Job 24–31

24“Why does the Almighty not set times^y for judgment?^z

Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?^a

²There are those who move boundary stones;^b

they pasture flocks they have stolen.^c

³They drive away the orphan’s donkey

and take the widow’s ox in pledge.^d

⁴They thrust the needy^e from the path

and force all the poor^f of the land into hiding.^g

⁵Like wild donkeys^h in the desert,

the poor go about their laborⁱ of foraging food;

the wasteland^j provides food for their children.

⁶They gather fodder^k in the fields

and glean in the vineyards^l of the wicked.^m

⁷Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;

they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.ⁿ

⁸They are drenched^o by mountain rains

and hug^p the rocks for lack of shelter.^q

⁹The fatherless^r child is snatched^s from the breast;

the infant of the poor is seized^t for a debt.^u

¹⁰Lacking clothes, they go about naked;^v

they carry the sheaves,^w but still go hungry.

¹¹They crush olives among the terraces^a;

they tread the winepresses,^x yet suffer thirst.^y

¹²The groans of the dying rise from the city,

and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.^z

But God charges no one with wrongdoing.^a

¹³“There are those who rebel against the light,^b

who do not know its ways

or stay in its paths.^c

¹⁴When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,

kills^d the poor and needy,^e

and in the night steals forth like a thief.^f

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer^g watches for dusk;^h

he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ⁱ

and he keeps his face concealed.

¹⁶In the dark, thieves break into houses,^j

but by day they shut themselves in;

they want nothing to do with the light.^k

¹⁷For all of them, midnight is their morning;

they make friends with the terrors^l of darkness.^m

¹⁸“Yet they are foamⁿ on the surface of the water;^o

their portion of the land is cursed,^p

so that no one goes to the vineyards.^q

¹⁹As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,^r

so the grave^s snatches away those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgets them,

the worm^t feasts on them;^u

the wicked are no longer remembered^v

but are broken like a tree.^w

²¹They prey on the barren and childless woman,

and to the widow they show no kindness.^x

²²But God drags away the mighty by his power;^y

though they become established,^z they have no assurance of life.^a

²³He may let them rest in a feeling of security,^b

but his eyes^c are on their ways.^d

²⁴For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;^e

they are brought low and gathered up like all others;^f

they are cut off like heads of grain.^g

²⁵“If this is not so, who can prove me false

and reduce my words to nothing?”^h

Bildad

25Then Bildad the Shuhiteⁱ replied:

²“Dominion and awe belong to God;^j

he establishes order in the heights of heaven.^k

³Can his forces be numbered?

On whom does his light not rise?^l

⁴How then can a mortal be righteous before God?

How can one born of woman be pure?^m

⁵If even the moonⁿ is not bright

and the stars are not pure in his eyes,^o

⁶how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot—

a human being,^p who is only a worm!”^q

Job

26Then Job replied:

²“How you have helped the powerless!^r

How you have saved the arm that is feeble!^s

³What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!

And what great insight^t you have displayed!

⁴Who has helped you utter these words?

And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?^u

⁵“The dead are in deep anguish,^v

those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

⁶The realm of the dead^w is naked before God;

Destruction^ax lies uncovered.^y

⁷He spreads out the northern skies^z over empty space;

he suspends the earth over nothing.^a

⁸He wraps up the waters^b in his clouds,^c

yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon,

spreading his clouds^d over it.

¹⁰He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters^e

for a boundary between light and darkness.^f

¹¹The pillars of the heavens quake,^g

aghast at his rebuke.

¹²By his power he churned up the sea;^h

by his wisdomⁱ he cut Rahab^j to pieces.

¹³By his breath the skies^k became fair;

his hand pierced the gliding serpent.^l

¹⁴And these are but the outer fringe of his works;

how faint the whisper^m we hear of him!ⁿ

Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”^o

Job’s Final Word to His Friends

27And Job continued his discourse:^p

²“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,^q

the Almighty,^r who has made my life bitter,^s

³as long as I have life within me,

the breath of God^t in my nostrils,

⁴my lips will not say anything wicked,

and my tongue will not utter lies.^u

⁵I will never admit you are in the right;

till I die, I will not deny my integrity.^v

⁶I will maintain my innocence^w and never let go of it;

my conscience^x will not reproach me as long as I live.^y

⁷“May my enemy be like the wicked,^z

my adversary^a like the unjust!

⁸For what hope have the godless^b when they are cut off,

when God takes away their life?^c

⁹Does God listen to their cry

when distress comes upon them?^d

¹⁰Will they find delight in the Almighty?^e

Will they call on God at all times?

¹¹“I will teach you about the power of God;

the ways^f of the Almighty I will not conceal.^g

¹²You have all seen this yourselves.

Why then this meaningless talk?

¹³“Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,

the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:^h

¹⁴However many his children,ⁱ their fate is the sword;^j

his offspring will never have enough to eat.^k

¹⁵The plague will bury those who survive him,

and their widows will not weep for them.^l

¹⁶Though he heaps up silver like dust^m

and clothes like piles of clay,ⁿ

¹⁷what he lays up^o the righteous will wear,^p

and the innocent will divide his silver.^q

¹⁸The house^r he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,^s

like a hut^t made by a watchman.

¹⁹He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;^u

when he opens his eyes, all is gone.^v

²⁰Terrors^w overtake him like a flood;^x

a tempest snatches him away in the night.^y

²¹The east wind^z carries him off, and he is gone;^a

it sweeps him out of his place.^b

²²It hurls itself against him without mercy^c

as he flees headlong^d from its power.^e

²³It claps its hands^f in derision

and hisses him out of his place.”^g

Interlude: Where Wisdom Is Found

28There is a mine for silver

and a place where gold is refined.^h

²Iron is taken from the earth,

and copper is smelted from ore.ⁱ

³Mortals put an end to the darkness;^j

they search out the farthest recesses

for ore in the blackest darkness.^k

⁴Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft,^l

in places untouched by human feet;

far from other people they dangle and sway.

⁵The earth, from which food comes,^m

is transformed below as by fire;

⁶lapis lazuliⁿ comes from its rocks,

and its dust contains nuggets of gold.^o

⁷No bird of prey knows that hidden path,

no falcon’s eye has seen it.^p

⁸Proud beasts^q do not set foot on it,

and no lion prowls there.^r

⁹People assault the flinty rock^s with their hands

and lay bare the roots of the mountains.^t

¹⁰They tunnel through the rock;^u

their eyes see all its treasures.^v

¹¹They search^a the sources of the rivers^w

and bring hidden things^x to light.

¹²But where can wisdom be found?^y

Where does understanding dwell?^z

¹³No mortal comprehends its worth;^a

it cannot be found in the land of the living.^b

¹⁴The deep^c says, “It is not in me”;

the sea^d says, “It is not with me.”

¹⁵It cannot be bought with the finest gold,

nor can its price be weighed out in silver.^e

¹⁶It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,^f

with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.^g

¹⁷Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it,^h

nor can it be had for jewels of gold.ⁱ

¹⁸Coral^j and jasper^k are not worthy of mention;

the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.^l

¹⁹The topaz^m of Cushⁿ cannot compare with it;

it cannot be bought with pure gold.^o

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from?

Where does understanding dwell?^p

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

concealed even from the birds in the sky.^q

²²Destruction^br and Death^s say,

“Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”

²³God understands the way to it

and he alone^t knows where it dwells,^u

²⁴for he views the ends of the earth^v

and sees everything under the heavens.^w

²⁵When he established the force of the wind

and measured out the waters,^x

²⁶when he made a decree for the rain^y

and a path for the thunderstorm,^z

²⁷then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;

he confirmed it and tested it.^a

²⁸And he said to the human race,

“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,

and to shun evil^b is understanding.”^c

Job’s Final Defense

29Job continued his discourse:^d

²“How I long for the months gone by,^e

for the days when God watched over me,^f

³when his lamp shone on my head

and by his light I walked through darkness!^g

⁴Oh, for the days when I was in my prime,

when God’s intimate friendship^h blessed my house,ⁱ

⁵when the Almighty was still with me

and my children^j were around me,^k

⁶when my path was drenched with cream^l

and the rock^m poured out for me streams of olive oil.ⁿ

⁷“When I went to the gate^o of the city

and took my seat in the public square,

⁸the young men saw me and stepped aside^p

and the old men rose to their feet;^q

⁹the chief men refrained from speaking^r

and covered their mouths with their hands;^s

¹⁰the voices of the nobles were hushed,^t

and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.^u

¹¹Whoever heard me spoke well of me,

and those who saw me commended me,^v

¹²because I rescued the poor^w who cried for help,

and the fatherless^x who had none to assist them.^y

¹³The one who was dying blessed me;^z

I made the widow’s^a heart sing.

¹⁴I put on righteousness^b as my clothing;

justice was my robe and my turban.^c

¹⁵I was eyes^d to the blind

and feet to the lame.^e

¹⁶I was a father to the needy;^f

I took up the case^g of the stranger.^h

¹⁷I broke the fangs of the wicked

and snatched the victimsⁱ from their teeth.^j

¹⁸“I thought, ‘I will die in my own house,

my days as numerous as the grains of sand.^k

¹⁹My roots will reach to the water,^l

and the dew will lie all night on my branches.^m

²⁰My glory will not fade;ⁿ

the bow^o will be…