Job 7–9

CHAPTER 7

¹“¹Is not man ^aconscripted to labor on earth,

And are not his days like the days of ^ba hired man?

²“As a slave who pants for the shade,

And as a hired man who eagerly hopes for his wages,

³So am I apportioned months of worthlessness,

And ^anights of trouble are appointed me.

⁴“If I ^alie down I say,

‘When shall I arise?’

But the twilight continues,

And I am saturated with tossing until dawn.

⁵“My ^aflesh is clothed with worms and a crust of dirt;

My skin scabs over and flows out again.

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

And come to an end ^bwithout hope.

⁷“Remember that my life ^ais but wind;

My eye will ^bnot again see good.

⁸“The ^aeye of him who sees me will behold me no longer;

Your eyes will be on me, but ^bI will not be.

⁹“A ^acloud vanishes, and it is gone,

So ^bhe who goes down to ^cSheol does not come up.

¹⁰“He will not return again to his house,

Nor will ^ahis place recognize him anymore.

¹¹“Indeed ^aI will not hold back my mouth;

I will speak in the distress of my spirit;

I will muse on the bitterness of my soul.

¹²“Am I the sea or ^athe sea monster,

That You set a guard over me?

¹³“If I say, ‘^aMy bed will comfort me;

My couch will ¹ease my bitter musing,’

¹⁴Then You frighten me with dreams

And terrify me by visions,

¹⁵So that my soul would choose suffocation,

Death rather than my ¹pains.

¹⁶“I have ^arejected everything; I will not live forever.

Leave me alone, ^bfor my days are but a breath.

¹⁷“^aWhat is man that You magnify him,

And that You set Your heart on him,

¹⁸That ^aYou ¹examine him every morning

And test him every moment?

¹⁹“^1aWill You never turn Your gaze away from me,

Nor let me alone until I swallow my spit?

²⁰“^aHave I sinned? What have I done to You,

O ^bwatcher of men?

Why have You set me as Your target,

So that I am a burden to myself?

²¹“Why then ^ado You not forgive my transgression

And take away my iniquity?

For now I will ^blie down in the dust;

And You will seek me earnestly, ^cbut I will not be.”

CHAPTER 8

Bildad Claims God Rewards the Good

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

²“How long will you say these things,

And the ^awords of your mouth be a mighty wind?

³“Does ^aGod pervert justice?

Or does ¹the Almighty pervert what is right?

⁴“^aIf your sons sinned against Him,

Then He sent them into the ¹power of their transgression.

⁵“If you would ^aseek God earnestly

And plead for the grace of ¹the Almighty,

⁶If you are pure and upright,

Indeed now ^aHe would rouse Himself for you

And make your righteous ^babode at peace.

⁷“Though your beginning was insignificant,

Yet your ^aend will increase greatly.

⁸“Please ^aask of past generations,

And establish the things searched out by their fathers.

⁹“For we are only of yesterday and know nothing,

Because ^aour days on earth are but a shadow.

¹⁰“Will they not instruct you and tell you,

And bring forth words from their hearts?

¹¹“Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh?

Can the rushes grow without water?

¹²“While it is still green and not cut down,

Yet it dries up before any other ¹plant.

¹³“So are the paths of ^aall who forget God;

And the ^bhope of the godless will perish,

¹⁴Whose confidence is fragile,

And whose trust a ^aspider’s ¹web.

¹⁵“He relies on his ^ahouse, but it does not stand;

He holds fast to it, but it is not established.

¹⁶“He ^1athrives before the sun,

And his ^bshoots go forth over his garden.

¹⁷“His roots wrap around a rock pile;

He looks upon a house of stones.

¹⁸“If He swallows him up from ^ahis place,

Then it will deny him, saying, ‘^bI never saw you.’

¹⁹“Behold, ^athis is the joy of ¹His way;

And out of the dust others will spring.

²⁰“Behold, ^aGod will not reject a blameless man,

Nor ^bwill He strengthen the hand of the evildoers.

²¹“He will yet fill ^ayour mouth with laughter

And your lips with shouting.

²²“Those who hate you will be ^aclothed with shame,

And the ^btent of the wicked will be no longer.”

CHAPTER 9

Job Replies There Is No Adjudicator

¹Then Job answered and said,

²“In truth I know that this is so;

But how can a ^aman be in the right ¹before God?

³“If one desired to ^acontend with Him,

He could not answer Him once in a thousand times.

⁴“^aWise in heart and ^bmighty in power,

Who has ^cstiffened his neck against Him and been at peace?

⁵“^aGod is the One who removes the mountains, they know not how,

When He overturns them in His anger;

⁶The One who ^ashakes the earth out of its place,

And its ^bpillars tremble;

⁷The One who says for the ^asun ¹not to shine,

And sets a seal upon the stars;

⁸Who alone ^astretches out the heavens,

And ^1btramples down the waves of the sea;

⁹Who makes the ^aBear, Orion, and the Pleiades,

And the ^bchambers of the south;

¹⁰Who ^adoes great things, unsearchable,

And wondrous works, innumerable.

¹¹“Were He to sweep by me, ^aI would not see Him;

Were He to move past me, I would not perceive Him.

¹²“Were He to snatch away, who could ^aturn Him back?

Who could say to Him, ‘^bWhat are You doing?’

¹³“God will not turn back His anger;

Beneath Him crouch the helpers of ^aRahab.

¹⁴“How then can ^aI ¹answer Him,

And choose my words ²before Him?

¹⁵“For ^athough I were right, I could not ¹answer;

I would have to ^bplead for the grace of my judge.

¹⁶“If I called and He answered me,

I could not believe that He was giving ear to my voice.

¹⁷“For He ^abruises me with a tempest

And multiplies my wounds without cause.

¹⁸“He will ^anot allow me to get my breath,

But saturates me with ^bbitterness.

¹⁹“If it is a matter of power, ^abehold, He is the mighty one!

And if it is a matter of justice, who can make ¹Him testify?

²⁰“^aThough I am righteous, my mouth will ^bcondemn me;

Though I am blameless, He will declare me perverse.

²¹“I am ^ablameless;

I do not know my soul;

I ^breject my life.

²²“It is all one; therefore I say,

‘He ^aconsumes the blameless and the wicked.’

²³“If the scourge puts to death suddenly,

He ^amocks the despair of the innocent.

²⁴“The earth ^ais given into the hand of the wicked;

He ^bcovers the faces of its judges.

If it is not He, then who is it?

²⁵“Now ^amy days are swifter than a runner;

They flee away; ^bthey do not see good.

²⁶“They sweep by like ^areed boats,

Like an ^beagle that swoops on its food.

²⁷“Though I say, ‘I will forget ^amy musing,

I will forsake my sad countenance and be cheerful,’

²⁸I am ^aafraid of all my pains;

I know that ^bYou will not acquit me.

²⁹“I am accounted ^awicked;

Why then should I toil in vain?

³⁰“If I should ^awash myself with snow

And cleanse ^bmy hands with lye,

³¹Yet You would plunge me into the pit,

And my own clothes would abhor me.

³²“For ^aHe is not a man as I am that ^bI may answer Him,

That we may go to court for judgment together.

³³“There is no ^aadjudicator between us,

Who may lay his hand upon us both.

³⁴“Let Him ^aremove His rod from me,

And let not dread of Him terrify me.

³⁵“Then I ^awould speak and not fear Him;

But I am not like that in myself.