Job 24–31

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 stupidity!

What wise advice you have offered!

⁴Where have you gotten all these wise sayings?

Whose spirit speaks through you?

⁵“The dead tremble—

those who live beneath the waters.

⁶The underworld is naked in God’s presence.

The place of destruction is uncovered.

⁷God stretches the northern sky over empty space

and hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He wraps the rain in his thick clouds,

and the clouds don’t burst with the weight.

⁹He covers the face of the moon,

shrouding it with his clouds.

¹⁰He created the horizon when he separated the waters;

he set the boundary between day and night.

¹¹The foundations of heaven tremble;

they shudder at his rebuke.

¹²By his power the sea grew calm.

By his skill he crushed the great sea monster.

¹³His Spirit made the heavens beautiful,

and his power pierced the gliding serpent.

¹⁴These are just the beginning of all that he does,

merely a whisper of his power.

Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?”

Chapter 27

Job’s Final Speech

Job continued speaking:

²“I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights,

by the Almighty who has embittered my soul—

³As long as I live,

while I have breath from God,

⁴my lips will speak no evil,

and my tongue will speak no lies.

⁵I will never concede that you are right;

I will defend my integrity until I die.

⁶I will maintain my innocence without wavering.

My conscience is clear for as long as I live.

⁷“May my enemy be punished like the wicked,

my adversary like those who do evil.

⁸For what hope do the godless have when God cuts them off

and takes away their life?

⁹Will God listen to their cry

when trouble comes upon them?

¹⁰Can they take delight in the Almighty?

Can they call to God at any time?

¹¹I will teach you about God’s power.

I will not conceal anything concerning the Almighty.

¹²But you have seen all this,

yet you say all these useless things to me.

¹³“This is what the wicked will receive from God;

this is their inheritance from the Almighty.

¹⁴They may have many children,

but the children will die in war or starve to death.

¹⁵Those who survive will die of a plague,

and not even their widows will mourn them.

¹⁶“Evil people may have piles of money

and may store away mounds of clothing.

¹⁷But the righteous will wear that clothing,

and the innocent will divide that money.

¹⁸The wicked build houses as fragile as a spider’s web,

as flimsy as a shelter made of branches.

¹⁹The wicked go to bed rich

but wake to find that all their wealth is gone.

²⁰Terror overwhelms them like a flood,

and they are blown away in the storms of the night.

²¹The east wind carries them away, and they are gone.

It sweeps them away.

²²It whirls down on them without mercy.

They struggle to flee from its power.

²³But everyone jeers at them

and mocks them.

Chapter 28

Job Speaks of Wisdom and Understanding

¹“People know where to mine silver

and how to refine gold.

²They know where to dig iron from the earth

and how to smelt copper from rock.

³They know how to shine light in the darkness

and explore the farthest regions of the earth

as they search in the dark for ore.

⁴They sink a mine shaft into the earth

far from where anyone lives.

They descend on ropes, swinging back and forth.

⁵Food is grown on the earth above,

but down below, the earth is melted as by fire.

⁶Here the rocks contain precious lapis lazuli,

and the dust contains gold.

⁷These are treasures no bird of prey can see,

no falcon’s eye observe.

⁸No wild animal has walked upon these treasures;

no lion has ever set his paw there.

⁹People know how to tear apart flinty rocks

and overturn the roots of mountains.

¹⁰They cut tunnels in the rocks

and uncover precious stones.

¹¹They dam up the trickling streams

and bring to light the hidden treasures.

¹²“But do people know where to find wisdom?

Where can they find understanding?

¹³No one knows where to find it,

for it is not found among the living.

¹⁴‘It is not here,’ says the ocean.

‘Nor is it here,’ says the sea.

¹⁵It cannot be bought with gold.

It cannot be purchased with silver.

¹⁶It’s worth more than all the gold of Ophir,

greater than precious onyx or lapis lazuli.

¹⁷Wisdom is more valuable than gold and crystal.

It cannot be purchased with jewels mounted in fine gold.

¹⁸Coral and jasper are worthless in trying to get it.

The price of wisdom is far above rubies.

¹⁹Precious peridot from Ethiopia cannot be exchanged for it.

It’s worth more than the purest gold.

²⁰“But do people know where to find wisdom?

Where can they find understanding?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of all humanity.

Even the sharp-eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it.

²²Destruction and Death say,

‘We’ve heard only rumors of where wisdom can be found.’

²³“God alone understands the way to wisdom;

he knows where it can be found,

²⁴for he looks throughout the whole earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵He decided how hard the winds should blow

and how much rain should fall.

²⁶He made the laws for the rain

and laid out a path for the lightning.

²⁷Then he saw wisdom and evaluated it.

He set it in place and examined it thoroughly.

²⁸And this is what he says to all humanity:

‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom;

to forsake evil is real understanding.’ ”

Chapter 29

Job Speaks of His Former Blessings

Job continued speaking:

²“I long for the years gone by

when God took care of me,

³when he lit up the way before me

and I walked safely through the darkness.

⁴When I was in my prime,

God’s friendship was felt in my home.

⁵The Almighty was still with me,

and my children were around me.

⁶My steps were awash in cream,

and the rocks gushed olive oil for me.

⁷“Those were the days when I went to the city gate

and took my place among the honored leaders.

⁸The young stepped aside when they saw me,

and even the aged rose in respect at my coming.

⁹The princes stood in silence

and put their hands over their mouths.

¹⁰The highest officials of the city stood quietly,

holding their tongues in respect.

¹¹“All who heard me praised me.

All who saw me spoke well of me.

¹²For I assisted the poor in their need

and the orphans who required help.

¹³I helped those without hope, and they blessed me.

And I caused the widows’ hearts to sing for joy.

¹⁴Everything I did was honest.

Righteousness covered me like a robe,

and I wore justice like a turban.

¹⁵I served as eyes for the blind

and feet for the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor

and assisted strangers who needed help.

¹⁷I broke the jaws of godless oppressors

and plucked their victims from their teeth.

¹⁸“I thought, ‘Surely I will die surrounded by my family

after a long, good life.

¹⁹For I am like a tree whose roots reach the water,

whose branches are refreshed with the dew.

²⁰New honors are constantly bestowed on me,

and my strength is continually renewed.’

²¹“Everyone listened…