Job’s Reply to Bildad

Then Job answered:

Job’s Abandonment and Affliction

“If I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I receive no answer; I cry for help, but there is no justice.

Job’s Forsaken State

“He has put my relatives far from me; my acquaintances only turn away from me.

Job’s Assurance of Vindication

“O that my words were written down! O that they were written on a scroll!

Job’s Reply to Zophar

Then Job answered:

Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

Then Job answered:

Job’s Reply to Bildad

Then Job replied:

A Protest of Innocence

And Job took up his discourse again:

III. Job’s Search for Wisdom (28:1-28)

No Known Road to Wisdom

“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined.

IV. Job’s Concluding Soliloquy (29:1-31:40)

Job Recalls His Former Condition

Then Job continued his speech:

Job’s Benevolence

“As soon as the ear heard these things, it blessed me, and when the eye saw them, it bore witness to me,

Job’s Confidence

“Then I thought, ‘I will die in my own home, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.

Job’s Reputation

“People listened to me and waited silently; they kept silent for my advice.

Job’s Present Misery

“But now they mock me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I disdained too much to put with my sheep dogs.

Job’s Indignities

“And now I have become their taunt song; I have become a byword among them.

Job’s Despondency

“And now my soul pours itself out within me; days of suffering take hold of me.

Job Vindicates Himself

“I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I entertain thoughts against a virgin?

if the members of my household have never said, ‘If only there were someone who has not been satisfied from Job’s meat!’—

Job’s Appeal

“If only I had someone to hear me! Here is my signature— let the Almighty answer me! If only I had an indictment that my accuser had written.

Job’s Final Solemn Oath

“If my land cried out against me and all its furrows wept together,

then let thorns sprout up in place of wheat, and in place of barley, noxious weeds.” The words of Job are ended.

V. The Speeches of Elihu (32:1-37:24)

Elihu’s First Speech

So these three men refused to answer Job further, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry. He was angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God.

With Job’s three friends he was also angry, because they could not find an answer, and so declared Job guilty.

Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job, because the others were older than he was.