Job (NAB) 16
16 1 Then Job answered and said:
2 I have heard this sort of thing many times. Wearisome comforters are you all!
3 Is there no end to windy words? Or what sickness have you that you speak on?
4 I also could talk as you do, were you in my place. I could declaim over you, or wag my head at you;
5 I could strengthen you with talk, or shake my head with silent lips.
6 If I speak, this pain I have will not be checked; if I leave off, it will not depart from me.
7 But now that I am exhausted and stunned, all my company has closed in on me.
8 As a witness there rises up my traducer, speaking openly against me;
9 I am the prey his wrath assails, he gnashes his teeth against me. My enemies lord it over me;
10 their mouths are agape to bite me. They smite me on the cheek insultingly; they are all enlisted against me.
11 God has given me over to the impious; into the clutches of the wicked he has cast me.
12 I was in peace, but he dislodged me; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He has set me up for a target;
13 his arrows strike me from all directions, He pierces my sides without mercy, he pours out my gall upon the ground.
14 He pierces me with thrust upon thrust; he attacks me like a warrior.
15 I have fastened sackcloth over my skin, and have laid my brow in the dust.
16 My face is inflamed with weeping and there is darkness over my eyes,
17 Although my hands are free from violence, and my prayer is sincere.
18 O earth, cover not my blood, nor let my outcry come to rest!
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my spokesman is on high.
20 My friends it is who wrong me; before God my eyes drop tears,
21 That he may do justice for a mortal in his presence and decide between a man and his neighbor.
22 For my years are numbered now, and I am on a journey from which I shall not return.
17 1 My spirit is broken, my lamp of life extinguished; my burial is at hand.
2 I am indeed mocked, and, as their provocation mounts, my eyes grow dim.
3 Grant me one to offer you a pledge on my behalf: who is there that will give surety for me?
4 You darken their minds to knowledge; therefore they do not understand.
5 My lot is described as evil,
6 and I am made a byword of the people; their object lesson I have become.
7 My eye has grown blind with anguish, and all my frame is shrunken to a shadow.
8 Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent aroused against the wicked.
9 Yet the righteous shall hold to his way, and he who has clean hands increase in strength.
10 But turn now, and come on again; for I shall not find a wise man among you!
11 My days are passed away, my plans are at an end, the cherished purposes of my heart.
12 Such men change the night into day; where there is darkness they talk of approaching light.
13 If I look for the nether world as my dwelling, if I spread my couch in the darkness,
14 If I must call corruption "my father," and the maggot "my mother" and "my sister,"
15 Where then is my hope, and my prosperity, who shall see?
16 Will they descend with me into the nether world? Shall we go down together into the dust?
18 1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied and said:
2 When will you put an end to words? Reflect, and then we can have discussion.
3 Why are we accounted like the beasts, their equals in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be neglected on your account (or the rock be moved out of its place)?
5 Truly, the light of the wicked is extinguished; no flame brightens his hearth.
6 The light is darkened in his tent; in spite of him, his lamp goes out.
7 His vigorous steps are hemmed in, and his own counsel casts him down.
8 For he rushes headlong into a net, and he wanders into a pitfall.
9 A trap seizes him by the heel, and a snare lays hold of him.
10 A noose for him is hid on the ground, and the toils for him on the way.
11 On every side terrors affright him; they harry him at each step.
12 Disaster is ready at his side,
13 the first-born of death consumes his limbs.
14 Fiery destruction lodges in his tent, and marches him off to the king of terrors. He is plucked from the security of his tent;
15 over his abode brimstone is scattered.
16 Below, his roots dry up, and above, his branches wither.
17 His memory perishes from the land, and he has no name on the earth.
18 He is driven from light into darkness, and banished out of the world.
19 He has neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any survior where once he dwelt.
20 They who come after shall be appalled at his fate; they who went before are struck with horror.
21 So is it then with the dwelling of the impious man, and such is the place of him who knows not God!
19 1 Then Job answered and said:
2 How long will you vex my soul, grind me down with words?
3 These ten times you have reviled me, have assailed me without shame!
4 Be it indeed that I am at fault and that my fault remains with me,
5 Even so, if you would vaunt yourselves against me and cast up to me any reproach,
6 Know then that God has dealt unfairly with me, and compassed me round with his net.
7 If I cry out "Injustice!" I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no redress.
8 He has barred my way and I cannot pass; he has veiled my path in darkness;
9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the diadem from my brow.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope he has uprooted like a tree.
11 His wrath he has kindled against me; he counts me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance as one man; they build up their road to attack me, and they encamp around my tent.
13 My brethren have withdrawn from me, and my friends are wholly estranged.
14 My kinsfolk and companions neglect me, and my guests have forgotten me.
15 Even my handmaids treat me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call my servant, but he gives no answer, though in my speech I plead with him.
17 My breath is abhorred by my wife; I am loathsome to the men of my family.
18 The young children, too, despise me; when I appear, they speak against me.
19 All my intimate friends hold me in horror; those whom I loved have turned against me!
20 My bones cleave to my skin, and I have escaped with my flesh between my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me!
22 Why do you hound me as though you were divine, and insatiably prey upon me?
23 Oh, would that my words were written down! Would that they were inscribed in a record:
24 That with an iron chisel and with lead they were cut in the rock forever!
25 But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
26 And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing.
27 Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another's, shall behold him,
28 But you who say, "How shall we persecute him, seeing that the root of the matter is found in him?"
29 Be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for these crimes deserve the sword; that you may know that there is a judgment.
20 1 Then Zophar the Naamathite spoke and said:
2 and because of this I am disturbed. So now my thoughts provide me with an answer, and from my understanding a spirit gives me a reply.
3 A rebuke which puts me to shame I hear,
4 Do you not know this from olden time, since man was placed upon the earth,
5 That the triumph of the wicked is short and the joy of the impious but for a moment?
6 Though his pride mount up to the heavens and his head reach to the clouds,
7 Yet he perishes forever like the fuel of his fire, and the onlookers say, "Where is he?"
8 Like a dream he takes flight and is not found again; he fades away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye which saw him does so no more; nor shall his dwelling again behold him.
10 and his hands shall yield up his riches.
11 Though his frame is full of youthful vigor, this shall lie with him in the dust.
12 Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, and he hides it under his tongue,
13 Though he retains it and will not let it go but keeps it still within his mouth,
14 Yet in his stomach the food shall turn; it shall be venom of asps inside him.
15 The riches he swallowed he shall disgorge; God shall compel his belly to disown them.
16 The poison of asps he shall drink in; the viper's fangs shall slay him.
17 He shall see no streams of oil, no torrents of honey or milk.
18 Restoring his gains, he shall not enjoy them; though his wealth increases, he shall not rejoice.
19 Because he has oppressed the poor, and stolen a patrimony he had not built up,
20 Though he has known no quiet in his greed, his treasures shall not save him.
21 Therefore his prosperity shall not endure,
22 When he abounds to overflowing, he shall be brought into straits, and nought shall be left of his goods.
23 God shall send against him the fury of his wrath and rain down his missiles of war upon him.
24 Should he escape the iron weapon, the bow of bronze shall pierce him through;
25 The dart shall come out of his back; terrors shall fall upon him.
26 Complete darkness is in store for him; the fire which shall consume him needs not to be fanned.
27 The heavens shall reveal his guilt, and the earth shall rise up against him.
28 The flood shall sweep away his house with the waters that run off in the day of God's anger.
29 This is the portion of a wicked man, and the heritage appointed him by God.
21 1 Then Job said in reply:
2 At least listen to my words, and let that be the consolation you offer.
3 Bear with me while I speak; and after I have spoken, you can mock!
4 Is my complaint toward man? And why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be astonished, put your hands over your mouths.
6 When I think of it, I am dismayed, and horror takes hold on my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked survive, grow old, become mighty in power?
8 Their progeny is secure in their sight; they see before them their kinsfolk and their offspring.
9 Their homes are safe and without fear, nor is the scourge of God upon them.
10 Their bulls gender without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
11 These folk have infants numerous as lambs, and their children dance.
12 They sing to the timbrel and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute.
13 They live out their days in prosperity, and tranquilly go down to the nether world.
14 Yet they say to God, "Depart from us, for we have no wish to learn your ways!
15 1 What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what gain shall we have if we pray to him?"
16 If their happiness is not in their own hands and if the counsel of the wicked is repulsive to God,
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does destruction come upon them, the portion he allots in his anger?
18 Let them be like straw before the wind, and like chaff which the storm snatches away!
19 May God not store up the man's misery for his children; let him requite the man himself so that he feels it,
20 Let his own eyes see the calamity, and the wrath of the Almighty let him drink!
21 For what interest has he in his family after him, when the number of his months is finished?
22 Can anyone teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those on high?
23 One dies in his full vigor, wholly at ease and content;
24 His figure is full and nourished, and his bones are rich in marrow.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, having never tasted happiness.
26 Alike they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
27 Behold, I know your thoughts, and the arguments you rehearse against me.
28 For you say, "Where is the house of the magnate, and where the dwelling place of the wicked?"
29 Have you not asked the wayfarers and do you not recognize their monuments?
30 Nay, the evil man is spared calamity when it comes;
31 Who will charge him with his conduct to his face, and for what he has done who will repay him?
32 2)and on the day he is carried to the grave
33 Sweet to him are the clods of the valley, and over him the funeral mound keeps watch, While all the line of mankind follows him, and the countless others who have gone before.
34 How then can you offer me vain comfort, while in your answers perfidy remains?
22 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 Can a man be profitable to God? Though to himself a wise man be profitable!
3 Is it of advantage to the Almighty if you are just? Or is it a gain to him if you make your ways perfect?
4 Is it because of your piety that he reproves you-- that he enters with you into judgment?
5 Is not your wickedness manifold? Are not your iniquities endless?
6 You have unjustly kept your kinsmen's goods in pawn, left them stripped naked of their clothing.
7 To the thirsty you have given no water to drink, and from the hungry you have withheld bread;
8 As if the land belonged to the man of might, and only the privileged were to dwell in it.
9 You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the resources of orphans you have destroyed.
10 Therefore snares are round about you, and a sudden terror causes you dismay,
11 Or darkness, in which you cannot see; a deluge of waters covers you.
12 Does not God, in the heights of the heavens, behold the stars, high though they are?
13 Yet you say, "What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
14 Clouds hide him so that he cannot see; he walks upon the vault of the heavens!"
15 Do you indeed keep to the ancient way trodden by worthless men,
16 Who were snatched away before their time; whose foundations a flood swept away?
17 These men said to God, "Depart from us!" and, "What can the Almighty do to us?"
18 (Yet he had filled their houses with good things! But far be from me the mind of the impious!)
19 The just look on and are gladdened, and the innocent deride them:
20 "Truly these have been destroyed where they stood, and such as were left, fire has consumed!"
21 Come to terms with him to be at peace. In this shall good come to you:
22 Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; if you put iniquity far from your tent,
24 And treat raw gold like dust, and the fine gold of Ophir as pebbles from the brook,
25 Then the Almighty himself shall be your gold and your sparkling silver.
26 For then you shall delight in the Almighty and you shall lift up your face toward God.
27 You shall entreat him and he will hear you, and your vows you shall fulfill.
28 When you make a decision, it shall succeed for you, and upon your ways the light shall shine.
29 For he brings down the pride of the haughty, but the man of humble mien he saves.
30 God delivers him who is innocent; you shall be delivered through cleanness of hands.
23 1 Again Job answered and said:
2 Though I know my complaint is bitter, his hand is heavy upon me in my groanings.
3 Oh, that today I might find him, that I might come to his judgment seat!
4 I would set out my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments;
5 I would learn the words with which he would answer, and understand what he would reply to me.
6 Even should he contend against me with his great power, yet, would that he himself might heed me!
7 There the upright man might reason with him, and I should once and for all preserve my rights.
8 But if I go to the east, he is not there; or to the west, I cannot perceive him;
9 Where the north enfolds him, I behold him not; by the south he is veiled, and I see him not.
10 Yet he knows my way; if he proved me, I should come forth as gold.
11 My foot has always walked in his steps; his way I have kept and have not turned aside.
12 From the commands of his lips I have not departed; the words of his mouth I have treasured in my heart.
13 But he had decided, and who can say him nay? What he desires, that he does.
14 For he will carry out what is appointed for me; and many such things may yet be in his mind.
15 Therefore am I dismayed before him; when I take thought, I fear him.
16 Indeed God has made my courage fail; the Almighty has put me in dismay.
17 Yes, would that I had vanished in darkness, and that thick gloom were before me to conceal me.
24 1 Why are not times set by the Almighty, and why do his friends not see his days?
2 The wicked remove landmarks; they steal away herds and pasture them.
3 The asses of orphans they drive away; they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
4 They force the needy off the road; all the poor of the land are driven into hiding.
5 Like wild asses in the desert, these go forth to their task of seeking food; The steppe provides food for the young among them;
6 they harvest at night in the untilled land.
7 They pass the night naked, without clothing, for they have no covering against the cold;
8 They are drenched with the rain of the mountains, and for want of shelter they cling to the rock.
9
10 0) and famished are those who carry the sheaves.
11 Between the rows they press out the oil; they glean in the the vineyard of the wicked. They tread the wine presses, yet suffer thirst,
12 From the dust the dying groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out (yet God does not treat it as unseemly).
13 There are those who are rebels against the light; they know not its ways; they abide not in its paths.
14 When there is no light the murderer rises, to kill the poor and needy.
15 The eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight; he says, "No eye will see me." In the night the thief roams about, and he puts a mask over his face;
16 in the dark he breaks into houses. By day they shut themselves in; none of them know the light,
17 for daylight they regard as darkness.
18 Their portion in the land is accursed,
19
20 and wickedness is splintered like wood.
21
22 To him who rises without assurance of his life
23 he gives safety and support. He sustains the mighty by his strength, and his eyes are on their ways.
24 They are exalted for a while, and then they are gone; they are laid low and, like all others, are gathered up; like ears of grain they shrivel.
25 If this be not so, who will confute me, and reduce my argument to nought?
25 1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 Dominion and awesomeness are his who brings about harmony in his heavens.
3 Is there any numbering of his troops? Yet to which of them does not his light extend?
4 How can a man be just in God's sight, or how can any woman's child be innocent?
5 Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not clear in his sight.
6 How much less man, who is but a maggot, the son of man, who is only a worm?
26 1 Then Job spoke again and said:
2 What help you give to the powerless, what strength to the feeble arm!
3 How you counsel, as though he had no wisdom; how profuse is the advice you offer!
4 With whose help have you uttered those words, and whose is the breath that comes forth from you?
5 The shades beneath writhe in terror, the waters, and their inhabitants.
6 Naked before him is the nether world, and Abaddon has no covering.
7 He stretches out the North over empty space, and suspends the earth over nothing at all;
8 He binds up the waters in his clouds, yet the cloud is not rent by their weight;
9 He holds back the appearance of the full moon by spreading his clouds before it.
10 He has marked out a circle on the surface of the deep as the boundary of light and darkness.
11 The pillars of the heavens tremble and are stunned at his thunderous rebuke;
12 By his power he stirs up the sea, and by his might he crushes Rahab;
13 With his angry breath he scatters the waters, and he hurls the lightning against them relentlessly; His hand pierces the fugitive dragon as from his hand it strives to flee.
14 Lo, these are but the outlines of his ways, and how faint is the word we hear!
27 1
2 As God lives, who withholds my deserts, the Almighty, who has made bitter my soul,
3 So long as I still have life in me and the breath of God is in my nostrils,
4 My lips shall not speak falsehood, nor my tongue utter deceit!
5 Far be it from me to account you right; till I die I will not renounce my innocence.
6 My justice I maintain and I will not relinquish it; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
7 Let my enemy be as the wicked and my adversary as the unjust!
8 For what can the impious man expect when he is cut off, when God requires his life?
9 Will God then attend to his cry when calamity comes upon him?
10 Will he then delight in the Almighty and call upon him constantly?
11 I will teach you the manner of God's dealings, and the way of the Almighty I will not conceal.
12 Behold, you yourselves have all seen it; why then do you spend yourselves in idle words!
13 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the inheritance an oppressor receives from the Almighty:
14 Though his children be many, the sword is their destiny. His offspring shall not be filled with bread.
15 His survivors, when they die, shall have no burial, and their widows shall not be mourned.
16 Though he heap up silver like dust and store away mounds of clothing,
17 What he has stored the just man shall wear, and the innocent shall divide the silver.
18 He builds his house as of cobwebs, or like a booth put up by the vine-keeper.
19 He lies down a rich man, one last time; he opens his eyes and nothing remains to him.
20 Terrors rush upon him by day; at night the tempest carries him off.
21 The storm wind seizes him and he disappears; it sweeps him out of his place.
28 1 There is indeed a mine for silver, and a place for gold which men refine.
2 Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is melted out of stone.
3 He has set a boundary for the darkness; to the farthest confines he penetrates.
4
5 The earth, though out of it comes forth bread, is in fiery upheaval underneath.
6 Its stones are the source of sapphires, and there is gold in its dust.
7 The path to it no bird of prey knows, nor has the hawk's eye seen that path.
8 The proud beasts have not trodden it, nor has the lion gone that way.
9 He sets his hand to the flinty rock, and overturns the mountains at their foundations.
10 He splits channels in the rocks; his eyes behold all that is precious.
11 He probes the wellsprings of the streams, and brings hidden things to light.
12 But whence can wisdom be obtained, and where is the place of understanding?
13 Man knows nothing to equal it, nor is it to be had in the land of the living.
14 The abyss declares, "It is not in me"; and the sea says, "I have it not."
15 Solid gold cannot purchase it, nor can its price be paid with silver.
16 It cannot be bought with gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire.
17 Gold or crystal cannot equal it, nor can golden vessels reach its worth.
18 Neither coral nor jasper should be thought of; it surpasses pearls and
19 9) Arabian topaz.
20 Whence, then, comes wisdom, and where is the place of understanding?
21 It is hid from the eyes of any beast; from the birds of the air it is concealed.
22 Abaddon and Death say, "Only by rumor have we heard of it."
23 God knows the way to it; it is he who is familiar with its place.
24 For he beholds the ends of the earth and sees all that is under the heavens.
25 He has weighed out the wind, and fixed the scope of the waters;
26 When he made rules for the rain and a path for the thunderbolts,
27 Then he saw wisdom and appraised it, gave it its setting, knew it through and through.
28 And to man he said: Behold, the fear of the LORD is wisdom; and avoiding evil is understanding.
29 1 Job took up his theme anew and said;
2 Oh, that I were as in the months past! as in the days when God watched over me,
3 While he kept his lamp shining above my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;
4 As I was in my flourishing days, when God sheltered my tent;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were round about me;
6 When my footsteps were bathed in milk, and the rock flowed with streams of oil;
7 When I went forth to the gate of the city and set up my seat in the square-
8 Then the young men saw me and withdrew, while the elders rose up and stood;
9 The chief men refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands;
10 The voice of the princes was silenced, and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.
11 Whoever heard of me blessed me; those who saw me commended me.
12 For I rescued the poor who cried out for help, the orphans, and the unassisted;
13 The blessing of those in extremity came upon me, and the heart of the widow I made joyful.
14 I wore my honesty like a garment; justice was my robe and my turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame was I;
16 I was a father to the needy; the rights of the stranger I studied,
17 And I broke the jaws of the wicked man; from his teeth I forced the prey.
18 Then I said: "In my own nest I shall grow old; I shall multiply years like the phoenix.
19 My root is spread out to the waters; the dew rests by night on my branches.
20 My glory is fresh within me, and my bow is renewed in my hand!"
21 For me they listened and waited; they were silent for my counsel.
22 Once I spoke, they said no more, but received my pronouncement drop by drop.
23 They waited for me as for the rain; they drank in my words like the spring rains.
24 When I smiled on them they were reassured;
25 5) mourners took comfort from my cheerful glance. I chose out their way and presided; I took a king's place in the armed forces.
Job (NAB) 16