021:032 Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch
over the tomb.
021:033 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall
draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
021:034 So how can you comfort me with nonsense, seeing that in your
answers there remains only falsehood?"
022:001 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
022:002 "Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is
profitable to himself.
022:003 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous?
Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?
022:004 Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters
with you into judgment?
022:005 Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end
to your iniquities.
022:006 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing,
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
022:007 You haven't given water to the weary to drink, and you have
withheld bread from the hungry.
022:008 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man,
he lived in it.
022:009 You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless
have been broken.
022:010 Therefore snares are round about you. Sudden fear troubles you,
022:011 or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
022:012 "Isn't God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars,
how high they are!
022:013 You say, 'What does God know? Can he judge through
the thick darkness?
022:014 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn't see.
He walks on the vault of the sky.'
022:015 Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,
022:016 who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation
was poured out as a stream,
022:017 who said to God, 'Depart from us;' and, 'What can the Almighty
do for us?'
022:018 Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel
of the wicked is far from me.
022:019 The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,
022:020 saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off.
The fire has consumed the remnant of them.'
022:021 "Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace.
Thereby good shall come to you.
022:022 Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words
in your heart.
022:023 If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you
put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
022:024 Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones
of the brooks.
022:025 The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.
022:026 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and shall
lift up your face to God.
022:027 You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you.
You shall pay your vows.
022:028 You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you.
Light shall shine on your ways.
022:029 When they cast down, you shall say, 'be lifted up.'
He will save the humble person.
022:030 He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he shall
be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."
023:001 Then Job answered,
023:002 "Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy
in spite of my groaning.
023:003 Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come
even to his seat!
023:004 I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my
mouth with arguments.
023:005 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand
what he would tell me.
023:006 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No, but he would listen to me.
023:007 There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered
forever from my judge.
023:008 "If I go east, he is not there; if west, I can't find him;
023:009 He works to the north, but I can't see him. He turns south,
but I can't catch a glimpse of him.
023:010 But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me,
I shall come forth like gold.
023:011 My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way,
and not turned aside.
023:012 I haven't gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than
my necessary food.
023:013 But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires,
even that he does.
023:014 For he performs that which is appointed for me.
Many such things are with him.
023:015 Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider,
I am afraid of him.
023:016 For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.
023:017 Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did
he cover the thick darkness from my face.
024:001 "Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those
who know him see his days?
024:002 There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently
take away flocks, and feed them.
024:003 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take
the widow's ox for a pledge.
024:004 They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth
all hide themselves.
024:005 Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their work,
seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them
bread for their children.
024:006 They cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard
of the wicked.
024:007 They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering
in the cold.
024:008 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace
the rock for lack of a shelter.
024:009 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast,
and take a pledge of the poor,
024:010 So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry,
they carry the sheaves.
024:011 They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread
wine presses, and suffer thirst.
024:012 From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded
cries out, yet God doesn't regard the folly.
024:013 "These are of those who rebel against the light.
They don't know its ways, nor abide in its paths.
024:014 The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy.
In the night he is like a thief.
024:015 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying,
'No eye shall see me.' He disguises his face.
024:016 In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up
in the daytime. They don't know the light.
024:017 For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness,
for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
024:018 "They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion
is cursed in the earth. They don't turn into the way
of the vineyards.
024:019 Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol
those who have sinned.
024:020 The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him.
He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be
broken as a tree.
024:021 He devours the barren who don't bear. He shows no kindness
to the widow.
024:022 Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has
no assurance of life.
024:023 God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are
on their ways.
024:024 They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone.
Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as
all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
024:025 If it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my
speech worth nothing?"
025:001 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
025:002 "Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.
025:003 Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?
025:004 How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born
of a woman be clean?
025:005 Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are
not pure in his sight;
025:006 How much less man, who is a worm, the son of man, who is a worm!"
026:001 Then Job answered,
026:002 "How have you helped him who is without power! How have you
saved the arm that has no strength!
026:003 How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully
declared sound knowledge!
026:004 To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came forth from you?
026:005 "Those who are deceased tremble, those beneath the waters
and all that live in them.
026:006 Sheol{Sheol is the lower world or the grave.} is naked before God,
and Abaddon{Abaddon means Destroyer.} has no covering.
026:007 He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs
the earth on nothing.
026:008 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud
is not burst under them.
026:009 He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.
026:010 He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters,
and to the confines of light and darkness.
026:011 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.
026:012 He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding
he strikes through Rahab.
026:013 By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced
the swift serpent.
026:014 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways.
How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder
of his power who can understand?"
027:001 Job again took up his parable, and said,
027:002 "As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty,
who has made my soul bitter.
027:003 (For the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit
of God is in my nostrils);
027:004 surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, neither shall
my tongue utter deceit.
027:005 Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I
will not put away my integrity from me.
027:006 I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go.
My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
027:007 "Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against
me be as the unrighteous.
027:008 For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?
027:009 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
027:010 Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God
at all times?
027:011 I will teach you about the hand of God. That which is with
the Almighty will I not conceal.
027:012 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you
become altogether vain?
027:013 "This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage
of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
027:014 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword.
His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
027:015 Those who remain of him shall be buried in death.
His widows shall make no lamentation.
027:016 Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing
as the clay;
027:017 he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent
shall divide the silver.
027:018 He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.
027:019 He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again.
He opens his eyes, and he is not.
027:020 Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away
in the night.
027:021 The east wind carries him away, and he departs.
It sweeps him out of his place.
027:022 For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away
from his hand.
027:023 Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out
of his place.
028:001 "Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold
which they refine.
028:002 Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out
of the ore.
028:003 Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound,
the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
028:004 He breaks open a shaft away from where people live.
They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men,
they swing back and forth.
028:005 As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned
up as it were by fire.
028:006 Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
028:007 That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon's
eye seen it.
028:008 The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion
passed by there.
028:009 He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns
the mountains by the roots.
028:010 He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees
every precious thing.
028:011 He binds the streams that they don't trickle. The thing
that is hidden he brings forth to light.
028:012 "But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place
of understanding?
028:013 Man doesn't know its price; Neither is it found in the land
of the living.
028:014 The deep says, 'It isn't in me.' The sea says, 'It isn't with me.'
028:015 It can't be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed
for its price.
028:016 It can't be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx,
or the sapphire{or, lapis lazuli}.
028:017 Gold and glass can't equal it, neither shall it be exchanged
for jewels of fine gold.
028:018 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price
of wisdom is above rubies.
028:019 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it
be valued with pure gold.
028:020 Whence then comes wisdom? Where is the place of understanding?
028:021 Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept
close from the birds of the sky.
028:022 Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it
with our ears.'
028:023 "God understands its way, and he knows its place.
028:024 For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under
the whole sky.
028:025 He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out
the waters by measure.
028:026 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning
of the thunder;
028:027 then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes,
and searched it out.
028:028 To man he said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
To depart from evil is understanding.'"
029:001 Job again took up his parable, and said,
029:002 "Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God
watched over me;
029:003 when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I
walked through darkness,
029:004 as I was in the ripeness of my days, when the friendship of God
was in my tent,
029:005 when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me,
029:006 when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured
out streams of oil for me,
029:007 when I went forth to the city gate, when I prepared my seat
in the street.
029:008 The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose
up and stood.
029:009 The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand
on their mouth.
029:010 The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck
to the roof of their mouth.
029:011 For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye
saw me, it commended me:
029:012 Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also,
who had none to help him,
029:013 the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me,
and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
029:014 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was
as a robe and a diadem.
029:015 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
029:016 I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn't know,
I searched out.
029:017 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the prey
out of his teeth.
029:018 Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house, I shall number
my days as the sand.
029:019 My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night
on my branch.
029:020 My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.'
029:021 "Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.
029:022 After my words they didn't speak again. My speech fell on them.
029:023 They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank
as with the spring rain.
029:024 I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn't
reject the light of my face.
029:025 I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king
in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.
030:001 "But now those who are younger than I have me in derision,
whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
030:002 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom
ripe age has perished?
030:003 They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground,
in the gloom of waste and desolation.
030:004 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom
are their food.
030:005 They are driven out from the midst of men. They cry after them
as after a thief;
030:006 So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth
and of the rocks.
030:007 Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they
are gathered together.
030:008 They are children of fools, yes, children of base men.
They were flogged out of the land.
030:009 "Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
030:010 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don't hesitate
to spit in my face.
030:011 For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have
thrown off restraint before me.
030:012 On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet,
They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
030:013 They mar my path, They set forward my calamity,
without anyone's help.
030:014 As through a wide breach they come, in the midst of the ruin
they roll themselves in.
030:015 Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind.
My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
030:016 "Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction
have taken hold on me.
030:017 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains
that gnaw me take no rest.
030:018 By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about
as the collar of my coat.
030:019 He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
030:020 I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you
gaze at me.
030:021 You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand
you persecute me.
030:022 You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it.
You dissolve me in the storm.
030:023 For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house
appointed for all living.
030:024 "However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall?
Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
030:025 Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul
grieved for the needy?
030:026 When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light,
there came darkness.
030:027 My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction
have come on me.
030:028 I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly,
and cry for help.
030:029 I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
030:030 My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are
burned with heat.
030:031 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into
the voice of those who weep.
031:001 "I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look
lustfully at a young woman?
031:002 For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage
from the Almighty on high?
031:003 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the
workers of iniquity?
031:004 Doesn't he see my ways, and number all my steps?
031:005 "If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit
031:006 (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may
know my integrity);
031:007 if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked
after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
031:008 then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce
of my field be rooted out.
031:009 "If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait
at my neighbor's door,
031:010 then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.
031:011 For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity
to be punished by the judges:
031:012 For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root
out all my increase.
031:013 "If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my
female servant, when they contended with me;
031:014 What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits,
what shall I answer him?
031:015 Didn't he who made me in the womb make him? Didn't one fashion
us in the womb?
031:016 "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused
the eyes of the widow to fail,
031:017 or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not
eaten of it
031:018 (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
her have I guided from my mother's womb);
031:019 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy
had no covering;
031:020 if his heart hasn't blessed me, if he hasn't been warmed
with my sheep's fleece;
031:021 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I
saw my help in the gate,
031:022 then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm
be broken from the bone.
031:023 For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because his majesty,
I can do nothing.
031:024 "If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold,
'You are my confidence;'
031:025 If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my
hand had gotten much;
031:026 if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor,
031:027 and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw
a kiss from my mouth,
031:028 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
for I should have denied the God who is above.
031:029 "If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me,
or lifted up myself when evil found him;
031:030 (yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life
with a curse);
031:031 if the men of my tent have not said, 'Who can find one who has
not been filled with his meat?'
031:032 (the foreigner has not lodged in the street, but I have opened
my doors to the traveler);
031:033 if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding
my iniquity in my heart,
031:034 because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt
of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn't
go out of the door--
031:035 oh that I had one to hear me! (behold, here is my signature,
let the Almighty answer me); let the accuser write my indictment!
031:036 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; and I would bind it
to me as a crown.
031:037 I would declare to him the number of my steps. as a prince
would I go near to him.
031:038 If my land cries out against me, and the furrows of it weep together;
031:039 if I have eaten the fruits of it without money, or have caused
the owners of it to lose their life,
031:040 let briars grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley."
The words of Job are ended.
032:001 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous
in his own eyes.
032:002 Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite,
of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath
was kindled because he justified himself rather than God.
032:003 Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends,
because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.
032:004 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were
elder than he.
032:005 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these
three men, his wrath was kindled.
032:006 Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, "I am young,
and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn't dare
show you my opinion.
032:007 I said, 'Days should speak, and multitude of years
should teach wisdom.'
032:008 But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty
gives them understanding.
032:009 It is not the great who are wise, nor the aged
who understand justice.
032:010 Therefore I said, 'Listen to me; I also will show my opinion.'
032:011 "Behold, I waited for your words, and I listened for your reasoning,
while you searched out what to say.
032:012 Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who
convinced Job, or who answered his words, among you.
032:013 Beware lest you say, 'We have found wisdom, God may refute
him, not man;'
032:014 for he has not directed his words against me; neither will I
answer him with your speeches.
032:015 "They are amazed. They answer no more. They don't have
a word to say.
032:016 Shall I wait, because they don't speak, because they stand still,
and answer no more?
032:017 I also will answer my part, and I also will show my opinion.
032:018 For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me.
032:019 Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; like new
wineskins it is ready to burst.
032:020 I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my
lips and answer.
032:021 Please don't let me respect any man's person, neither will I
give flattering titles to any man.
032:022 For I don't know how to give flattering titles; or else my Maker
would soon take me away.
033:001 "However, Job, Please hear my speech, and listen to all my words.
033:002 See now, I have opened my mouth. My tongue has spoken
in my mouth.
033:003 My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart.
That which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.