Job 24-28 (Contemporary English Version)

Job 24

Job Continues

Why Doesn't God Set a Time?

 ¹Why doesn't God

   set a time for court?

   Why don't his people know

   where he can be found?

    ²Sinners remove boundary markers

   and take care of sheep

   they have stolen.

    ³They cheat orphans and widows

   by taking their donkeys

   and oxen.

    ⁴The poor are trampled

   and forced to hide

    ⁵in the desert,

   where they and their children

   must live like wild donkeys

   and search for food.

    ⁶If they want grain or grapes, ^[a] they must go to the property

   of these sinners.

    ⁷They sleep naked in the cold,

   because they have no cover,

    ⁸and during a storm

   their only shelters are caves

   among the rocky cliffs.

    ⁹Children whose fathers have died

   are taken from their mothers

   as payment for a debt.

    ¹⁰Then they are forced to work

   naked in the grain fields

   because they have no clothes,

   and they go hungry.

    ¹¹They crush olives to make oil

   and grapes to make wine--

   but still they go thirsty.

    ¹²And along the city streets,

   the wounded and dying cry out,

   yet God does nothing.

   

Some Reject the Light

 ¹³Some rebel and refuse

   to follow the light.

    ¹⁴Soon after sunset they murder

   the poor and the needy,

   and at night they steal.

    ¹⁵Others wait for the dark,

   thinking they won't be seen

   if they sleep with the wife

   or husband of someone else.

    ¹⁶Robbers hide during the day,

   then break in after dark

   because they reject the light.

    ¹⁷They prefer night to day,

   since the terrors of the night

   are their friends.

   

Sinners Are Filthy Foam

 ¹⁸Those sinners are filthy foam

   on the surface of the water.

   And so, their fields and vineyards

   will fall under a curse

   and won't produce.

    ¹⁹Just as the heat of summer

   swallows the snow,

   the world of the dead

   swallows those who sin.

    ²⁰Forgotten here on earth,

   and with their power broken,

   they taste sweet to worms.

    ²¹Sinners take advantage of widows

   and other helpless women. ^{[b] 22}But God's mighty strength

   destroys those in power.

   Even if they seem successful,

   they are doomed to fail.

    ²³God may let them feel secure,

   but they are never

   out of his sight.

    ²⁴Great for a while; gone forever!

   Sinners are mowed down

   like weeds,

   then they wither and die.

    ²⁵If I haven't spoken the truth,

   then prove me wrong.

   

Job 25

Bildad's Third Speech

God Is the One To Fear

 ¹Bildad from Shuah ^[c] said: ²God is the one to fear,

   because God is in control

   and rules the heavens.

    ³Who can count his army of stars?

   Isn't God the source of light?

    ⁴How can anyone be innocent

   in the sight of God?

    ⁵To him, not even the light

   of the moon and stars

   can ever be pure.

    ⁶So how can we humans,

   when we are merely worms?

   

Job 26

Job's Reply to Bildad

You Have Really Been Helpful

 ¹Job said:

    ²You have really been helpful

   to someone weak and weary.

    ³You have given great advice

   and wonderful wisdom

   to someone truly in need.

    ⁴How can anyone possibly speak

   with such understanding?

    ⁵Remember the terrible trembling

   of those in the world of the dead

   below the mighty ocean.

    ⁶Nothing in that land

   of death and destruction

   is hidden from God,

    ⁷who hung the northern sky

   and suspended the earth

   on empty space.

    ⁸God stores water in clouds,

   but they don't burst,

    ⁹and he wraps them around

   the face of the moon.

    ¹⁰On the surface of the ocean,

   God has drawn a boundary line

   between light and darkness.

    ¹¹And columns supporting the sky

   tremble at his command.

    ¹²By his power and wisdom,

   God conquered the force

   of the mighty ocean. ^{[d] 13}The heavens became bright

   when he breathed,

   and the escaping sea monster ^[e] died at the hands of God.

    ¹⁴These things are merely a whisper

   of God's power at work.

   How little we would understand

   if this whisper

   ever turned into thunder!

   

Job 27

Job Continues

I Am Desperate

 ¹Job said:

    ²I am desperate because

   God All-Powerful

   refuses

   to do what is right.

   As surely as God lives,

    ³and while he gives me breath,

    ⁴I will tell only the truth.

    ⁵Until the day I die,

   I will refuse to do wrong

   by saying you are right,

    ⁶because each day my conscience

   agrees that I am innocent.

    ⁷I pray that my enemies

   will suffer no less

   than the wicked.

    ⁸Such people are hopeless,

   and God All-Powerful

   will cut them down,

    ⁹without listening

   when they beg for mercy.

    ¹⁰And that is what God should do,

   because they don't like him

   or ever pray.

    ¹¹Now I will explain in detail

   what God All-Powerful does.

    ¹²All of you have seen these things

   for yourselves.

   So you have no excuse.

   

How God Treats the Wicked

 ¹³Here is how God All-Powerful

   treats those who are wicked

   and brutal.

    ¹⁴They may have many children,

   but most of them

   will go hungry

   or suffer a violent death.

    ¹⁵Others will die of disease,

   and their widows

   won't be able to weep.

    ¹⁶The wicked may collect riches

   and clothes in abundance

   as easily as clay.

    ¹⁷But God's people will wear

   clothes taken from them

   and divide up their riches.

    ¹⁸No homes built by the wicked

   will outlast a cocoon

   or a shack.

    ¹⁹Those sinners may go to bed rich,

   but they will wake up poor. ^{[f] 20}Terror will strike at night

   like a flood or a storm.

    ²¹Then a scorching wind

   will sweep them away

    ²²without showing mercy,

   as they try to escape.

    ²³At last, the wind will celebrate

   because they are gone.

   

Job 28

Job Continues

Gold and Silver Are Mined

 ¹Gold and silver are mined,

   then purified;

    ²the same is done

   with iron and copper.

    ³Miners carry lanterns

   deep into the darkness

   to search for these metals.

    ⁴They dig tunnels

   in distant, unknown places,

   where they dangle by ropes.

    ⁵Far beneath the grain fields,

   fires are built

   to break loose those rocks

    ⁶that have jewels or gold. ^{[g] 7}Miners go to places unseen

   by the eyes of hawks;

    ⁸they walk on soil unknown

   to the proudest lions.

    ⁹With their own hands

   they remove sharp rocks

   and uproot mountains.

    ¹⁰They dig through the rocks

   in search of jewels

   and precious metals.

    ¹¹They also uncover

   the sources of ^[h] rivers and discover secret places.

   

Where Is Wisdom Found?

 ¹²But where is wisdom found?

    ¹³No human knows the way. ^{[i] 14}Nor can it be discovered

   in the deepest sea.

    ¹⁵It is worth much more

   than silver or pure gold

    ¹⁶or precious stones.

    ¹⁷Nothing is its equal--

   not gold or costly glass. ^{[j] 18}Wisdom is worth much more than

   coral, jasper, ^[k] or rubies. ¹⁹All the topaz ^[l] of Ethiopia ^[m] and the finest gold

   cannot compare with it.

    ²⁰Where then is wisdom?

    ²¹It is hidden from human eyes

   and even from birds.

    ²²Death and destruction

   have merely heard rumors

   about where it is found.

    ²³God is the only one who knows

   the way to wisdom,

    ²⁴because he sees everything

   beneath the heavens.

    ²⁵When God divided out

   the wind and the water,

    ²⁶and when he decided the path

   for rain and lightning,

    ²⁷he also determined the truth

   and defined wisdom.

    ²⁸God told us, "Wisdom means

   that you respect me, the Lord,

   and turn from sin."