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Job 12-15

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.’

Eliphaz Speaks: Job Undermines Religion

15Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2 ‘Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,
   and fill themselves with the east wind?
3 Should they argue in unprofitable talk,
   or in words with which they can do no good?
4 But you are doing away with the fear of God,
   and hindering meditation before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
   and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
   your own lips testify against you.


7 ‘Are you the firstborn of the human race?
   Were you brought forth before the hills?
8 Have you listened in the council of God?
   And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know?
   What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10 The grey-haired and the aged are on our side,
   those older than your father.
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you,
   or the word that deals gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away,
   and why do your eyes flash,*
13 so that you turn your spirit against God,
   and let such words go out of your mouth?
14 What are mortals, that they can be clean?
   Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?
15 God puts no trust even in his holy ones,
   and the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
   one who drinks iniquity like water!


17 ‘I will show you; listen to me;
   what I have seen I will declare—
18 what sages have told,
   and their ancestors have not hidden,
19 to whom alone the land was given,
   and no stranger passed among them.
20 The wicked writhe in pain all their days,
   through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
21 Terrifying sounds are in their ears;
   in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.
22 They despair of returning from darkness,
   and they are destined for the sword.
23 They wander abroad for bread, saying, “Where is it?”
   They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;
24 distress and anguish terrify them;
   they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle.
25 Because they stretched out their hands against God,
   and bid defiance to the Almighty,*
26 running stubbornly against him
   with a thick-bossed shield;
27 because they have covered their faces with their fat,
   and gathered fat upon their loins,
28 they will live in desolate cities,
   in houses that no one should inhabit,
   houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
29 they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure,
   nor will they strike root in the earth;*
30 they will not escape from darkness;
   the flame will dry up their shoots,
   and their blossom* will be swept away* by the wind.
31 Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves;
   for emptiness will be their recompense.
32 It will be paid in full before their time,
   and their branch will not be green.
33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine,
   and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless is barren,
   and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief and bring forth evil
   and their heart prepares deceit.’

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Psalm 138

Thanksgiving and Praise

Of David.
1 I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
   before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down towards your holy temple
   and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness;
   for you have exalted your name and your word
   above everything.*
3 On the day I called, you answered me,
   you increased my strength of soul.*


4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord,
   for they have heard the words of your mouth.
5 They shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
   for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly;
   but the haughty he perceives from far away.


7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
   you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies;
you stretch out your hand,
   and your right hand delivers me.
8 The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
   your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever.
   Do not forsake the work of your hands.

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From the oremus Bible Browser https://bible.oremus.org v2.9.2 30 June 2021.