Job 7–9

Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope

7“Has not man ^ra hard service on earth,

and are not his ^sdays like the days of a hired hand?

²Like a slave who longs for ^tthe shadow,

and like ^ua hired hand who looks for his ^vwages,

³so I am allotted months of ^wemptiness,

^xand nights of misery are apportioned to me.

^4yWhen I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’

But the night is long,

and I toss and turn till the dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with ^zworms and ^adirt;

my skin hardens, then ^bbreaks out afresh.

⁶My days are ^cswifter than ^da weaver’s shuttle

and come to their end without hope.

⁷“Remember that my life is a ^ebreath;

my eye will never again see good.

^8fThe eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;

while your eyes are on me, ^gI shall be gone.

⁹As ^hthe cloud fades and vanishes,

so he who ⁱgoes down to Sheol does not come up;

¹⁰he ^jreturns no more to his house,

nor does his ^kplace know him anymore.

¹¹“Therefore I will not ^lrestrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will ^mcomplain in ⁿthe bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the sea, or ^oa sea monster,

that you set a guard over me?

^13pWhen I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,

my couch will ease my complaint,’

¹⁴then you scare me with dreams

and terrify me with visions,

¹⁵so that I would choose strangling

and death rather than my ^qbones.

¹⁶I ^rloathe my life; I would not live forever.

^sLeave me alone, for my days are ^ta breath.

^17uWhat is man, that you make so much of him,

and that you set your heart on him,

^18vvisit him every morning

and ^wtest him every moment?

¹⁹How long will you not ^xlook away from me,

nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

²⁰If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?

Why have you made me ^yyour mark?

Why have I become a burden to you?

²¹Why do you not pardon my transgression

and take away my iniquity?

For now I shall lie in ^zthe earth;

you will ^aseek me, ^bbut I shall not be.”

Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

8Then ^cBildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“How long will you say these things,

and the words of your mouth be a ^dgreat wind?

^3eDoes God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

⁴If your ^fchildren have sinned against him,

he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

⁵If you will seek God

and ^gplead with the Almighty for mercy,

⁶if you are pure and upright,

surely then he will ^hrouse himself for you

and ⁱrestore your rightful habitation.

⁷And though your beginning was small,

^jyour latter days will be very great.

⁸“For ^kinquire, please, of bygone ages,

and consider what ^lthe fathers have searched out.

⁹For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,

for our days on earth are ^ma shadow.

¹⁰Will they not teach you and tell you

and utter words out of their understanding?

¹¹“Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?

Can reeds flourish where there is no water?

¹²While yet in flower and not cut down,

they ⁿwither before any other plant.

¹³Such are the paths of all who ^oforget God;

^pthe hope of ^qthe godless shall perish.

¹⁴His confidence is severed,

and his trust is ^ra spider’s web.¹

¹⁵He leans against his ^shouse, but it does not stand;

he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.

¹⁶He is a lush plant before the sun,

and his ^tshoots spread over his garden.

¹⁷His roots entwine the stone heap;

he looks upon a house of stones.

¹⁸If he is destroyed from his ^uplace,

then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never ^vseen you.’

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way,

and out of ^wthe soil others will spring.

²⁰“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,

nor take the hand of evildoers.

²¹He will yet ^xfill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with shouting.

²²Those who hate you will be ^yclothed with shame,

and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter

9Then Job answered and said:

²“Truly I know that it is so:

But how can a man be ^zin the right before God?

³If one wished to ^acontend with him,

one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

⁴He is ^bwise in heart and mighty in strength—

who has ^chardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

⁵he who removes mountains, and they know it not,

when he overturns them in his anger,

⁶who ^dshakes the earth out of its place,

and ^eits pillars tremble;

⁷who commands the sun, and it does not rise;

who seals up the stars;

⁸who alone ^fstretched out the heavens

and trampled the waves of the sea;

⁹who ^gmade ^hthe Bear and ⁱOrion,

the Pleiades ^jand the chambers of the south;

¹⁰who does ^kgreat things beyond searching out,

and marvelous things beyond number.

¹¹Behold, he passes by me, and I ^lsee him not;

he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

¹²Behold, he snatches away; ^mwho can turn him back?

ⁿWho will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

¹³“God will not turn back his anger;

beneath him bowed the helpers of ^oRahab.

^14pHow then can I ^qanswer him,

choosing my words with him?

^15rThough I am in the right, I cannot answer him;

I must ^sappeal for mercy to my accuser.¹

¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me,

I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

¹⁷For he crushes me with a tempest

and multiplies my wounds ^twithout cause;

¹⁸he will not let me get my breath,

but fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹If it is a contest of ^ustrength, behold, he is mighty!

If it is a matter of justice, who can ^vsummon him?²

²⁰Though I am in the right, ^wmy own mouth would condemn me;

though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

²¹I am ^xblameless; I regard not myself;

I ^yloathe my life.

²²It is all one; therefore I say,

‘He ^zdestroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

²³When ^adisaster brings sudden death,

he mocks at the calamity³ of the innocent.

^24bThe earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

he ^ccovers the faces of its judges—

^dif it is not he, who then is it?

²⁵“My ^edays are swifter than ^fa runner;

they flee away; they see no good.

²⁶They go by like ^gskiffs of reed,

like ^han eagle swooping on the prey.

²⁷If I say, ⁱ‘I will forget my complaint,

I will put off my sad face, and ^jbe of good cheer,’

²⁸I become ^kafraid of all my suffering,

for I know you will not ^lhold me innocent.

²⁹I shall be ^mcondemned;

why then do I labor in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow

and ⁿcleanse my hands with lye,

³¹yet you will plunge me into a pit,

and my own clothes will ^oabhor me.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,

that we should ^pcome to trial together.

^33qThere is no⁴ arbiter between us,

who might lay his hand on us both.

^34rLet him take his ^srod away from me,

and let ^tnot dread of him terrify me.

³⁵Then I would speak without fear of him,

for I am not so in myself.