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Job Replies: I Am a Laughing-stock

12Then Job answered:
² ‘No doubt you are the people,
   and wisdom will die with you.
³ But I have understanding as well as you;
   I am not inferior to you.
   Who does not know such things as these?
⁴ I am a laughing-stock to my friends;
   I, who called upon God and he answered me,
   a just and blameless man, I am a laughing-stock.
⁵ Those at ease have contempt for misfortune,^*
   but it is ready for those whose feet are unstable.
⁶ The tents of robbers are at peace,
   and those who provoke God are secure,
   who bring their god in their hands.^*

⁷ ‘But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
   the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
⁸ ask the plants of the earth,^* and they will teach you;
   and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
⁹ Who among all these does not know
   that the hand of the Lord has done this?
¹⁰ In his hand is the life of every living thing
   and the breath of every human being.
¹¹ Does not the ear test words
   as the palate tastes food?
¹² Is wisdom with the aged,
   and understanding in length of days?

¹³ ‘With God^* are wisdom and strength;
   he has counsel and understanding.
¹⁴ If he tears down, no one can rebuild;
   if he shuts someone in, no one can open up.
¹⁵ If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
   if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
¹⁶ With him are strength and wisdom;
   the deceived and the deceiver are his.
¹⁷ He leads counsellors away stripped,
   and makes fools of judges.
¹⁸ He looses the sash of kings,
   and binds a waistcloth on their loins.
¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped,
   and overthrows the mighty.
²⁰ He deprives of speech those who are trusted,
   and takes away the discernment of the elders.
²¹ He pours contempt on princes,
   and looses the belt of the strong.
²² He uncovers the deeps out of darkness,
   and brings deep darkness to light.
²³ He makes nations great, then destroys them;
   he enlarges nations, then leads them away.
²⁴ He strips understanding from the leaders^* of the earth,
   and makes them wander in a pathless waste.
²⁵ They grope in the dark without light;
   he makes them stagger like a drunkard.

13‘Look, my eye has seen all this,
   my ear has heard and understood it.
² What you know, I also know;
   I am not inferior to you.
³ But I would speak to the Almighty,^*
   and I desire to argue my case with God.
⁴ As for you, you whitewash with lies;
   all of you are worthless physicians.
⁵ If you would only keep silent,
   that would be your wisdom!
⁶ Hear now my reasoning,
   and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
⁷ Will you speak falsely for God,
   and speak deceitfully for him?
⁸ Will you show partiality towards him,
   will you plead the case for God?
⁹ Will it be well with you when he searches you out?
   Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another?
¹⁰ He will surely rebuke you
   if in secret you show partiality.
¹¹ Will not his majesty terrify you,
   and the dread of him fall upon you?
¹² Your maxims are proverbs of ashes,
   your defences are defences of clay.

¹³ ‘Let me have silence, and I will speak,
   and let come on me what may.
¹⁴ I will take my flesh in my teeth,
   and put my life in my hand.^*
15 See, he will kill me; I have no hope;^*
   but I will defend my ways to his face.
¹⁶ This will be my salvation,
   that the godless shall not come before him.
¹⁷ Listen carefully to my words,
   and let my declaration be in your ears.
¹⁸ I have indeed prepared my case;
   I know that I shall be vindicated.
¹⁹ Who is there that will contend with me?
   For then I would be silent and die.

Job’s Despondent Prayer

²⁰ Only grant two things to me,
   then I will not hide myself from your face:
²¹ withdraw your hand far from me,
   and do not let dread of you terrify me.
²² Then call, and I will answer;
   or let me speak, and you reply to me.
²³ How many are my iniquities and my sins?
   Make me know my transgression and my sin.
²⁴ Why do you hide your face,
   and count me as your enemy?
²⁵ Will you frighten a windblown leaf
   and pursue dry chaff?
²⁶ For you write bitter things against me,
   and make me reap^* the iniquities of my youth.
²⁷ You put my feet in the stocks,
   and watch all my paths;
   you set a bound to the soles of my feet.
²⁸ One wastes away like a rotten thing,
   like a garment that is moth-eaten.

14‘A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble,
²   comes up like a flower and withers,
   flees like a shadow and does not last.
³ Do you fix your eyes on such a one?
   Do you bring me into judgement with you?
⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
   No one can.
⁵ Since their days are determined,
   and the number of their months is known to you,
   and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass,
⁶ look away from them, and desist,^*
   that they may enjoy, like labourers, their days.

⁷ ‘For there is hope for a tree,
   if it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
   and that its shoots will not cease.
⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth,
   and its stump dies in the ground,
⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
   and put forth branches like a young plant.
¹⁰ But mortals die, and are laid low;
   humans expire, and where are they?
¹¹ As waters fail from a lake,
   and a river wastes away and dries up,
¹² so mortals lie down and do not rise again;
   until the heavens are no more, they will not awake
   or be roused out of their sleep.
¹³ O that you would hide me in Sheol,
   that you would conceal me until your wrath is past,
   that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
¹⁴ If mortals die, will they live again?
   All the days of my service I would wait
   until my release should come.
¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you;
   you would long for the work of your hands.
¹⁶ For then you would not^* number my steps,
   you would not keep watch over my sin;
¹⁷ my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
   and you would cover over my iniquity.

¹⁸ ‘But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
   and the rock is removed from its place;
¹⁹ the waters wear away the stones;
   the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
   so you destroy the hope of mortals.
²⁰ You prevail for ever against them, and they pass away;
   you change their countenance, and send them away.
²¹ Their children come to honour, and they do not know it;
   they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.
²² They feel only the pain of their own bodies,
   and mourn only for themselves.’