Job 7–9

Job’s Second Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

7“Does not a human being^a have hard service^b on earth?

And are not his^c days like the days of a laborer?

²Like a slave he longs for the shadow,

and like a laborer he waits for his wages.

³So I had to inherit^d months of worthlessness,

and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say,^e ‘When shall I rise?’

But^f the night is long,

and I have my fill of tossing until dawn.

⁵My body is clothed with maggots and clods of dust;

my skin hardens, then^g it gives way again.

⁶“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

and they come to an end without hope.^h

⁷Remember that my life is a breath;

my eye will not return to see good.

⁸The eye of the one seeing me will not see me;

your eyes are upon me, butⁱ I will be gone.^j

⁹A cloud vanishes, and it goes away,

so he who goes down to Sheol will not come up.

¹⁰He does not return again to his house,

and his place does not recognize him again.

¹¹“Even^k I will not restrain my mouth;

I will speak in my spirit’s anguish;

I will complain in my inner self’s^l bitterness.

¹²Am I the sea, or a sea monster,

that you set a guard over me?

¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,

and my couch^m will ease my complaint,’

¹⁴thenⁿ you terrify me with dreams,^o

and with visions you terrify^p me.

¹⁵So^q my inner self^r will choose^s strangling—

death more than my existence.^t

¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live forever;

depart from me, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷“What is a human being that you make him great

and that you fix your mind on him,^u

¹⁸so that^v you visit him every morning,^w

you test him every moment?^x

¹⁹How long^y will you not turn away from me?

Or not leave me alone until I swallow^z my spit?

²⁰If I have sinned, what have I done to you, watcher of humanity?

Why have you made me as a target for yourself,

so that^a I have become a burden to myself?^b

²¹And why do you not pardon my transgression

and take away my guilt?

For now I shall lie in the dust,

and you will seek me, but^c I will be no more.”^d

Bildad’s First Response to Job

8Then^a Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,^b

²“How long^c will you say these things,

and the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

³Does God pervert justice,

or^d Shaddai pervert righteousness?

⁴If your children sinned against him,

then^e he sent them into the power^f of their transgression.

⁵If you yourself^g would seek God,

then^h you would plead to Shaddai for grace.

⁶If you are pure and upright,

indeed,ⁱ now he will rouse himself for you,

and he will restore your righteous abode.

⁷Though^j your beginning was small,

your end^k will be very great.

⁸“Indeed,^l please inquire of former generations,

and consider what their ancestors have found,^m

⁹for we are of yesterday, and we do not know,

for our days on earth are a shadow.

¹⁰Will they themselvesⁿ not teach you and tell you^o

and utter^p words from their heart?

¹¹Can papyrus grow tall where there is not a marsh?

Will reeds flourish without water?^q

¹²While it is in its flower and is not plucked,

yet^r it withers before^s all grass.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God;

and the hope of the godless will perish,

¹⁴whose confidence is cut off

and whose trust^t is a spider’s house.

¹⁵He will lean himself against his house, but^u it will not stand;

he will take hold of it, but^v it will not endure.

¹⁶He is thriving^w before^x the sun,

and his plant shoots spread over his garden.

¹⁷His roots twine over a stone heap;

he sees a house of stone.

¹⁸If he destroys him from his place,

then^y it deceives him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’

¹⁹Look, this is the joy of his way,

and from dust others will spring up.

²⁰“Look, God will not reject the blameless,

and he will not uphold the hand of evildoers.

²¹Yet he will fill your mouth with laughter

and your lips with a shout of joy.

²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,

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

Job’s Third Speech: A Response to Bildad

9Then^a Job answered and said,

²“Truly I know that it is so,

but^b how can a human being be just before God?

³If he wants to contend with him,

he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.

⁴He is wise in^c heart and mighty in^d strength;

who has resisted him and succeeded?^e

⁵“He is the one who moves mountains, and they do not know how,

who overturns them in his anger.

⁶He is the one who shakes the earth from its place,

and its pillars tremble.

⁷He is the one who commands the sun, and it does not rise,

and he seals up the stars.^f

⁸He is the one who alone stretches out the heavens

and who tramples on the waves of the sea.

⁹He is the one who made the Bear and Orion,

the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

¹⁰He is the one who does great things beyond understanding^g

and marvelous things beyond number.^h

¹¹“Ifⁱ he passes by me, I would not see him;^j

and if he should move on, I would not recognize him.^k

¹²If^l he would snatch away, who could turn him?

Who could say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

¹³God will not turn back his anger;

beneath him the helpers of Rahab bow.

¹⁴How much less^m can I myselfⁿ answer him?

How can I choose my words with him,

¹⁵whom I cannot answer, even though I am righteous?

From^o my judge I must implore grace.

¹⁶If I summon him, and he should answer me,

I do not believe that he will listen to my voice—

¹⁷who crushes me with a tempest

and multiplies^p my wounds without cause.

¹⁸He will not allow me to catch^q my breath;

rather, he will fill me with bitterness.

¹⁹If it is a matter of^r strength, look, he is mighty.

But^s if it is a matter of^t justice, who can summon me?^u

²⁰Even though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me;

even though I am blameless, yet^v it would pronounce me guilty.

²¹“I am blameless; I do not care about myself;^w

I loathe my life.

²²It is all one; therefore I say,

‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

²³When the whip^x kills suddenly,

he mocks at the despair of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

he covers the face of its judge—

if it is not he, then who is it?

²⁵“And my days are swifter than a runner;

they flee away; they do not see good.

²⁶They go by like papyrus skiffs,

like an eagle swoops down on its prey.

²⁷Though^y I say,^z ‘I will forget my complaint;

I will change my expression, and I will rejoice,’

²⁸I become afraid of all my sufferings;

I know that you do not consider me innocent.

²⁹If I shall be declared guilty,

why then should I labor in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with soap,^a

and I cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹then you plunge me into the slime pit,

and my clothes abhor me.

³²“For^b he is not a mortal like me that I can answer him,

that we can come to trial together.^c

³³There is no arbiter between us

that he might lay his hand on both of us.

³⁴May he remove his rod from me,

and let his dread not terrify me;

³⁵then I would speak and not fear him,^d

for in myself I am not fearful.^e