Job 11: 1 - 14: 22
1Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered, |
2“Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? |
Should a man full of talk be justified? |
3Should your boastings make men hold their peace? |
When you mock, will no man make you ashamed? |
4For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. |
I am clean in your eyes.’ |
5But oh that God would speak, |
and open his lips against you, |
6that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! |
For true wisdom has two sides. |
Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves. |
7“Can you fathom the mystery of God? |
Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty? |
8They are high as heaven. What can you do? |
They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know? |
9Its measure is longer than the earth, |
and broader than the sea. |
10If he passes by, or confines, |
or convenes a court, then who can oppose him? |
11For he knows false men. |
He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it. |
12An empty-headed man becomes wise |
when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt. |
13“If you set your heart aright, |
stretch out your hands towards him. |
14If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. |
Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents. |
15Surely then you will lift up your face without spot; |
Yes, you will be steadfast, and will not fear: |
16for you will forget your misery. |
You will remember it like waters that have passed away. |
17Life will be clearer than the noonday. |
Though there is darkness, it will be as the morning. |
18You will be secure, because there is hope. |
Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety. |
19Also you will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. |
Yes, many will court your favour. |
20But the eyes of the wicked will fail. |
They will have no way to flee. |
Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.” |
1Then Job answered, |
2“No doubt, but you are the people, |
and wisdom will die with you. |
3But I have understanding as well as you; |
I am not inferior to you. |
Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? |
4I am like one who is a joke to his neighbour, |
I, who called on God, and he answered. |
The just, the blameless man is a joke. |
5In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. |
It is ready for them whose foot slips. |
6The tents of robbers prosper. |
Those who provoke God are secure, |
who carry their god in their hands. |
7“But ask the animals, now, and they will teach you; |
the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. |
8Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. |
The fish of the sea will declare to you. |
9Who doesn’t know that in all these, |
The LORD’s hand has done this, |
10in whose hand is the life of every living thing, |
and the breath of all mankind? |
11Doesn’t the ear try words, |
even as the palate tastes its food? |
12With aged men is wisdom, |
in length of days understanding. |
13“With God is wisdom and might. |
He has counsel and understanding. |
14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. |
He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. |
15Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. |
Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. |
16With him is strength and wisdom. |
The deceived and the deceiver are his. |
17He leads counsellors away stripped. |
He makes judges fools. |
18He loosens the bond of kings. |
He binds their waist with a belt. |
19He leads priests away stripped, |
and overthrows the mighty. |
20He removes the speech of those who are trusted, |
and takes away the understanding of the elders. |
21He pours contempt on princes, |
and loosens the belt of the strong. |
22He uncovers deep things out of darkness, |
and brings out to light the shadow of death. |
23He increases the nations, and he destroys them. |
He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. |
24He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, |
and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. |
25They grope in the dark without light. |
He makes them stagger like a drunken man. |
1“Behold, my eye has seen all this. |
My ear has heard and understood it. |
2What you know, I know also. |
I am not inferior to you. |
3“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. |
I desire to reason with God. |
4But you are forgers of lies. |
You are all physicians of no value. |
5Oh that you would be completely silent! |
Then you would be wise. |
6Hear now my reasoning. |
Listen to the pleadings of my lips. |
7Will you speak unrighteously for God, |
and talk deceitfully for him? |
8Will you show partiality to him? |
Will you contend for God? |
9Is it good that he should search you out? |
Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him? |
10He will surely reprove you |
if you secretly show partiality. |
11Shall not his majesty make you afraid, |
and his dread fall on you? |
12Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. |
Your defences are defences of clay. |
13“Be silent! |
Leave me alone, that I may speak. |
Let come on me what will. |
14Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, |
and put my life in my hand? |
15Behold, he will kill me. |
I have no hope. |
Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him. |
16This also will be my salvation, |
that a godless man will not come before him. |
17Listen carefully to my speech. |
Let my declaration be in your ears. |
18See now, I have set my cause in order. |
I know that I am righteous. |
19Who is he who will contend with me? |
For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit. |
20“Only don’t do two things to me, |
then I will not hide myself from your face: |
21withdraw your hand far from me, |
and don’t let your terror make me afraid. |
22Then call, and I will answer, |
or let me speak, and you answer me. |
23How many are my iniquities and sins? |
Make me know my disobedience and my sin. |
24Why do you hide your face, |
and consider me your enemy? |
25Will you harass a driven leaf? |
Will you pursue the dry stubble? |
26For you write bitter things against me, |
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth: |
27You also put my feet in the stocks, |
and mark all my paths. |
You set a bound to the soles of my feet, |
28though I am decaying like a rotten thing, |
like a garment that is moth-eaten. |
1“Man, who is born of a woman, |
is of few days, and full of trouble. |
2He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. |
He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue. |
3Do you open your eyes on such a one, |
and bring me into judgement with you? |
4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? |
Not one. |
5Seeing his days are determined, |
the number of his months is with you, |
and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass; |
6Look away from him, that he may rest, |
until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day. |
7“For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, |
that it will sprout again, |
that the tender branch of it will not cease. |
8Though its root grows old in the earth, |
and its stock dies in the ground, |
9yet through the scent of water it will bud, |
and sprout boughs like a plant. |
10But man dies, and is laid low. |
Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he? |
11As the waters fail from the sea, |
and the river wastes and dries up, |
12so man lies down and doesn’t rise. |
Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, |
nor be roused out of their sleep. |
13“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, |
that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, |
that you would appoint me a set time and remember me! |
14If a man dies, will he live again? |
I would wait all the days of my warfare, |
until my release should come. |
15You would call, and I would answer you. |
You would have a desire for the work of your hands. |
16But now you count my steps. |
Don’t you watch over my sin? |
17My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. |
You fasten up my iniquity. |
18“But the mountain falling comes to nothing. |
The rock is removed out of its place; |
19The waters wear the stones. |
The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. |
So you destroy the hope of man. |
20You forever prevail against him, and he departs. |
You change his face, and send him away. |
21His sons come to honour, and he doesn’t know it. |
They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them. |
22But his flesh on him has pain, |
and his soul within him mourns.” |
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