Job 22:1--27:23

Eliphaz’s Third Speech

22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

22:2 “Is it to God that a strong man is of benefit?

Is it to him that even a wise man is profitable?

22:3 Is it of any special benefit to the Almighty

that you should be righteous,

or is it any gain to him

that you make your ways blameless?

22:4 Is it because of your piety that he rebukes you

and goes to judgment with you?

22:5 Is not your wickedness great

and is there no end to your iniquity?

22:6 “For you took pledges from your brothers

for no reason,

and you stripped the clothing from the naked.

22:7 You gave the weary no water to drink

and from the hungry you withheld food.

22:8 Although you were a powerful man, owning land,

an honored man living on it,

22:9 you sent widows away empty-handed,

and the arms of the orphans you crushed.

22:10 That is why snares surround you,

and why sudden fear terrifies you,

22:11 why it is so dark you cannot see,

and why a flood of water covers you.

22:12 “Is not God on high in heaven?

And see the lofty stars, how high they are!

22:13 But you have said, ‘What does God know?

Does he judge through such deep darkness?

22:14 Thick clouds are a veil for him, so he does not see us,

as he goes back and forth

in the vault of heaven.’

22:15 Will you keep to the old path

that evil men have walked –

22:16 men who were carried off before their time,

when the flood was poured out

on their foundations?

22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

22:18 But it was he who filled their houses

with good things –

yet the counsel of the wicked

was far from me.

22:19 The righteous see their destruction and rejoice;

the innocent mock them scornfully, saying,

22:20 ‘Surely our enemies are destroyed,

and fire consumes their wealth.’

22:21 “Reconcile yourself with God,

and be at peace with him;

in this way your prosperity will be good.

22:22 Accept instruction from his mouth

and store up his words in your heart.

22:23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up;

if you remove wicked behavior far from your tent,

22:24 and throw your gold in the dust –

your gold of Ophir

among the rocks in the ravines –

22:25 then the Almighty himself will be your gold,

and the choicest silver for you.

22:26 Surely then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,

and will lift up your face toward God.

22:27 You will pray to him and he will hear you,

and you will fulfill your vows to him.

22:28 Whatever you decide on a matter,

it will be established for you,

and light will shine on your ways.

22:29 When people are brought low and you say

‘Lift them up!’

then he will save the downcast;

22:30 he will deliver even someone who is not innocent,

who will escape through the cleanness of your hands.”

Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

23:1 Then Job answered:

23:2 “Even today my complaint is still bitter;

his hand is heavy despite my groaning.

23:3 O that I knew where I might find him,

that I could come to his place of residence!

23:4 I would lay out my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

23:5 I would know with what words he would answer me,

and understand what he would say to me.

23:6 Would he contend with me with great power?

No, he would only pay attention to me.

23:7 There an upright person

could present his case before him,

and I would be delivered forever from my judge.

The Inaccessibility and Power of God

23:8 “If I go to the east, he is not there,

and to the west, yet I do not perceive him.

23:9 In the north when he is at work,

I do not see him;

when he turns to the south,

I see no trace of him.

23:10 But he knows the pathway that I take;

if he tested me, I would come forth like gold.

23:11 My feet have followed his steps closely;

I have kept to his way and have not turned aside.

23:12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my allotted portion.

23:13 But he is unchangeable, and who can change him?

Whatever he has desired, he does.

23:14 For he fulfills his decree against me,

and many such things are his plans.

23:15 That is why I am terrified in his presence;

when I consider, I am afraid because of him.

23:16 Indeed, God has made my heart faint;

the Almighty has terrified me.

23:17 Yet I have not been silent because of the darkness,

because of the thick darkness

that covered my face.

The Apparent Indifference of God

24:1 “Why are times not appointed by the Almighty?

Why do those who know him not see his days?

24:2 Men move boundary stones;

they seize the flock and pasture them.

24:3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey;

they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

24:4 They turn the needy from the pathway,

and the poor of the land hide themselves together.

24:5 Like wild donkeys in the desert

they go out to their labor,

seeking diligently for food;

the wasteland provides food for them

and for their children.

24:6 They reap fodder in the field,

and glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

24:7 They spend the night naked because they lack clothing;

they have no covering against the cold.

24:8 They are soaked by mountain rains

and huddle in the rocks because they lack shelter.

24:9 The fatherless child is snatched from the breast,

the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge.

24:10 They go about naked, without clothing,

and go hungry while they carry the sheaves.

24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees;

they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty.

24:12 From the city the dying groan,

and the wounded cry out for help,

but God charges no one with wrongdoing.

24:13 There are those who rebel against the light;

they do not know its ways

and they do not stay on its paths.

24:14 Before daybreak the murderer rises up;

he kills the poor and the needy;

in the night he is like a thief.

24:15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,

thinking, ‘No eye can see me,’

and covers his face with a mask.

24:16 In the dark the robber breaks into houses,

but by day they shut themselves in;

they do not know the light.

24:17 For all of them, the morning is to them

like deep darkness;

they are friends with the terrors of darkness.

24:18 “You say, ‘He is foam on the face of the waters;

their portion of the land is cursed

so that no one goes to their vineyard.

24:19 The drought as well as the heat carry away

the melted snow;

so the grave takes away those who have sinned.

24:20 The womb forgets him,

the worm feasts on him,

no longer will he be remembered.

Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.

24:21 He preys on the barren and childless woman,

and does not treat the widow well.

24:22 But God drags off the mighty by his power;

when God rises up against him, he has no faith in his life.

24:23 God may let them rest in a feeling of security,

but he is constantly watching all their ways.

24:24 They are exalted for a little while,

and then they are gone,

they are brought low like all others,

and gathered in,

and like a head of grain they are cut off.’

24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me a liar

and reduce my words to nothing?”

Bildad’s Third Speech

25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

25:2 “Dominion and awesome might belong to God;

he establishes peace in his heights.

25:3 Can his armies be numbered?

On whom does his light not rise?

25:4 How then can a human being be righteous before God?

How can one born of a woman be pure?

25:5 If even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure as far as he is concerned,

25:6 how much less a mortal man, who is but a maggot –

a son of man, who is only a worm!”

Job’s Reply to Bildad

26:1 Then Job replied:

26:2 “How you have helped the powerless!

How you have saved the person who has no strength!

26:3 How you have advised the one without wisdom,

and abundantly revealed your insight!

26:4 To whom did you utter these words?

And whose spirit has come forth from your mouth?

A Better Description of God’s Greatness

26:5 “The dead tremble –

those beneath the waters

and all that live in them.

26:6 The underworld is naked before God;

the place of destruction lies uncovered.

26:7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;

he suspends the earth on nothing.

26:8 He locks the waters in his clouds,

and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.

26:9 He conceals the face of the full moon,

shrouding it with his clouds.

26:10 He marks out the horizon on the surface of the waters

as a boundary between light and darkness.

26:11 The pillars of the heavens tremble

and are amazed at his rebuke.

26:12 By his power he stills the sea;

by his wisdom he cut Rahab the great sea monster to pieces.

26:13 By his breath the skies became fair;

his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

26:14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways!

How faint is the whisper we hear of him!

But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

A Protest of Innocence

27:1 And Job took up his discourse again:

27:2 “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,

the Almighty, who has made my life bitter –

27:3 for while my spirit is still in me,

and the breath from God is in my nostrils,

27:4 my lips will not speak wickedness,

and my tongue will whisper no deceit.

27:5 I will never declare that you three are in the right;

until I die, I will not set aside my integrity!

27:6 I will maintain my righteousness

and never let it go;

my conscience will not reproach me

for as long as I live.

The Condition of the Wicked

27:7 “May my enemy be like the wicked,

my adversary like the unrighteous.

27:8 For what hope does the godless have when he is cut off,

when God takes away his life?

27:9 Does God listen to his cry

when distress overtakes him?

27:10 Will he find delight in the Almighty?

Will he call out to God at all times?

27:11 I will teach you about the power of God;

What is on the Almighty’s mind I will not conceal.

27:12 If you yourselves have all seen this,

Why in the world do you continue this meaningless talk?

27:13 This is the portion of the wicked man

allotted by God,

the inheritance that evildoers receive

from the Almighty.

27:14 If his children increase – it is for the sword!

His offspring never have enough to eat.

27:15 Those who survive him are buried by the plague,

and their widows do not mourn for them.

27:16 If he piles up silver like dust

and stores up clothing like mounds of clay,

27:17 what he stores up a righteous man will wear,

and an innocent man will inherit his silver.

27:18 The house he builds is as fragile as a moth’s cocoon,

like a hut that a watchman has made.

27:19 He goes to bed wealthy, but will do so no more.

When he opens his eyes, it is all gone.

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood;

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

27:22 It hurls itself against him without pity

as he flees headlong from its power.

27:23 It claps its hands at him in derision

and hisses him away from his place.