Job Replies: God’s Majesty Is Unsearchable
26 Then Job answered and said:
2 “How you have helped him who has no power!
How you have saved the arm that has no strength!
3 tHow you have counseled him who has no wisdom,
and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
4 With whose help have you uttered words,
and uwhose breath has come out from you?
5 The dead tremble
under the waters and their inhabitants.
6 vSheol is naked before God,1
and Abaddon has no covering.
7 He stretches out the north over the void
and hangs the earth on nothing.
8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not split open under them.
9 He covers the face of the full moon2
and spreads over it his cloud.
10 He has winscribed a circle on the face of the waters
at the boundary between light and darkness.
11 xThe pillars of heaven tremble
and are astounded at his rebuke.
12 yBy his power he stilled the sea;
by his understanding he shattered zRahab.
13 By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced athe fleeing serpent.
14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
Job Continues: I Will Maintain My Integrity
27 bAnd Job again took up his discourse, and said:
2 “As God lives, cwho has taken away my right,
and the Almighty, who has made my soul dbitter,
3 as long as my breath is in me,
and ethe spirit of God is in my nostrils,
4 fmy lips will not speak falsehood,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.
5 Far be it from me to say that you are right;
gtill I die I will not put away my hintegrity from me.
6 iI hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;
my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
7 “Let my enemy be as the wicked,
and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
8 For what is the jhope of the godless when God kcuts him off,
when God takes away his life?
9 Will God hear his cry
when distress comes upon him?
10 Will he ltake delight in the Almighty?
Will he call upon God at all times?
11 I will teach you concerning the hand of God;
what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;
why then have you become altogether vain?
13 “This is mthe portion of a wicked man with God,
and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword,
and his descendants have not enough bread.
15 Those who survive him the pestilence buries,
and his nwidows do not weep.
16 Though he oheap up silver like dust,
and pile up clothing like clay,
17 he may pile it up, pbut the righteous will wear it,
and the innocent will divide the silver.
18 He builds his qhouse like a moth’s,
like a booth that a watchman makes.
19 rHe goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;
he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood;
in the night a whirlwind carries him off.
21 The east wind lifts him up and he is sgone;
it sweeps him out of his place.
22 It1 hurls at him without pity;
he flees from its2 power in headlong flight.
23 It tclaps its hands at him
and hisses at him from its place.
Job Continues: Where Is Wisdom?
28 “Surely there is a mine for silver,
and a place for gold that they refine.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth,
and copper is smelted from the ore.
3 Man puts an end to darkness
and searches out to the farthest limit
the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
4 He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives;
they are forgotten by travelers;
they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.
5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread,
but underneath it is turned up as by fire.
6 Its stones are the place of sapphires,1
and it has dust of gold.
7 “That path no bird of prey knows,
and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.
8 The proud beasts have not trodden it;
the lion has not passed over it.
9 “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock
and overturns mountains by the roots.
10 He cuts out channels in the rocks,
and his eye sees every precious thing.
11 He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle,
and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
12 “But uwhere shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
13 Man does not know its worth,
and it is not found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
15 It cannot be bought for vgold,
and silver cannot be weighed as its price.
16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
in precious onyx or sapphire.
17 Gold and glass cannot equal it,
nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;
the price of wisdom is above pearls.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,
nor can it be valued in pure gold.
20 “From where, then, does wisdom come?
And where is the place of understanding?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living
and concealed from the birds of the air.
22 Abaddon and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
23 w“God understands the way to it,
and he knows its place.
24 For xhe looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
25 When yhe gave to the wind its weight
and apportioned the waters by measure,
26 when he made a zdecree for the rain
and a away for the lightning of the thunder,
27 then he saw it and declared it;
he established it, and searched it out.
28 And he said to man,
‘Behold, bthe fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
and to cturn away from evil is understanding.’”
Job’s Summary Defense
29 dAnd Job again took up his discourse, and said:
2 “Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me,
3 when ehis lamp shone upon my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
4 as I was in my prime,1
when the ffriendship of God was upon my tent,
5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my gchildren were all around me,
6 when my steps were washed with hbutter,
and the rock poured out for me istreams of oil!
7 When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I prepared my seat in the square,
8 the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose and stood;
9 the princes refrained from talking
and jlaid their hand on their mouth;
10 the voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their ktongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard, it called me blessed,
and when the eye saw, it approved,
12 lbecause I delivered the poor who cried for help,
and the mfatherless who had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 nI oput on righteousness, and it clothed me;
my justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,
and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
17 I pbroke the qfangs of the unrighteous
and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
18 Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
and I shall multiply my days ras the sand,
19 my roots spread out to the waters,
with the dew all night on my branches,
20 my glory fresh with me,
and my bow ever new in my hand.’
21 “Men listened to me and waited
and kept silence for my counsel.
22 After I spoke they did not speak again,
and my word dropped upon them.
23 They waited for me as for the rain,
and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence,
and the slight of my face they did not cast down.
25 I chose their way and sat as chief,
and I lived tlike a king among his troops,
like one who comforts mourners.
30 u“But now they laugh at me,
men who are vyounger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to set with the dogs of my flock.
2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
men whose vigor is gone?
3 Through want and hard hunger
they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;
4 they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
and the roots of the broom tree for their food.1
5 They are driven out from human company;
they shout after them as after a thief.
6 In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they bray;
under the wnettles they huddle together.
8 A senseless, a nameless brood,
they have been whipped out of the land.
9 “And now I have become their xsong;
I am a byword to them.
10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
11 Because God has loosed my ycord and humbled me,
they have cast off restraint2 in my presence.
12 On my right hand the rabble rise;
they push away my feet;
they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They break up my path;
they promote my calamity;
they need no one to help them.
14 As through a wide breach they come;
amid the crash they roll on.
15 Terrors are turned upon me;
my honor is pursued as by the wind,
and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
16 “And now my soul is zpoured out within me;
days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 aThe night racks my bones,
and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
18 With great force my garment is disfigured;
it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
19 God3 has cast me into the mire,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you only look at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me;
with the might of your hand you bpersecute me.
22 cYou lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death
and to the house appointed for all living.
24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
and in his disaster cry for help?4
25 dDid not I weep for him whose day was hard?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
26 But ewhen I hoped for good, evil came,
and when I fwaited for light, darkness came.
27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
days of affliction come to meet me.
28 I ggo about darkened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I am a brother of hjackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30 iMy skin turns jblack and falls from me,
and my kbones burn with heat.
31 My lyre is turned lto mourning,
and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
