Job 21–37

Job Answers Zophar

21Then Job answered:

²“Listen carefully to my words,

and let this be the way you comfort me.

³Be patient while I speak.

After I have finished, you may continue to make fun of me.

⁴“My complaint is not just against people;

I have reason to be impatient.

⁵Look at me and be shocked;

put your hand over your mouth in shock.

⁶When I think about this, I am terribly afraid

and my body shakes.

⁷Why do evil people live a long time?

They grow old and become more powerful.

⁸They see their children around them;

they watch them grow up.

⁹Their homes are safe and without fear;

God does not punish them.

¹⁰Their bulls never fail to mate;

their cows have healthy calves.

¹¹They send out their children like a flock;

their little ones dance about.

¹²They sing to the music of tambourines and harps,

and the sound of the flute makes them happy.

¹³Evil people enjoy successful lives

and then go peacefully to the grave.

¹⁴They say to God, ‘Leave us alone!

We don’t want to know your ways.

¹⁵Who is the Almighty that we should serve him?

What would we gain by praying to him?’

¹⁶The success of the wicked is not their own doing.

Their way of thinking is different from mine.

¹⁷Yet how often are the lamps of evil people turned off?

How often does trouble come to them?

How often do they suffer God’s angry punishment?

¹⁸How often are they like straw in the wind

or like chaff that is blown away by a storm?

¹⁹It is said, ‘God saves up a person’s punishment for his children.’

But God should punish the wicked themselves so they will know it.

²⁰Their eyes should see their own destruction,

and they should suffer the anger of the Almighty.

²¹They do not care about the families they leave behind

when their lives have come to an end.

²²“No one can teach knowledge to God;

he is the one who judges even the most important people.

²³One person dies while he still has all his strength,

feeling completely safe and comfortable.

²⁴His body was well fed,

and his bones were strong and healthy.

²⁵But another person dies with an unhappy heart,

never enjoying any happiness.

²⁶They are buried next to each other,

and worms cover them both.

²⁷“I know very well your thoughts

and your plans to wrong me.

²⁸You ask about me, ‘Where is this great man’s house?

Where are the tents where the wicked live?’

²⁹Have you never asked those who travel?

Have you never listened to their stories?

³⁰On the day of God’s anger and punishment,

it is the wicked who are spared.

³¹Who will accuse them to their faces?

Who will pay them back for the evil they have done?

³²They are carried to their graves,

and someone keeps watch over their tombs.

³³The dirt in the valley seems sweet to them.

Everybody follows after them,

and many people go before them.

³⁴“So how can you comfort me with this nonsense?

Your answers are only lies!”

Eliphaz Answers

22Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“Can anyone be of real use to God?

Can even a wise person do him good?

³Does it help the Almighty for you to be good?

Does he gain anything if you are innocent?

⁴Does God punish you for respecting him?

Does he bring you into court for this?

⁵No! It is because your evil is without limits

and your sins have no end.

⁶You took your brothers’ things for a debt they didn’t owe;

you took clothes from people and left them naked.

⁷You did not give water to tired people,

and you kept food from the hungry.

⁸You were a powerful man who owned land;

you were honored and lived in the land.

⁹But you sent widows away empty-handed,

and you mistreated orphans.

¹⁰That is why traps are all around you

and sudden danger frightens you.

¹¹That is why it is so dark you cannot see

and a flood of water covers you.

¹²“God is in the highest part of heaven.

See how high the highest stars are!

¹³But you ask, ‘What does God know?

Can he judge us through the dark clouds?

¹⁴Thick clouds cover him so he cannot see us

as he walks around high up in the sky.’

¹⁵Are you going to stay on the old path

where evil people walk?

¹⁶They were carried away before their time was up,

and their foundations were washed away by a flood.

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!

The Almighty can do nothing to us.’

¹⁸But it was God who filled their houses with good things.

Their way of thinking is different from mine.

¹⁹“Good people can watch and be glad;

the innocent can laugh at them and say,

²⁰‘Surely our enemies are destroyed,

and fire burns up their wealth.’

²¹“Obey God and be at peace with him;

this is the way to happiness.

²²Accept teaching from his mouth,

and keep his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be blessed again.

So remove evil from your house.

²⁴Throw your gold nuggets into the dust

and your fine gold among the rocks in the ravines.

²⁵Then the Almighty will be your gold

and the best silver for you.

²⁶You will find pleasure in the Almighty,

and you will look up to him.

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

and you will keep your promises to him.

²⁸Anything you decide will be done,

and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When people are made humble and you say, ‘Have courage,’

then the humble will be saved.

³⁰Even a guilty person will escape

and be saved because your hands are clean.”

Job Answers

23Then Job answered:

²“My complaint is still bitter today.

I groan because God’s heavy hand is on me.

³I wish I knew where to find God

so I could go to where he lives.

⁴I would present my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn how he would answer me

and would think about what he would say.

⁶Would he not argue strongly against me?

No, he would really listen to me.

⁷Then an honest person could present his case to God,

and I would be saved forever by my judge.

⁸“If I go to the east, God is not there;

if I go to the west, I do not see him.

⁹When he is at work in the north, I catch no sight of him;

when he turns to the south, I cannot see him.

¹⁰But God knows the way that I take,

and when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.

¹¹My feet have closely followed his steps;

I have stayed in his way;

I did not turn aside.

¹²I have never left the commands he has spoken;

I have treasured his words more than my own.

¹³“But he is the only God.

Who can come against him?

He does anything he wants.

¹⁴He will do to me what he said he would do,

and he has many plans like this.

¹⁵That is why I am frightened of him;

when I think of this, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶God has made me afraid;

the Almighty terrifies me.

¹⁷But I am not hidden by the darkness,

by the thick darkness that covers my face.

24“I wish the Almighty would set a time for judging.

Those who know God do not see such a day.

²Wicked people take other people’s land;

they steal flocks and take them to new pastures.

³They chase away the orphan’s donkey

and take the widow’s ox when she has no money.

⁴They push needy people off the path;

all the poor of the land hide from them.

⁵The poor become like wild donkeys in the desert

who go about their job of finding food.

The desert gives them food for their children.

⁶They gather hay and straw in the fields

and pick up leftover grapes from the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They spend the night naked, because they have no clothes,

nothing to cover themselves in the cold.

⁸They are soaked from mountain rains

and stay near the large rocks because they have no shelter.

⁹The fatherless child is grabbed from its mother’s breast;

they take a poor mother’s baby to pay for what she owes.

¹⁰So the poor go around naked without any clothes;

they carry bundles of grain but still go hungry;

¹¹they crush olives to get oil

and grapes to get wine, but they still go thirsty.

¹²Dying people groan in the city,

and the injured cry out for help,

but God accuses no one of doing wrong.

¹³“Those who fight against the light

do not know God’s ways

or stay in his paths.

¹⁴When the day is over, the murderers get up

to kill the poor and needy.

At night they go about like thieves.

¹⁵Those who are guilty of adultery watch for the night,

thinking, ‘No one will see us,’

and they keep their faces covered.

¹⁶In the dark, evil people break into houses.

In the daytime they shut themselves up in their own houses,

because they want nothing to do with the light.

¹⁷Darkness is like morning to all these evil people

who make friends with the terrors of darkness.

¹⁸“They are like foam floating on the water.

Their part of the land is cursed;

no one uses the road that goes by their vineyards.

¹⁹As heat and dryness quickly melt the snow,

so the grave quickly takes away the sinners.

²⁰Their mothers forget them,

and worms will eat their bodies.

They will not be remembered,

so wickedness is broken in pieces like a stick.

²¹These evil people abuse women who cannot have children

and show no kindness to widows.

²²But God drags away the strong by his power.

Even though they seem strong, they do not know how long they will live.

²³God may let these evil people feel safe,

but he is watching their ways.

²⁴For a little while they are important, and then they die;

they are laid low and buried like everyone else;

they are cut off like the heads of grain.

²⁵If this is not true, who can prove I am wrong?

Who can show that my words are worth nothing?”

Bildad Answers

25Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

²“God rules and he must be honored;

he set up order in his high heaven.

³No one can count God’s armies.

His light shines on all people.

⁴So no one can be good in the presence of God,

and no one born to a woman can be pure.

⁵Even the moon is not bright

and the stars are not pure in his eyes.

⁶People are much less! They are like insects.

They are only worms!”

Job Answers Bildad

26Then Job answered:

²“You are no help to the helpless!

You have not aided the weak!

³Your advice lacks wisdom!

You have shown little understanding!

⁴Who has helped you say these words?

And where did you get these ideas?

⁵“The spirits of the dead tremble,

those who are beneath and in the waters.

⁶Death is naked before God;

destruction is uncovered before him.

⁷God stretches the northern sky out over empty space

and hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He wraps up the waters in his thick clouds,

but the clouds do not break under their weight.

⁹He…