Job 24-28 (New Living Translation)

Job 24

Job Asks Why the Wicked Are Not Punished

 ¹ “Why doesn’t the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment?
      Why must the godly wait for him in vain?
 ² Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers.
      They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures.
 ³ They take the orphan’s donkey
      and demand the widow’s ox as security for a loan.
 ⁴ The poor are pushed off the path;
      the needy must hide together for safety.
 ⁵ Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
      the poor must spend all their time looking for food,
      searching even in the desert for food for their children.
 ⁶ They harvest a field they do not own,
      and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
 ⁷ All night they lie naked in the cold,
      without clothing or covering.
 ⁸ They are soaked by mountain showers,
      and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home.

 ⁹ “The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast,
      taking the baby as security for a loan.
 ¹⁰ The poor must go about naked, without any clothing.
      They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving.
 ¹¹ They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it,
      and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.
 ¹² The groans of the dying rise from the city,
      and the wounded cry for help,
      yet God ignores their moaning.

 ¹³ “Wicked people rebel against the light.
      They refuse to acknowledge its ways
      or stay in its paths.
 ¹⁴ The murderer rises in the early dawn
      to kill the poor and needy;
      at night he is a thief.
 ¹⁵ The adulterer waits for the twilight,
      saying, ‘No one will see me then.’
      He hides his face so no one will know him.
 ¹⁶ Thieves break into houses at night
      and sleep in the daytime.
      They are not acquainted with the light.
 ¹⁷ The black night is their morning.
      They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.

 ¹⁸ “But they disappear like foam down a river.
      Everything they own is cursed,
      and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards.
 ¹⁹ The grave^[a] consumes sinners
      just as drought and heat consume snow.
 ²⁰ Their own mothers will forget them.
      Maggots will find them sweet to eat.
   No one will remember them.
      Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.
 ²¹ They cheat the woman who has no son to help her.
      They refuse to help the needy widow.

 ²² “God, in his power, drags away the rich.
      They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life.
 ²³ They may be allowed to live in security,
      but God is always watching them.
 ²⁴ And though they are great now,
      in a moment they will be gone like all others,
      cut off like heads of grain.
 ²⁵ Can anyone claim otherwise?
      Who can prove me wrong?”

Job 25

Bildad’s Third Response to Job

 ¹ Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

 ² “God is powerful and dreadful.
      He enforces peace in the heavens.
 ³ Who is able to count his heavenly army?
      Doesn’t his light shine on all the earth?
 ⁴ How can a mortal be innocent before God?
      Can anyone born of a woman be pure?
 ⁵ God is more glorious than the moon;
      he shines brighter than the stars.
 ⁶ In comparison, people are maggots;
      we mortals are mere worms.”

Job 26

Job’s Ninth Speech: A Response to Bildad

 ¹ Then Job spoke again:

 ² “How you have helped the powerless!
      How you have saved the weak!
 ³ How you have enlightened my stupidity!
      What wise advice you have offered!
 ⁴ Where have you gotten all these wise sayings?
      Whose spirit speaks through you?

 ⁵ “The dead tremble—
      those who live beneath the waters.
 ⁶ The underworld^[b] is naked in God’s presence.
      The place of destruction^[c] is uncovered.
 ⁷ God stretches the northern sky over empty space
      and hangs the earth on nothing.
 ⁸ He wraps the rain in his thick clouds,
      and the clouds don’t burst with the weight.
 ⁹ He covers the face of the moon,^[d]
      shrouding it with his clouds.
 ¹⁰ He created the horizon when he separated the waters;
      he set the boundary between day and night.
 ¹¹ The foundations of heaven tremble;
      they shudder at his rebuke.
 ¹² By his power the sea grew calm.
      By his skill he crushed the great sea monster.^[e]
 13 His Spirit made the heavens beautiful,
      and his power pierced the gliding serpent.
 ¹⁴ These are just the beginning of all that he does,
      merely a whisper of his power.
      Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?”

Job 27

Job’s Final Speech

   Job continued speaking:

 ² “I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights,
      by the Almighty who has embittered my soul—
 ³ As long as I live,
      while I have breath from God,
 ⁴ my lips will speak no evil,
      and my tongue will speak no lies.
 ⁵ I will never concede that you are right;
      I will defend my integrity until I die.
 ⁶ I will maintain my innocence without wavering.
      My conscience is clear for as long as I live.

 ⁷ “May my enemy be punished like the wicked,
      my adversary like those who do evil.
 ⁸ For what hope do the godless have when God cuts them off
      and takes away their life?
 ⁹ Will God listen to their cry
      when trouble comes upon them?
 ¹⁰ Can they take delight in the Almighty?
      Can they call to God at any time?
 ¹¹ I will teach you about God’s power.
      I will not conceal anything concerning the Almighty.
 ¹² But you have seen all this,
      yet you say all these useless things to me.

 ¹³ “This is what the wicked will receive from God;
      this is their inheritance from the Almighty.
 ¹⁴ They may have many children,
      but the children will die in war or starve to death.
 ¹⁵ Those who survive will die of a plague,
      and not even their widows will mourn them.

 ¹⁶ “Evil people may have piles of money
      and may store away mounds of clothing.
 ¹⁷ But the righteous will wear that clothing,
      and the innocent will divide that money.
 ¹⁸ The wicked build houses as fragile as a spider’s web,^[f]
      as flimsy as a shelter made of branches.
 ¹⁹ The wicked go to bed rich
      but wake to find that all their wealth is gone.
 ²⁰ Terror overwhelms them like a flood,
      and they are blown away in the storms of the night.
 ²¹ The east wind carries them away, and they are gone.
      It sweeps them away.
 ²² It whirls down on them without mercy.
      They struggle to flee from its power.
 ²³ But everyone jeers at them
      and mocks them.

Job 28

Job Speaks of Wisdom and Understanding

 ¹ “People know where to mine silver
      and how to refine gold.
 ² They know where to dig iron from the earth
      and how to smelt copper from rock.
 ³ They know how to shine light in the darkness
      and explore the farthest regions of the earth
      as they search in the dark for ore.
 ⁴ They sink a mine shaft into the earth
      far from where anyone lives.
      They descend on ropes, swinging back and forth.
 ⁵ Food is grown on the earth above,
      but down below, the earth is melted as by fire.
 ⁶ Here the rocks contain precious lapis lazuli,
      and the dust contains gold.
 ⁷ These are treasures no bird of prey can see,
      no falcon’s eye observe.
 ⁸ No wild animal has walked upon these treasures;
      no lion has ever set his paw there.
 ⁹ People know how to tear apart flinty rocks
      and overturn the roots of mountains.
 ¹⁰ They cut tunnels in the rocks
      and uncover precious stones.
 ¹¹ They dam up the trickling streams
      and bring to light the hidden treasures.

 ¹² “But do people know where to find wisdom?
      Where can they find understanding?
 ¹³ No one knows where to find it,
      for it is not found among the living.
 ¹⁴ ‘It is not here,’ says the ocean.
      ‘Nor is it here,’ says the sea.
 ¹⁵ It cannot be bought with gold.
      It cannot be purchased with silver.
 ¹⁶ It’s worth more than all the gold of Ophir,
      greater than precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
 ¹⁷ Wisdom is more valuable than gold and crystal.
      It cannot be purchased with jewels mounted in fine gold.
 ¹⁸ Coral and jasper are worthless in trying to get it.
      The price of wisdom is far above rubies.
 ¹⁹ Precious peridot from Ethiopia^[g] cannot be exchanged for it.
      It’s worth more than the purest gold.

 ²⁰ “But do people know where to find wisdom?
      Where can they find understanding?
 ²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of all humanity.
      Even the sharp-eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it.
 ²² Destruction^[h] and Death say,
      ‘We’ve heard only rumors of where wisdom can be found.’

 ²³ “God alone understands the way to wisdom;
      he knows where it can be found,
 ²⁴ for he looks throughout the whole earth
      and sees everything under the heavens.
 ²⁵ He decided how hard the winds should blow
      and how much rain should fall.
 ²⁶ He made the laws for the rain
      and laid out a path for the lightning.
 ²⁷ Then he saw wisdom and evaluated it.
      He set it in place and examined it thoroughly.
 ²⁸ And this is what he says to all humanity:
   ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom;
      to forsake evil is real understanding.’”