Job 24–31

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^q for their children.

⁶They gather their^r 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^s 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,^t

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^u forget them;

their name^v 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^w 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;^x

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;^y

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 void,

and hangs the earth upon nothing.

⁸He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

and the cloud is not rent under them.

⁹He covers the face of the moon,^z

and spreads over it his cloud.

¹⁰He has described a circle upon the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble,

and are astounded at his rebuke.

¹²By his power he stilled the sea;

by his understanding he smote Rahab.

¹³By his wind the heavens were made fair;

his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

¹⁴Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways;

and how small a whisper do we hear of him!

But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

Chapter 27

¹And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

²“As God lives, who has taken away my right,

and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter;

³as long as my breath is in me,

and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

⁴my lips will not speak falsehood,

and my tongue will not utter deceit.

⁵Far be it from me to say that you are right;

till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

⁶I hold fast my righteousness, and will not let it go;

my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

⁷“Let my enemy be as the wicked,

and let him that rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off,

when God takes away his life?

⁹Will God hear his cry,

when trouble comes upon him?

¹⁰Will he take delight in the Almighty?

Will he call upon God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹²Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

¹³“This is the portion of a wicked man with God,

and the heritage which oppressors receive from the Almighty:

¹⁴If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword;

and his offspring have not enough to eat.

¹⁵Those who survive him the pestilence buries,

and their widows make no lamentation.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver like dust,

and pile up clothing like clay;

¹⁷he may pile it up, but the just will wear it,

and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸The house which he builds is like a spider’s web,^a

like a booth which a watchman makes.

¹⁹He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;^b

he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like a flood;

in the night a whirlwind carries him off.

²¹The east wind lifts him up and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

²²It^c hurls at him without pity;

he flees from its power in headlong flight.

²³It^c claps its^d hands at him,

and hisses at him from its^d place.

Chapter 28

¹“Surely there is a mine for silver,

and a place for gold which they refine.

²Iron is taken out of the earth,

and copper is smelted from the ore.

³Men put an end to darkness,

and search out to the farthest bound

the ore in gloom and deep darkness.

⁴They open shafts in a valley away from where men live;

they are forgotten by travelers,

they hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.

⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread;

but underneath it is turned up as by fire.

⁶Its stones are the place of sapphires,^e

and it has dust of gold.

⁷“That path no bird of prey knows,

and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

⁸The proud beasts have not trodden it;

the lion has not passed over it.

⁹“Man puts his hand to the flinty rock,

and overturns mountains by the roots.

¹⁰He cuts out channels in the rocks,

and his eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹He binds up the streams so that they do not trickle,

and the thing that is hid he brings forth to light.

¹²“But where shall wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man does not know the way to it,^f

and it is not found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’

and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵It cannot be gotten for gold,

and silver cannot be weighed as its price.

¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

in precious onyx or sapphire.^g

¹⁷Gold and glass cannot equal it,

nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;

the price of wisdom is above pearls.

¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with it,

nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰“Whence then comes wisdom?

And where is the place of understanding?

²¹It is hid from the eyes of all living,

and concealed from the birds of the air.

²²Abaddon and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

²³“God understands the way to it,

and he knows its place.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth,

and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵When he gave to the wind its weight,

and meted out the waters by measure;

²⁶when he made a decree for the rain,

and a way for the lightning of the thunder;

²⁷then he saw it and declared it;

he established it, and searched it out.

²⁸And he said to man,

‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;

and to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”

Chapter 29

¹And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

²“Oh, that I were as in the months of old,

as in the days when God watched over me;

³when his lamp shone upon my head,

and by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴as I was in my autumn days,

when the friendship of God was upon my tent;

⁵when the Almighty was yet with me,

when my children were about me;

⁶when my steps were washed with milk,

and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷When I went out to the gate of the city,

when I prepared my seat in the square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew,

and the aged rose and stood;

⁹the princes refrained from talking,

and laid their hand on their mouth;

¹⁰the voice of the nobles was hushed,

and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹When the ear heard, it called me blessed,

and when the eye saw, it approved;

¹²because I delivered the poor who cried,

and the fatherless who had none to help him.

¹³The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,

and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

my justice was like a robe and a turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind,

and feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor,

and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.

¹⁷I broke the fangs of the unrighteous,

and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

¹⁸Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,

and I shall multiply my days as the sand,

¹⁹my roots spread out to the waters,

with the dew all night on my branches,

²⁰my glory fresh with me,

and my bow ever new in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me, and waited,

and kept silence for my counsel.

²²After I…