Job 26-30

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

26 But Job answered,

² How you have helped him who is without power! How you have sustained the arm that is without strength!

³ How you have counseled him who has no wisdom! And how plentifully you have declared to him sound knowledge!

⁴ With whose assistance have you uttered these words? And whose spirit [inspired what] came forth from you?

⁵ The shades of the dead tremble underneath the waters and their inhabitants.

⁶ Sheol (the place of the dead) is naked before God, and Abaddon (the place of destruction) has no covering [from His eyes].

⁷ He it is Who spreads out the northern skies over emptiness and ^[a]hangs the earth upon or over nothing.

⁸ He holds the waters bound in His clouds [which otherwise would spill on earth all at once], and the cloud is not rent under them.

⁹ He covers the face of His throne and spreads over it His cloud.

¹⁰ He has placed an enclosing limit [the horizon] upon the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹ The pillars of the heavens tremble and are astonished at His rebuke.

¹² He stills or stirs up the sea by His power, and by His understanding He smites proud Rahab.

¹³ By His breath the heavens are garnished; His hand pierced the [swiftly] fleeing serpent.^(A)

¹⁴ Yet these are but [a small part of His doings] the outskirts of His ways or the mere fringes of His force, the faintest whisper of His voice! Who dares contemplate or who can understand the thunders of His full, magnificent power?

27 Job again took up his discourse and said,

² As God lives, Who has taken away my right and denied me justice, and the Almighty, Who has vexed and embittered my life,

³ As long as my life is still whole within me, and the breath of God is [yet] in my nostrils,

⁴ My lips shall not speak untruth, nor shall my tongue utter deceit.

⁵ God forbid that I should justify you—saying you are right [in your accusations against me]; till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me.

⁶ My uprightness and my right standing with God I hold fast and will not let them go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days and it shall not reproach me as long as I live.

⁷ Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

⁸ For what is the hope of the godless and polluted, even though he has gained [in this world], when God cuts him off and takes away his life?

⁹ Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him?

¹⁰ Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

¹¹ I will teach you regarding the hand and handiwork of God; that which is with the Almighty [God’s actual treatment of the wicked man] will I not conceal.

¹² Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain [cherishing foolish notions]?

¹³ This [which I am about to tell] is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage which oppressors shall receive from the Almighty:

¹⁴ If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring will not have sufficient bread.

¹⁵ Those who survive him, [the pestilence] will bury, and [their] widows will make no lamentation.

¹⁶ Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up clothing like clay,

¹⁷ He may prepare it, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸ He builds his house like a moth or a spider, like a booth which a watchman makes [to last for a season].

¹⁹ [The wicked] will lie down rich, but does it not again; he opens his eyes, and [his wealth] is gone.

²⁰ Terrors overtake him like a [suddenly loosened] flood; a windstorm steals him away in the night.

²¹ The east wind lifts him up, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

²² For [God and the storm] hurl at him without pity and unsparingly [their thunderbolts of wrath]; he flees in haste before His power.

²³ [God causes] men to clap their hands at him [in malignant joy] and hiss him out of his place.

28 Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold where they refine it.

² Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the stone ore.

³ Man sets an end to darkness, and he searches out the farthest bounds for the ore buried in gloom and deep darkness.

⁴ Men break open shafts away from where people sojourn, in places forgotten by [human] foot; and [descend into them], hanging afar from men, they swing or flit to and fro.

⁵ As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath [its surface, down deep in the mine] there is ^[b]blasting, turning it up as by fire.

⁶ Its stones are the bed of sapphires; it holds dust of gold [which he wins].

⁷ That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

⁸ The proud beasts [and their young] have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

⁹ Man puts forth his hand upon the flinty rock; he overturns the mountains by the roots.

¹⁰ He cuts out channels and passages among the rocks; and his eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹ [Man] binds the streams so that they do not trickle [into the mine], and the thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.

¹² But where shall ^[c]Wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?

¹³ Man knows not the price of it; neither is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴ The deep says, [Wisdom] is not in me; and the sea says, It is not with me.

¹⁵ It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price of it.

¹⁶ It cannot be valued in [terms of] the gold of Ophir, in the precious onyx or beryl, or the sapphire.

¹⁷ Gold and glass cannot equal [Wisdom], nor can it be exchanged for jewels or vessels of fine gold.

¹⁸ No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; for the possession of Wisdom is even above rubies or pearls.

¹⁹ The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰ From where then does Wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?

²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and knowledge of it is withheld from the birds of the heavens.

²² Abaddon (the place of destruction) and Death say, We have [only] heard the report of it with our ears.

²³ God understands the way [to Wisdom] and He knows the place of it [Wisdom is with God alone].

²⁴ For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵ When He gave to the wind weight or pressure and allotted the waters by measure,

²⁶ When He made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder,

²⁷ Then He saw [Wisdom] and declared it; He established it, yes, and searched it out [for His own use, and He alone possesses it].

²⁸ But to man He said, Behold, the reverential and worshipful fear of the Lord—that is Wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

29 And Job again took up his discussion and said,

² Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,^(B)

³ When His lamp shone above and upon my head and by His light I walked through darkness;

⁴ As I was in the [prime] ripeness of my days, when the friendship and counsel of God were over my tent,

⁵ When the Almighty was yet with me and my children were about me,

⁶ When my steps [through rich pasturage] were washed with butter and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷ When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the street [the broad place for the council at the city’s gate],

⁸ The young men saw me and hid themselves; the aged rose up and stood;

⁹ The princes refrained from talking and laid their hands on their mouths;

¹⁰ The voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouths.

¹¹ For when the ear heard, it called me happy and blessed me; and when the eye saw, it testified for me [approvingly],

¹² Because I delivered the poor who cried, the fatherless and him who had none to help him.

¹³ The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴ I put on ^[d]righteousness, and it clothed me or clothed itself with me; my justice was like a robe and a turban or a diadem or a crown!

¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

¹⁶ I was a father to the poor and needy; the cause of him I did not know I searched out.

¹⁷ And I broke the jaws or the big teeth of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹⁸ Then I said, I shall die in or beside my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹ My root is spread out and open to the waters, and the dew lies all night upon my branch.

²⁰ My glory and honor are fresh in me [being constantly renewed], and my bow gains [ever] new strength in my hand.

²¹ Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel.

²² After I spoke, they did not speak again, and my speech dropped upon them [like a refreshing shower].

²³ And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths wide as for the spring rain.

²⁴ I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and their depression did not cast down the light of my countenance.

²⁵ I chose their way [for them] and sat as [their] chief, and dwelt like a king among his soldiers, like one who comforts mourners.

30 But now they who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

² Yes, how could the strength of their hands profit me? They were men whose ripe age and vigor had perished.

³ They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry and barren ground or flee into the wilderness, into the gloom of wasteness and desolation.

⁴ They pluck saltwort or mallows among the bushes, and roots of the broom for their food or to warm them.

⁵ They are driven from among men, who shout after them as after a thief.

⁶ They must dwell in the clefts of frightful valleys (gullies made by torrents) and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷ Among the bushes they bray and howl [like wild animals]; beneath the prickly scrub they fling themselves and huddle together.

⁸ Sons of the worthless and nameless, they have been scourged and crushed out of the land.

⁹ And now I have become their song; yes, I am a byword to them.

¹⁰ They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and do not refrain from spitting in my face or at the sight of me.

¹¹ For God has loosed my bowstring and afflicted and humbled me; they have cast off the bridle [of restraint] before me.

¹² On my right hand rises the rabble brood; they jostle me and push away my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of destruction [like an advancing army].

¹³ They break up and clutter my path [embarrassing my plans]; they urge on my calamity, even though they have no helper [and are themselves helpless].

¹⁴ As through a wide breach they come in; amid the crash [of falling walls] they roll themselves upon me.

¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me; my honor and reputation they chase away like the wind, and my welfare has passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶ And now my life is poured out within me; the days of affliction have gripped me.

¹⁷ My bones are pierced [with aching] in the night season, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

¹⁸ By the great force [of my disease] my garment is disguised and disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my coat.

¹⁹ [God] has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰ I cry to You, [Lord,] and You do not answer me; I stand up, but You [only] gaze [indifferently] at me.

²¹ You have become harsh and cruel to me; with the might of Your hand You [keep me alive only to] persecute me.

²² You lift me up on the wind; You cause me to ride upon it, and You toss me about in the tempest.

²³ For I know that You will bring me to death and to the house [of meeting] appointed for all the living.

²⁴ However, does not one falling in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand? Or in his calamity will he not therefore cry for help?

²⁵ Did not I weep for him who was in trouble? Was not my heart grieved for the poor and needy?

²⁶ But when I looked for good, then evil came to me; and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

²⁷ My heart is troubled and does not rest; days of affliction come to meet me.

²⁸ I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the congregation and cry for help.

²⁹ I am a brother to jackals [which howl], and a companion to ostriches [which scream dismally].

³⁰ My skin falls from me in blackened flakes, and my bones are burned with heat.

³¹ Therefore my lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.