Job 14-16 (Today's New International Version)

Job 14

 ¹ "Mortals, born of woman,
       are of few days and full of trouble.

    ² They spring up like flowers and wither away;
       like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

    ³ Do you fix your eye on such as these?
       Will you bring them ^[a] before you for judgment?

    ⁴ Who can bring what is pure from the impure?
       No one!

    ⁵ The days of mortals are determined;
       you have decreed the number of their months
       and have set limits they cannot exceed.

    ⁶ So look away from us and leave us alone,
       till we have put in our time like hired laborers.

    ⁷ "At least there is hope for a tree:
       If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
       and its new shoots will not fail.

    ⁸ Its roots may grow old in the ground
       and its stump die in the soil,

    ⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
       and put forth shoots like a plant.

    ¹⁰ But human beings die and are laid low;
       they breathe their last and are no more.

    ¹¹ As the water of a lake dries up
       or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

    ¹² so they lie down and do not rise;
       till the heavens are no more, they will not awake
       or be roused from their sleep.

    ¹³ "If only you would hide me in the grave
       and conceal me till your anger has passed!
       If only you would set me a time
       and then remember me!

    ¹⁴ If someone dies, will they live again?
       All the days of my hard service
       I will wait for my renewal ^[b] to come.

    ¹⁵ You will call and I will answer you;
       you will long for the creature your hands have made.

    ¹⁶ Surely then you will count my steps
       but not keep track of my sin.

    ¹⁷ My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;
       you will cover over my sin.

    ¹⁸ "But as a mountain erodes and crumbles
       and as a rock is moved from its place,

    ¹⁹ as water wears away stones
       and torrents wash away the soil,
       so you destroy everyone's hope.

    ²⁰ You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;
       you change their countenance and send them away.

    ²¹ If their children are honored, they do not know it;
       if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.

    ²² They feel but the pain of their own bodies
       and mourn only for themselves."

Job 15

Eliphaz

 ¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

    ² "Would the wise answer with empty notions
       or fill their bellies with the hot east wind?

    ³ Would they argue with useless words,
       with speeches that have no value?

    ⁴ But you even undermine piety
       and hinder devotion to God.

    ⁵ Your sin prompts your mouth;
       you adopt the tongue of the crafty.

    ⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
       your own lips testify against you.

    ⁷ "Are you the first man ever born?
       Were you brought forth before the hills?

    ⁸ Do you listen in on God's council?
       Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?

    ⁹ What do you know that we do not know?
       What insights do you have that we do not have?

    ¹⁰ The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,
       men even older than your father.

    ¹¹ Are God's consolations not enough for you,
       words spoken gently to you?

    ¹² Why has your heart carried you away,
       and why do your eyes flash,

    ¹³ so that you vent your rage against God
       and pour out such words from your mouth?

    ¹⁴ "What are mortals, that they could be pure,
       or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?

    ¹⁵ If God places no trust in his holy ones,
       if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,

    ¹⁶ how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt,
       who drink up evil like water!

    ¹⁷ "Listen to me and I will explain to you;
       let me tell you what I have seen,

    ¹⁸ what the wise have declared,
       hiding nothing received from their ancestors

    ¹⁹ (to whom alone the land was given
       when no foreigners moved among them):

    ²⁰ All their days the wicked suffer torment,
       the ruthless through all the years stored up for them.

    ²¹ Terrifying sounds fill their ears;
       when all seems well, marauders attack them.

    ²² They despair of escaping the realm of darkness;
       they are marked for the sword.

    ²³ They wander about for food like vultures;
       they know the day of darkness is at hand.

    ²⁴ Distress and anguish fill them with terror;
       troubles overwhelm them, like a king poised to attack,

    ²⁵ because they shake their fists at God
       and vaunt themselves against the Almighty,

    ²⁶ defiantly charging against him
       with thick, strong shields.

    ²⁷ "Though their faces are covered with fat
       and their waists bulge with flesh,

    ²⁸ they will inhabit ruined towns
       and houses where no one lives,
       houses crumbling to rubble.

    ²⁹ They will no longer be rich and their wealth will not endure,
       nor will their possessions spread over the land.

    ³⁰ They will not escape the darkness;
       a flame will wither their shoots,
       and the breath of God's mouth will carry them away.

    ³¹ Let them not deceive themselves by trusting what is worthless,
       for they will get nothing in return.

    ³² Before their time they will wither,
       and their branches will not flourish.

    ³³ They will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes,
       like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.

    ³⁴ For the company of the godless will be barren,
       and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.

    ³⁵ They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;
       their womb fashions deceit."

Job 16

Job

 ¹ Then Job replied:

    ² "I have heard many things like these;
       you are miserable comforters, all of you!

    ³ Will your long-winded speeches never end?
       What ails you that you keep on arguing?

    ⁴ I also could speak like you,
       if you were in my place;
       I could make fine speeches against you
       and shake my head at you.

    ⁵ But my mouth would encourage you;
       comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

    ⁶ "Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
       and if I refrain, it does not go away.

    ⁷ Surely, God, you have worn me out;
       you have devastated my entire household.

    ⁸ You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;
       my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

    ⁹ God assails me and tears me in his anger
       and gnashes his teeth at me;
       my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

    ¹⁰ People open their mouths to jeer at me;
       they strike my cheek in scorn
       and unite together against me.

    ¹¹ God has turned me over to the ungodly
       and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

    ¹² All was well with me, but he shattered me;
       he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
       He has made me his target;

    ¹³ his archers surround me.
       Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
       and spills my gall on the ground.

    ¹⁴ Again and again he bursts upon me;
       he rushes at me like a warrior.

    ¹⁵ "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
       and buried my brow in the dust.

    ¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
       dark shadows ring my eyes;

    ¹⁷ yet my hands have been free of violence
       and my prayer is pure.

    ¹⁸ "Earth, do not cover my blood;
       may my cry never be laid to rest!

    ¹⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven;
       my advocate is on high.

    ²⁰ My intercessor is my friend ^[c]
       as my eyes pour out tears to God;

    ²¹ on behalf of a human being he pleads with God
       as one pleads for a friend.

    ²² "Only a few years will pass

    before I take the path of no return.