Job’s Reply to Eliphaz
Job 16
Then Job replied:
2 “I have heard many things like these before.
What miserable comforters are you all!
3 Will there be an end to your windy words?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak like you,
if you were in my place;
I could pile up words against you
and I could shake my head at you.
5 But I would strengthen you with my words;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
Abandonment by God and Man
6 “But if I speak, my pain is not relieved,
and if I refrain from speaking,
how much of it goes away?
7 Surely now he has worn me out,
you have devastated my entire household.
8 You have seized me,
and it has become a witness;
my leanness has risen up against me
and testifies against me.
9 His anger has torn me and persecuted me;
he has gnashed at me with his teeth;
my adversary locks his eyes on me.
10 People have opened their mouths against me,
they have struck my cheek in scorn;
they unite together against me.
11 God abandons me to evil men,
and throws me into the hands of wicked men.
12 I was in peace, and he has shattered me.
He has seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;
13 his archers surround me.
Without pity he pierces my kidneys
and pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks through against me, time and time again;
he rushes against me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and buried my horn in the dust;
16 my face is reddened because of weeping,
and on my eyelids there is a deep darkness,
17 although there is no violence in my hands
and my prayer is pure.
An Appeal to God as Witness
18 “O earth, do not cover my blood,
nor let there be a secret place for my cry.
19 Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
20 My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
21 and he contends with God on behalf of man
as a man pleads for his friend.
22 For the years that lie ahead are few,
and then I will go on the way of no return.
Job 17
My spirit is broken,
my days have faded out,
the grave awaits me.
2 Surely mockery is with me;
my eyes must dwell on their hostility.
3 Set my pledge beside you.
Who else will put up security for me?
4 Because you have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore you will not exalt them.
5 If a man denounces his friends for personal gain,
the eyes of his children will fail.
6 He has made me a byword to people,
I am the one in whose face they spit.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief;
my whole frame is but a shadow.
8 Upright men are appalled at this;
the innocent man is troubled with the godless.
9 But the righteous man holds to his way,
and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
Anticipation of Death
10 “But turn, all of you, and come now!
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have passed, my plans are shattered,
even the desires of my heart.
12 These men change night into day;
they say, ‘The light is near
in the face of darkness.’
13 If I hope for the grave to be my home,
if I spread out my bed in darkness,
14 if I cry out to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
And my hope, who sees it?
16 Will it go down to the barred gates of death?
Will we descend together into the dust?”
Bildad’s Second Speech
Job 18
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 “How long until you make an end of words?
You must consider, and then we can talk.
3 Why should we be regarded as beasts,
and considered stupid in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger,
will the earth be abandoned for your sake?
Or will a rock be moved from its place?
5 “Yes, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished;
his flame of fire does not shine.
6 The light in his tent grows dark;
his lamp above him is extinguished.
7 His vigorous steps are restricted,
and his own counsel throws him down.
8 For he has been thrown into a net by his feet
and he wanders into a mesh.
9 A trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare grips him.
10 A rope is hidden for him on the ground
and a trap for him lies on the path.
11 Terrors frighten him on all sides
and dog his every step.
12 Calamity is hungry for him,
and misfortune is ready at his side.
13 It eats away parts of his skin;
the most terrible death devours his limbs.
14 He is dragged from the security of his tent,
and marched off to the king of terrors.
15 Fire resides in his tent;
over his residence burning sulfur is scattered.
16 Below his roots dry up,
and his branches wither above.
17 His memory perishes from the earth,
he has no name in the land.
18 He is driven from light into darkness
and is banished from the world.
19 He has neither children nor descendants among his people,
no survivor in those places he once stayed.
20 People of the west are appalled at his fate;
people of the east are seized with horror, saying,
21 ‘Surely such is the residence of an evil man;
and this is the place of one who has not known God.’”
Job’s Reply to Bildad
Job 19
Then Job answered:
2 “How long will you torment me
and crush me with your words?
3 These ten times you have been reproaching me;
you are not ashamed to attack me.
4 But even if it were true that I have erred,
my error remains solely my concern!
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and plead my disgrace against me,
6 know then that God has wronged me
and encircled me with his net.
Job’s Abandonment and Affliction
7 “If I cry out, ‘Violence!’
I receive no answer;
I cry for help,
but there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass,
and has set darkness over my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my honor
and has taken the crown off my head.
10 He tears me down on every side until I perish;
he uproots my hope like an uprooted tree.
11 Thus his anger burns against me,
and he considers me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance together;
they throw up a siege ramp against me,
and they camp around my tent.
Job’s Forsaken State
13 “He has put my relatives far from me;
my acquaintances only turn away from me.
14 My kinsmen have failed me;
my friends have forgotten me.
Comments:
Job is exaggerating a bit here. His friends haven’t all forgotten him. After all, these three have been sitting with him for several days now. Indeed, they may be miserable comforters who forgot to leave their ‘judgy pants’ at home, but they have stuck around!
(Cindy Cox)
15 My guests and my servant girls
consider me a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I summon my servant, but he does not respond,
even though I implore him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my brothers.
18 Even youngsters have scorned me;
when I get up, they scoff at me.
19 All my closest friends detest me;
and those whom I love have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh;
I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,
for the hand of God has struck me.
22 Why do you pursue me like God does?
Will you never be satiated with my flesh?
Job’s Assurance of Vindication
23 “O that my words were written down!
O that they were written on a scroll!
24 O that with an iron chisel and with lead
they were engraved in a rock forever!
25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that as the last
he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God,
27 whom I will see for myself,
and whom my own eyes will behold,
and not another.
My heart grows faint within me.
28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him,
since the root of the trouble is found in him!’
29 Fear the sword yourselves,
for wrath brings the punishment by the sword,
so that you may know
that there is judgment.”
Zophar’s Second Speech
Job 20
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
2 “This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back—
because of my feelings within me.
3 When I hear a reproof that dishonors me,
then my understanding prompts me to answer.
4 “Surely you know that it has been from old,
ever since humankind was placed on the earth,
5 that the elation of the wicked is brief,
the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
6 Even though his stature reaches to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds,
7 he will perish forever, like his own excrement;
those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8 Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found,
and like a vision of the night he is put to flight.
9 People who had seen him will not see him again,
and the place where he was
will recognize him no longer.
10 His sons must recompense the poor;
his own hands must return his wealth.
11 His bones were full of his youthful vigor,
but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.
12 “If evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
13 if he retains it for himself
and does not let it go,
and holds it fast in his mouth,
14 his food is turned sour in his stomach;
it becomes the venom of serpents within him.
15 The wealth that he consumed he vomits up,
God will make him throw it out of his stomach.
16 He sucks the poison of serpents;
the fangs of a viper kill him.
17 He will not look on the streams,
the rivers that are the torrents
of honey and butter.
18 He gives back the ill-gotten gain
without assimilating it;
he will not enjoy the wealth from his commerce.
19 For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them;
he has seized a house which he did not build.
20 For he knows no satisfaction in his appetite;
he does not let anything he desires escape.
21 “Nothing is left for him to devour;
that is why his prosperity does not last.
22 In the fullness of his sufficiency,
distress overtakes him.
The full force of misery will come upon him.
23 “While he is filling his belly,
God sends his burning anger against him,
and rains down his blows upon him.
24 If he flees from an iron weapon,
then an arrow from a bronze bow pierces him.
25 When he pulls it out and it comes out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver,
terrors come over him.
26 Total darkness waits to receive his treasures;
a fire that has not been kindled
will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens reveal his iniquity;
the earth rises up against him.
28 A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.
29 Such is the lot God allots the wicked,
and the heritage of his appointment from God.”
Job’s Reply to Zophar
Job 21
Then Job answered:
2 “Listen carefully to my words;
let this be the consolation you offer me.
3 Bear with me and I will speak,
and after I have spoken you may mock.
4 Is my complaint against a man?
If so, why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be appalled;
put your hands over your mouths.
6 For, when I think about this, I am terrified
and my body feels a shudder.
The Wicked Prosper
7 “Why do the wicked go on living,
grow old, even increase in power?
8 Their children are firmly established in their presence,
their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe and without fear;
and no rod of punishment from God is upon them.
10 Their bulls breed without fail;
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
11 They allow their children to run like a flock;
their little ones dance about.
12 They sing to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp,
and make merry to the sound of the flute.
13 They live out their years in prosperity
and go down to the grave in peace.
14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!
We do not want to know your ways.
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain
if we were to pray to him?’
16 But their prosperity is not their own doing.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
How Often Do the Wicked Suffer?
17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?
How often does their misfortune come upon them?
How often does God apportion pain to them in his anger?
18 How often are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff swept away by a whirlwind?
19 You may say, ‘God stores up a man’s punishment for his children!’
Instead let him repay the man himself
so that he may be humbled!
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction;
let him drink of the anger of the Almighty.
21 For what is his interest in his home
after his death,
when the number of his months
has been broken off?
22 Can anyone teach God knowledge,
since he judges those that are on high?
Death Levels Everything
23 “One man dies in his full vigor,
completely secure and prosperous,
24 his body well nourished,
and the marrow of his bones moist.
25 And another man dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted anything good.
26 Together they lie down in the dust,
and worms cover over them both.
Futile Words, Deceptive Answers
27 “Yes, I know what you are thinking,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.
28 For you say,
‘Where now is the nobleman’s house,
and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’
29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads?
Do you not recognize their accounts—
30 that the evil man is spared
from the day of his misfortune,
that he is delivered
from the day of God’s wrath?
31 No one denounces his conduct to his face;
no one repays him for what he has done.
32 And when he is carried to the tombs,
and watch is kept over the funeral mound,
33 The clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him;
behind him everybody follows in procession,
and before him goes a countless throng.
34 So how can you console me with your futile words?
Nothing is left of your answers but deception!”
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