Job Laments His Birth
1 After this Job hopened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job said:
3 i“Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived.’
4 Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it,
nor light shine upon it.
5 Let gloom and jdeep darkness claim it.
Let clouds dwell upon it;
let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 That night—let thick darkness seize it!
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Behold, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry enter it.
8 Let those curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up kLeviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light, but have none,
nor see lthe eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “Why mdid I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did nthe knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who orebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden pstillborn child,
as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at qrest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they hear not the voice of rthe taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to sthe bitter in soul,
21 who tlong for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for uhidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose vway is hidden,
whom God has whedged in?
24 For my sighing comes xinstead of1 my bread,
and my ygroanings are poured out like water.
25 zFor the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 Behold, you have instructed many,
and you have astrengthened the weak hands.
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have amade firm the feeble knees.
5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 bIs not your fear of God2 your cconfidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 “Remember: dwho that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 As I have seen, those who eplow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
9 By fthe breath of God they perish,
and by gthe blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
hthe teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
my ear received ithe whisper of it.
13 Amid jthoughts from kvisions of the night,
when kdeep sleep falls on men,
14 dread came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up.
16 It stood still,
but I could not discern its appearance.
lA form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard ma voice:
17 n‘Can mortal man be in the right before3 God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
18 Even in his servants ohe puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
19 how much more those who dwell in houses of pclay,
whose foundation is in qthe dust,
who are crushed like4 rthe moth.
20 Between smorning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
they perish forever twithout anyone regarding it.
21 Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,
udo they not die, and that without wisdom?’
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,1 xdid not come proclaiming to you ythe testimony2 of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except zJesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And aI was with you bin weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of cthe Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men3 but din the power of God.
Wisdom from the Spirit
6 Yet among ethe mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not fa wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, gwho are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, hwhich God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of ithe rulers of this age understood this, for jif they had, they would not have crucified kthe Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
l“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
10 these things oGod has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even pthe depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts qexcept the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now rwe have received not sthe spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this tin words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, uinterpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.4
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are vfolly to him, and whe is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The xspiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 y“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But zwe have the mind of Christ.
