Job 25: 1 - 28: 28
1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, |
2“Dominion and fear are with him. |
He makes peace in his high places. |
3Can his armies be counted? |
On whom does his light not arise? |
4How then can man be just with God? |
Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean? |
5Behold, even the moon has no brightness, |
and the stars are not pure in his sight; |
6How much less man, who is a worm, |
the son of man, who is a worm!” |
1Then Job answered, |
2“How have you helped him who is without power! |
How have you saved the arm that has no strength! |
3How have you counselled him who has no wisdom, |
and plentifully declared sound knowledge! |
4To whom have you uttered words? |
Whose spirit came out of you? |
5“The departed spirits tremble, |
those beneath the waters and all that live in them. |
6Sheol is naked before God, |
and Abaddon has no covering. |
7He stretches out the north over empty space, |
and hangs the earth on nothing. |
8He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, |
and the cloud is not burst under them. |
9He encloses the face of his throne, |
and spreads his cloud on it. |
10He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, |
and to the confines of light and darkness. |
11The pillars of heaven tremble |
and are astonished at his rebuke. |
12He stirs up the sea with his power, |
and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab. |
13By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. |
His hand has pierced the swift serpent. |
14Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. |
How small a whisper do we hear of him! |
But the thunder of his power who can understand?” |
1Job again took up his parable, and said, |
2“As God lives, who has taken away my right, |
the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter |
3(for the length of my life is still in me, |
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils); |
4surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, |
neither will my tongue utter deceit. |
5Far be it from me that I should justify you. |
Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. |
6I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. |
My heart will not reproach me so long as I live. |
7“Let my enemy be as the wicked. |
Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. |
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 trouble comes on him? |
10Will he delight himself in the Almighty, |
and call on God at all times? |
11I will teach you about the hand of God. |
I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty. |
12Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; |
why then have you become altogether vain? |
13“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, |
the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty. |
14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. |
His offspring will not be satisfied with bread. |
15Those who remain of him will be buried in death. |
His widows will make no lamentation. |
16Though he heap up silver as the dust, |
and prepare clothing as the clay; |
17he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, |
and the innocent will divide the silver. |
18He builds his house as the moth, |
as a booth which the watchman makes. |
19He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. |
He opens his eyes, and he is not. |
20Terrors overtake him like waters. |
A storm steals him away in the night. |
21The east wind carries him away, and he departs. |
It sweeps him out of his place. |
22For it hurls at him, and does not spare, |
as he flees away from his hand. |
23Men will clap their hands at him, |
and will hiss him out of his place. |
1“Surely there is a mine for silver, |
and a place for gold which they refine. |
2Iron is taken out of the earth, |
and copper is smelted out of the ore. |
3Man sets an end to darkness, |
and searches out, to the furthest bound, |
the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness. |
4He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. |
They are forgotten by the foot. |
They hang far from men, they swing back and forth. |
5As for the earth, out of it comes bread. |
Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. |
6Sapphires come from its rocks. |
It has dust of gold. |
7That path no bird of prey knows, |
neither has the falcon’s eye seen it. |
8The proud animals have not trodden it, |
nor has the fierce lion passed by there. |
9He puts his hand on the flinty rock, |
and he overturns the mountains by the roots. |
10He cuts out channels amongst the rocks. |
His eye sees every precious thing. |
11He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. |
The thing that is hidden he brings out to light. |
12“But where will wisdom be found? |
Where is the place of understanding? |
13Man doesn’t know its price; |
Neither is it found in the land of the living. |
14The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ |
The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’ |
15It can’t be gotten for gold, |
neither will silver be weighed for its price. |
16It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, |
with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. |
17Gold and glass can’t equal it, |
neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. |
18No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. |
Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies. |
19The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it, |
nor will it be valued with pure gold. |
20Where then does wisdom come from? |
Where is the place of understanding? |
21Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, |
and kept close from the birds of the sky. |
22Destruction and Death say, |
‘We have heard a rumour of it with our ears.’ |
23“God understands its way, |
and he knows its place. |
24For he looks to the ends of the earth, |
and sees under the whole sky. |
25He establishes the force of the wind. |
Yes, he measures out the waters by measure. |
26When he made a decree for the rain, |
and a way for the lightning of the thunder, |
27then he saw it, and declared it. |
He established it, yes, and searched it out. |
28To man he said, |
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. |
To depart from evil is understanding.’” |
PUBLIC DOMAIN. "World English Bible" is trademark of eBible.org.