Beginning
Round Two: Job’s Third Speech
21 Then Job responded:
2 Listen carefully to my words—
that is the kind of encouragement you should give me.
3 Put up with me while I speak.
Then, after I have spoken, you may resume your mocking.
4 Is my complaint against a man?
Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
5 Look at me and be shocked,[a]
and then put your hand over your mouth.
6 When I remember all this, I am terrified,[b]
and horror makes my flesh tremble.
7 Why do the wicked keep living,
reach old age,
and even become stronger?
8 Their descendants are firmly established in their presence,
and they live long enough to see their offspring.
9 Their houses are safe from fear,
and God’s rod does not strike them.
10 The wicked man’s bulls breed without failing.
His cows deliver calves without miscarrying.
11 Their toddlers frolic like flocks,
and their children dance around.
12 They sing to the accompaniment of hand drums and lyres.
They celebrate to the sound of a flute.
13 They finish out[c] their days in prosperity.
Then they go down to the grave in a moment.
14 They say to God, “Keep away from us.
We know your ways, but we find no pleasure in them.”
15 “Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him,
and what benefit do we gain from pleading with him?”
16 But I know that their prosperity is not in their own hands,
so I have distanced myself from the way of life[d] of the wicked.
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?
How often does the disaster they deserve come upon them?
How often does God in his anger dole out their fair share of pain?
18 How often are they like straw blown by the wind,
like chaff that a windstorm whisks away?
19 People say, “God stores up a man’s punishment for his children,”
but he should repay the man himself so that he experiences it!
20 Let his own eyes see his condemnation.[e]
Let him drink from the rage of the Almighty,
21 for what does he care about his household after his death,
when his allotment of months has run out?
22 Can anyone teach God knowledge,
since he judges even the most exalted ones?
23 One person dies with vigor in his bones,
completely secure and at ease.
24 His body is filled out with fat,[f]
and his bones are rich with marrow.
25 Another person dies with his soul filled with bitterness,
without ever tasting anything good.
26 Both of them lie down together in the dust,
and worms cover them both.
27 Oh, I know your thoughts
and your schemes to harm me.
28 For you say, “Where is the nobleman’s house,
and where is the tent, which was the dwelling of the wicked?”
29 Why don’t you question those who travel the roads?
Why don’t you acknowledge the lessons they learned?[g]
30 They say that the wicked man is spared from the day of disaster,
and that he escapes the day of raging fury.
31 Who denounces him to his face for the way he has lived?
Who repays him for what he has done?
32 When he is carried to the tombs,
when a vigil is kept at his burial mound,
33 the clods of dirt from the streambed are sweet to him.
Everyone follows his funeral procession.
A crowd of people marches ahead of it.[h]
34 So how can you comfort me with your useless words?
There is nothing left from your answers but fraud!
Round Three: Eliphaz’s Speech
22 Eliphaz the Temanite responded:
2 Can a man benefit God?
Can even a wise man be of any use to him?
3 Should the Almighty be delighted if you are righteous?
Does he gain any advantage if your ways are blameless?
4 Is it because of your reverence that he rebukes you
and comes against you in judgment?
5 Isn’t your wickedness great?
Isn’t your guilt endless?
6 You have seized collateral from your brothers without cause,
and you have stripped off clothing from the naked.
7 You have not given water to the weary,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8 The earth belongs to a forceful man,
and a well-respected man dwells in it.[i]
9 You send widows away empty-handed.
You crush the arms of the fatherless.
10 That is why snares are all around you,
and sudden fear overwhelms you.
11 That is why you cannot see in the darkness,
and floodwaters cover you.
12 Is not God in the heights of heaven?
Look at[j] the highest stars, so high above!
13 But you say, “What does God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
14 Dark clouds are a veil around him,
so he does not see us
as he walks back and forth in heaven’s dome.”
15 Are you the guardian of the ancient way,
the one traveled by wicked men?
16 They were snatched away before their time.[k]
Their foundation was washed away by a river.
17 They said to God, “Keep away from us,”
and “What can the Almighty do to us?”[l]
18 even though he had filled their houses with good.
That is why the way of life of the wicked is far from me.
19 The righteous see this and are glad.
The innocent mock them, saying,
20 “Surely our adversaries have been erased!
Fire has eaten up their abundance.”
21 Be reconciled with God.
Be at peace with him.
Then good will come to you.
22 Accept teaching from his mouth,
and set his words in your heart.
23 If you turn to the Almighty, you will be built up.
If you want to put injustice far from your tent,
24 throw your purest gold[m] into the dust
and your gold from Ophir upon the rocks in the ravines.
25 Then the Almighty will be your purest gold
and your most precious silver.
26 Then you will find pleasure in the Almighty,
and you will lift up your face to God.
27 You will pray to God, and he will hear you,
and you will fulfill your vows.
28 You will decide on a matter, and it will be done for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
29 When people are brought low,
and you say, “Lift them up,”
God will save the downcast.
30 He will deliver even the person who is not innocent,
who will escape by the purity of your hands.
Round Three: Job’s First Speech
23 Then Job responded:
2 Even today my complaint is bitter.[n]
His[o] hand weighs heavily on me despite my groaning.[p]
3 I wish I knew where I could find him,
so that I could come to his place for judgment.
4 Then I would lay out my case before him,
and I would fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know what words he would use to respond to me,
and I would consider what he would say to me.
6 Would he use his great power to press charges against me?
No, he will certainly give me a hearing.
7 There, an upright man could argue with him,
and I would be delivered from my judge forever.
8 But if I walk to the east, he is not there.
If I go back to the west, I find no sign of him.
9 When he is at work in the north, I do not detect him.
When he turns to the south, I do not see him.
10 But I am sure he knows the way I take.
When he has tested me, I will come out like gold.
11 My feet have followed his footsteps closely.
I have kept to his way, and I have not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the command from his lips.
I have treasured the sayings from his mouth in my heart.[q]
13 He stands alone.
Who can make him change?
Whatever his soul desires, he will do.
14 He carries out his decrees against me,
and he has so many of them!
15 That is why I am in a panic in his presence.
When I think about this, I dread him.
16 God has made me lose heart.
The Almighty has terrified me.
17 Nevertheless, I am not silenced by the darkness,
by the dark cloud that covers my face.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.