Job 21–37

Chapter 21

¹Then Job answered:

²“Listen carefully to my words,

and let this be your consolation.

³Bear with me, and I will speak,

and after I have spoken, mock on.

⁴As for me, is my complaint against man?

Why should I not be impatient?

⁵Look at me, and be appalled,

and lay your hand upon your mouth.

⁶When I think of it I am dismayed,

and shuddering seizes my flesh.

⁷Why do the wicked live,

reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

⁸Their children are established in their presence,

and their offspring before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe from fear,

and no rod of God is upon them.

¹⁰Their bull breeds without fail;

their cow calves, and does not cast her calf.

¹¹They send forth their little ones like a flock,

and their children dance.

¹²They sing to the tambourine and the lyre,

and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity,

and in peace they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴They say to God, ‘Depart from us!

We do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.

¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

¹⁶Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?

The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?

That their calamity comes upon them?

That God distributes pains in his anger?

¹⁸That they are like straw before the wind,

and like chaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their sons.’

Let him recompense it to themselves, that they may know it.

²⁰Let their own eyes see their destruction,

and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹For what do they care for their houses after them,

when the number of their months is cut off?

²²Will any teach God knowledge,

seeing that he judges those that are on high?

²³One dies in full prosperity,

being wholly at ease and secure,

²⁴his body full of fat

and the marrow of his bones moist.

²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul,

never having tasted of good.

²⁶They lie down alike in the dust,

and the worms cover them.

²⁷“Behold, I know your thoughts,

and your schemes to wrong me.

²⁸For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?

Where is the tent in which the wicked dwelt?’

²⁹Have you not asked those who travel the roads,

and do you not accept their testimony

³⁰that the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity,

that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

³¹Who declares his way to his face,

and who requites him for what he has done?

³²When he is borne to the grave,

watch is kept over his tomb.

³³The clods of the valley are sweet to him;

all men follow after him,

and those who go before him are innumerable.

³⁴How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?

There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

Chapter 22

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“Can a man be profitable to God?

Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous,

or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

⁴Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you,

and enters into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great?

There is no end to your iniquities.

⁶For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing,

and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You have given no water to the weary to drink,

and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸The man with power possessed the land,

and the favored man dwelt in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty,

and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares are round about you,

and sudden terror overwhelms you;

¹¹your light is darkened, so that you cannot see,

and a flood of water covers you.

¹²“Is not God high in the heavens?

See the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³Therefore you say, ‘What does God know?

Can he judge through the deep darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see,

and he walks on the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way

which wicked men have trod?

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time;

their foundation was washed away.

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things—

but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹The righteous see it and are glad;

the innocent laugh them to scorn,

²⁰saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,

and what they left the fire has consumed.’

²¹“Agree with God, and be at peace;

thereby good will come to you.

²²Receive instruction from his mouth,

and lay up his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty and humble yourself,

if you remove unrighteousness far from your tents,

²⁴if you lay gold in the dust,

and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent bed,

²⁵and if the Almighty is your gold,

and your precious silver;

²⁶then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,

and lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you;

and you will pay your vows.

²⁸You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,

and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹For God abases the proud,

but he saves the lowly.

³⁰He delivers the innocent man;

you will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

Chapter 23

¹Then Job answered:

²“Today also my complaint is bitter,

his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

³Oh, that I knew where I might find him,

that I might come even to his seat!

⁴I would lay my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn what he would answer me,

and understand what he would say to me.

⁶Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?

No; he would give heed to me.

⁷There an upright man could reason with him,

and I should be acquitted for ever by my judge.

⁸“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there;

and backward, but I cannot perceive him;

⁹on the left hand I seek him, but I cannot behold him;

I turn to the right hand, but I cannot see him.

¹⁰But he knows the way that I take;

when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

¹¹My foot has held fast to his steps;

I have kept his way and have not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;

I have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth.

¹³But he is unchangeable and who can turn him?

What he desires, that he does.

¹⁴For he will complete what he appoints for me;

and many such things are in his mind.

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified at his presence;

when I consider, I am in dread of him.

¹⁶God has made my heart faint;

the Almighty has terrified me;

¹⁷for I am hemmed in by darkness,

and thick darkness covers my face.

Chapter 24

¹“Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty,

and why do those who know him never see his days?

²Men remove landmarks;

they seize flocks and pasture them.

³They drive away the ass of the fatherless;

they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

⁴They thrust the poor off the road;

the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

⁵Behold, like wild asses in the desert

they go forth to their toil,

seeking prey in the wilderness

as food for their children.

⁶They gather their fodder in the field

and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.

⁷They lie all night naked, without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.

⁸They are wet with the rain of the mountains,

and cling to the rock for want of shelter.

⁹(There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,

and take in pledge the infant of the poor.)

¹⁰They go about naked, without clothing;

hungry, they carry the sheaves;

¹¹among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil;

they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.

¹²From out of the city the dying groan,

and the soul of the wounded cries for help;

yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

¹³“There are those who rebel against the light,

who are not acquainted with its ways,

and do not stay in its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises in the dark,

that he may kill the poor and needy;

and in the night he is as a thief.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,

saying, ‘No eye will see me’;

and he disguises his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses;

by day they shut themselves up;

they do not know the light.

¹⁷For deep darkness is morning to all of them;

for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

¹⁸“You say, ‘They are swiftly carried away upon the face of the waters;

their portion is cursed in the land;

no treader turns toward their vineyards.

¹⁹Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;

so does Sheol those who have sinned.

²⁰The squares of the town forget them;

their name is no longer remembered;

so wickedness is broken like a tree.’

²¹“They feed on the barren childless woman,

and do no good to the widow.

²²Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;

they rise up when they despair of life.

²³He gives them security, and they are supported;

and his eyes are upon their ways.

²⁴They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;

they wither and fade like the mallow;

they are cut off like the heads of grain.

²⁵If it is not so, who will prove me a liar,

and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

Chapter 25

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

²“Dominion and fear are with God;

he makes peace in his high heaven.

³Is there any number to his armies?

Upon whom does his light not arise?

⁴How then can man be righteous before God?

How can he who is born of woman be clean?

⁵Behold, even the moon is not bright

and the stars are not clean in his sight;

⁶how much less man, who is a maggot,

and the son of man, who is a worm!”

Chapter 26

¹Then Job answered:

²“How you have helped him who has no power!

How you have saved the arm that has no strength!

³How you have counseled him who has no wisdom,

and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

⁴With whose help have you uttered words,

and whose spirit has come forth from you?

⁵The shades below tremble,

the waters and their inhabitants.

⁶Sheol is naked before God,

and Abaddon has no covering.

⁷He stretches out the north over the…