Job 24–31

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 the northern skies over empty space;

he hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He wraps up the water in his clouds,

yet the clouds do not burst beneath its weight.^a

⁹He obscures the view of his throne,

spreading his cloud over it.

¹⁰He laid out the horizon on the surface of the waters^b

at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars that hold up the sky tremble,

astounded at his rebuke.^c

¹²By his power he stirred^d the sea,

and by his understanding he crushed Rahab.^e

¹³By his breath the heavens gained their beauty;

his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.^Bf

¹⁴These are but the fringes of his ways;

how faint is the word we hear of him!

Who can understand his mighty thunder?

27Job continued his discourse, saying:

²As God lives, who has deprived me of justice,^g

and the Almighty who has made me bitter,^h

³as long as my breath is still in me

and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,ⁱ

⁴my lips will not speak unjustly,

and my tongue will not utter deceit.

⁵I will never affirm that you are right.

I will maintain my integrity^Aj until I die.

⁶I will cling to my righteousness and never let it go.

My conscience^k will not accuse me as long as I live!

⁷May my enemy be like the wicked

and my opponent like the unjust.

⁸For what hope does the godless person^l have when he is cut off,

when God takes away his life?^m

⁹Will God hear his cry

when distress comes on him?

¹⁰Will he delightⁿ in the Almighty?

Will he call on God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you about God’s power.

I will not conceal what the Almighty has planned.^B

¹²All of you have seen this for yourselves,

why do you keep up this empty talk?^o

¹³This is a wicked man’s lot^p from God,

the inheritance the ruthless receive from the Almighty.

¹⁴Even if his children increase, they are destined for the sword;

his descendants will never have enough food.

¹⁵Those who survive him will be buried by the plague,

yet their widows will not weep for them.^q

¹⁶Though he piles up silver like dust

and heaps up fine clothing like clay—

¹⁷he may heap it up, but the righteous will wear it,

and the innocent will divide up his silver.^r

¹⁸The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon

or a shelter set up by a watchman.^s

¹⁹He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;

when he opens his eyes, it is gone.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like a flood;^t

a storm^u wind sweeps him away at night.

²¹An east wind picks him up, and he is gone;

it carries him away from his place.

²²It blasts at him without mercy,

while he flees desperately from its force.

²³It claps^v its hands at him

and scoffs at him from its place.

A HYMN TO WISDOM

28Surely there is a mine for silver

and a place where gold is refined.

²Iron is taken from the ground,

and copper is smelted from ore.

³A miner puts an end to the darkness;

he probes^A the deepest recesses

for ore in the gloomy darkness.

⁴He cuts a shaft far from human habitation,

in places unknown to those who walk above ground.

Suspended far away from people,

the miners swing back and forth.

⁵Food may come from the earth,

but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.

⁶Its rocks are a source of lapis lazuli,^a

containing flecks of gold.

⁷No bird of prey knows that path;

no falcon’s eye has seen it.

⁸Proud beasts have never walked on it;

no lion has ever prowled over it.

⁹The miner uses a flint tool

and turns up ore from the root of the mountains.

¹⁰He cuts out channels in the rocks,

and his eyes spot every treasure.

¹¹He dams up the streams from flowing^B

so that he may bring to light what is hidden.

¹²But where can wisdom^b be found,

and where is understanding located?

¹³No one can know its value,^C

since it cannot be found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,”

while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”^c

¹⁵Gold cannot be exchanged for it,

and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.

¹⁶Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,^d

in precious onyx or lapis lazuli.^e

¹⁷Gold and glass do not compare with it,

and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.^f

¹⁸Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning.

The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.

¹⁹Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it,

and it cannot be valued in pure gold.

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from,

and where is understanding located?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing

and concealed from the birds of the sky.

²²Abaddon and Death^g say,

“We have heard news of it with our ears.”

²³But God understands the way to wisdom,

and he knows its location.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵When God fixed the weight of the wind

and distributed the water by measure,^h

²⁶when he established a limit^A for the rainⁱ

and a path for the lightning,

²⁷he considered wisdom and evaluated it;

he established it and examined it.

²⁸He said to mankind,

“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom.

And to turn from evil is understanding.”^j

JOB’S FINAL CLAIM OF INNOCENCE

29Job continued his discourse, saying:

²If only I could be as in months gone by,

in the days when God watched over me,

³when his lamp shone above my head,

and I walked through darkness by his light!^k

⁴I would be as I was in the days of my youth

when God’s friendship^l rested on my tent,

⁵when the Almighty was still with me

and my children were around me,

⁶when my feet were bathed in curds

and the rock^m poured out streams of oil for me!

⁷When I went out to the city gateⁿ

and took my seat in the town square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew,

while older men stood to their feet.

⁹City officials stopped talking

and covered their mouths with their hands.^a

¹⁰The noblemen’s voices were hushed,

and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.^b

¹¹When they heard me, they blessed me,

and when they saw me, they spoke well of me.^B

¹²For I rescued the poor who cried out for help,

and the fatherless child who had no one to support him.^c

¹³The dying blessed me,

and I made the widow’s heart rejoice.

¹⁴I clothed myself in righteousness,^d

and it enveloped me;

my just decisions were like a robe and a turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind

and feet to the lame.^e

¹⁶I was a father to the needy,

and I examined the case of the stranger.

¹⁷I shattered the fangs of the unjust^f

and snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁸So I thought, “I will die in my own nest

and multiply my days as the sand.^C

¹⁹My roots will have access to water,^g

and the dew will rest on my branches all night.

²⁰My whole being will be refreshed within me,

and my bow will be renewed in my hand.”^h

²¹Men listened to me with expectation,

waiting silently for my advice.

²²After a word from me they did not speak again; …