Job 6–10

Job 6–10 WEB

^6:1Then Job answered, ²“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! ³For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore my words have been rash. ⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me. ⁵Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder? ⁶Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? ⁷My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me. ⁸“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for, ⁹even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! ¹⁰Let it still be my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One. ¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient? ¹²Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of bronze? ¹³Isn’t it that I have no help in me, that wisdom is driven away from me? ¹⁴“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty. ¹⁵My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away; ¹⁶which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself. ¹⁷In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. ¹⁸The caravans that travel beside them turn away. They go up into the waste, and perish. ¹⁹The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them. ²⁰They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded. ²¹For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid. ²²Did I ever say, ‘Give to me’? or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance’? ²³or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors’? ²⁴“Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand my error. ²⁵How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove? ²⁶Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind? ²⁷Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend. ²⁸Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I will not lie to your face. ²⁹Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous. ³⁰Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?

^7:1“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand? ²As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages, ³so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me. ⁴When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day. ⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh. ⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. ⁷Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good. ⁸The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be. ⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more. ¹⁰He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more. ¹¹“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ¹²Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me? ¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’ ¹⁴then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions, ¹⁵so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones. ¹⁶I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. ¹⁷What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him, ¹⁸that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment? ¹⁹How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle? ²⁰If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself? ²¹Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”

^8:1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, ²“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind? ³Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness? ⁴If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience. ⁵If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty. ⁶If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous. ⁷Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase. ⁸“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers. ⁹(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.) ¹⁰Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart? ¹¹“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water? ¹²While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed. ¹³So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish, ¹⁴whose confidence will break apart, whose trust is a spider’s web. ¹⁵He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will cling to it, but it will not endure. ¹⁶He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden. ¹⁷His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones. ¹⁸If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’ ¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way. Out of the earth, others will spring. ²⁰“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers. ²¹He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting. ²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.”

^9:1Then Job answered, ²“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God? ³If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand. ⁴God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered? ⁵He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger. ⁶He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble. ⁷He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars. ⁸He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea. ⁹He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south. ¹⁰He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number. ¹¹Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him. ¹²Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ ¹³“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him. ¹⁴How much less will I answer him, and choose my words to argue with him? ¹⁵Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge. ¹⁶If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice. ¹⁷For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause. ¹⁸He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness. ¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’ ²⁰Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse. ²¹I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life. ²²“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked. ²³If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent. ²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it? ²⁵“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good. ²⁶They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey. ²⁷If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up,’ ²⁸I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me innocent. ²⁹I will be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain? ³⁰If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, ³¹yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me. ³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment. ³³There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both. ³⁴Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid; ³⁵then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

^10:1“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. ²I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. ³Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked? ⁴Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees? ⁵Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years, ⁶that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin? ⁷Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand. ⁸“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me. ⁹Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again? ¹⁰Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese? ¹¹You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. ¹²You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit. ¹³Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you: ¹⁴if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity. ¹⁵If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction. ¹⁶If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me. ¹⁷You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me. ¹⁸“‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me. ¹⁹I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. ²⁰Aren’t my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, ²¹before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death; ²²the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”