Job 10-13 (Amplified Bible)

Job 10

 ¹I AM weary of my life and loathe it! I will give free expression to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

    ²I will say to God, Do not condemn me [do not make me guilty]! Show me why You contend with me.

    ³Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, that You should despise and reject the work of Your hands, and favor the schemes of the wicked?

    ⁴Have You eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees?

    ⁵Are Your days as the days of man, are Your years as man's [years],

    ⁶That You inquire after my iniquity and search for my sin--

    ⁷Although You know that I am not wicked or guilty and that there is none who can deliver me out of Your hand?

    ⁸Your hands have formed me and made me. Would You turn around and destroy me?

    ⁹Remember [earnestly], I beseech You, that You have fashioned me as clay [out of the same earth material, exquisitely and elaborately]. And will You bring me into dust again?

    ¹⁰Have You not poured me out like milk and curdled me like cheese?

    ¹¹You have clothed me with skin and flesh and have knit me together with bones and sinews.

    ¹²You have granted me life and favor, and Your providence has preserved my spirit.

    ¹³Yet these [the present evils] have You hid in Your heart [for me since my creation]; I know that this was with You [in Your purpose and thought].

    ¹⁴If I sin, then You observe me, and You will not acquit me from my iniquity and guilt.

    ¹⁵If I am wicked, woe unto me! And if I am righteous, yet must I not lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and the sight of my affliction.

    ¹⁶If I lift myself up, You hunt me like a lion and again show Yourself [inflicting] marvelous [trials] upon me.

    ¹⁷You renew Your witnesses against me and increase Your indignation toward me; I am as if attacked by a troop time after time.

    ¹⁸Why then did You bring me forth out of the womb? Would that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

    ¹⁹I should have been as though I had not existed; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

    ²⁰Are not my days few? Cease then and let me alone, that I may take a little comfort and cheer up

    ²¹Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death,

    ²²The land of sunless gloom as intense darkness, [the land] of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as thick darkness.

   

Job 11

 ¹THEN ZOPHAR the Naamathite replied,

    ²Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk [and making such great professions] be pronounced free from guilt or blame?

    ³Should your boastings and babble make men keep silent? And when you mock and scoff, shall no man make you ashamed?

    ⁴For you have said, My doctrine [that God afflicts the righteous knowingly] is pure, and I am clean in [God's] eyes.^(A)

    ⁵But oh, that God would speak, and open His lips against you,

    ⁶And that He would show you the secrets of wisdom! For He is manifold in understanding! Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your guilt and iniquity [deserve].

    ⁷Can you find out the deep things of God, or can you by searching find out the limits of the Almighty [explore His depths, ascend to His heights, extend to His breadths, and comprehend His infinite perfection]?

    ⁸His wisdom is as high as the heights of heaven! What can you do? It is deeper than Sheol (the place of the dead)! What can you know?

    ⁹Longer in measure [and scope] is it than the earth, and broader than the sea.

    ¹⁰If [God] sweeps in and arrests and calls into judgment, who can hinder Him? [If He is against a man, who shall call Him to account for it?]

    ¹¹For He recognizes and knows hollow, wicked, and useless men (men of falsehood); when He sees iniquity, will He not consider it?

    ¹²But a stupid man will get wisdom [only] when a wild donkey's colt is born a man [as when he thinks himself free because he is lifted up in pride].

    ¹³If you set your heart aright and stretch out your hands to [God],

    ¹⁴If you put sin out of your hand and far away from you and let not evil dwell in your tents;

    ¹⁵Then can you lift up your face to Him without stain [of sin, and unashamed]; yes, you shall be steadfast and secure; you shall not fear.

    ¹⁶For you shall forget your misery; you shall remember it as waters that pass away.

    ¹⁷And [your] life shall be clearer than the noonday and rise above it; though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning.

    ¹⁸And you shall be secure and feel confident because there is hope; yes, you shall search about you, and you shall take your rest in safety.

    ¹⁹You shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; yes, many shall sue for your favor.

    ²⁰But the eyes of the wicked shall look [for relief] in vain, and they shall not escape [the justice of God]; and their hope shall be to give up the ghost.

   

Job 12

 ¹THEN JOB answered,

    ²No doubt you are the [only wise] people [in the world], and wisdom will die with you!

    ³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these [of God's wisdom and might]?

    ⁴I am become one who is a laughingstock to his friend; I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him--a just, upright (blameless) man--laughed to scorn!

    ⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune--but it is ready for those whose feet slip.

    ⁶The dwellings of robbers prosper; those who provoke God are [apparently] secure; God supplies them abundantly [who have no god but their own hands and power].

    ⁷For ask now the animals, and they will teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character]; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

    ⁸Or speak to the earth [with its other forms of life], and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare [this truth] to you.

    ⁹Who [is so blind as] not to recognize in all these [that good and evil are promiscuously scattered throughout nature and human life] that it is God's hand which does it [and God's way]?

    ¹⁰In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.

    ¹¹Is it not the task of the ear to discriminate between [wise and unwise] words, just as the mouth distinguishes [between desirable and undesirable] food?

    ¹²With the aged [you say] is wisdom, and with length of days comes understanding.

    ¹³But [only] with [God] are [perfect] wisdom and might; He [alone] has [true] counsel and understanding.

    ¹⁴Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be built again; He shuts a man in, and none can open.

    ¹⁵He withholds the waters, and the land dries up; again, He sends forth [rains], and they overwhelm the land or transform it.

    ¹⁶With Him are might and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are His [and in His power].

    ¹⁷He leads [great and scheming] counselors away stripped and barefoot and makes the judges fools [in human estimation, by overthrowing their plans].

    ¹⁸He looses the fetters [ordered] by kings and has [the] waistcloth [of a slave] bound about their [own] loins.

    ¹⁹He leads away priests as spoil, and men firmly seated He overturns.

    ²⁰He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment and discretion of the aged.

    ²¹He pours contempt on princes and loosens the belt of the strong [disabling them, bringing low the pride of the learned].

    ²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness and brings into light black gloom and the shadow of death.

    ²³He makes nations great, and He destroys them; He enlarges nations [and then straitens and shrinks them again], and leads them [away captive].

    ²⁴He takes away understanding from the leaders of the people of the land and of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no path.

    ²⁵They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them to stagger and wander like a drunken man.

   

Job 13

 ¹[JOB CONTINUED:] Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.

    ²What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

    ³Surely I wish to speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue and reason my case with God [that He may explain the conflict between what I believe of Him and what I see of Him].

    ⁴But you are forgers of lies [you defame my character most untruthfully]; you are all physicians of no value and have no remedy to offer.

    ⁵Oh, that you would altogether hold your peace! Then you would evidence your wisdom and you might pass for wise men.

    ⁶Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips.

    ⁷Will you speak unrighteously for God and talk deceitfully for Him?

    ⁸Will you show partiality to Him [be unjust to me in order to gain favor with Him]? Will you act as special pleaders for God?

    ⁹Would it be profitable for you if He should investigate your tactics [with me]? Or as one deceives and mocks a man, do you deceive and mock Him?

    ¹⁰He will surely reprove you if you do secretly show partiality.

    ¹¹Shall not His majesty make you afraid, and should not your awe for Him restrain you?

    ¹²Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes [valueless]; your defenses are defenses of clay [and will crumble].

    ¹³Hold your peace! Let me alone, so I may speak; and let come on me what may.

    ¹⁴Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hands [incurring the danger of God's wrath]?

    ¹⁵[I do it because, though He slay me, yet will I wait for and trust Him and] behold, He will slay me; I have no hope--nevertheless, I will maintain and argue my ways before Him and even to His face.

    ¹⁶This will be my salvation, that a polluted and godless man shall not come before Him.

    ¹⁷Listen diligently to my speech, and let my declaration be in your ears.

    ¹⁸Behold now, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be justified and vindicated.

    ¹⁹Who is he who will argue against and refute me? For then I would hold my peace and expire.

    ²⁰Only [O Lord] grant two conditions to me, and then will I not hide myself from You:

    ²¹Withdraw Your hand and take this bodily suffering far from me; and let not my [reverent] dread of You terrify me.

    ²²Then [Lord] call and I will answer, or let me speak, and You answer me.

    ²³How many are my iniquities and sins [that so much sorrow should come to me]? Make me recognize and know my transgression and my sin.^(B)

    ²⁴Why do You hide Your face [as if offended] and alienate me as if I were Your enemy?

    ²⁵Will You harass and frighten a [poor, helpless] leaf driven to and fro, and will You pursue the chaff of the dry stubble?

    ²⁶For You write bitter things against me [in Your bill of indictment] and make me inherit and be accountable now for the iniquities of my youth.

    ²⁷You put my feet also in the stocks and observe critically all my paths; You set a circle and limit around the soles of my feet [which I must not overstep].

    ²⁸And he wastes away as a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.