Job 8-10

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

² “How long will you say these things
    and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
³ Does God pervert justice?
    Or does the Almighty^[a] pervert the right?^(A)
4 If your children sinned against him,
    he delivered them into the power of their transgression.^(B)
5 If you will seek God
    and make supplication to the Almighty,^[b](C)
6 if you are pure and upright,
    surely then he will rouse himself for you
    and restore to you your rightful place.^(D)
7 Though your beginning was small,
    your latter days will be very great.^(E)

⁸ “For inquire now of bygone generations
    and consider what their ancestors have found,^(F)
9 for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,
    for our days on earth are but a shadow.^(G)
10 Will they not teach you and tell you
    and utter words out of their understanding?

¹¹ “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
    Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
¹² While yet in flower and not cut down,
    they wither before any other plant.^(H)
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
    the hope of the godless shall perish.^(I)
14 Their confidence is gossamer,
    a spider’s house their trust.
¹⁵ If one leans against its house, it will not stand;
    if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.^(J)
16 The wicked thrive^[c] before the sun,
    and their shoots spread over the garden.^(K)
17 Their roots twine around the stoneheap;
    they live among the rocks.^[d]
18 If they are destroyed from their place,
    then it will deny them, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’^(L)
19 See, these are their happy ways,^[e]
    and out of the earth still others will spring.

²⁰ “See, God will not reject the blameless,
    nor take the hand of evildoers.^(M)
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
    and your lips with shouts of joy.^(N)
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
    and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”^(O)

² “Indeed, I know that this is so,
    but how can a mortal be just before God?^(P)
3 If one wished to contend with him,
    one could not answer him once in a thousand.^(Q)
4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
    who has resisted him and succeeded?^(R)
5 He removes mountains, and they do not know it
    when he overturns them in his anger;
⁶ he shakes the earth out of its place,
    and its pillars tremble;^(S)
7 he commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    he seals up the stars;
⁸ he alone stretched out the heavens
    and trampled the waves of the Sea;^[f](T)
9 he made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;^(U)
10 he does great things beyond understanding
    and marvelous things without number.^(V)
11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
    he moves on, but I do not perceive him.^(W)
12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
    Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’^(X)

¹³ “God will not turn back his anger;
    the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.^(Y)
14 How then can I answer him,
    choosing my words with him?
¹⁵ Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
    I must appeal to my accuser for my right.^(Z)
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
¹⁷ For he crushes me with a tempest
    and multiplies my wounds without cause;^(AA)
18 he will not let me get my breath
    but fills me with bitterness.^(AB)
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
    If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?^[g]
20 Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
    though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
²¹ I am blameless; I do not know myself;
    I loathe my life.^(AC)
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
    ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’^(AD)
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity^[h] of the innocent.^(AE)
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
    he covers the eyes of its judges—
    if it is not he, who then is it?^(AF)

²⁵ “My days are swifter than a runner;
    they flee away; they see no good.
²⁶ They go by like skiffs of reed,
    like an eagle swooping on the prey.^(AG)
27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint;
    I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer,’
²⁸ I become afraid of all my suffering,
    for I know you will not hold me innocent.
²⁹ I shall be condemned;
    why then do I labor in vain?^(AH)
30 If I wash myself with soap
    and cleanse my hands with lye,^(AI)
31 yet you will plunge me into filth,
    and my own clothes will abhor me.
³² For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.^(AJ)
33 There is no mediator^[i] between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.^(AK)
34 If he would take his rod away from me
    and not let dread of him terrify me,^(AL)
35 then I would speak without fear of him,
    for I know I am not what I am thought to be.^[j]

¹⁸ “ ‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
    Would that I had died before any eye had seen me^(BA)
19 and were as though I had not been,
    carried from the womb to the grave.
²⁰ Are not the days of my life few?^[m]
    Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort^[n](BB)
21 before I go, never to return,
    to the land of gloom and deep darkness,
²² the land of gloom^[o] and chaos,
    where light is like darkness.’ ”