Job 13-15
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
13 [Job continued:] Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.
2 What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
3 Surely 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].
4 But you are forgers of lies [you defame my character most untruthfully]; you are all physicians of no value and have no remedy to offer.
5 Oh, that you would altogether hold your peace! Then you would evidence your wisdom and you might pass for wise men.
6 Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will you speak unrighteously for God and talk deceitfully for Him?
8 Will you show partiality to Him [be unjust to me in order to gain favor with Him]? Will you act as special pleaders for God?
9 Would 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?
10 He will surely reprove you if you do secretly show partiality.
11 Shall not His majesty make you afraid, and should not your awe for Him restrain you?
12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes [valueless]; your defenses are defenses of clay [and will crumble].
13 Hold your peace! Let me alone, so I may speak; and let come on me what may.
14 Why 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.
16 This will be my salvation, that a polluted and godless man shall not come before Him.
17 Listen diligently to my speech, and let my declaration be in your ears.
18 Behold now, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be justified and vindicated.
19 Who is he who will argue against and refute me? For then I would hold my peace and expire.
20 Only [O Lord] grant two conditions to me, and then will I not hide myself from You:
21 Withdraw Your hand and take this bodily suffering far from me; and let not my [reverent] dread of You terrify me.
22 Then [Lord] call and I will answer, or let me speak, and You answer me.
23 How many are my iniquities and sins [that so much sorrow should come to me]? Make me recognize and know my transgression and my sin.(A)
24 Why do You hide Your face [as if offended] and alienate me as if I were Your enemy?
25 Will You harass and frighten a [poor, helpless] leaf driven to and fro, and will You pursue the chaff of the dry stubble?
26 For 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.
27 You 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].
28 And he wastes away as a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
14 Man who is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.
2 He comes forth like a flower and withers; he flees also like a shadow and continues not.
3 And [Lord] do You open Your eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with You?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!(B)
5 Since a man’s days are already determined, and the number of his months is wholly in Your control, and he cannot pass the bounds of his allotted time—
6 [O God] turn from him [and cease to watch him so pitilessly]; let him rest until he has accomplished as does a hireling the appointed time for his day.
7 For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again and that the tender shoots of it will not cease. [But there is no such hope for man.]
8 Though its roots grow old in the earth and its stock dies in the ground,
9 Yet through the scent [and breathing] of water [the stump of the tree] will bud and bring forth boughs like a young plant.
10 But [the brave, strong] man must die and lie prostrate; yes, man breathes his last, and where is he?
11 As waters evaporate from the lake, and the river drains and dries up,
12 So man lies down and does not rise [to his former state]. Till the heavens are no more, men will not awake nor be raised [physically] out of their sleep.
13 Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol (the unseen state), that You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, that You would set a definite time and then remember me earnestly [and imprint me on your heart]!
14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare and service I will wait, till my change and release shall come.(C)
15 [Then] You would call and I would answer You; You would yearn for [me] the work of Your hands.
16 But now You number each of my steps and take note of my every sin.
17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You glue up my iniquity [to preserve it in full for the day of reckoning].
18 But as a mountain, if it falls, crumbles to nothing, and as the rock is removed out of its place,
19 As waters wear away the stones and as floods wash away the soil of the earth, so You [O Lord] destroy the hope of man.
20 You prevail forever against him, and he passes on; You change his appearance [in death] and send him away [from the presence of the living].
21 His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
22 But his body [lamenting its decay in the grave] shall grieve over him, and his soul shall mourn [over the body of clay which it once enlivened].
15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered [Job],
2 Should a wise man utter such windy knowledge [as we have just heard] and fill himself with the east wind [of withering, parching, and violent accusations]?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4 Indeed, you are doing away with [reverential] fear, and you are hindering and diminishing meditation and devotion before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; yes, your own lips testify against you.
7 Are you the first man that was born [the original wise man]? Or were you created before the hills?
8 Were you present to hear the secret counsel of God? And do you limit [the possession of] wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we know not? What do you understand that is not equally clear to us?
10 Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged, older than your father by far.
11 Are God’s consolations [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you? Is there any secret thing (any bosom sin) which you have not given up? [Or] were we too gentle [in our first speech] toward you to be effective?
12 Why does your heart carry you away [why allow yourself to be controlled by feeling]? And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt],
13 That you turn your spirit against God and let [such] words [as you have spoken] go out of your mouth?
14 What is man, that he could be pure and clean? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be right and just?
15 Behold, [God] puts no trust in His holy ones [the angels]; indeed, the heavens are not clean in His sight—
16 How much less that which is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water?
17 I will show you, hear me; and that which I have seen I will relate,
18 What wise men have not hid but have freely communicated; it was told to them by their fathers,
19 Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger intruded or passed among them [corrupting the truth].
20 The wicked man suffers with [self-inflicted] torment all his days, through all the years that are numbered and laid up for him, the oppressor.
21 A [dreadful] sound of terrors is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him [the dwellings of robbers are not at peace].
22 He believes that he will not return out of darkness, and [because of his guilt] he is waited for by the sword [of God’s vengeance].
23 He wanders abroad for food, saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of darkness and destruction is already close upon him.
24 Distress and anguish terrify him; [he knows] they shall prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bids defiance and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
26 Running stubbornly against Him with a thickly ornamented shield;
27 Because he has covered his face with his fat, adding layers of fat on his loins [giving himself up to animal pleasures],
28 And has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities and in houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps [of ruins];
29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his wealth last, neither shall his produce bend to the earth nor his possessions be extended on the earth.
30 He shall not depart out of darkness [and escape from calamity; the wrath of God] shall consume him as flame consumes a dry tree, and by the blast of His mouth he shall be swept away.
31 Let him not deceive himself and trust in vanity (emptiness, falseness, and futility), for these shall be his recompense [for such living].
32 It shall be accomplished and paid in full while he still lives, and his branch shall not be green [but shall wither away].
33 He shall fail to bring his grapes to maturity [leaving them to wither unnourished] on the vine and shall cast off blossoms [and fail to bring forth fruit] like the olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery (wrong and injustice).
35 They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, and their inmost soul hatches deceit.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
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