Job 15:12-16:11

English Standard Version

¹²Why does your heart carry you away,
    and why do your eyes flash,
¹³that you turn your ^(A)spirit against God
    and bring such words out of your mouth?
¹⁴^(B)What is man, ^(C)that he can be pure?
    Or he who is ^(D)born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
¹⁵Behold, God^[a] ^(E)puts no trust in his ^(F)holy ones,
    and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
¹⁶^(G)how much less one who is abominable and ^(H)corrupt,
    a man who ^(I)drinks injustice like water!

¹⁷“I will show you; hear me,
    and what I have seen I will declare
¹⁸(what wise men have told,
    without hiding it ^(J)from their fathers,
¹⁹to whom alone the land was given,
    and no ^(K)stranger passed among them).
²⁰The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
    through all the ^(L)years that are laid up for ^(M)the ruthless.
²¹^(N)Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
    in ^(O)prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
²²He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
    and he is marked for the sword.
²³He ^(P)wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
    He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
²⁴distress and anguish terrify him;
    they ^(Q)prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God
    and defies the Almighty,
²⁶^(R)running ^(S)stubbornly against him
    with a thickly bossed shield;
²⁷because he has ^(T)covered his face with his fat
    and gathered fat upon his waist
²⁸and has lived in desolate cities,
    in houses that none should inhabit,
    which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
²⁹he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
    nor will his possessions spread over the earth;^[b]
³⁰he will not depart from darkness;
    the flame will dry up his shoots,
    and by ^(U)the breath of his mouth he will depart.
³¹Let him not ^(V)trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
    for emptiness will be his payment.
³²It will be paid in full ^(W)before his time,
    and his branch will not be green.
³³He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
    and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
³⁴For ^(X)the company of the godless is barren,
    and ^(Y)fire consumes the tents of bribery.
³⁵They ^(Z)conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
    and their ^(AA)womb prepares deceit.”

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

16 Then Job answered and said:

²“I have heard ^(AB)many such things;
    ^(AC)miserable comforters are you all.
³Shall ^(AD)windy words have an end?
    Or what provokes you that you answer?
⁴I also could speak as you do,
    if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
    and ^(AE)shake my head at you.
⁵I could strengthen you with my mouth,
    and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
    and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
⁷Surely now God has worn me out;
    ^(AF)he has^[c] made desolate all my company.
⁸And he has shriveled me up,
    which is ^(AG)a witness against me,
and my ^(AH)leanness has risen up against me;
    it testifies to my face.
⁹He has ^(AI)torn me in his wrath ^(AJ)and hated me;
    he has ^(AK)gnashed his teeth at me;
    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
¹⁰Men have ^(AL)gaped at me with their mouth;
    they have ^(AM)struck me insolently on the cheek;
    they ^(AN)mass themselves together against me.
¹¹God gives me up to the ungodly
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.