Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I have heard emany such things;
fmiserable comforters are you all.
3 Shall gwindy 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 hshake 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;
ihe has1 made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up,
which is ja witness against me,
and my kleanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9 He has ltorn me in his wrath mand hated me;
he has ngnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men have ogaped at me with their mouth;
they have pstruck me insolently on the cheek;
they qmass 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 sarchers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys tand does not spare;
he upours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me with vbreach upon breach;
he wruns upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed xsackcloth upon my skin
and have laid ymy strength zin the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is adeep darkness,
17 although there is no bviolence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, ccover not my blood,
and let my dcry find no resting place.
19 Even now, behold, my ewitness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is fon high.
20 My friends gscorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he would hargue 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 ifrom which I shall not return.
Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?
1 “My spirit is broken; my days are jextinct;
kthe graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their lprovocation.
3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up msecurity 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 neyes of his children will fail.
6 “He has made me oa byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
7 My peye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like qa shadow.
8 The upright are rappalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has sclean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10 But you, tcome on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My udays are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
12 They vmake night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’3
13 If I hope for wSheol as xmy house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
16 Will it go down to the bars of wSheol?
Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked
1 Then aBildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “How long will you bhunt for words?
Consider, and then we will speak.
3 Why are we counted as ccattle?
Why are we stupid in your sight?
4 You who dtear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you,
or ethe rock be removed out of its place?
5 “Indeed, fthe light of the wicked is put out,
and the flame of his fire does not shine.
6 The light is gdark in his tent,
and his lamp above him is put out.
7 His strong steps are shortened,
and his hown schemes throw him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he walks on its mesh.
9 iA trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare lays hold of him.
10 A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the path.
11 jTerrors frighten him on every side,
and chase him at his heels.
12 His strength is famished,
and calamity is kready for his stumbling.
13 It consumes the parts of his skin;
lthe firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
14 He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
and is brought to mthe king of terrors.
15 In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
nsulfur is scattered over his habitation.
16 His oroots dry up beneath,
and his branches pwither above.
17 His qmemory perishes from the earth,
and he has no name in the street.
18 rHe is thrust from light into darkness,
and driven out of the world.
19 He has no sposterity or progeny among his people,
and no survivor where he used to live.
20 They of the west are appalled at his tday,
and uhorror seizes them of the east.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
such is the place of him who vknows not God.”
1 Brothers,1 my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that bthey have a zeal for God, cbut not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of dthe righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For eChrist is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.2
The Message of Salvation to All
5 For fMoses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that gthe person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But hthe righteousness based on faith says, i“Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the jabyss?’” (that is, kto bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? l“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if myou confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and nbelieve in your heart othat God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, p“Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 qFor there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; rfor the same Lord is Lord of all, sbestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For t“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him uof whom they have never heard?3 And how are they to hear vwithout someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, w“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But xthey have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, y“Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So zfaith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for
a“Their voice has gone out bto all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”
19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
c“I will dmake you jealous of those who are not a nation;
with a efoolish nation I will make you angry.”
20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
f“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
21 But of Israel he says, g“All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
