Job 24–31

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 covers the face of the moon,

spreading his clouds over it.

¹⁰He draws the horizon like a circle on the water

at the place where light and darkness meet.

¹¹Heaven’s foundations shake

when he thunders at them.

¹²With his power he quiets the sea;

by his wisdom he destroys Rahab, the sea monster.

¹³He breathes, and the sky clears.

His hand stabs the fleeing snake.

¹⁴And these are only a small part of God’s works.

We only hear a small whisper of him.

Who could understand God’s thundering power?”

27And Job continued speaking:

²“As surely as God lives, who has taken away my rights,

the Almighty, who has made me unhappy,

³as long as I am alive

and God’s breath of life is in my nose,

⁴my lips will not speak evil,

and my tongue will not tell a lie.

⁵I will never agree you are right;

until I die, I will never stop saying I am innocent.

⁶I will insist that I am right; I will not back down.

My conscience will never bother me.

⁷“Let my enemies be like evil people,

my foes like those who are wrong.

⁸What hope do the wicked have when they die,

when God takes their life away?

⁹God will not listen to their cries

when trouble comes to them.

¹⁰They will not find joy in the Almighty,

even though they call out to God all the time.

¹¹“I will teach you about the power of God

and will not hide the ways of the Almighty.

¹²You have all seen this yourselves.

So why are we having all this talk that means nothing?

¹³“Here is what God has planned for evil people,

and what the Almighty will give to cruel people:

¹⁴They may have many children, but the sword will kill them.

Their children who are left will never have enough to eat.

¹⁵Then they will die of disease and be buried,

and the widows will not even cry for them.

¹⁶The wicked may heap up silver like piles of dirt

and have so many clothes they are like piles of clay.

¹⁷But good people will wear what evil people have gathered,

and the innocent will divide up their silver.

¹⁸The houses the wicked build are like a spider’s web,

like a hut that a guard builds.

¹⁹The wicked are rich when they go to bed,

but they are rich for the last time;

when they open their eyes, everything is gone.

²⁰Fears come over them like a flood,

and a storm snatches them away in the night.

²¹The east wind will carry them away, and then they are gone,

because it sweeps them out of their place.

²²The wind will hit them without mercy

as they try to run away from its power.

²³It will be as if the wind is clapping its hands;

it will whistle at them as they run from their place.

28“There are mines where people dig silver

and places where gold is made pure.

²Iron is taken from the ground,

and copper is melted out of rocks.

³Miners bring lights

and search deep into the mines

for ore in thick darkness.

⁴Miners dig a tunnel far from where people live,

where no one has ever walked;

they work far from people, swinging and swaying from ropes.

⁵Food grows on top of the earth,

but below ground things are changed as if by fire.

⁶Sapphires are found in rocks,

and gold dust is also found there.

⁷No hawk knows that path;

the falcon has not seen it.

⁸Proud animals have not walked there,

and no lions cross over it.

⁹Miners hit the rocks of flint

and dig away at the bottom of the mountains.

¹⁰They cut tunnels through the rock

and see all the treasures there.

¹¹They search for places where rivers begin

and bring things hidden out into the light.

¹²“But where can wisdom be found,

and where does understanding live?

¹³People do not understand the value of wisdom;

it cannot be found among those who are alive.

¹⁴The deep ocean says, ‘It’s not in me;’

the sea says, ‘It’s not in me.’

¹⁵Wisdom cannot be bought with gold,

and its cost cannot be weighed in silver.

¹⁶Wisdom cannot be bought with fine gold

or with valuable onyx or sapphire gems.

¹⁷Gold and crystal are not as valuable as wisdom,

and you cannot buy it with jewels of gold.

¹⁸Coral and jasper are not worth talking about,

and the price of wisdom is much greater than rubies.

¹⁹The topaz from Cush cannot compare to wisdom;

it cannot be bought with the purest gold.

²⁰“So where does wisdom come from,

and where does understanding live?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,

even from the birds of the air.

²²The places of destruction and death say,

‘We have heard reports about it.’

²³Only God understands the way to wisdom,

and he alone knows where it lives,

²⁴because he looks to the farthest parts of the earth

and sees everything under the sky.

²⁵When God gave power to the wind

and measured the water,

²⁶when he made rules for the rain

and set a path for a thunderstorm to follow,

²⁷then he looked at wisdom and decided its worth;

he set wisdom up and tested it.

²⁸Then he said to humans,

‘The fear of the Lord is wisdom;

to stay away from evil is understanding.’ ”

Job Continues

29Job continued to speak:

²“How I wish for the months that have passed

and the days when God watched over me.

³God’s lamp shined on my head,

and I walked through darkness by his light.

⁴I wish for the days when I was strong,

when God’s close friendship blessed my house.

⁵The Almighty was still with me,

and my children were all around me.

⁶It was as if my path were covered with cream

and the rocks poured out olive oil for me.

⁷I would go to the city gate

and sit in the public square.

⁸When the young men saw me, they would step aside,

and the old men would stand up in respect.

⁹The leading men stopped speaking

and covered their mouths with their hands.

¹⁰The voices of the important men were quiet,

as if their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

¹¹Anyone who heard me spoke well of me,

and those who saw me praised me,

¹²because I saved the poor who called out

and the orphan who had no one to help.

¹³The dying person blessed me,

and I made the widow’s heart sing.

¹⁴I put on right living as if it were clothing;

I wore fairness like a robe and a turban.

¹⁵I was eyes for the blind

and feet for the lame.

¹⁶I was like a father to needy people,

and I took the side of strangers who were in trouble.

¹⁷I broke the fangs of evil people

and snatched the captives from their teeth.

¹⁸“I thought, ‘I will live for as many days as there are grains of sand,

and I will die in my own house.

¹⁹My roots will reach down to the water.

The dew will lie on the branches all night.

²⁰New honors will come to me continually,

and I will always have great strength.’

²¹“People listened to me carefully

and waited quietly for my advice.

²²After I finished speaking, they spoke no more.

My words fell very gently on their ears.…