Job 21-24

1Then Job answered:

2“Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.

3Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.

4Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?

5Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.

6When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.

7Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

8Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.

9Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them.

10Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.

11They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,

12singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute.

13They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.

14Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.

15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

16Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

17How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

18Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?

19It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.

20Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.

21For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?

22Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?

23One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.

24His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.

25Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.

26But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.

27Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.

28For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’

29Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?

30Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.

31Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?

32He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.

33The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.

34So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2“Can a man be of use to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him?

3Does it delight the Almighty that you are righteous? Does He profit if your ways are blameless?

4Is it for your reverence that He rebukes you and enters into judgment against you?

5Is not your wickedness great? Are not your iniquities endless?

6For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.

7You gave no water to the weary and withheld food from the famished,

8while the land belonged to a mighty man, and a man of honor lived on it.

9You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

10Therefore snares surround you, and sudden peril terrifies you;

11it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

12Is not God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are!

13Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness?

14Thick clouds veil Him so He does not see us as He traverses the vault of heaven.’

15Will you stay on the ancient path that wicked men have trod?

16They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.

17They said to God, ‘Depart from us. What can the Almighty do to us?’

18But it was He who filled their houses with good things; so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

19The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent mock them:

20‘Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire has consumed their excess.’

21Reconcile now and be at peace with Him; thereby 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 injustice from your tents

24and consign your gold to the dust and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines,

25then the Almighty will be your gold and the finest silver for you.

26Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

27You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

28Your decisions will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.

29When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then He will save the lowly.

30He will deliver even one who is not innocent, rescuing him through the cleanness of your hands.”

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?”