Job 23–27

1Then Job answered:

2“Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

3If only I knew where to find Him, so that I could go to His seat.

4I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.

5I would learn how He would answer, and consider what He would say.

6Would He contend with me in His great power? No, He would certainly take note of me.

7Then an upright man could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.

8If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him.

9When He is at work in the north, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the south, I cannot see Him.

10Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

11My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.

12I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.

13But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.

14For He carries out His decree against me, and He has many such plans.

15Therefore I am terrified in His presence; when I consider this, I fear Him.

16God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.

17Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

1“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?

2Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.

3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.

4They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

5Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.

6They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked.

7Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold.

8Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter.

9The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.

10Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.

11They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

12From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.

13Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths.

14When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.

15The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face.

16In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light.

17For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness!

18They are but foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one turns toward their vineyards.

19As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.

20The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree.

21They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow.

22Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life.

23He gives them a sense of security, but His eyes are on their ways.

24They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.

25If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”

1Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2“Dominion and awe belong to God; He establishes harmony in the heights of heaven.

3Can His troops be numbered? On whom does His light not rise?

4How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?

5If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,

6how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!”

1Then Job answered:

2“How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!

3How you have counseled the unwise and provided fully sound insight!

4To whom have you uttered these words? And whose spirit spoke through you?

5The dead tremble— those beneath the waters and those who dwell in them.

6Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

7He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.

8He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their own weight.

9He covers the face of the full moon, spreading over it His cloud.

10He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

11The foundations of heaven quake, astounded at His rebuke.

12By His power He stirred the sea; by His understanding He shattered Rahab.

13By His breath the skies were cleared; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

14Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”

1Job continued his discourse:

2“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice— the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—

3as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils,

4my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

5I will never say that you are right; I will maintain my integrity until I die.

6I will cling to my righteousness and never let go. As long as I live, my conscience will not accuse me.

7May my enemy be like the wicked and my opponent like the unjust.

8For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

9Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?

10Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

11I will instruct you in the power of God. I will not conceal the ways of the Almighty.

12Surely all of you have seen it for yourselves. Why then do you keep up this empty talk?

13This is the wicked man’s portion from God— the heritage the ruthless receive from the Almighty.

14Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.

15His survivors will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them.

16Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay,

17what he lays up, the righteous will wear, and his silver will be divided by the innocent.

18The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut set up by a watchman.

19He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.

20Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night.

21The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

22It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.

23It claps its hands at him and hisses him out of his place.