom fill that night; may it not be reckoned among the days of the year, nor come into the number of the months.
7 Oh, that that night were lonely, that no song came in it!
8 May those who curse the day curse it, those who prepare to rouse Leviathan.
9 May the stars of its dawn be darkened; may it look for light, but it does not come, nor see the eyelids of the morning;
10 For he did not shut the doors of the womb where I was, nor hide misery from my eyes.
11 Why did I not die at birth, or expire when I came from the womb?
12 Why should knees receive me, or breasts be for me to nurse?
13 For now I would have been dead and at rest; I would have slept and been content,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth, who rebuild ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who possess gold, who fill their houses with silver.
16 Why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary find rest.
18 There also the prisoners are at rest; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 There are the small and the great, and the servant free from his master.

20 Why is light given to the weary, and life to those whose spirits are bitter,
21 who long for death, but it does not come, though they seek it more than precious treasures;
22 who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is life given to a man who does not know where he shall go, and whom God has shut up?
24 For before my bread comes my sighing, and my groans flow like water.
25 For the terror I dreaded has come upon me, and what I feared has happened to me.
26 I have had no peace, no security, no rest; yet turmoil has come upon me.

Job Chapter 4

Eliphaz rebukes Job

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “ If we try to speak to you, it will be tiresome for you; but who can restrain words?
3 Behold, you have instructed many, and strengthened the feeble hands;
4 Your words have upheld him who stumbled, and you have strengthened the wobbly knees.
5 But now that evil has come upon you, you are discouraged; and when it has reached you, you are dismayed.
6 Is not your fear of God your confidence? Is not the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 Consider now: What innocent person has perished? And where have the upright been destroyed?
8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap it.
9 They perish by the breath of God, and are consumed by the blast of his wrath.
10 The roaring of the lion, the bellowing of the roaring beast, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.”
11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 The matter was also hidden from me, but my ear has heard something of it.
13 In the imagination of visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 terror and trembling came upon me, and all my bones shook.
15 And a spirit passed before me, and made the hair of my body stand on end.
16 A phantom stood before my eyes, whose face I did not know; and I heard it saying,
17 “Can man be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than He who made him?
18 Behold, He does not trust His servants, and He notes folly in His angels;

19 How much more so those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, and who will be crushed by moths!
20 From morning to evening they are destroyed, and they perish forever, without anyone noticing.
21 Does not their beauty perish with them? And they die without having gained wisdom.

Job Chapter 5

1 Now therefore, cry out; will anyone answer you? And to which of the saints will you turn?
2 Surely anger slays the fool, and envy consumes the greedy.
3 I have seen the fool taking root, and at once I cursed his dwelling place.
4 His children will be far from safety; they will be broken at the gate, with no one to rescue them.
5 The hungry will eat his harvest, and they will pluck it out from among the thorns, and the thirsty will drink his wealth.
6 For trouble does not come from the dust, nor does distress spring from the earth.
7 But as sparks fly up and bolt through the air, so man is born to trouble.
8 Surely I would seek God, and to him I would commit my cause,
9 who does great and unsearchable things, and wonders without number;
10 He gives rain on the earth and sends water on the fields;
11 He sets the lowly on high and lifts those who mourn to safety;
12 He frustrates the plans of the crafty, so that their hands can do nothing;
13 He catches the wise in their own craftiness and thwarts the schemes of the wicked.
14 By day they stumble in darkness, and at midday they grope as in the night.
15 So he delivers the needy from the sword, from the mouth of the wicked, and from the violent hand;
16 He is a hope to the needy, and wickedness shuts its mouth.
17 Behold, blessed is the one whom God disciplines; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
18 For he wounds, but he binds up; he injures, but his hands heal.
19 In six tribulations he will deliver you, and in the seventh no evil will touch you.

20 In famine he will save you from death, and from the power of the sword in war.

21 You will be shielded from the scourge of the tongue; you will not fear destruction when it comes.
22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and you will not fear the wild beasts of the field.
23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will visit your dwelling and lack nothing.
25 You will also see that your offspring are many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
26 You will come to your grave in old age, like a sheaf of wheat gathered in its season.
27 Here is what we have inquired about, and it is so; hear it and know it for your own benefit.

Job Chapter 6

Job rebukes the attitude of his friends

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 Oh, that my complaint and my torment were truly weighed, and that they might be cast in the balances!
3 For they would now outweigh the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash.
4 For the arrows of the Almighty are in me, and my spirit drinks their poison; and the terrors of God assail me.
5 Does the wild donkey groan over the grass? Does the ox low over its pasture?
6 Can one eat something tasteless without salt? Is there any flavor in the white of an egg?
7 The things my soul did not want to touch are now my food.
8 Oh, that my petition would come, and that God would grant me what I long for!
9 That it would please God to crush me; that he would loose his hand and put an end to me!
10 That would still be my comfort, if he were to assail me with pain without respite, because I have not hidden the words of the Holy One.
11 What is my strength that I should wait any longer? And what is my purpose that I should endure any longer?
12 Is my strength like that of stones, or is my flesh like bronze?
13 Is it not so that I cannot even help myself, and that all help has failed me?
14 The afflicted are comforted by their companions, even he who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15 But my brothers have betrayed me like a torrent; they pass by like rushing streams
, 16 hidden by frost, and concealed by snow;
17 that melt away in the heat, and when it is hot, vanish from their place;
18 they turn aside from the path of their course, they dwindle and are lost.
19 The travelers of Teman looked, the travelers of Sheba hoped for them;
20 but they were put to shame for their hope; for they came to them and were found confounded.
21 Now you are truly like them; for you have seen the torment, and you fear.

22 Did I say to you, “Bring me in, and pay for me from your wealth;
23 deliver me from the hand of the oppressor, and redeem me from the power of the violent”?
24 Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand where I have erred.
25 How effective are upright words! But what does your reproof rebuke?
26 Do you think to reprove words, and the speeches of a desperate man, which are like the wind?
27 You also turn on the fatherless, and dig a pit for your friend.
28 Now then, if you wish, look at me, and see if I speak a lie before you.
29 Turn again, and let there be no iniquity; return again and consider my righteousness in this matter.
30 Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my palate not discern wicked things?

Job Chapter 7

Job argues against God

1 Is not man’s life on earth a struggle, and his days like the days of a hired worker?
2 As a servant longs for the shade, and as a hired worker longs for rest from his labor,
3 so I have been allotted months of trouble, and nights of toil have been assigned to me.
4 When I lie down, I say, “When shall I rise?” But the night is long, and my mind is troubled until dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and crusts of dust; my skin is split and loathsome.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
7 Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see good.
8 The eyes of those who see me will see me no more; you will look upon me, and I will be no more.
9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol will not rise;
10 He will never return to his house, nor will his place know him anymore.
11 Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, and I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?
13 When I say, “My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my groaning,”
14 then you frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions.
15 So my soul considered strangulation better, and I preferred death to my bones.
16 I loathe my life; I should not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are vanity.
17 What is man, that you make him great, and that you set your heart on him,
18 and visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

19 How long will you not turn your gaze from me, and not let me go until I have swallowed my saliva?
20 If I have sinned, what can I do to you, O Watcher of mankind? Why do you make me your target, until I have become a burden to myself?
21 Why do you not take away my transgression, and forgive my iniquity? For now I will sleep in the dust, and if you seek me in the morning, I will be no more.

Job Chapter 8

Bildad proclaims the justice of God

1 Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “How long will you speak such things? Will the words of your mouth be like a rushing wind?
3 Will God pervert justice? Or will the Almighty pervert what is right?
4 If your children sinned against him, he cast them into the place of their sin.
5 If you will seek God early and plead with the Almighty,
6 if you are pure and upright, surely he will rouse himself for you and prosper the dwelling place of your righteousness.
7 Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.
8 For ask the former generations, and be ready to inquire of their fathers;
9 for we are but of yesterday and know nothing, our days on earth being like a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and speak to you, and bring forth words from their heart?
11 Can a reed grow without mud? Can a meadow flourish without water?”
12 Even in its greenness, and before it has been cut, it withers before any other plant.
13 Such are the ways of all who forget God; and the hope of the wicked will perish.

14 For their hope will be cut off, and their trust is like a spider’s web.
15 They lean on their house, but it will not stand; they cling to it, but it will not endure.
16 Like a tree that is green in the sun, and whose shoots come up in its garden;
17 their roots go together by a spring, and connect to a rocky place.

18 If they uproot him from his place, he will deny it, saying, “I never saw you.”
19 Surely this will be the joy of his journey; and from the dust others will be born.
20 Behold, God does not detest the blameless, nor does he uphold the hand of the wicked.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked will perish.

Job Chapter 9

Job's inability to respond to God

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “ Surely I know that it is so; but how can a man be righteous before God?
3 If he would contend with him, he could not answer him one thing out of a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has hardened himself against him and prospered?
5 In his anger he uproots the mountains, and they do not know who has overturned them;
6 he shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble;
7 he commands the sun, and it does not rise, and he seals up the stars;
8 he alone stretched out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea;
9 he made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the secret places of the south;
10 he does great and unsearchable things, marvelous things without number.
11 Behold, he passes by me, and I do not see him; he passes by, and I do not perceive him.
12 Behold, he snatches away; Who will make him repay? Who will say to him, “What are you doing?”
13 God will not turn back his anger, and those who help the proud will be brought low beneath him.
14 How much less shall I answer him, and speak to him with choice words?
15 Even if I were righteous, I would not answer; rather, I would plead with my judge.
16 If I called to him, and he answered me, I would still not believe that he had listened to my voice.
17 For he has broken me with a tempest and multiplied my wounds without cause.
18 He has not granted me respite, but has filled me with bitterness.
19 If we speak of his power, indeed he is strong; if of judgment, who will summon me?
20 If I justify myself, my own mouth would condemn me; if I say I am perfect, this would prove me wicked.
21 If I were blameless, I would not regard myself; I would despise my life.
22 One thing I must say: He consumes both the blameless and the wicked.
23 He kills suddenly with a scourge; he laughs at the suffering of the innocent.
24 The land is given into the hands of the wicked, and he covers the faces of its judges. If it is not he, who is it? Where is he?

25 My days have been swifter than a mail; they fled, and saw no good.

26 They flew by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
27 If I say, “I will forget my complaint, I will cast off my gloomy face and be strong,
28 all my sorrows overwhelm me; I know you will not find me innocent.
29 I am wicked; why should I labor in vain?
30 Though I wash myself with snowy water, and cleanse my hands with pure water,
31 you will still throw me into the pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a man like me, that I may answer him, and that we may come together to judgment.
33 There is no arbiter between us, who will lay his hand on us both.
34 Let him take his rod from me, and let his terror not frighten me.
35 Then I will speak, and I will not be afraid of him; for in this state I am not in my own nature.

Job Chapter 10

Job laments his condition

1 My soul is weary of my life; I will give free rein to my complaint; I will speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, “Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend with me. ”
3 Does it seem right to you to oppress, to reject the work of your hands, and to favor the designs of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?
5 Are your days like the days of man, or your years like human seasons,
6 that you should inquire into my iniquity and search out my sin,
7 though you know that I am not wicked, and that there is no one who can deliver me from your hand?
8 Your hands made me and formed me; and now you turn and destroy me?
9 Remember that you molded me like clay; and will you return me to dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You granted me life and mercy, and your care guarded my spirit.
13 These things you have kept in your heart; I know they are near you.
14 If I have sinned, you have observed me, and you will not hold me innocent of my transgressions.
15 If I am wicked, woe is me! And if I am righteous, I will not lift up my head, for I am full of shame and of seeing myself afflicted.
16 If my head is lifted up, you hunt me like a lion; and you again work wonders against me.
17 You renew your trials against me, and increase your fury against me like troops in relief.
18 Why did you bring me forth from the womb? I should have died, and no eye should have seen me.

19 I was as though I had never existed, carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few? Cease, then, and leave me alone, that I may be comforted a little,
21 Before I go, never to return, to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
22 A land of gloom and darkness, like the shadow of death and without order, and whose light is like thick darkness.

Job Chapter 11

Zophar accuses Job of wickedness

1 Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
2 Should many words not find an answer? And will a man who speaks much be justified?
3 Can your lies silence men? Can you mock, and no one will put you to shame?
4 You say, “My teaching is pure, and I am clean in your sight.”
5 But oh, that God would speak, and open his lips with you,
6 and declare to you the secrets of wisdom, which are twice as valuable as riches! Then you would know that God has punished you less than your wickedness deserves.
7 Can you discover the secrets of God? Can you reach the perfection of the Almighty?
8 It is higher than the heavens; what can you do? It is deeper than Sheol; how can you know it?
9 Its extent is longer than the earth, and wider than the sea.
10 If he passes by, and imprisons, and calls to judgment, who can oppose him?
11 For he knows worthless men; he sees iniquity, and will he not take it to heart?
12 A worthless man will become wise, when a colt of a wild donkey is born a man.
13 If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands to him;
14 if any iniquity is in your hand, cast it away from you, and do not allow wickedness to dwell in your tents,
15 then you will lift up your face without blemish, and you will be secure, and will not fear;
16 you will forget your misery, or remember it only as waters that have passed away.
17 Your life will be brighter than the noonday; though it grows dark, it will be like the morning.

18 You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look around and sleep in safety.
19 You will lie down, and no one will make you afraid; many will seek your favor.
20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and they will have no refuge; their hope will be to breathe their last.

Job Chapter 12

Job defends his integrity

1 Behold, all these things my eyes have seen, and my ears have heard and understood.
2 As you know, I know; I am not inferior to you.
3 But I would speak with the Almighty, and I would reason with God.
4 For surely you are forgers of lies; you are all worthless physicians.
5 I wish that you would be completely silent, for that would be wisdom to you.
6 Now hear my reasoning, and pay attention to the arguments of my lips.
7 Will you speak wickedness for God? Will you speak deceitfully for him?
8 Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?
9 Would it be good for him to examine you? Will you mock him as one mocks a man?
10 He will surely rebuke you if you secretly show partiality.
11 Surely his majesty would terrify you, and his terror would fall upon you.
12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, and your ramparts are ramparts of mud.
13 Listen to me, and I will speak; let whatever comes, come to me.
14 Why should I tear out my flesh with my teeth, and take my life in my hand?
15 Behold, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him; yet will I defend my ways before him,
16 and he himself will be my salvation, for no wicked man shall enter his presence.
17 Listen carefully to my reasoning, and let my explanation enter into your ears.
18 Behold now, if I lay down my case, I know that I shall be justified.
19 Who is he that will contend with me? For if I keep silent now, I shall die.
20 At least two things you must not do to me; Then I will not hide from your face:
21 Take your hand away from me, and do not let your terror frighten me.

22 Call then, and I will answer; or I will speak, and you answer me.
23 How many iniquities and sins have I? Make me understand my transgression and my sin.
24 Why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy?
25 Do you break a plucked leaf, and chase after dry chaff?
26 Why do you write bitter things against me, and make me responsible for the sins of my youth?
27 You also put my feet in stocks, and observe all my ways, setting a limit for the soles of my feet.
28 And my body wastes away like decay, like a garment that the moth gnaws at.

Job Chapter 13

Job defends his integrity

Job Chapter 14

Job reflects on the brevity of life

1 Man, born of woman, is few of days and full of trouble.
2 He springs up like a flower and withers away; he flees like a shadow and does not remain.
3 Do you open your eyes upon him and bring me into judgment with you?
4 Who can cleanse what is unclean? No one.
5 Surely his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you; you have set limits for him that he cannot pass.
6 If you forsake him, he will be no more; meanwhile he will long for his day like a hired worker.
7 For if a tree is cut down, there is still hope for it; it will sprout again, and its shoots will not fail.
8 Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the dust,
9 at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.
10 But man dies and is cut down; man perishes, and where will he be?
11 As the waters are turned from the sea, and the river dries up and runs dry,
12 so man lies down and does not rise again; till the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused from their sleep.
13 Oh, that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your anger is slain, that you would set me a time and remember me!
14 If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my appointed time I will wait, until my redemption comes.
15 Then you will call, and I will answer you; you will delight in the work of your hands.
16 But now you count my steps, and you give no quarter to my sin.
17 You have sealed up my transgression in a bag, and sewn up my iniquity.

18 Surely the mountain falls and crumbles, and the rocks are removed from their place;
19 the stones are worn away by the rushing waters, which wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
20 You will forever be stronger than he, and he will go away; you will change his face and send him away.
21 His children will be honored, but he will not know it; or they will be humiliated, and he will not understand it.
22 But his flesh will grieve over him, and his soul will mourn within him.

Job Chapter 15

Eliphaz rebukes Job

1 Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “Does a wise man utter idle wisdom, and fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Does he argue with worthless words, and with arguments that are of no profit?
4 You also cast away the fear of God, and you diminish prayer before God.
5 For your mouth has declared your iniquity, for you have chosen the speech of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth will condemn you, and not I; and your own lips will testify against you.
7 Were you born before Adam? Or were you formed before the hills?
8 Have you heard the secret of God? Is wisdom limited to you?
9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not found in us?
10 Gray-headed men and very old men are among us, far more advanced in days than your father.
11 Do you consider the consolations of God and the words that are gently spoken to you as of little value?”
12 Why does your heart turn you away, and why do your eyes wink,
13 so that you turn your spirit against God and utter such words from your mouth?
14 What is man, that he should be pure, and one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Behold, he does not trust in his saints, and even the heavens are not pure in his sight;
16 how much less man, who is vile and abominable, who drinks iniquity like water!
17 Listen to me; I will show you, and tell you what I have seen,
18 what the wise told us of their fathers, and did not hide;
19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20 All his days the wicked man is tormented with sorrow, and the number of his years is hidden from the ruthless.
21 Terrifying sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.

22 He does not believe he will return from the darkness, and he is exposed to the sword.
23 He wanders about after bread, saying, “Where is it?” He knows that a day of darkness has been prepared for him.

24 Tribulation and anguish will trouble him, and they will exert themselves against him like a king prepared for battle,
25 because he stretched out his hand against God, and behaved arrogantly against the Almighty.

26 He rushed at him with outstretched neck, with the thick barrier of his shields.
27 For fatness covered his face, and made folds over his loins;
28 He inhabited the desolate cities, the uninhabited houses that lay in ruins.
29 He will not prosper, nor will his riches endure, nor will his splendor spread across the land.
30 He will not escape the darkness; the flame will wither his branches, and with the breath of his mouth he will perish.
31 Let not the fool trust in vanity, for it will be his reward.
32 He will be cut down before his time, and his shoots will not bud.
33 He will lose his ripeness like the vine, and shed his blossom like the olive tree.
34 For the congregation of the wicked will be laid waste, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35 They conceived sorrow, they gave birth to iniquity, and in their wombs they plot deceit

Job Chapter 16

Job complains against God

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “ I have often heard such things as these; you are all grievous comforters.
3 Will empty words ever end? Or what compels you to answer?
4 I also could speak as you do, if your life were in my place; I could string words together against you, and shake my head at you.
5 But I would encourage you with my words, and the consolation of my lips would soothe your pain.
6 If I speak, my pain does not cease; and if I refrain from speaking, it does not depart from me.
7 But now you have wearied me; you have laid waste all my company.
8 You have filled me with wrinkles; my leanness is a witness, rising up against me to testify before my face.
9 His anger has torn me apart, and he has turned against me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my enemy has sharpened his eyes against me.
10 They have opened their mouths against me; they have struck my cheeks with insult; They all gathered against me.
11 God has handed me over to the liar, and into the hands of the wicked he has cast me down.
12 I was prosperous, and he crushed me; he seized me by the neck and tore me to pieces, and made me his target.
13 His archers surrounded me; he pierced my kidneys, and did not spare; he poured out my gall on the ground.
14 He broke me from blow to blow; he rushed at me like a giant.
15 I sewed sackcloth on my skin, and laid my head in the dust.
16 My face is flushed with weeping, and my eyelids are darkened,
17 though there was no iniquity in my hands, and my prayer was pure.
18 O earth! Do not cover my blood, and let there be no place for my cry.

19 But behold, my witness is in heaven, and my testimony is on high.
20 My friends are adversaries, but before God I pour out my tears.
21 Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!
22 But the numbered years will come, and I will go the way from which I will not return.

Job Chapter 17

1 My breath fails me, my days are numbered, and the grave has been prepared for me.
2 There are no ones with me but mockers, and my eyes linger on their bitterness.
3 Give me a pledge, O God; let my protection be near you. For who would vouch for me?
4 For you have hidden understanding from their hearts; therefore you will not exalt them.
5 He who betrays his friends as prey, the eyes of his children will fail.
6 He has made me a proverb among the peoples, and I have become like a tambourine before them.
7 My eyes are dim with grief, and all my thoughts are like a shadow.
8 The upright will marvel at this, and the innocent will rise up against the wicked.
9 Nevertheless, the righteous will continue on their path, and the one with clean hands will increase in strength.
10 But turn back, all you, and come now, and I will not find a wise person among you.
11 My days are past, my plans are plucked out, the purposes of my heart.
12 They have turned night into day, and the light is shortened before the darkness.
13 If I wait, Sheol is my house; I will make my bed in the darkness.
14 I have said to corruption, “You are my father,” and to the worms, “My mother and my sister.”
15 Where then is my hope? And who can see my hope?
16 They will go down to the depths of Sheol, and together they will rest in the dust.

Job Chapter 18

Bildad describes the fate of the wicked

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “When will you stop talking? Understand, and then let us speak.
3 Why are we regarded as beasts, and vile in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself apart in your anger, will the land be forsaken because of you, and the rocks be removed from their place?
5 Surely the light of the wicked will be quenched, and the spark of their fire will not shine.
6 The light will go out in their tent, and their lamp will be snuffed out.
7 Their vigorous steps will be shortened, and their own counsel will bring them crashing down.
8 For a net will be cast for their feet, and they will walk on snares.
9 A trap will catch their heel; a snare will be set against them.
10 Their rope is hidden in the ground, and a snare lies in wait for them on the path.
11 Terrors will assail him from every side, and make him flee in bewilderment.
12 His strength will be spent by hunger, and destruction will be prepared at his side.
13 Sickness will gnaw at his skin, and the firstborn of death will devour his limbs.
14 His confidence will be torn from his tent, and he will be led to the king of terrors.
15 He will dwell in his tent as though it were not his own; brimstone will be scattered over his dwelling.
16 His roots below will wither, and his branches above will be cut off.
17 His memory will perish from the earth, and he will have no name in the streets.
18 He will be cast out of the light into darkness, and cast out from the world.
19 He will have no son or grandson among his people, nor anyone to succeed him in his dwellings.
20 On his day those of the west will be astounded, and terror will fall upon those of the east.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this will be the place of him who did not know God.

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24 After he drove the man out, he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Job Chapter 19

Job trusts that God will justify him.

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with words?
3 You have reviled me ten times now; are you not ashamed to revile me?
4 Even if I have indeed erred, my error would be upon me.
5 But if you exalt yourselves against me and bring up my reproach,
6 know now that God has brought me down and ensnared me in his net.
7 Behold, I cry out for wrongdoing, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no justice.
8 He has built a wall around my way, so that I cannot pass; he has set darkness on my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory and taken away the crown from my head.
10 He has destroyed me on every side, and I am destroyed; he has uprooted my hope like a tree.”
11 He stirred up his anger against me, and numbered me among his enemies.
12 His armies came together and entrenched themselves against me, and encamped around my tent.
13 He made my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances shunned me like strangers.
14 My relatives stood still, and my friends forgot me.
15 The people of my house and my maidservants treated me as a stranger; I was a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I called to my servant, but he did not answer; I pleaded with him with my own mouth.
17 My breath became strange to my wife, though I begged her for the sake of my own children.
18 Even the young men despised me; when I rose up, they spoke against me.
19 All my close friends hated me, and those I loved turned against me.
20 My skin and flesh clung to my bones, and I escaped with only the skin of my teeth.

21 Oh, you my friends, have compassion on me, have compassion on me! For the hand of God has touched me.

22 Why do you persecute me as God, and are not even satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh, that my words were written down! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
24 That with an iron chisel and lead they were engraved on stone forever!
25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. My heart yearns within me.
28 But you ought to ask, “Why are we persecuting him?” For the root of the matter lies with me.
29 Be afraid of the sword, for the sword is raging because of injustice, so that you may know that there is judgment.

Job Chapter 20

Zofar describes the calamities of the wicked

1 Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
2 “ Surely my thoughts compel me to answer, and therefore I hasten.
3 I have heard the rebuke of my reproof, and the spirit of my understanding compels me to answer.
4 Do you not know this, that it has always been so, since the time that man was placed on the earth,
5 that the joy of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
6 Though his pride reaches to the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
7 like his dung he will perish forever; those who have seen him will say, ‘What has become of him?’
8 He will fly away like a dream, and will not be found; he will vanish like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place know him anymore.
10 His children will seek the favor of the poor, and their hands will restore what he stole.
11 His bones are full of his youth, but they will lie with him in the dust.”
12 If evil tastes sweet in his mouth, if he hides it under his tongue,
13 if it seems pleasant to him, and he does not forsake it, but holds it fast on his palate;
14 his food will turn to poison in his stomach; the gall of vipers will be within him.
15 He devours riches, but he will vomit them up; God will bring them out of his belly.
16 He will suck the poison of vipers; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
17 He will not see the streams, the rivers, the torrents of honey and milk.
18 He will repay the toil according to the wealth he has taken; he will not swallow it or enjoy it.
19 Because he has broken down and forsaken the poor, because he has stolen houses and not built them;
20 therefore, he will have no rest in his stomach, nor will he save any of the things he coveted.
21 There is nothing left that he will not devour; therefore, his prosperity will not last.
22 In the fullness of his abundance he will suffer hardship; the hand of all the wicked will come upon him.

23 When he begins to fill his belly, God will send his fierce anger upon him, and will rain it down on him and on his food.
24 He will flee from the iron weapons, and the bronze bow will pierce him.
25 The arrow will pierce him and come out of his body, and the flashing point will come out of his gall; terrors will come upon him.
26 All darkness is reserved for his treasures; an unstirred fire will consume them; it will devour what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The branches of his house will be carried away; they will be scattered on the day of his wrath.
29 This is the portion that God prepares for the wicked man, and the inheritance that God assigns him by his word.

Job Chapter 21

Job states that the wicked prosper

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Listen carefully to my words, and let this be the comfort you give me.
3 Bear with me, and I will speak; and after I have spoken, mock me.
4 Do I complain about any man? Why should my spirit not be troubled?
5 Look at me and be appalled, and put your hand over your mouth.
6 Even I myself, when I remember, am astonished, and trembling shakes my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live? They grow old and increase in wealth.
8 Their offspring grow strong in their sight, and their new growth is before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear, and no plague from God comes upon them.
10 Their bulls breed and do not fail; their cows give birth and do not miscarry.
11 Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children leap about.
12 They dance to the tambourine and lyre, and rejoice to the sound of the flute.
13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.
14 They say to God, “Depart from us, for we do not want to know your ways.”
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what good is it for us if we pray to him?
16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hands; the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 How often the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out, and their calamity comes upon them, and God in his anger allots them sorrows!
18 They are like chaff before the wind, and like chaff that the whirlwind blows away.
19 God will store up their violence for their children; he will repay them, that they may know.
20 Their eyes will see their calamity, and they will drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what pleasure will he have in his house after he is dead, when the number of his months is cut off?
22 Can anyone teach God wisdom, when he judges those who are exalted?
23 He will die in the prime of his beauty, all quiet and at peace;
24 His vessels will be full of milk, and his bones will be moistened with marrow.

25 And this other one will die in bitterness of soul, never having eaten with pleasure.
26 They too will lie in the dust, and worms will cover them.
27 Behold, I know your thoughts, and the schemes you devise against me.
28 For you say, “What about the palace of the ruler, and what about the tents of the dwellings of the wicked?”
29 Have you not asked those who pass by on the roads, and not known their answer?
30 “Is the wicked kept safe in the day of destruction? Will they be kept safe in the day of wrath?”
31 Who will declare to their face their ways? And who will repay them for what they have done?
32 For they will be taken to the graves, and watchmen will be kept over their tomb.
33 The clods of the valley will be sweet to them; all mankind will be led after them, and countless people will go before them.
34 How then do you comfort me in vain, when your answers end in falsehood?