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12Then Job answered: ²“No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. ³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? ⁴I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, I am a laughingstock. ⁵Those at ease have contempt for misfortune, but it is ready for those whose feet are unstable.

⁶The 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; ⁸ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. ⁹Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? ¹⁰In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being. ¹¹Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?

¹²Is wisdom with the aged, and understanding in length of days? ¹³“With God are wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding. ¹⁴If he tears down, no one can rebuild; if he shuts someone in, no one can open up. ¹⁵If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land. ¹⁶With him are strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. ¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped, and makes fools of judges. ¹⁸He looses the sash of kings, and binds a waistcloth on their loins. ¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. ²⁰He deprives of speech those who are trusted, and takes away the discernment of the elders. ²¹He pours contempt on princes, and looses the belt of the strong. ²²He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep darkness to light. ²³He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away. ²⁴He strips understanding from the leaders of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless waste. ²⁵They 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. ²What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. ³But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. ⁴As for you, you whitewash with lies; all of you are worthless physicians. ⁵If you would only keep silent, that would be your wisdom! ⁶Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips. ⁷Will you speak falsely for God, and speak deceitfully for him? ⁸Will you show partiality toward him, will you plead the case for God? ⁹Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another? ¹⁰He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality. ¹¹Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you? ¹²Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.

¹³“Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may. ¹⁴I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand. ¹⁵See, he will kill me; I have no hope; but I will defend my ways to his face. ¹⁶This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him. ¹⁷Listen carefully to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears. ¹⁸I have indeed prepared my case; I know that I shall be vindicated. ¹⁹Who is there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. ²⁰Only grant two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face: ²¹withdraw your hand far from me, and do not let dread of you terrify me. ²²Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me.

²³How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. ²⁴Why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy? ²⁵Will you frighten a windblown leaf and pursue dry chaff? ²⁶For you write bitter things against me, and make me reap the iniquities of my youth. ²⁷You put my feet in the stocks, and watch all my paths; you set a bound to the soles of my feet. ²⁸One 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, ²comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last. ³Do you fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment with you? ⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one can. ⁵Since their days are determined, and the number of their months is known to you, and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass, ⁶look away from them, and desist, that they may enjoy, like laborers, 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. ⁸Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, ⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. ¹⁰But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they? ¹¹As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, ¹²so 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. ¹³Oh 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! ¹⁴If mortals die, will they live again? All the days of my service I would wait until my release should come. ¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.

¹⁶For then you would not number my steps, you would not keep watch over my sin; ¹⁷my 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; ¹⁹the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of mortals. ²⁰You prevail forever against them, and they pass away; you change their countenance, and send them away. ²¹Their children come to honor, and they do not know it; they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed. ²²They feel only the pain of their own bodies, and mourn only for themselves.”

15Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: ²“Should the wise answer with windy knowledge, and fill themselves with the east wind? ³Should they argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which they can do no good? ⁴But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God. ⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. ⁶Your 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? ⁸Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? ⁹What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? ¹⁰The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, those older than your father. ¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? ¹²Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, ¹³so that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? ¹⁴What are mortals, that they can be clean? Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous? ¹⁵God puts no trust even in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his sight; ¹⁶how 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— ¹⁸what sages have told, and their ancestors have not hidden, ¹⁹to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them. ²⁰The wicked writhe in pain all their days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. ²¹Terrifying sounds are in their ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them. ²²They despair of returning from darkness, and they are destined for the sword. ²³They wander abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand; ²⁴distress and anguish terrify them; they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle. ²⁵Because they stretched out their hands against God, and bid defiance to the Almighty, ²⁶running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield; ²⁷because they have covered their faces with their fat, and gathered fat upon their loins, ²⁸they will live in desolate cities, in houses that no one should inhabit, houses destined to become heaps of ruins; ²⁹they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure, nor will they strike root in the earth; ³⁰they will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up their shoots, and their blossom will be swept away by the wind. ³¹Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves; for emptiness will be their recompense. ³²It will be paid in full before their time, and their branch will not be green. ³³They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree. ³⁴For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. ³⁵They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares deceit.”

16Then Job answered: ²“I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. ³Have windy words no limit? Or what provokes you that you keep on talking? ⁴I also could talk as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you. ⁵I could encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? ⁷Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. ⁸And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; my leanness has risen up against me, and it testifies to my face. ⁹He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. ¹⁰They have gaped at me with their mouths; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. ¹¹God gives me up to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. ¹²I was at ease, and he broke me in two; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; ¹³his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy; he pours out my gall on the ground. ¹⁴He bursts upon me again and again; he rushes at me like a warrior. ¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my strength in the dust. ¹⁶My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids,

¹⁷though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. ¹⁸“O earth, do not cover my blood; let my outcry find no resting place. ¹⁹Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high. ²⁰My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, ²¹that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God, as one does for a neighbor. ²²For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

17My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me. ²Surely there are mockers around me, and my eye dwells on their provocation. ³“Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me? ⁴Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. ⁵Those who denounce friends for reward— the eyes of their children will fail. ⁶“He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit. ⁷My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow. ⁸The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless. ⁹Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

¹⁰But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you. ¹¹My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart. ¹²They make night into day; ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’ ¹³If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness, ¹⁴if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’ ¹⁵where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? ¹⁶Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”

18Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: ²“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we shall speak. ³Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight? ⁴You who tear yourself in your anger— shall the earth be forsaken because of you, or the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵“Surely the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of their fire does not shine. ⁶The light is dark in their tent, and the lamp above them is put out. ⁷Their strong steps are shortened, and their own schemes throw them down. ⁸For they are thrust into a net by their own feet, and they walk into a pitfall. ⁹A trap seizes them by the heel; a snare lays hold of them. ¹⁰A rope is hid for them in the ground, a trap for them in the path.

¹¹Terrors frighten them on every side, and chase them at their heels. ¹²Their strength is consumed by hunger, and calamity is ready for their stumbling. ¹³By disease their skin is consumed, the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs. ¹⁴They are torn from the tent in which they trusted, and are brought to the king of terrors. ¹⁵In their tents nothing remains; sulfur is scattered upon their habitations. ¹⁶Their roots dry up beneath, and their branches wither above. ¹⁷Their memory perishes from the earth, and they have no name in the street. ¹⁸They are thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world. ¹⁹They have no offspring or descendant among their people, and no survivor where they used to live. ²⁰They of the west are appalled at their fate, and horror seizes those of the east. ²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, such is the place of those who do not know God.”

19Then Job answered: ²“How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words? ³These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me? ⁴And even if it is true that I have erred, my error remains with me. ⁵If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my humiliation an argument against me, ⁶know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me. ⁷Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered; I call aloud, but there is no justice.

⁸He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths. ⁹He has stripped my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head. ¹⁰He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, he has uprooted my hope like a tree. ¹¹He has kindled his wrath against me, and counts me as his adversary. ¹²His troops come on together; they have thrown up siegeworks against me, and encamp around my tent. ¹³“He has put my family far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me. ¹⁴My relatives and my close friends have failed me; ¹⁵the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes. ¹⁶I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must myself plead with him. ¹⁷My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family. ¹⁸Even young children despise me; when I rise, they talk against me. ¹⁹All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. ²⁰My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. ²¹Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! ²²Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh?

²³“O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! ²⁴O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! ²⁵For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; ²⁶and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, ²⁷whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! ²⁸If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him’; ²⁹be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”

20Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: ²“Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer, because of the agitation within me. ³I hear censure that insults me, and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me. ⁴Do you not know this from of old, ever since mortals were placed on earth, ⁵that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless is but for a moment? ⁶Even though they mount up high as the heavens, and their head reaches to the clouds, ⁷they will perish forever like their own dung; those who have seen them will say, ‘Where are they?’ ⁸They will fly away like a dream, and not be found; they will be chased away like a vision of the night. ⁹The eye that saw them will see them no more, nor will their place behold them any longer.

¹⁰Their children will seek the favor of the poor, and their hands will give back their wealth. ¹¹Their bodies, once full of youth, will lie down in the dust with them. ¹²“Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth, though they hide it under their tongues, ¹³though they are loath to let it go, and hold it in their mouths, ¹⁴yet their food is turned in their stomachs; it is the venom of asps within them. ¹⁵They swallow down riches and vomit them up again; God casts them out of their bellies. ¹⁶They will suck the poison of asps; the tongue of a viper will kill them. ¹⁷They will not look on the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds. ¹⁸They will give back the fruit of their toil, and will not swallow it down; from the profit of their trading they will get no enjoyment. ¹⁹For they have crushed and abandoned the poor, they have seized a house that they did not build. ²⁰“They knew no quiet in their bellies; in their greed they let nothing escape. ²¹There was nothing left after they had eaten; therefore their prosperity will not endure. ²²In full sufficiency they will be in distress; all the force of misery will come upon them.

²³To fill their belly to the full God will send his fierce anger into them, and rain it upon them as their food. ²⁴They will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike them through. ²⁵It is drawn forth and comes out of their body, and the glittering point comes out of their gall; terrors come upon them. ²⁶Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures; a fire fanned by no one will devour them; what is left in their tent will be consumed. ²⁷The heavens will reveal their iniquity, and the earth will rise up against them. ²⁸The possessions of their house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God’s wrath. ²⁹This is the portion of the wicked from God, the heritage decreed for them by God.”

21Then Job answered: ²“Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation. ³Bear with me, and I will speak; then after I have spoken, mock on. ⁴As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals? 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 on, 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 never miscarries. ¹¹They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance around. 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, ‘Leave us alone! We do not desire to know your ways. ¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ ¹⁶Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement? The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.

¹⁷“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does calamity come upon them? How often does God distribute pains in his anger? ¹⁸How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? ¹⁹You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let it be paid back to them, so 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 household 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 loins full of milk 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“Oh, 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 lived?’ ²⁹Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony, ³⁰that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity, and are rescued in the day of wrath? ³¹Who declares their way to their face, and who repays them for what they have done? ³²When they are carried to the grave, a watch is kept over their tomb. ³³The clods of the valley are sweet to them; everyone will follow after, and those who went before are innumerable. ³⁴How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

22Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: ²“Can a mortal be of use to God? Can even the wisest be of service to him? 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 piety 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 from your family for no reason, 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 powerful possess the land, and the favored live in it. ⁹You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the orphans you have crushed. ¹⁰Therefore snares are around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you, ¹¹or darkness so that you cannot see; 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 dome of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way that the wicked have trod? ¹⁶They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away by a flood. ¹⁷They said to God, ‘Leave us alone,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ ¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things— but the plans of the wicked are repugnant to 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; in this way good will come to you. ²²Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. ²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored, if you remove unrighteousness from your tents, ²⁴if you treat gold like dust, and gold of Ophir like 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 pray 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. ²⁹When others are humiliated, you say it is pride; for he saves the humble. ³⁰He will deliver even those who are guilty; they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”

23Then Job answered: ²“Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning. ³Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! 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; but he would give heed to me. ⁷There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.

⁸“If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; ⁹on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. ¹⁰But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come out like 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 stands alone and who can dissuade 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; ¹⁷If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!

24“Why are times not kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days? ²The wicked remove landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them. ³They drive away the donkey of the orphan; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. ⁴They thrust the needy off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves. ⁵Like wild asses in the desert they go out to their toil, scavenging in the wasteland food for their young. ⁶They reap in a field not their own and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked. 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 orphan child from the breast, and take as a pledge the infant of the poor. ¹⁰They go about naked, without clothing; though hungry, they carry the sheaves; ¹¹between their terraces they press out oil; they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst. ¹²From the city the dying groan, and the throat 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 at dusk to kill the poor and needy, and in the night is like 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“Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion in the land is cursed; no treader turns toward their vineyards. ¹⁹Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned. ²⁰The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered; so wickedness is broken like a tree. ²¹“They harm the 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; 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?”