Job 21–37

JOB’S REPLY TO ZOPHAR

21Then Job answered:

²Pay close attention to my words;

let this be the consolation you offer.

³Bear with me while I speak;

then after I have spoken, you may continue mocking.

⁴As for me, is my complaint^h against a human being?

Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?

⁵Look at me and shudder;ⁱ

put your hand over your mouth.^j

⁶When I think about it, I am terrified

and my body trembles^k in horror.

⁷Why do the wicked continue to live,

growing old and becoming powerful?

⁸Their children are established while they are still alive,^A

and their descendants, before their eyes.

⁹Their homes are secure and free of fear;^l

no rod from God strikes them.^m

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail;

their cows calve and do not miscarry.

¹¹They let their little ones run around like lambs;

their children skip about,

¹²singing to the tambourine and lyre

and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.ⁿ

¹³They spend^B their days in prosperity^o

and go down to Sheol in peace.

¹⁴Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone!

We don’t want to know your ways.^p

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him,

and what will we gain by pleading with him?”^q

¹⁶But their prosperity is not of their own doing.

The counsel of the wicked is far from me!^r

¹⁷How often is the lamp^s of the wicked put out?

Does disaster^C come on them?

Does he apportion destruction in his anger?

¹⁸Are they like straw before the wind,

like chaff^t a storm sweeps away?

¹⁹God reserves a person’s punishment for his children.^u

Let God repay the person himself, so that he may know it.

²⁰Let his own eyes see his demise;

let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!^v

²¹For what does he care about his family once he is dead,^w

when the number of his months has run out?^x

²²Can anyone teach God knowledge,^y

since he judges the exalted ones?^D

²³One person dies in excellent health,^E

completely secure^F and at ease.

²⁴His body is^A well fed,^B

and his bones are full of marrow.^C

²⁵Yet another person dies with a bitter^a soul,

having never tasted prosperity.

²⁶But they both lie in the dust,

and worms cover them.^b

²⁷I know your thoughts very well,

the schemes by which you would wrong me.

²⁸For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house?”

and “Where are the tents^c the wicked lived in?”

²⁹Have you never consulted those who travel the roads?

Don’t you accept their reports?^D

³⁰Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster,

rescued from the day of wrath.

³¹Who would denounce his behavior to his face?

Who would repay^d him for what he has done?

³²He is carried to the grave,

and someone keeps watch over his tomb.

³³The dirt on his grave is^E sweet to him.

Everyone follows behind him,

and those who go before him are without number.

³⁴So how can you offer me such futile comfort?

Your answers are deceptive.

THIRD SERIES OF SPEECHES

ELIPHAZ SPEAKS

22Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²Can a man be of any use to God?

Can even a wise man be of use to him?

³Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous?

Does he profit if you perfect your behavior?^e

⁴Does he correct you and take you to court

because of your piety?^f

⁵Isn’t your wickedness abundant

and aren’t your iniquities endless?

⁶For you took collateral^g from your brothers without cause,

stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.

⁷You gave no water to the thirsty

and withheld food from the famished,^h

⁸while the land belonged to a powerful man

and an influential man lived on it.

⁹You sent widows away empty-handed,

and the strength of the fatherlessⁱ was^F crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares surround you,

and sudden dread terrifies^j you,

¹¹or darkness, so you cannot see,

and a flood of water covers you.^k

¹²Isn’t God as high as the heavens?

And look at the highest stars—how lofty they are!

¹³Yet you say, “What does God know?

Can he judge through total darkness?^l

¹⁴Clouds^m veil him so that he cannot see,

as he walks on the circle of the sky.”

¹⁵Will you continue on the ancient path

that wicked men have walked?

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time,

and their foundationsⁿ were washed away by a river.

¹⁷They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!”

and “What can the Almighty do to us?”^Ao

¹⁸But it was he who filled their houses with good things.

The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

¹⁹The righteous see this and rejoice;

the innocent mock them, saying,^p

²⁰“Surely our opponents are destroyed,

and fire has consumed what they left behind.”^q

²¹Come to terms with God and be at peace;^r

in this way^B good will come to you.

²²Receive instruction from his mouth,^s

and place his sayings^t in your heart.

²³If you return^u to the Almighty, you will be renewed.

If you banish injustice from your tent

²⁴and consign your gold to the dust,

the gold of Ophir^a to the stones in the wadis,

²⁵the Almighty will be your gold

and your finest silver.

²⁶Then you will delight^b in the Almighty

and lift up your face to God.^c

²⁷You will pray to him, and he will hear you,^d

and you will fulfill your vows.

²⁸When you make a decision, it will be carried out,^C

and light will shine on your ways.^e

²⁹When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,”

God will save the humble.^Df

³⁰He will even rescue the guilty one,

who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.^g

JOB’S REPLY TO ELIPHAZ

23Then Job answered:

²Today also my complaint is bitter.^Eh

His^F hand is heavy despite my groaning.

³If only I knew how to find him,

so that I could go to his throne.

⁴I would plead my case before himⁱ

and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn how^A he would answer me;

and understand what he would say to me.

⁶Would he prosecute^j me forcefully?

No, he would certainly pay attention to me.

⁷Then an upright man could reason^k with him,

and I would escape from my Judge^Bl forever.

⁸If I go east, he is not there,

and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.^m

⁹When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him;

when he turns south, I cannot find him.

¹⁰Yet he knows the way I have taken;^C

when he has tested me,ⁿ I will emerge as pure gold.

¹¹My feet have followed in his tracks;

I have kept to his way^o and not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from the commands from his lips;

I have treasured^D the words^p from his mouth

more than my daily food.

¹³But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him?

He does what he desires.^q

¹⁴He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me,

and he has many more things like these in mind.^E

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified^r in his presence;

when I consider this, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶God has made my heart faint;^s

the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Yet I am not destroyed^F by the darkness,^t

by the thick darkness that covers my face.

24Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment?^u

Why do those who know him never see his days?

²The wicked displace boundary markers.

They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.

³They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless^v

and take the widow’s ox as collateral.

⁴They push the needy off the road;

the poor of the land are forced into hiding.^w

⁵Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,

the poor go out to their task of foraging for food;

the desert provides nourishment for their children.

⁶They gather their fodder in the field

and glean the vineyards of the wicked.

⁷Without clothing, they spend the night naked,

having no covering against the cold.^x

⁸Drenched by mountain rains,

they huddle against^A the rocks, shelterless.

⁹The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;

the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.^B

¹⁰Without clothing, they wander about naked.

They carry sheaves but go hungry.^a

¹¹They crush olives in their presses;^C

they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

¹²From the city, men^D groan;

the mortally wounded cry for help,

yet God pays no attention to this crime.^b

¹³The wicked are those who rebel against the light.

They do not recognize its ways

or stay on its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises at dawn

to kill the poor and needy,

and by night he becomes a thief.

¹⁵The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,

thinking, “No eye will see me,”

and he covers his face.

¹⁶In the dark they break^E into houses;

by day they lock themselves in,^F

never experiencing the light.

¹⁷For the morning is like darkness to them.

Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!

¹⁸They float^G on the surface of the water.

Their section of the land is cursed,

so that they never go to their vineyards.

¹⁹As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow,

so Sheol^c steals those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgets them;

worms feed on them;

they are remembered^d no more.

So injustice is broken like a tree.

²¹They prey on^H the childless woman who is unable to conceive,

and do not deal kindly with the widow.

²²Yet God drags away^I the mighty by his power;

when he rises up, they have no assurance of life.

²³He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,^e

but his eyes^f watch over their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a moment, then gone;

they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else.^J

They wither like heads of grain.^g

²⁵If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar^h

and show that my speech is worthless?

BILDAD SPEAKS

25Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²Dominion and dreadⁱ belong to him,

the one who establishes harmony in his heights.

³Can his troops be numbered?

Does his light not shine on everyone?

⁴How can a human be justified before God?^j

How can one born of woman be pure?^k

⁵If even the moon does not shine

and the stars are not pure in his sight,^l

⁶how much less a human, who is a maggot,

a son of man,^A who is a worm!^m

JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD

26Then Job answered:

²How you have helpedⁿ the powerless

and delivered the arm that is weak!

³How you have counseled the unwise^o

and abundantly provided insight!

⁴With whom did you speak these words?

Whose breath came out of your mouth?

⁵The departed spirits tremble

beneath the waters and all that inhabit them.^p

⁶Sheol^q is naked before God,

and Abaddon^r has no covering.^s

⁷He stretches…