Job 4–5

The First Dialogue

4Job, will you be annoyed if I speak?

I can’t keep quiet any longer.

³You have taught many people

and given strength to feeble hands.

⁴When someone stumbled, weak and tired,

your words encouraged him to stand.

⁵Now it’s your turn to be in trouble,

and you are too stunned to face it.

⁶You worshipped God, and your life was blameless;

and so you should have confidence and hope.

⁷Think back now. Name a single case

where a righteous person met with disaster.

⁸I have seen people plough fields of evil

and sow wickedness like seed;

now they harvest wickedness and evil.

⁹Like a storm, God destroys them in his anger.

¹⁰The wicked roar and growl like lions,

but God silences them and breaks their teeth.

¹¹Like lions with nothing to kill and eat,

they die, and all their children are scattered.

¹²Once a message came quietly,

so quietly I could hardly hear it.

^13*Like a nightmare it disturbed my sleep.

¹⁴I trembled and shuddered;

my whole body shook with fear.

¹⁵A light breeze touched my face,

and my hair bristled with fright.

¹⁶I could see something standing there;

I stared, but couldn’t tell what it was.

Then I heard a voice out of the silence:

¹⁷“Can anyone be righteous in the sight of^g God

or be pure before^h his Creator?

¹⁸God does not trust his heavenly servants;

he finds fault even with his angels.

¹⁹Do you think he will trust a creature of clay,

a thing of dust that can be crushed like a moth?

²⁰Someone may be alive in the morning,

but die unnoticed before evening comes.

²¹All that he has is taken away;

he dies, still lacking wisdom.”

5Call out, Job. See if anyone answers.

Is there any angel to whom you can turn?

²To worry yourself to death with resentment

would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.

³I have seen fools who looked secure,

but I called down a sudden curse on their homes.

⁴Their children can never find safety;

no one stands up to defend them in court.

⁵Hungry people will eat the fool’s crops—

even the grain growing among thorns—ⁱ

and thirsty people will envy his wealth.

⁶Evil does not grow in the soil,

nor does trouble grow out of the ground.

⁷No indeed! People bring trouble on themselves,

as surely as sparks fly up from a fire.^j

⁸If I were you, I would turn to God

and present my case to him.

⁹We cannot understand the great things he does,

and to his miracles there is no end.

¹⁰He sends rain on the land

and he waters the fields.

¹¹Yes, it is God who raises the humble

and gives joy to all who mourn.

^12–13He upsets the plans of cunning people,

and traps the wise in their own schemes,

so that nothing they do succeeds;

¹⁴even at noon they grope in darkness.

¹⁵But God saves the poor^k from death;

he saves the needy from oppression.

¹⁶He gives hope to the poor and silences the wicked.

^17*Happy is the person whom God corrects!

Do not resent it when he rebukes you.

^18*God bandages the wounds he makes;

his hand hurts you, and his hand heals.

¹⁹Time after time he will save you from harm;

²⁰when famine comes, he will keep you alive,

and in war protect you from death.

²¹God will rescue you from slander;

he will save you when destruction comes.

²²You will laugh at violence and hunger

and not be afraid of wild animals.

²³The fields you plough will be free of rocks;

wild animals will never attack you.

²⁴Then you will live at peace in your tent;

when you look at your sheep, you will find them safe.

²⁵You will have as many children

as there are blades of grass in a pasture.

²⁶Like wheat that ripens till harvest time,

you will live to a ripe old age.

²⁷Job, we have learnt this by long study.

It is true, so now accept it.