Beginning
21 Then Job answered Zophar.
2 Job: Listen carefully to what I’m about to say,
and let your listening be the consolation you give me.
3 Suffer me to speak to you,
and after I’ve said what I need to say,
you may commence mocking.
4 Is my complaint addressed to humanity, or has it ever been?
Why shouldn’t I, by this point, be impatient with all of this?
5 Stay with me, and be stunned at what has happened to such a righteous person;
cover your gaping mouth with your hand.
6 When I think back upon everything that has gone before, I’m terrified;
my body is overtaken with trembling.
7 Why do the wicked live
on an ever-upward path to long life and riches?
8 Their children become well-established in front of them;
their offspring are guaranteed to grow up before their very eyes.
9 Their houses are immune to approaching terrors;
the rod of God is not on their backs punishing them.
10 Their bulls are consistent breeders;
their cows deliver healthy calves without miscarrying.
11 They produce flocks of children and send them all out into the world;
their young ones dance around free of care.
12 They still participate in celebration,
raising their voices to the song of the tambourine and the harp;
delighting in the sound of the flute.
13 They pass their time in the lap of abundance,
and they are even permitted to pass quickly to the land of the dead,
instead of lingering with chronic pain.
14 They tell God, “Leave us be.
We have no interest in You or Your ways.
15 Who is the Highest One[a] anyway,
and why should we serve Him?
What can we possibly gain by asking favors of Him?
Isn’t He generous enough already?”
16 Look, don’t you see?
The wicked do not control their own wealth, God does;
I am a long way from understanding the plan for the wicked.
17 Bildad claims the flame of the wicked is blown out.
But how often is their lamp extinguished?
How often does disaster strike them or does God give them pain
because of His anger at what they’ve done?
Throughout the Bible, God is called by many names. One of the most frequent in the Old Testament, Shaddai, was a favorite name of God for patriarchs such as Abraham and Moses. Based on the etymology of the name, many suggest Abraham brought that epithet with him from Mesopotamia, so it is logical that Job (another patriarch from outside of Israel) could often refer to Him the same way.
El Shaddai, which translates to “God of my mountain” or possibly “God of might,” aptly describes many characteristics of God. He is strong and high above everything, just like the heights of a mountain. He is a protector, just like the rocky crags in the side of a cliff. And certainly God associates Himself with mountain ranges—having Abraham bind Isaac on Mount Moriah, giving the Israelites the law from Mount Sinai, and placing His sacred temple on Mount Zion. Whether speaking to humanity from the top of a mountain or the heights of heaven, the Lord is certainly the Highest One; no one is above Him.
18 How often are they as straw in the wind
or the chaff separated from the grain by fierce winds?
19 It is said, “God stores away a man’s misdeeds
and delivers them to his children.”[b]
Let Him repay the man Himself, so the man can know it.
20 Let the wicked see his ruin with his own eyes
as he drinks down the wrath of the Highest One.
21 After all, once he’s dead and gone and his time is up,
what will he care for his household and family?
22 Now who dares impart knowledge to God
since He stands as judge over the most powerful?
23 One person dies when he is fit and strong,
completely secure and totally at peace;
24 His body[c] is vigorous and well fed;
his bones are strong and moist.
25 Another person dies with a bitter soul,
having never even tasted goodness.
26 But they lie down together in the same dust,
covered by the same blanket of worms.
27 I know how your minds work, my friends,
and how you plan to wrong me—your thoughts of retribution.
28 You will counter, “Show me!
Where is the palatial estate?
Where are the vaulted tents of the wicked?”
29 But I say, have you never consulted with those who travel this world?
They can tell you the complexions of many lands.
But you’ve never permitted their witness
in your courts of opinion, have you?
30 Well, if you had, you’d have heard
that when disaster strikes, the wicked are spared;
On the day of fury,
they are escorted safely through.
31 Who challenges them openly regarding their actions,
and who repays them on account of all they’ve done?
32 When death finally comes and they are laid in their graves,
guards stand watch over their tombs, fending off grave robbers.
33 Laid to rest beside the stream, clods of earth cover them kindly;
while countless souls have gone before, all of humanity follows after.
34 So, my friends, how can you continue trying to comfort me with these empty consolations?
So far, your answers have been only thinly veiled lies!
22 Eliphaz the Temanite made suggestions to Job.
2 Eliphaz: Can a strong person be of any use to God?
How about one who is wise? Can he help himself?
3 Is the Highest One[d] made happy if you are righteous?
Does He profit from your perfect ways?
4 Do you really think He takes you to task because you revere Him too much?
Is this why He brings allegations against you?
5 Is it not possible that you are, in fact, great with wickedness
and endless in your wrongdoing?
6 When your relatives came to you needing money,
for no good reason you took their clothes for collateral
and left them naked.
7 You have never given so much as a cup of water to the thirsty
or a crumb to the hungry.
8 You must think only the powerful and privileged possess the land
and can live in it any way they wish.
9 You have sent away widows who were wanting,
and you have obliterated the only support of orphans.
10 This is why you are surrounded by snares,
why you are overcome with dreadful fears,
11 Why you’re in the dark, without a glimmer to help you see,
sunk beneath the rush of flooding water.
12 Is not God up there at the crown of the highest arc of heaven?
And the highest stars!
See how lofty they are!
13 But you—you say, “What does God know?
Can He send His judgments through such thick darkness?
14 Those clouds are just a veil for Him so He does not have to look upon us
while He saunters, oblivious, through the chambers of the sky.”
15 Job, are you now guardian of the ancient road
where the wicked have traveled?
16 The wicked, who are captured
and taken off before their time,
their foundations washed out by a flooded river,
17 They are the ones who tell God, “Leave us be.”
They say, “What can the Highest One do to us?”
18 How are they repaid for their insolence?
You say, “He stuffs their homes with goodness,”
Then you shake your head and mutter,
“Far be it from me to understand the thoughts and plans of the wicked.”
19 The righteous would look upon their ruin and laugh for delight;
the innocent would taunt
20 By saying, “Sure enough, our enemies have gone to their annihilation,
and what they’ve left behind feeds a hungry fire.”
21 Now be of use to God;
be at peace with Him,
and goodness will return to your life.
22 Receive instruction directly from His lips,
and make His words a part of you.
23 If you return to the Highest One,
you will be restored;
if you banish the evil from your tents,
24 And consider your gold as common as earth’s dust
and Ophir’s refined gold as plentiful as stones in rock-lined streams,
25 Then your true treasure will be the Highest One—
worth more than gold and silver beyond measure.
26 For then, at last, you will find pleasure in the Highest One,
and you will finally be able to show Him your face.
27 When you approach Him, He will listen;
you will make good on your promises to Him.
28 You will pronounce something to be,
and He will make it so;
light will break out across all of your paths.
29 God will humble, but you say, “Raise them up.”
He will save the downcast.
30 He will even consent to deliver those who are not innocent
through the purity of your then-washed-clean hands.
23 Job confided to his friends.
2 Job: So once again you are telling me my complaint amounts to rebellion,
that the heavy hand I feel upon me is smothering my groans?
3 Would that I knew where to find Him.
I would appear before Him.
4 I would lay my case out before Him;
I would fill up my mouth with arguments.
5 And then I would finally learn how He would answer me,
and I would understand what He tells me.
6 Would He oppose me merely with His great power? Surely not!
Surely He would show me the respect of listening to my argument.
7 There, in that courtroom, a moral man might hope to reason with Him,
and I would escape my Judge forever.
8 Alas, wherever I go, ahead or behind,
He is not there;
I am unable to find Him.
9 When He works on either side of me, I still cannot see Him.
I catch no glimpse of Him.
10 But He knows the course I have traveled.
And I believe that were He to prove me,
I would come out purer than gold from the fire.
11 My foot has been securely set in His tracks;
I have kept to His course of life without swerving;
12 I have not departed from the commands of His lips;
I have valued everything He says more than all else.
13 He alone is one True God; who can alter Him?
Whatever He desires within Himself, He does.
14 For He will carry out exactly what He has planned for me,
and in the future there are more plans to come.
15 Therefore, I am deeply troubled before Him;
when I ponder it at any length, I am terrified of Him.
16 Yes, God has melted my courage,
and the Highest One has overwhelmed me with His terror.
17 He could have turned me aside when the darkness came,
but He did not cut me off.
Nor does He hide my face from the gloom that has now overtaken me.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.