Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 k“Keep listening to my words,
and let this be your comfort.
3 Bear with me, and I will speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my lcomplaint against man?
Why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be appalled,
and mlay your hand over your mouth.
6 When I remember, I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7 nWhy do the wicked live,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
8 Their offspring are established in their presence,
and their descendants before their eyes.
9 oTheir houses are safe from fear,
and no prod of God is upon them.
10 Their bull breeds without fail;
their cow calves and does qnot miscarry.
11 They send out their little boys like a flock,
and their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre
and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
14 rThey say to God, ‘Depart from us!
We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And swhat profit do we get if we pray to him?’
16 Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
The tcounsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That God1 distributes pains in his anger?
18 That they are like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
19 You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity ufor their children.’
Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
20 Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what do they care for their houses after them,
when the vnumber of their months is cut off?
22 Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those who are on high?
23 One dies in his full vigor,
being wholly at ease and secure,
24 his pails2 full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of prosperity.
26 They lie down walike xin the dust,
and the worms cover them.
27 “Behold, I know your thoughts
and your schemes to wrong me.
28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony
30 that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity,
that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
31 Who declares his way to his face,
and who repays him for what he has done?
32 When he is carried to the grave,
watch is kept over his tomb.
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
all mankind follows after him,
and those who go before him are innumerable.
34 How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”
Eliphaz Speaks: Job’s Wickedness Is Great
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 y“Can a man be profitable to God?
Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
3 zIs it any pleasure to the Almighty if ayou are in the right,
or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
4 Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you
and enters into judgment with you?
5 Is not your evil abundant?
There is no end to your iniquities.
6 For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 bYou have given no water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8 The man with power possessed the land,
and the favored man lived in it.
9 You have sent cwidows away empty,
and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
10 Therefore snares are all around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,
11 or darkness, so that you cannot see,
and da flood of water covers you.
12 “Is not God ehigh in the heavens?
See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
13 But you say, f‘What does God know?
Can he judge through the gdeep darkness?
14 Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,
and he walks on the hvault of heaven.’
15 Will you keep to the old way
that wicked men have trod?
16 They were snatched away ibefore their time;
their foundation was washed away.3
17 jThey said to God, ‘Depart from us,’
and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’4
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things—
but the kcounsel of the wicked is far from me.
19 lThe righteous see it and are glad;
the innocent one mocks at them,
20 saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,
and what they left the fire has consumed.’
21 “Agree with God, and be at peace;
thereby good will come to you.
22 Receive instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart.
23 mIf you return to the Almighty you will be built up;
if you remove ninjustice far from your tents,
24 if you lay gold in the dust,
and gold of oOphir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
25 then the Almighty will be your gold
and your precious silver.
26 For then you will pdelight yourself in the Almighty
and qlift up your face to God.
27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you,
and you will pay your vows.
28 You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
29 For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;5
but rhe saves the lowly.
30 He delivers even the one who is not innocent,
who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”
Job Replies: Where Is God?
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Today also my scomplaint is bitter;6
tmy hand is heavy on account of my groaning.
3 uOh, that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his seat!
4 vI would lay my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know what he would answer me
and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he wcontend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; he would pay attention to me.
7 There an upright man could argue with him,
and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
8 x“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,
and backward, but I do not perceive him;
9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;
he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
10 But yhe knows the way that I take;
when he has ztried me, I shall come out as gold.
11 aMy foot has held fast to his steps;
I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;
I have btreasured the words of his mouth cmore than my portion of food.
13 But he is unchangeable,7 and dwho can turn him back?
What he desires, that he does.
14 For he will ecomplete what he appoints for me,
and many such things are in his mind.
15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence;
when I consider, I am in dread of him.
16 God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me;
17 yet I am not silenced because of the darkness,
nor because thick darkness covers my face.
I Will Walk with Integrity
A Psalm of David.
1 I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O Lord, qI will make music.
2 I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will rwalk swith integrity of heart
within my house;
3 I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
4 A tperverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
uWhoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure.
6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit
shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
shall continue before my eyes.
8 Morning by morning I will destroy
all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
from the vcity of the Lord.
The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath
1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven pangels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
2 So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful qsores came upon the people who bore rthe mark of the beast and sworshiped its image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it tbecame like the blood of a corpse, and uevery living thing died that was in the sea.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters1 say,
“Just are you, O vHoly One, wwho is and who was,
for you brought these judgments.
6 For they have shed the xblood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”
7 And I heard the yaltar saying,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
ztrue and just are your judgments!”
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed2 the name of God who had power over these plagues. They adid not repent and give him glory.
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on bthe throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into cdarkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish 11 and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, dand its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of ethe dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of fthe false prophet, three unclean spirits like gfrogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, hperforming signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to iassemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming jlike a thief! Blessed is the one who kstays awake, lkeeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
The Seventh Bowl
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a mloud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, n“It is done!” 18 And there were oflashes of lightning, rumblings,3 peals of thunder, and a pgreat earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 qThe great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and rGod remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the scup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And tevery island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And great uhailstones, about one hundred pounds4 each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the vplague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.
