Job 15 – Job 19

15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

2 “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge,
and fill himself with the east wind?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4 Yes, you do away with fear,
and hinder devotion before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the language of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I.
Yes, your own lips testify against you.

7 “Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you brought out before the hills?
8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we don’t know?
What do you understand which is not in us?
10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men,
much older than your father.
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you,
even the word that is gentle toward you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away?
Why do your eyes flash,
13 that you turn your spirit against God,
and let such words go out of your mouth?
14 What is man, that he should be clean?
What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones.
Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks iniquity like water!

17 “I will show you, listen to me;
that which I have seen I will declare
18 (which wise men have told by their fathers,
and have not hidden it;
19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them):
20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21 A sound of terrors is in his ears.
In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
22 He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness.
He is waited for by the sword.
23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 Distress and anguish make him afraid.
They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God,
and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
26 he runs at him with a stiff neck,
with the thick shields of his bucklers,
27 because he has covered his face with his fatness,
and gathered fat on his thighs.
28 He has lived in desolate cities,
in houses which no one inhabited,
which were ready to become heaps.
29 He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue,
neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.
30 He will not depart out of darkness.
The flame will dry up his branches.
He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.
31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness will be his reward.
32 It will be accomplished before his time.
His branch will not be green.
33 He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless will be barren,
and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief and produce iniquity.
Their heart prepares deceit.”

16 Then Job answered,

2 “I have heard many such things.
You are all miserable comforters!
3 Shall vain words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do.
If your soul were in my soul’s place,
I could join words together against you,
and shake my head at you,
5 but I would strengthen you with my mouth.
The solace of my lips would relieve you.

6 “Though I speak, my grief is not subsided.
Though I forbear, what am I eased?
7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out.
You have made all my company desolate.
8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me.
My leanness rises up against me.
It testifies to my face.
9 He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me.
He has gnashed on me with his teeth.
My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
10 They have gaped on me with their mouth.
They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully.
They gather themselves together against me.
11 God delivers me to the ungodly,
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart.
Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces.
He has also set me up for his target.
13 His archers surround me.
He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare.
He pours out my bile on the ground.
14 He breaks me with breach on breach.
He runs at me like a giant.
15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and have thrust my horn in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping.
Deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.

18 “Earth, don’t cover my blood.
Let my cry have no place to rest.
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven.
He who vouches for me is on high.
20 My friends scoff at me.
My eyes pour out tears to God,
21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God,
of a son of man with his neighbor!
22 For when a few years have come,
I will go the way of no return.

17 “My spirit is consumed.
My days are extinct
and the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation.

3 “Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me?
4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
therefore you will not exalt them.
5 He who denounces his friends for plunder,
even the eyes of his children will fail.

6 “But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face.
7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow.
8 Upright men will be astonished at this.
The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way.
He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, come back.
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past.
My plans are broken off,
as are the thoughts of my heart.
12 They change the night into day,
saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
13 If I look for Sheol[h] as my house,
if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
14 if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who will see it?
16 Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol,[i]
or descend together into the dust?”

18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

2 “How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
3 Why are we counted as animals,
which have become unclean in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself in your anger,
will the earth be forsaken for you?
Or will the rock be removed out of its place?

5 “Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out.
The spark of his fire won’t shine.
6 The light will be dark in his tent.
His lamp above him will be put out.
7 The steps of his strength will be shortened.
His own counsel will cast him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he wanders into its mesh.
9 A snare will take him by the heel.
A trap will catch him.
10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him on the path.
11 Terrors will make him afraid on every side,
and will chase him at his heels.
12 His strength will be famished.
Calamity will be ready at his side.
13 The members of his body will be devoured.
The firstborn of death will devour his members.
14 He will be rooted out of the security of his tent.
He will be brought to the king of terrors.
15 There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his.
Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation.
16 His roots will be dried up beneath.
His branch will be cut off above.
17 His memory will perish from the earth.
He will have no name in the street.
18 He will be driven from light into darkness,
and chased out of the world.
19 He will have neither son nor grandson among his people,
nor any remaining where he lived.
20 Those who come after will be astonished at his day,
as those who went before were frightened.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous.
This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

19 Then Job answered,

2 “How long will you torment me,
and crush me with words?
3 You have reproached me ten times.
You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
4 If it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me,
and plead against me my reproach,
6 know now that God has subverted me,
and has surrounded me with his net.

7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard.
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass,
and has set darkness in my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory,
and taken the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone.
He has plucked my hope up like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me.
He counts me among his adversaries.
12 His troops come on together,
build a siege ramp against me,
and encamp around my tent.

13 “He has put my brothers far from me.
My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away.
My familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer.
I beg him with my mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife.
I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me.
If I arise, they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me.
They whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh.
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God,
and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 “Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 That with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.
In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
26 After my skin is destroyed,
then I will see God in my flesh,
27 whom I, even I, will see on my side.
My eyes will see, and not as a stranger.

“My heart is consumed within me.
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
because the root of the matter is found in me,
29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.”