Job 22-42
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Chapter: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 - 37 - 38 - 39 - 40 - 41 - 42
PIB reduced verse number chapters are derived from the World English Bible
The verse numbers that have been retained are either at the beginning of paragraphs or every 5 - 10 verses depending on the amount of text. The paragraph numbers below are designed to aid locating verses while encourage reading these in a wider context.
The following full version of Job 22-42 is machine readable in Chrome and Safari [Edit > Speech > Start Speaking] or Microsoft Edge [Settings and more > Read aloud]
[HINT: To find Bible verses, use Ctrl+F (PC) or command+F (Mac) and copy in a short phrase from the PIB Scripture. E.g. 2-4 words, without the book name or verse numbers.]
Chapter: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 - 37 - 38 - 39 - 40 - 41 - 42
Job 22
Job 22 [1.] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
“Can a man be profitable to God?
Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous?
Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?
Is it for your piety that he reproves you,
that he enters with you into judgment?
Isn’t your wickedness great?
Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing,
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
You haven’t given water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
But as for the mighty man, he had the earth.
The honorable man, he lived in it.
You have sent widows away empty,
and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Job 22 [10.] Therefore snares are around you.
Sudden fear troubles you,
or darkness, so that you can not see,
and floods of waters cover you.
“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven?
See the height of the stars, how high they are!
You say, ‘What does God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see.
He walks on the vault of the sky.’
Will you keep the old way,
which wicked men have trodden,
who were snatched away before their time,
whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’
and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
Yet he filled their houses with good things,
but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
The righteous see it, and are glad.
The innocent ridicule them,
Job 22 [20.] saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off.
The fire has consumed their remnant.’
“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace.
Thereby good shall come to you.
Please receive instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart.
If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up,
if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
Lay your treasure in the dust,
the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
The Almighty will be your treasure,
and precious silver to you.
For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,
and shall lift up your face to God.
You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you.
You shall pay your vows.
You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you.
Light shall shine on your ways.
When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’
He will save the humble person.
Job 22 [30.] He will even deliver him who is not innocent.
Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”
Job 23
Job 23 [1.] Then Job answered,
“Even today my complaint is rebellious.
His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
Oh that I knew where I might find him!
That I might come even to his seat!
I would set my cause in order before him,
and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which he would answer me,
and understand what he would tell me.
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No, but he would listen to me.
There the upright might reason with him,
so I should be delivered forever from my judge.
“If I go east, he is not there;
if west, I can’t find him;
He works to the north, but I can’t see him.
He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him.
Job 23 [10.] But he knows the way that I take.
When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold.
My foot has held fast to his steps.
I have kept his way, and not turned aside.
I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
But he stands alone, and who can oppose him?
What his soul desires, even that he does.
For he performs that which is appointed for me.
Many such things are with him.
Therefore I am terrified at his presence.
When I consider, I am afraid of him.
For God has made my heart faint.
The Almighty has terrified me.
Because I was not cut off before the darkness,
neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.
Job 24
Job 24 [1.] “Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty?
Why don’t those who know him see his days?
There are people who remove the landmarks.
They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless,
and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
They turn the needy out of the way.
The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert,
they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food.
The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
They cut their food in the field.
They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
They lie all night naked without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast,
and take a pledge of the poor,
Job 24 [10.] So that they go around naked without clothing.
Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
They make oil within the walls of these men.
They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
From out of the populous city, men groan.
The soul of the wounded cries out,
yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
“These are of those who rebel against the light.
They don’t know its ways,
nor stay in its paths.
The murderer rises with the light.
He kills the poor and needy.
In the night he is like a thief.
The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’
He disguises his face.
In the dark they dig through houses.
They shut themselves up in the daytime.
They don’t know the light.
For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness,
for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
“They are foam on the surface of the waters.
Their portion is cursed in the earth.
They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.
Drought and heat consume the snow waters,
so does Sheol[a] those who have sinned.
Job 24 [20.] The womb shall forget him.
The worm shall feed sweetly on him.
He shall be no more remembered.
Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
He devours the barren who don’t bear.
He shows no kindness to the widow.
Yet God preserves the mighty by his power.
He rises up who has no assurance of life.
God gives them security, and they rest in it.
His eyes are on their ways.
They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone.
Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others,
and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar,
and make my speech worth nothing?”
Job 25
Job 25 [1.] Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
“Dominion and fear are with him.
He makes peace in his high places.
Can his armies be counted?
On whom does his light not arise?
How then can man be just with God?
Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
Behold, even the moon has no brightness,
and the stars are not pure in his sight;
Job 26
Job 26 [1.] Then Job answered,
“How have you helped him who is without power!
How have you saved the arm that has no strength!
How have you counseled him who has no wisdom,
and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
To whom have you uttered words?
Whose spirit came out of you?
“The departed spirits tremble,
those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
Sheol[a] is naked before God,
and Abaddon[b] has no covering.
He stretches out the north over empty space,
and hangs the earth on nothing.
He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not burst under them.
He encloses the face of his throne,
and spreads his cloud on it.
Job 26 [10.] He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters,
and to the confines of light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astonished at his rebuke.
He stirs up the sea with his power,
and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
By his Spirit the heavens are garnished.
His hand has pierced the swift serpent.
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways.
How small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
Footnotes:
a. Job 26:6 Sheol is the lower world or the grave.
b. Job 26:6 Abaddon means Destroyer.
Job 27
Job 27 [1.] Job again took up his parable, and said,
“As God lives, who has taken away my right,
the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter.
(For the length of my life is still in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness,
neither shall my tongue utter deceit.
Far be it from me that I should justify you.
Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go.
My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
“Let my enemy be as the wicked.
Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
Job 27 [10.] Will he delight himself in the Almighty,
and call on God at all times?
I will teach you about the hand of God.
That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;
why then have you become altogether vain?
“This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword.
His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
Those who remain of him shall be buried in death.
His widows shall make no lamentation.
Though he heap up silver as the dust,
and prepare clothing as the clay;
he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on,
and the innocent shall divide the silver.
He builds his house as the moth,
as a booth which the watchman makes.
He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again.
He opens his eyes, and he is not.
Job 27 [20.] Terrors overtake him like waters.
A storm steals him away in the night.
The east wind carries him away, and he departs.
It sweeps him out of his place.
For it hurls at him, and does not spare,
as he flees away from his hand.
Men shall clap their hands at him,
and shall hiss him out of his place.
Job 28
Job 28 [1.] “Surely there is a mine for silver,
and a place for gold which they refine.
Iron is taken out of the earth,
and copper is smelted out of the ore.
Man sets an end to darkness,
and searches out, to the furthest bound,
the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
He breaks open a shaft away from where people live.
They are forgotten by the foot.
They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
As for the earth, out of it comes bread;
Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
Sapphires come from its rocks.
It has dust of gold.
That path no bird of prey knows,
neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.
The proud animals have not trodden it,
nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
He puts his hand on the flinty rock,
and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
Job 28 [10.] He cuts out channels among the rocks.
His eye sees every precious thing.
He binds the streams that they don’t trickle.
The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
“But where shall wisdom be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
Man doesn’t know its price;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’
The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
It can’t be gotten for gold,
neither shall silver be weighed for its price.
It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir,
with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.[a]
Gold and glass can’t equal it,
neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal.
Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
Job 28 [20.] Where then does wisdom come from?
Where is the place of understanding?
Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living,
and kept close from the birds of the sky.
Destruction and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
“God understands its way,
and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth,
and sees under the whole sky.
He establishes the force of the wind.
Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
When he made a decree for the rain,
and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
then he saw it, and declared it.
He established it, yes, and searched it out.
Footnotes:
a. Job 28:16 or, lapis lazuli
b. Job 28:28 The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”
Job 29
Job 29 [1.] Job again took up his parable, and said,
“Oh that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me;
when his lamp shone on my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
as I was in the ripeness of my days,
when the friendship of God was in my tent,
when the Almighty was yet with me,
and my children were around me,
when my steps were washed with butter,
and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,
when I went out to the city gate,
when I prepared my seat in the street.
The young men saw me and hid themselves.
The aged rose up and stood.
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.
For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me;
and when the eye saw me, it commended me:
Because I delivered the poor who cried,
and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,
the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me.
My justice was as a robe and a diadem.
I was eyes to the blind,
and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy.
The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out.
I broke the jaws of the unrighteous,
and plucked the prey out of his teeth.
Then I said, ‘I shall die in my own house,
I shall number my days as the sand.
My root is spread out to the waters.
The dew lies all night on my branch.
Job 29 [20.] My glory is fresh in me.
My bow is renewed in my hand.’
“Men listened to me, waited,
and kept silence for my counsel.
After my words they didn’t speak again.
My speech fell on them.
They waited for me as for the rain.
Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.
I smiled on them when they had no confidence.
They didn’t reject the light of my face.
I chose out their way, and sat as chief.
I lived as a king in the army,
as one who comforts the mourners.
Job 30
Job 30 [1.] “But now those who are younger than I have me in derision,
whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
Of what use is the strength of their hands to me,
men in whom ripe age has perished?
They are gaunt from lack and famine.
They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
They pluck salt herbs by the bushes.
The roots of the broom are their food.
They are driven out from among men.
They cry after them as after a thief;
So that they dwell in frightful valleys,
and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
Among the bushes they bray;
and under the nettles they are gathered together.
They are children of fools, yes, children of base men.
They were flogged out of the land.
“Now I have become their song.
Yes, I am a byword to them.
Job 30 [10.] They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.
For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me;
and they have thrown off restraint before me.
On my right hand rise the rabble.
They thrust aside my feet,
They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
They mar my path,
They set forward my calamity,
without anyone’s help.
As through a wide breach they come,
in the middle of the ruin they roll themselves in.
Terrors have turned on me.
They chase my honor as the wind.
My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
“Now my soul is poured out within me.
Days of affliction have taken hold on me.
In the night season my bones are pierced in me,
and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
By great force is my garment disfigured.
It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
He has cast me into the mire.
I have become like dust and ashes.
Job 30 [20.] I cry to you, and you do not answer me.
I stand up, and you gaze at me.
You have turned to be cruel to me.
With the might of your hand you persecute me.
You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it.
You dissolve me in the storm.
For I know that you will bring me to death,
To the house appointed for all living.
“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall?
Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble?
Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?
When I looked for good, then evil came;
When I waited for light, there came darkness.
My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest.
Days of affliction have come on me.
I go mourning without the sun.
I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
I am a brother to jackals,
and a companion to ostriches.
Job 30 [30.] My skin grows black and peels from me.
My bones are burned with heat.
Therefore my harp has turned to mourning,
and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
Job 31
Job 31 [1.] “I made a covenant with my eyes,
how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
For what is the portion from God above,
and the heritage from the Almighty on high?
Is it not calamity to the unrighteous,
and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
Doesn’t he see my ways,
and number all my steps?
“If I have walked with falsehood,
and my foot has hurried to deceit
(let me be weighed in an even balance,
that God may know my integrity);
if my step has turned out of the way,
if my heart walked after my eyes,
if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
then let me sow, and let another eat.
Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
“If my heart has been enticed to a woman,
and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,
Job 31 [10.] then let my wife grind for another,
and let others sleep with her.
For that would be a heinous crime.
Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges:
For it is a fire that consumes to destruction,
and would root out all my increase.
“If I have despised the cause of my male servant
or of my female servant,
when they contended with me;
What then shall I do when God rises up?
When he visits, what shall I answer him?
Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him?
Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?
“If I have withheld the poor from their desire,
or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
or have eaten my morsel alone,
and the fatherless has not eaten of it
(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
her have I guided from my mother’s womb);
if I have seen any perish for want of clothing,
or that the needy had no covering;
Job 31 [20.] if his heart hasn’t blessed me,
if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;
if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,
because I saw my help in the gate,
then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade,
and my arm be broken from the bone.
For calamity from God is a terror to me.
Because his majesty, I can do nothing.
“If I have made gold my hope,
and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’
If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,
and because my hand had gotten much;
if I have seen the sun when it shined,
or the moon moving in splendor,
and my heart has been secretly enticed,
and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
for I should have denied the God who is above.
“If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me,
or lifted up myself when evil found him;
Job 31 [30.] (yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin
by asking his life with a curse);
if the men of my tent have not said,
‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’
(the foreigner has not camped in the street,
but I have opened my doors to the traveler);
if like Adam I have covered my transgressions,
by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
because I feared the great multitude,
and the contempt of families terrified me,
so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—
oh that I had one to hear me!
(behold, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me);
let the accuser write my indictment!
Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;
and I would bind it to me as a crown.
I would declare to him the number of my steps.
as a prince would I go near to him.
If my land cries out against me,
and its furrows weep together;
if I have eaten its fruits without money,
or have caused its owners to lose their life,
Job 31 [40.] let briers grow instead of wheat,
and stinkweed instead of barley.”
The words of Job are ended.
Job 32
Job 32 [1.] So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God. Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled.
Job 32 [6.] Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered,
“I am young, and you are very old;
Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion.
I said, ‘Days should speak,
and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’
But there is a spirit in man,
and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
It is not the great who are wise,
nor the aged who understand justice.
Job 32 [10.] Therefore I said, ‘Listen to me;
I also will show my opinion.’
“Behold, I waited for your words,
and I listened for your reasoning,
while you searched out what to say.
Yes, I gave you my full attention,
but there was no one who convinced Job,
or who answered his words, among you.
Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom,
God may refute him, not man;’
for he has not directed his words against me;
neither will I answer him with your speeches.
“They are amazed. They answer no more.
They don’t have a word to say.
Shall I wait, because they don’t speak,
because they stand still, and answer no more?
I also will answer my part,
and I also will show my opinion.
For I am full of words.
The spirit within me constrains me.
Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent;
like new wineskins it is ready to burst.
Job 32 [20.] I will speak, that I may be refreshed.
I will open my lips and answer.
Please don’t let me respect any man’s person,
neither will I give flattering titles to any man.
For I don’t know how to give flattering titles;
or else my Maker would soon take me away.
Job 33
Job 33 [1.] “However, Job, please hear my speech,
and listen to all my words.
See now, I have opened my mouth.
My tongue has spoken in my mouth.
My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart.
That which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.
The Spirit of God has made me,
and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
If you can, answer me.
Set your words in order before me, and stand up.
Behold, I am toward God even as you are.
I am also formed out of the clay.
Behold, my terror shall not make you afraid,
neither shall my pressure be heavy on you.
“Surely you have spoken in my hearing,
I have heard the voice of your words, saying,
‘I am clean, without disobedience.
I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.
Job 33 [10.] Behold, he finds occasions against me.
He counts me for his enemy.
He puts my feet in the stocks.
He marks all my paths.’
“Behold, I will answer you. In this you are not just,
for God is greater than man.
Why do you strive against him,
because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters?
For God speaks once,
yes twice, though man pays no attention.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
in slumbering on the bed;
Then he opens the ears of men,
and seals their instruction,
That he may withdraw man from his purpose,
and hide pride from man.
He keeps back his soul from the pit,
and his life from perishing by the sword.
He is chastened also with pain on his bed,
with continual strife in his bones;
Job 33 [20.] So that his life abhors bread,
and his soul dainty food.
His flesh is so consumed away, that it can’t be seen.
His bones that were not seen stick out.
Yes, his soul draws near to the pit,
and his life to the destroyers.
“If there is beside him an angel,
an interpreter, one among a thousand,
to show to man what is right for him;
then God is gracious to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down to the pit,
I have found a ransom.’
His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s.
He returns to the days of his youth.
He prays to God, and he is favorable to him,
so that he sees his face with joy.
He restores to man his righteousness.
He sings before men, and says,
‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right,
and it didn’t profit me.
He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit.
My life shall see the light.’
“Behold, God does all these things,
twice, yes three times, with a man,
Job 33 [30.] to bring back his soul from the pit,
that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.
Mark well, Job, and listen to me.
Hold your peace, and I will speak.
If you have anything to say, answer me.
Speak, for I desire to justify you.
If not, listen to me.
Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom.”
Job 34
Job 34 [1.] Moreover Elihu answered,
“Hear my words, you wise men.
Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.
For the ear tries words,
as the palate tastes food.
Let us choose for us that which is right.
Let us know among ourselves what is good.
For Job has said, ‘I am righteous,
God has taken away my right:
Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar.
My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’
What man is like Job,
who drinks scorn like water,
Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity,
and walks with wicked men?
For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing
that he should delight himself with God.’
Job 34 [10.] “Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding:
far be it from God, that he should do wickedness,
from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
For the work of a man he will render to him,
and cause every man to find according to his ways.
Yes surely, God will not do wickedly,
neither will the Almighty pervert justice.
Who put him in charge of the earth?
or who has appointed him over the whole world?
If he set his heart on himself,
If he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,
all flesh would perish together,
and man would turn again to dust.
“If now you have understanding, hear this.
Listen to the voice of my words.
Shall even one who hates justice govern?
Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty?—
Who says to a king, ‘Vile!’
or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’?
Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes,
nor respects the rich more than the poor;
for they all are the work of his hands.
Job 34 [20.] In a moment they die, even at midnight.
The people are shaken and pass away.
The mighty are taken away without a hand.
“For his eyes are on the ways of a man.
He sees all his goings.
There is no darkness, nor thick gloom,
where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
For he doesn’t need to consider a man further,
that he should go before God in judgment.
He breaks in pieces mighty men in ways past finding out,
and sets others in their place.
Therefore he takes knowledge of their works.
He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.
He strikes them as wicked men
in the open sight of others;
because they turned aside from following him,
and wouldn’t pay attention to any of his ways,
so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him.
He heard the cry of the afflicted.
When he gives quietness, who then can condemn?
When he hides his face, who then can see him?
Alike whether to a nation, or to a man,
Job 34 [30.] that the godless man may not reign,
that there be no one to ensnare the people.
“For has any said to God,
‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.
Teach me that which I don’t see.
If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?
Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it?
For you must choose, and not I.
Therefore speak what you know.
Men of understanding will tell me,
yes, every wise man who hears me:
‘Job speaks without knowledge.
His words are without wisdom.’
I wish that Job were tried to the end,
because of his answering like wicked men.
For he adds rebellion to his sin.
He claps his hands among us,
and multiplies his words against God.”
Job 35
Job 35 [1.] Moreover Elihu answered,
“Do you think this to be your right,
or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’
That you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you?
What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’
I will answer you,
and your companions with you.
Look to the heavens, and see.
See the skies, which are higher than you.
If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him?
If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
If you are righteous, what do you give him?
Or what does he receive from your hand?
Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are,
and your righteousness may profit a son of man.
“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out.
They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
Job 35 [10.] But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
who teaches us more than the animals of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
There they cry, but no one gives answer,
because of the pride of evil men.
Surely God will not hear an empty cry,
neither will the Almighty regard it.
How much less when you say you don’t see him.
The cause is before him, and you wait for him!
But now, because he has not visited in his anger,
neither does he greatly regard arrogance.
Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk,
and he multiplies words without knowledge.”
Job 36
Job 36 [1.] Elihu also continued, and said,
“Bear with me a little, and I will show you;
for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
I will get my knowledge from afar,
and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
For truly my words are not false.
One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone.
He is mighty in strength of understanding.
He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked,
but gives to the afflicted their right.
He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne,
he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
If they are bound in fetters,
and are taken in the cords of afflictions,
then he shows them their work,
and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
Job 36 [10.] He also opens their ears to instruction,
and commands that they return from iniquity.
If they listen and serve him,
they shall spend their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasures.
But if they don’t listen, they shall perish by the sword;
they shall die without knowledge.
“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger.
They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
They die in youth.
Their life perishes among the unclean.
He delivers the afflicted by their affliction,
and opens their ear in oppression.
Yes, he would have allured you out of distress,
into a wide place, where there is no restriction.
That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked.
Judgment and justice take hold of you.
Don’t let riches entice you to wrath,
neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
Would your wealth sustain you in distress,
or all the might of your strength?
Job 36 [20.] Don’t desire the night,
when people are cut off in their place.
Take heed, don’t regard iniquity;
for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
Behold, God is exalted in his power.
Who is a teacher like him?
Who has prescribed his way for him?
Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’
“Remember that you magnify his work,
whereof men have sung.
All men have looked on it.
Man sees it afar off.
Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him.
The number of his years is unsearchable.
For he draws up the drops of water,
which distill in rain from his vapor,
Which the skies pour down
and which drop on man abundantly.
Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds,
and the thunderings of his pavilion?
Job 36 [30.] Behold, he spreads his light around him.
He covers the bottom of the sea.
For by these he judges the people.
He gives food in abundance.
He covers his hands with the lightning,
and commands it to strike the mark.
Its noise tells about him,
and the livestock also concerning the storm that comes up.
Job 37
Job 37 [1.] “Yes, at this my heart trembles,
and is moved out of its place.
Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice,
the sound that goes out of his mouth.
He sends it out under the whole sky,
and his lightning to the ends of the earth.
After it a voice roars.
He thunders with the voice of his majesty.
He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard.
God thunders marvelously with his voice.
He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.
For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth;’
likewise to the shower of rain,
and to the showers of his mighty rain.
He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men whom he has made may know it.
Then the animals take cover,
and remain in their dens.
Out of its room comes the storm,
and cold out of the north.
Job 37 [10.] By the breath of God, ice is given,
and the width of the waters is frozen.
Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture.
He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
It is turned around by his guidance,
that they may do whatever he commands them
on the surface of the habitable world,
Whether it is for correction, or for his land,
or for loving kindness, that he causes it to come.
“Listen to this, Job.
Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
Do you know how God controls them,
and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
Do you know the workings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
You whose clothing is warm,
when the earth is still by reason of the south wind?
Can you, with him, spread out the sky,
which is strong as a cast metal mirror?
Teach us what we shall tell him,
for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness.
Job 37 [20.] Will it be told him that I would speak?
Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
Now men don’t see the light which is bright in the skies,
but the wind passes, and clears them.
Out of the north comes golden splendor.
With God is awesome majesty.
We can’t reach the Almighty.
He is exalted in power.
In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.
Therefore men revere him.
He doesn’t regard any who are wise of heart.”
Job 38
Job 38 [1.] Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
“Who is this who darkens counsel
by words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man,
for I will question you, then you answer me!
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measures, if you know?
Or who stretched the line on it?
Whereupon were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
“Or who shut up the sea with doors,
when it broke out of the womb,
when I made clouds its garment,
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
Job 38 [10.] marked out for it my bound,
set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further.
Here your proud waves shall be stayed?’
“Have you commanded the morning in your days,
and caused the dawn to know its place;
that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it?
It is changed as clay under the seal,
and presented as a garment.
From the wicked, their light is withheld.
The high arm is broken.
“Have you entered into the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Have you comprehended the earth in its width?
Declare, if you know it all.
“What is the way to the dwelling of light?
As for darkness, where is its place,
Job 38 [20.] that you should take it to its bound,
that you should discern the paths to its house?
Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
Have you entered the treasuries of the snow,
or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
which I have reserved against the time of trouble,
against the day of battle and war?
By what way is the lightning distributed,
or the east wind scattered on the earth?
Who has cut a channel for the flood water,
or the path for the thunderstorm;
To cause it to rain on a land where no man is;
on the wilderness, in which there is no man;
to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,
to cause the tender grass to grow?
Does the rain have a father?
Or who fathers the drops of dew?
Out of whose womb came the ice?
The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?
Job 38 [30.] The waters become hard like stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen.
“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,
or loosen the cords of Orion?
Can you lead the constellations out in their season?
Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover you?
Can you send out lightnings, that they may go?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?’
Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?
Or who has given understanding to the mind?
Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,
when the dust runs into a mass,
and the clods of earth stick together?
“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
Job 38 [40.] when they crouch in their dens,
and lie in wait in the thicket?
Who provides for the raven his prey,
when his young ones cry to God,
and wander for lack of food?
Job 39
Job 39 [1.] “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?
Can you number the months that they fulfill?
Or do you know the time when they give birth?
They bow themselves, they bear their young.
They end their labor pains.
Their young ones become strong.
They grow up in the open field.
They go out, and don’t return again.
“Who has set the wild donkey free?
Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,
Whose home I have made the wilderness,
and the salt land his dwelling place?
He scorns the tumult of the city,
neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.
The range of the mountains is his pasture,
He searches after every green thing.
“Will the wild ox be content to serve you?
Or will he stay by your feeding trough?
Job 39 [10.] Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness?
Or will he till the valleys after you?
Will you trust him, because his strength is great?
Or will you leave to him your labor?
Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed,
and gather the grain of your threshing floor?
“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;
but are they the feathers and plumage of love?
For she leaves her eggs on the earth,
warms them in the dust,
and forgets that the foot may crush them,
or that the wild animal may trample them.
She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers.
Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,
because God has deprived her of wisdom,
neither has he imparted to her understanding.
When she lifts up herself on high,
she scorns the horse and his rider.
“Have you given the horse might?
Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?
Job 39 [20.] Have you made him to leap as a locust?
The glory of his snorting is awesome.
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength.
He goes out to meet the armed men.
He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed,
neither does he turn back from the sword.
The quiver rattles against him,
the flashing spear and the javelin.
He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage,
neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’
He smells the battle afar off,
the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,
and stretches her wings toward the south?
Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up,
and makes his nest on high?
On the cliff he dwells, and makes his home,
on the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.
From there he spies out the prey.
His eyes see it afar off.
Job 39 [30.] His young ones also suck up blood.
Where the slain are, there he is.”
Job 40
Job 40 [1.] Moreover Yahweh answered Job,
Then Job answered Yahweh,
“Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
“Now brace yourself like a man.
I will question you, and you will answer me.
Will you even annul my judgment?
Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
Or do you have an arm like God?
Can you thunder with a voice like him?
Job 40 [10.] “Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity.
Array yourself with honor and majesty.
Pour out the fury of your anger.
Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him.
Crush the wicked in their place.
Hide them in the dust together.
Bind their faces in the hidden place.
Then I will also admit to you
that your own right hand can save you.
“See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you.
He eats grass as an ox.
Look now, his strength is in his thighs.
His force is in the muscles of his belly.
He moves his tail like a cedar.
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are like tubes of brass.
His limbs are like bars of iron.
He is the chief of the ways of God.
He who made him gives him his sword.
Job 40 [20.] Surely the mountains produce food for him,
where all the animals of the field play.
He lies under the lotus trees,
in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.
The lotuses cover him with their shade.
The willows of the brook surround him.
Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble.
He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.
Shall any take him when he is on the watch,
or pierce through his nose with a snare?
Job 41
Job 41 [1.] “Can you draw out Leviathan[a] with a fish hook,
or press down his tongue with a cord?
Can you put a rope into his nose,
or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
Will he make many petitions to you,
or will he speak soft words to you?
Will he make a covenant with you,
that you should take him for a servant forever?
Will you play with him as with a bird?
Or will you bind him for your girls?
Will traders barter for him?
Will they part him among the merchants?
Can you fill his skin with barbed irons,
or his head with fish spears?
Lay your hand on him.
Remember the battle, and do so no more.
Behold, the hope of him is in vain.
Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?
Job 41 [10.] None is so fierce that he dare stir him up.
Who then is he who can stand before me?
Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Everything under the heavens is mine.
“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.
Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who shall come within his jaws?
Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror.
Strong scales are his pride,
shut up together with a close seal.
One is so near to another,
that no air can come between them.
They are joined to one another.
They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart.
His sneezing flashes out light.
His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
Out of his mouth go burning torches.
Sparks of fire leap out.
Job 41 [20.] Out of his nostrils a smoke goes,
as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
His breath kindles coals.
A flame goes out of his mouth.
There is strength in his neck.
Terror dances before him.
The flakes of his flesh are joined together.
They are firm on him.
They can’t be moved.
His heart is as firm as a stone,
yes, firm as the lower millstone.
When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.
They retreat before his thrashing.
If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail;
nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
He counts iron as straw;
and brass as rotten wood.
The arrow can’t make him flee.
Sling stones are like chaff to him.
Clubs are counted as stubble.
He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.
Job 41 [30.] His undersides are like sharp potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
He makes the deep to boil like a pot.
He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
He makes a path shine after him.
One would think the deep had white hair.
On earth there is not his equal,
that is made without fear.
He sees everything that is high.
He is king over all the sons of pride.”
Footnotes:
A. Job 41:1 Leviathan is a name for a crocodile or similar creature.
Job 42
Job 42 [1.] Then Job answered Yahweh,
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.
You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.
You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you will answer me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you.
Therefore I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42 [7.] It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”
Job 42 [9.] So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.
Job 42 [10.] Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money,[a] and everyone a ring of gold.
Job 42 [12.] So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch. In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days.
Footnotes:
a. Job 42:11 literally, kesitah, a unit of money, probably silver.