Job 21–37

Job’s Seventh Speech: A Response to Zophar

21Then^a Job answered and said,

²“Listen carefully to my words,

and let this be your^b consolation.

³Bear with me, and I myself^c will speak;

then^d after my speaking you can mock.

⁴As for me, is my complaint for human beings?

And if so, why cannot I be impatient?

⁵Turn to me and be appalled,

and place your hand on your mouth.

⁶And when I think of it, I am horrified,^e

and shuddering seizes my flesh.

⁷“Why do the wicked live,

grow old, even grow mighty in power?

⁸With them their offspring are established before them,^f

and their descendants before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe without fear,

and the rod of God is not upon them.

¹⁰His bull breeds and does not fail;

his cow calves and does not miscarry.

¹¹They send out their little ones like the flock,

and their children dance around.

¹²They sing^g to the tambourine and lyre,

and they rejoice to the sound of the long flute.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity,

and in peace they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴And they say to God, ‘Turn away from us,

for^h we do not desire to know your ways.

¹⁵Who is Shaddai that we should serve him,

orⁱ what would we benefit when we plead with him?’

¹⁶Look, their prosperity is not in their hands;

the schemes of the wicked are repugnant^j to me.

¹⁷“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out,

and their disaster comes upon them?

He^k distributes pains in his anger.

¹⁸How often are they like straw before^l the wind,

and like chaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹‘God stores up his iniquity for his children’?^m

Then let him repay it to him thatⁿ he may know.

²⁰Let his eyes see his decay,

and let him drink from the wrath of Shaddai,

²¹for what does he care for^o his house after him,

when the number of his months is^p cut off?

²²Can anyone teach knowledge to God,

since^q he himself^r judges high ones?

²³This one dies in full prosperity,^s

completely^t at ease and secure.

²⁴His vats are full with milk

and the marrow of his bones is moist.

²⁵Yet^u another dies with a bitter inner self^v

and has not tasted prosperity.

²⁶They lie down together in the dust,

and maggots cover them.

²⁷“Look, I know your^w thoughts

and the schemes you devise against me.

²⁸For you say, ‘Where is the nobleman’s house,

and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’^x

²⁹Do you not ask those traveling the roads,

and do you not take notice of their accounts?

³⁰Indeed, the wicked is spared from the day of disaster;

he is delivered from the day of wrath.

³¹Who denounces his way to his face?

And who repays him for what he has done?

³²When^y he is brought to the grave,

then^z someone stands guard over the tomb.

³³The clods of the valley are sweet to him;

everyone will follow after him,

and before^a him they are innumerable.^b

³⁴So^c how will you comfort me with emptiness,

when^d fraud is left in your answers?”

Eliphaz’s Third Speech

22Then^a Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

²“Can a man be of use to God?

Yes, can the wise be of use to him?

³Is it a pleasure to Shaddai if you are righteous,

or^b a gain if you make your ways blameless?

⁴Does he reprove you because of your reverence

or enter into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great,

and there is no end to your iniquities?

⁶“Indeed, you have required a pledge from your family for nothing,

and you have stripped off the clothes of the naked.

⁷You have given no water for the weary to drink,

and you withheld food from the hungry.

⁸And the land belongs to the man of power,^c

and the favored^d lives in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty-handed,

and the arms of orphans were crushed.

¹⁰Therefore trapping nets are all around you,

and panic suddenly terrifies you,

¹¹or it is so dark you cannot see,

and a flood of water covers you.

¹²“Is not God in the height of the heavens?

But^e see how lofty are the highest stars.^f

¹³And you ask, ‘What does God know?

Can he judge through deep gloom?

¹⁴Thick clouds are a covering for him, so that he does not see;

and he walks about on the dome of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the way of old

that the people of mischief have trod,

¹⁶who were snatched away before their time,^g

whose foundation was washed away by a current?

¹⁷Those who said to God, ‘Turn away from us,’

and ‘What can Shaddai do to us?’

¹⁸Yet^h he himselfⁱ filled up their houses with good things,

but^j the schemes of the wicked are repugnant to me.

¹⁹The righteous see, and they rejoice,

but^k the innocent one mocks at them.

²⁰Surely^l our foe perishes,

and fire has consumed their remainder.^m

²¹“Please reconcile yourself with him,

and be at peace; in this way,ⁿ good will come to you.

²²Please receive instruction from his mouth,

and place his words in your heart.

²³If you return to Shaddai, you will be restored;

if you remove wickedness from your tent,

²⁴and if you put gold ore in the dust,

and the gold of Ophir in the rock of wadis,

²⁵then^o Shaddai will be your gold ore

and your precious silver.^p

²⁶Indeed, then you will delight yourself in Shaddai,

and you will expect that God will be good to you.^q

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

and you will pay your vows.

²⁸And you will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,

and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When they are humiliated, you say,^r ‘It is pride,’

for^s he saves the humble.^t

³⁰He will deliver the guilty,

and he will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”

Job’s Eighth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

23Then^a Job answered and said,

²“Even today my complaint is bitter;

my hand is heavy in addition to my groaning.

³O that^b I knew and that I might find him;

O that I might come to his dwelling.

⁴I would lay my case before him,^c

and I would fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I want to know the words with which he would answer me,

and I want to understand what he would say to me.

⁶Would he contend with me in the greatness of his strength?

No, but he himself^d would give heed to me.

⁷There an upright person could reason with him,

and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.

⁸“When I go forward, he is not there,^e

or^f backward, I cannot see him.^g

⁹When he works^h on the left, I cannot perceiveⁱ him;

he turns to the right, but^j I cannot see him.

¹⁰But he knows the way that I take;^k

he tests me—I shall come out like gold.

¹¹My foot has held on to his steps;

I have kept his way, and I have not turned aside.

¹²From the commandment of his lips, indeed^l I have not departed;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily food.

¹³“But^m he is alone,ⁿ and who can dissuade him?

And whatever he desires,^o indeed,^p he does it.

¹⁴For he will carry out what he appoints for me,^q

and many things like these are with him.

¹⁵Therefore, I am horrified because of his presence;

when I consider, I tremble^r because of him.

¹⁶Indeed,^s God has made my heart faint,

and Shaddai has terrified me.

¹⁷Indeed, I have not been silenced because of darkness,^t

and because of me he^u conceals thick darkness.

Job’s Eighth Speech, Continued

24“Why are not times kept by Shaddai,

and why do not those who know him see his days?

²They^a remove border stones;

they seize flocks, and they pasture them.

³They drive away the donkey of orphans;

they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

⁴They thrust the poor off the road;

the needy of the earth hide themselves together.^b

⁵“Look, like wild donkeys in the desert

they^c go out to their labor as searchers for the prey;

the wilderness is^d their^e food for the young.

⁶They reap their^f fodder in the field,

and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They spend the night naked, without^g clothing,

and they have no garment in the cold.

⁸They are wet from the rainstorm of the mountains,^h

and they cling to the rock withoutⁱ refuge.

⁹“They^j snatch the orphan from the breast,

and they take a pledge against the needy.^k

¹⁰They^l go about naked, without clothing,

and hungry, they carry the sheaves.^m

¹¹Between their terraces they press out oil;

they tread the presses, butⁿ they are thirsty.

¹²From the city people groan,

and the throat^o of the wounded cries for help;

yet^p God does not regard it as unseemly.^q

¹³“Those are among the ones rebelling against the light;

they do not recognize his ways,

and they do not stay in his paths.

¹⁴At dusk^r the murderer rises;

he kills the needy and the poor,

and in the night he is like a^s thief.

¹⁵And the eye of the adulterer waits for dusk,

saying, ‘No eye will see me,’^t

and he places a covering on his face.

¹⁶He digs through houses in the darkness;

by day they shut themselves in—

they do not know the light

¹⁷because morning likewise is to them deep darkness;

indeed, they know about the terrors of deep darkness.

¹⁸“He himself^u is swift on the water’s surface;

their portion is cursed in the land.

No one turns toward the path of their vineyards.^v

¹⁹Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters,

like Sheol snatches away those^w who have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgets him.

The maggot feasts on him until he is no longer remembered,

and wickedness is broken like a^x tree.

²¹He feeds on the barren, who does not have a child,

and does no good to the widow.

²²Yet^y he^z carries off the tyrants by his strength;

if he rises up, then^a he^b cannot be certain of life.^c

²³He^d gives security to him, and he is^e supported,

but^f his eyes are upon their ways.

²⁴They are exalted a little while, then^g they are gone.^h

And they are brought low; they are cut off like all others,

and like the heads of grain they wither away.

²⁵“And if it is not so, then who can prove me a liar

and reduce my word to nothing?”

Bildad’s Third Speech

25Then^a Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,^b

²“Domination and dread are with him

who makes peace in his high heavens.

³Is there a number to his troops?

And upon whom does his light not rise?

⁴“Indeed,^c how can a human being be righteous before God?

And how will he who is born of a woman be pure?

⁵Look, even the moon is not bright,^d

and the stars are not pure in his sight.

⁶How much less^e for a human being who is a maggot,

and a…