Job 4-5
Good News Translation
The First Dialogue(A)
4 1-2 Job, will you be annoyed if I speak?
I can't keep quiet any longer.
3 You have taught many people
and given strength to feeble hands.
4 When someone stumbled, weak and tired,
your words encouraged him to stand.
5 Now it's your turn to be in trouble,
and you are too stunned to face it.
6 You worshiped God, and your life was blameless;
and so you should have confidence and hope.
7 Think back now. Name a single case
where someone righteous met with disaster.
8 I have seen people plow fields of evil
and plant wickedness like seed;
now they harvest wickedness and evil.
9 Like a storm, God destroys them in his anger.
10 The wicked roar and growl like lions,
but God silences them and breaks their teeth.
11 Like lions with nothing to kill and eat,
they die, and all their children are scattered.
12 Once a message came quietly,
so quietly I could hardly hear it.
13 (B)Like a nightmare it disturbed my sleep.
14 I trembled and shuddered;
my whole body shook with fear.
15 A light breeze touched my face,
and my skin crawled with fright.
16 I could see something standing there;
I stared, but couldn't tell what it was.
Then I heard a voice out of the silence:
17 “Can anyone be righteous in the sight of[a] God
or be pure before[b] his Creator?
18 God does not trust his heavenly servants;
he finds fault even with his angels.
19 Do you think he will trust a creature of clay,
a thing of dust that can be crushed like a moth?
20 We may be alive in the morning,
but die unnoticed before evening comes.
21 All that we have is taken away;
we die, still lacking wisdom.”
5 Call out, Job. See if anyone answers.
Is there any angel to whom you can turn?
2 To worry yourself to death with resentment
would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.
3 I have seen fools who looked secure,
but I called down a sudden curse on their homes.
4 Their children can never find safety;
no one stands up to defend them in court.
5 Hungry people will eat the fool's crops—
even the grain growing among thorns[c]—
and thirsty people will envy his wealth.
6 Evil does not grow in the soil,
nor does trouble grow out of the ground.
7 No indeed! We bring trouble on ourselves,
as surely as sparks fly up from a fire.[d]
8 If I were you, I would turn to God
and present my case to him.
9 (C)We cannot understand the great things he does,
and to his miracles there is no end.
10 He sends rain on the land
and he waters the fields.
11 Yes, it is God who raises the humble
and gives joy to all who mourn.
12-13 (D)He upsets the plans of cunning people,
and traps the wise in their own schemes,
so that nothing they do succeeds;
14 even at noon they grope in darkness.
15 But God saves the poor[e] from death;
he saves the needy from oppression.
16 He gives hope to the poor and silences the wicked.
17 (E)Happy is the person whom God corrects!
Do not resent it when he rebukes you.
18 (F)God bandages the wounds he makes;
his hand hurts you, and his hand heals.
19 Time after time he will save you from harm;
20 when famine comes, he will keep you alive,
and in war protect you from death.
21 God will rescue you from slander;
he will save you when destruction comes.
22 You will laugh at violence and hunger
and not be afraid of wild animals.
23 The fields you plow will be free of rocks;
wild animals will never attack you.
24 Then you will live at peace in your tent;
when you look at your sheep, you will find them safe.
25 You will have as many children
as there are blades of grass in a pasture.
26 Like wheat that ripens till harvest time,
you will live to a ripe old age.
27 Job, we have learned this by long study.
It is true, so now accept it.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
