Job Continues: Still I Will Hope in God
13 p“Behold, my eye has seen all this,
my ear has heard and understood it.
2 qWhat you know, I also know;
I am not inferior to you.
3 But rI would speak to the Almighty,
and I desire to argue my case with God.
4 As for you, you swhitewash twith lies;
uworthless physicians are you all.
5 vOh that you would wkeep silent,
and it would be your wisdom!
6 Hear now my argument
and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will you speak falsely for God
and speak deceitfully for him?
8 Will you show partiality toward him?
Will you plead the case for God?
9 Will it be well with you when he searches you out?
Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?
10 He will surely rebuke you
if in secret you show partiality.
11 Will not his xmajesty terrify you,
and the dread of him fall upon you?
12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes;
your defenses are defenses of clay.
13 “Let me have silence, and I will speak,
and let come on me what may.
14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth
and put my life in my hand?
15 yThough he slay me, I will hope in him;1
yet I will argue my ways to his face.
16 zThis will be my salvation,
that the godless shall not come before him.
17 aKeep listening to my words,
and let my declaration be in your ears.
18 Behold, I have prepared my case;
I know that bI shall be in the right.
19 Who is there who will contend with me?
For then I would be silent and die.
20 Only grant me two things,
then I will not hide myself from your face:
21 withdraw your hand far from me,
and clet not dread of you terrify me.
22 dThen call, and I will answer;
or let me speak, and you reply to me.
23 How many are my iniquities and my sins?
Make me know my transgression and my sin.
24 Why do you hide your face
and ecount me as your enemy?
25 Will you frighten a driven leaf
and pursue dry chaff?
26 For you write bitter things against me
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
27 fYou put my feet in the stocks
and watch all my paths;
you set a limit for2 the soles of my feet.
28 Man3 wastes away like a grotten thing,
like a garment that is hmoth-eaten.
Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All
14 “Man who is born of a woman
is ifew of days and jfull of trouble.
2 He comes out klike a flower and withers;
he flees like a shadow and continues not.
3 And do you open your eyes on such a one
and bring me into judgment with you?
4 lWho can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
There is not one.
5 Since his days are determined,
and the mnumber of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6 nlook away from him and leave him alone,1
that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
7 “For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
8 Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.
10 But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and owhere is he?
11 As waters fail from a lake
and a river wastes away and dries up,
12 so a man lies down and rises not again;
till the heavens are no more he will not awake
or be roused out of his sleep.
13 pOh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14 If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my qservice I would wait,
till my renewal2 should come.
15 rYou would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands.
16 For then you would snumber my steps;
tyou would not keep watch over my sin;
17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.
18 “But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
and uthe rock is removed from its place;
19 the waters wear away the stones;
the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
so you destroy the hope of man.
20 You prevail forever against him, and he passes;
you change his countenance, and send him away.
21 His sons come to honor, and vhe does not know it;
they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
22 He feels only the pain of his own body,
and he mourns only for himself.”
Eliphaz Accuses: Job Does Not Fear God
15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “Should a wise man answer with wwindy knowledge,
and fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
or in words with which he can do no good?
4 But you are doing away with the fear of God1
and hindering meditation before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 xYour own mouth condemns you, and not I;
your own lips testify against you.
7 y“Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you brought forth zbefore the hills?
8 Have you listened in the acouncil of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 bWhat do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10 Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
older than your father.
11 Are the comforts of God too small for you,
or the word that deals gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,
13 that you turn your spirit against God
and bring such words out of your mouth?
14 cWhat is man, that he can be pure?
Or he who is born of a woman, dthat he can be righteous?
15 Behold, God2 eputs no trust in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
16 fhow much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who gdrinks injustice like water!
17 “I will show you; hear me,
and what I have seen I will declare
18 (what wise men have told,
without hiding it from their fathers,
19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them).
20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
and he is marked for the sword.
23 He hwanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
24 distress and anguish terrify him;
they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty,
26 running stubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield;
27 because he has covered his face with his ifat
and gathered fat upon his waist
28 and has lived in desolate cities,
in houses that none should inhabit,
which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the earth;3
30 he will not depart from darkness;
the flame will dry up his shoots,
and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness will be his payment.
32 It will be paid in full jbefore his time,
and his branch will not be green.
33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
35 They kconceive trouble and give birth to evil,
and their womb prepares deceit.”
Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You
16 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I have heard many such things;
lmiserable comforters are you all.
3 Shall mwindy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and nshake my head at you.
5 I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7 Surely now God has worn me out;
he has1 made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me,
and omy leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9 He has torn me in his wrath and phated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 qMen have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
11 God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his rtarget;
13 his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
17 although there is sno violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, tcover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.
19 Even now, behold, umy witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.
20 vMy friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as2 a son of man does with his neighbor.
22 For when a few years have come
I shall go the way wfrom which I shall not return.
Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?
17 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.
3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up security for me?
4 Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.
6 x“He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
7 yMy eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10 zBut you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 aMy days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
12 They make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’1
13 If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I bmake my bed in darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or c‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
