Beginning
24 Why are appointments never scheduled by the Almighty?
Why do those who know him never see such days?
2 People move boundary stones.
They steal a flock and take it to pasture.
3 They drive away donkeys that belong to the fatherless.
They seize the widow’s ox as collateral.
4 They shove the poor out of the way.
The oppressed people of the land hide together.
5 They go out to their labor, like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
looking for food.
The wasteland is their only source of food for themselves
and their children.
6 They gather their straw in the open countryside.
They glean leftovers in the vineyard of the wicked.
7 They spend the night naked, without clothing.
They have no covering from the cold.
8 They are soaked by heavy rain from the mountains.
They cling to a cliff for shelter.
9 The wicked tear away a fatherless child from its mother’s breast.
They take a poor mother’s nursing baby as collateral.
10 The poor walk around naked, without clothing.
They pick up sheaves but are still hungry.
11 They press olive oil among the terraces of olive trees.
They tread winepresses, but they remain thirsty.
12 The dying people[a] of the city groan,
and wounded souls cry out for help,
but God does not bring charges against anyone.
13 There are people who rebel against the light.
They do not acknowledge its ways or dwell in its paths.
14 At the end of the daylight[b] a murderer arises,
and he kills the poor and needy.
At night he acts as a thief.
15 The eye of an adulterer keeps watch for twilight.
He says, “No eye can get a good look at me.”
He wears a mask over his face.
16 In the dark of night he digs into houses.
By day such people hide inside.
They keep away from the light.
17 For all of them, morning is their darkness.[c]
They are familiar with the sudden terror of darkness.
18 They float by like foam on the surface of the water.
Their portion of the land is cursed,
so no one turns onto the road to their vineyards.
19 As drought and heat snatch away the water from the snow,
the grave snatches away a sinner.
20 The womb forgets him.
A worm finds him sweet.
He will no longer be remembered.
Wickedness is broken like a tree.
21 He feeds on[d] the childless woman,
and he does nothing good for the widow.
22 But God drags away the mighty by his strength.
He rises up, so the wicked have no confidence in their lives.
23 God lets them be secure, and they prop themselves up,
but God’s eyes are on their ways.
24 They are high and mighty for a little while,
but then they are gone.
They are brought low like all the rest.
They are gathered together, like ears of grain that have been cut off.
25 So then, who can make me out to be a liar?
Who can reduce my words to nothing?
Round Three: Bildad’s Speech
25 Bildad the Shuhite responded:
2 The power to rule and to inspire fear belongs to him.
He makes peace on high.
3 Can anyone count his troops?
Is there anyone on whom his light does not rise?
4 How then can a man be righteous with God?
How can one born of a woman be pure?
5 If even the moon does not shine brightly for him,
and if the stars are not pure in his eyes,
6 how much less a man, who is a maggot,
and a son of man, who is a worm?
Round Three: Job’s Second Speech
26 Then Job responded:
2 How marvelously you have helped the helpless!
How wonderfully you have saved the arm that has no strength!
3 What great advice you have given to the one who lacks wisdom!
What great insight you have revealed!
4 Who helped you proclaim these words?
Whose breath[e] came out of your mouth?
5 The spirits of the dead writhe in pain underneath the waters,
along with all those who dwell there.
6 Hell[f] is naked before God,
and there is nowhere to hide in the place of destruction.[g]
7 He stretches out the northern sky across the emptiness.
He suspends the earth on nothing.
8 He encloses water in his clouds,
but the clouds are not broken apart by its weight.
9 He dims the face of the full moon by veiling it with his clouds.
10 He drew a circle around the surface of the waters.
It marks the boundary of light and darkness.
11 The pillars of the heavens shake.
They are stunned by his rebuke.
12 By his power he calmed[h] the sea.
By his understanding he smashed Rahab.[i]
13 By his breath the skies became beautiful.
His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.[j]
14 But all these are just the fringe of his ways!
How faint a whisper we hear of him!
Who understands his power, which is displayed in the thunder?
Round Three: Job’s Third Speech
27 After a pause,[k] Job began to present this discourse:
2 As God lives, he has deprived me of justice.
The Almighty has made my life[l] bitter.
3 Yes, as long as the breath of life is still in me,
as long as the breath from God is still in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not speak wickedness,
and my tongue will not murmur deception.
5 May I be cursed if I ever admit you are right.
Until I die, I will never deny my integrity.
6 I have held tight to my righteousness,
and I will not let it go.
My conscience[m] will not accuse me as long as I live.
7 May my enemy be like the wicked.
May the one who rises up against me be like the unjust.
8 For what hope is there for a godless person when God cuts him off,
when God takes away his life?
9 Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?
10 Will he take delight in the Almighty?
Will he call upon God at all times?
11 I will teach you about the hand of God.
I will not hide what the Almighty is doing.
12 Listen, all of you have observed this.
So why do you continue to spew forth such worthless vapor?
13 This is the allotment a wicked man receives from God,
the inheritance that tyrants receive from the Almighty:
14 Although his children are many, they are sent to the sword.
His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.
15 Those who survive will be buried by a plague.
They will be buried, and their widows will not weep.
16 Though the wicked man piles up silver like dust,
and he accumulates clothing like mounds of clay,
17 the righteous will wear what he accumulated,
and the innocent will divide his silver.
18 He has built a house, but it will be like a moth’s cocoon,
like a shack that a watchman has put up.
19 He goes to bed as a rich man,
but his wealth does not remain.
He opens his eyes, and it is all gone.
20 Terrors sweep over him like floodwaters.
At night, a strong wind carries him away.
21 The east wind lifts him up, and off he goes.
It blows him away from his place.
22 It hurls itself at him, and it does not spare him.
He flees from its power as fast as he can.
23 It mockingly claps its hands at him
and drives him from his place with hissing.
A Poem About Wisdom[n]
28 Yes, there is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
2 Iron is taken from the ground,
and copper is smelted out of stone.
3 A miner puts an end to darkness by exploring its farthest limits.
He looks for ore in the gloom and in the deep darkness.[o]
4 He breaks open a mineshaft far from where settlers live,
in places no one has walked before.
Far away from other people, he dangles and sways.
5 The earth’s surface produces food,
but its depths are overturned as if by fire,
6 in places where the stones are sapphires[p]
and the dust is gold.
7 No scavenging bird knows the way there,
and the eyes of vultures[q] have not seen it.
8 The king of beasts has not set foot on it.
The lion has not prowled there.
9 The miner’s hand attacks the hard rock.
He overturns the roots of the mountain.
10 He cuts tunnels into the rocks,
and his eyes see every treasure.
11 He dams up even the trickling water from the rivers,
and he brings light to the earth’s hidden places.
12 But wisdom—where can it be found?
Where is the place for understanding?
13 Mankind does not know where it is kept.
It is not found in the land of the living.
14 The deep ocean says, “It is not in me!”
The sea says, “It is not with me!”
15 It cannot be purchased with the best gold,[r]
and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
16 It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir[s]
or with precious onyx or sapphires.
17 Gold and crystal cannot be compared to it.
The finest gold jewelry cannot be substituted for it.
18 Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning,
and the value of wisdom is greater than a bag of rubies.
19 The chrysolite of Cush cannot be compared with it.
It cannot be purchased even with pure gold.
20 But what about wisdom—where does it come from?
And where is the place to find understanding?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all the living.
It is concealed from the birds of the sky.
22 Destruction and Death[t] say,
“With our ears we have heard only a rumor about it.”
23 God understands the way to it,
and he alone knows its place,
24 because he watches the ends of the earth,
and he sees everything under the heavens.
25 He determines the weight of the wind,
and he measures out the waters by volume.
26 He made a decree for the rain
and established a path for the roaring thunderstorm.
27 He saw wisdom and appraised its value.
He established it and also explored it.
28 Then he said to mankind:
Listen carefully. The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.