Job 21–37

Chapter 21

Job’s Seventh Speech: A Response to Zophar

Then Job spoke again:

²“Listen closely to what I am saying.

That’s one consolation you can give me.

³Bear with me, and let me speak.

After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me.

⁴“My complaint is with God, not with people.

I have good reason to be so impatient.

⁵Look at me and be stunned.

Put your hand over your mouth in shock.

⁶When I think about what I am saying, I shudder.

My body trembles.

⁷“Why do the wicked prosper,

growing old and powerful?

⁸They live to see their children grow up and settle down,

and they enjoy their grandchildren.

⁹Their homes are safe from every fear,

and God does not punish them.

¹⁰Their bulls never fail to breed.

Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.

¹¹They let their children frisk about like lambs.

Their little ones skip and dance.

¹²They sing with tambourine and harp.

They celebrate to the sound of the flute.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity,

then go down to the grave in peace.

¹⁴And yet they say to God, ‘Go away.

We want no part of you and your ways.

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him?

What good will it do us to pray?’

¹⁶(They think their prosperity is of their own doing,

but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)

¹⁷“Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished.

Do they ever have trouble?

Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?

¹⁸Are they driven before the wind like straw?

Are they carried away by the storm like chaff?

Not at all!

¹⁹“ ‘Well,’ you say, ‘at least God will punish their children!’

But I say he should punish the ones who sin,

so that they understand his judgment.

²⁰Let them see their destruction with their own eyes.

Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.

²¹For they will not care what happens to their family

after they are dead.

²²“But who can teach a lesson to God,

since he judges even the most powerful?

²³One person dies in prosperity,

completely comfortable and secure,

²⁴the picture of good health,

vigorous and fit.

²⁵Another person dies in bitter poverty,

never having tasted the good life.

²⁶But both are buried in the same dust,

both eaten by the same maggots.

²⁷“Look, I know what you’re thinking.

I know the schemes you plot against me.

²⁸You will tell me of rich and wicked people

whose houses have vanished because of their sins.

²⁹But ask those who have been around,

and they will tell you the truth.

³⁰Evil people are spared in times of calamity

and are allowed to escape disaster.

³¹No one criticizes them openly

or pays them back for what they have done.

³²When they are carried to the grave,

an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb.

³³A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery.

Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest,

and the earth gives sweet repose.

³⁴“How can your empty clichés comfort me?

All your explanations are lies!”

Chapter 22

Eliphaz’s Third Response to Job

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“Can a person do anything to help God?

Can even a wise person be helpful to him?

³Is it any advantage to the Almighty if you are righteous?

Would it be any gain to him if you were perfect?

⁴Is it because you’re so pious that he accuses you

and brings judgment against you?

⁵No, it’s because of your wickedness!

There’s no limit to your sins.

⁶“For example, you must have lent money to your friend

and demanded clothing as security.

Yes, you stripped him to the bone.

⁷You must have refused water for the thirsty

and food for the hungry.

⁸You probably think the land belongs to the powerful

and only the privileged have a right to it!

⁹You must have sent widows away empty-handed

and crushed the hopes of orphans.

¹⁰That is why you are surrounded by traps

and tremble from sudden fears.

¹¹That is why you cannot see in the darkness,

and waves of water cover you.

¹²“God is so great—higher than the heavens,

higher than the farthest stars.

¹³But you reply, ‘That’s why God can’t see what I am doing!

How can he judge through the thick darkness?

¹⁴For thick clouds swirl about him, and he cannot see us.

He is way up there, walking on the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵“Will you continue on the old paths

where evil people have walked?

¹⁶They were snatched away in the prime of life,

the foundations of their lives washed away.

¹⁷For they said to God, ‘Leave us alone!

What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁸Yet he was the one who filled their homes with good things,

so I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.

¹⁹“The righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed,

and the innocent will laugh in contempt.

²⁰They will say, ‘See how our enemies have been destroyed.

The last of them have been consumed in the fire.’

²¹“Submit to God, and you will have peace;

then things will go well for you.

²²Listen to his instructions,

and store them in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored—

so clean up your life.

²⁴If you give up your lust for money

and throw your precious gold into the river,

²⁵the Almighty himself will be your treasure.

He will be your precious silver!

²⁶“Then you will take delight in the Almighty

and look up to God.

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

and you will fulfill your vows to him.

²⁸You will succeed in whatever you choose to do,

and light will shine on the road ahead of you.

²⁹If people are in trouble and you say, ‘Help them,’

God will save them.

³⁰Even sinners will be rescued;

they will be rescued because your hands are pure.”

Chapter 23

Job’s Eighth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

Then Job spoke again:

²“My complaint today is still a bitter one,

and I try hard not to groan aloud.

³If only I knew where to find God,

I would go to his court.

⁴I would lay out my case

and present my arguments.

⁵Then I would listen to his reply

and understand what he says to me.

⁶Would he use his great power to argue with me?

No, he would give me a fair hearing.

⁷Honest people can reason with him,

so I would be forever acquitted by my judge.

⁸I go east, but he is not there.

I go west, but I cannot find him.

⁹I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden.

I look to the south, but he is concealed.

¹⁰“But he knows where I am going.

And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.

¹¹For I have stayed on God’s paths;

I have followed his ways and not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from his commands,

but have treasured his words more than daily food.

¹³But once he has made his decision, who can change his mind?

Whatever he wants to do, he does.

¹⁴So he will do to me whatever he has planned.

He controls my destiny.

¹⁵No wonder I am so terrified in his presence.

When I think of it, terror grips me.

¹⁶God has made me sick at heart;

the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Darkness is all around me;

thick, impenetrable darkness is everywhere.

Chapter 24

Job Asks Why the Wicked Are Not Punished

¹“Why doesn’t the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment?

Why must the godly wait for him in vain?

²Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers.

They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures.

³They take the orphan’s donkey

and demand the widow’s ox as security for a loan.

⁴The poor are pushed off the path;

the needy must hide together for safety.

⁵Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,

the poor must spend all their time looking for food,

searching even in the desert for food for their children.

⁶They harvest a field they do not own,

and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked.

⁷All night they lie naked in the cold,

without clothing or covering.

⁸They are soaked by mountain showers,

and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home.

⁹“The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast,

taking the baby as security for a loan.

¹⁰The poor must go about naked, without any clothing.

They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving.

¹¹They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it,

and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.

¹²The groans of the dying rise from the city,

and the wounded cry for help,

yet God ignores their moaning.

¹³“Wicked people rebel against the light.

They refuse to acknowledge its ways

or stay in its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises in the early dawn

to kill the poor and needy;

at night he is a thief.

¹⁵The adulterer waits for the twilight,

saying, ‘No one will see me then.’

He hides his face so no one will know him.

¹⁶Thieves break into houses at night

and sleep in the daytime.

They are not acquainted with the light.

¹⁷The black night is their morning.

They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.

¹⁸“But they disappear like foam down a river.

Everything they own is cursed,

and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards.

¹⁹The grave consumes sinners

just as drought and heat consume snow.

²⁰Their own mothers will forget them.

Maggots will find them sweet to eat.

No one will remember them.

Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.

²¹They cheat the woman who has no son to help her.

They refuse to help the needy widow.

²²“God, in his power, drags away the rich.

They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life.

²³They may be allowed to live in security,

but God is always watching them.

²⁴And though they are great now,

in a moment they will be gone like all others,

cut off like heads of grain.

²⁵Can anyone claim otherwise?

Who can prove me wrong?”

Chapter 25

Bildad’s Third Response to Job

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²“God is powerful and dreadful.

He enforces peace in the heavens.

³Who is able to count his heavenly army?

Doesn’t his light shine on all the earth?

⁴How can a mortal be innocent before God?

Can anyone born of a woman be pure?

⁵God is more glorious than the moon;

he shines brighter than the stars.

⁶In comparison, people are maggots;

we mortals are mere worms.”

Chapter 26

Job’s Ninth Speech: A Response to Bildad

Then Job spoke again:

²“How you have helped the powerless!

How you have saved the weak!

³How you have enlightened my…