20 Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort
21 before I go, never to return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness,
22 the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness.”
Job 11
11 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
2 “Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and should one full of talk be vindicated?
3 Should your babble put others to silence, and when you mock, shall no one shame you?
4 For you say, ‘My conduct is pure, and I am clean in God’s sight.’
5 But O that God would speak, and open his lips to you,
6 and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For his wisdom is many-sided. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.
7 “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
8 It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
9 Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
10 If he passes through, and imprisons, and assembles for judgment, who can hinder him?
11 For he knows those who are worthless; when he sees iniquity, will he not consider it?
12 But a stupid person will get understanding, when a wild ass is born a human.
13 “If you direct your heart rightly, you will stretch out your hands toward him.
14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tents.
15 Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure, and will not fear.
16 You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.
17 And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.
18 And you will have confidence, because there is hope; you will be protected and take your rest in safety.
19 You will lie down, and no one will make you afraid; many will entreat your favor.
20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last.”
Job 12
12 Then Job answered:
2 “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?
4 I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called on God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, I am a laughingstock.
5 Those at ease have contempt for misfortune, but it is ready for those whose feet are unstable.
6 The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hands.
7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.
11 Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?
12 Is wisdom with the aged, and understanding in length of days?
13 “With God are wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding.
14 If he tears down, no one can rebuild; if he shuts someone in, no one can open up.
15 If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
16 With him are strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leads counselors away stripped, and makes fools of judges.
18 He looses the sash of kings, and binds a waistcloth on their loins.
19 He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted, and takes away the discernment of the elders.
21 He pours contempt on princes, and looses the belt of the strong.
22 He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep darkness to light.
23 He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away.
24 He strips understanding from the leaders of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless waste.
25 They grope in the dark without light; and he makes them stagger like a drunkard.
Job 13
13 “Look, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.
2 What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
3 But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.
4 As for you, you whitewash with lies; all of you are worthless physicians.
5 If you would only keep silent, that would be your wisdom!
6 Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will you speak falsely for God, and speak deceitfully for him?
8 Will you show partiality toward him, will you plead the case for God?
9 Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another?
10 He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality.
11 Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you?
12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.
13 “Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may.
14 I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand.
15 See, he will kill me; I have no hope; but I will defend my ways to his face.
16 This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him.
17 Listen carefully to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears.
18 I have indeed prepared my case; I know that I shall be vindicated.
19 Who is there that will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die.
20 Only grant two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face:
21 withdraw your hand far from me, and do not let dread of you terrify me.
22 Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me.
23 How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin.
24 Why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy?
25 Wilt you frighten a widnblown leaf and pursue dry chaff?
26 For you write bitter things against me, and make me reap the iniquities of my youth.
27 You put my feet in the stocks, and watch all my paths; you set a bound to the soles of my feet.
28 One wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Job 14
14 “A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble.
2 comes up like a flower and withers; flees like a shadow and does not last.
3 Do you fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring him into judgment with you?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one can.
5 Since their days are determined, and the number of their months is known to you, and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass,
6 look away from them, and desist, that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.
7 “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
8 Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.
10 But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they?
11 As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up,
12 so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep.
13 O that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would
conceal me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14 If mortals die, shall they live again? All the days of my service I would wait until my release should come.
15 You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
16 For then you would not number my steps, you would not keep watch over my sin;
17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
18 “But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;
19 the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of mortals.
20 You prevail for ever against him, and they pass away; you change their countenance, and send them away.
21 Their children come to honor, and they do not know it; they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.
22 They feel only the pain of their own bodies, and mourn only for themselves.”
Job 15
15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2 “Should the wise answer with windy knowledge, and fill themselves with the east wind?
3 Should they argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which they can do no good?
4 But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.
7 “Are you the firstborn of the human race? Were you brought forth before the hills?
8 Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, those older than your father.
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash,
13 so that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
14 What are mortals, that they can be clean? Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?
15 God puts no trust in their holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in their sight;
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, one who drinks iniquity like water!
17 “I will show you, listen to me; what I have seen I will declare—
18 what sages have told, and their ancestors have not hidden,
19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20 The wicked writhe in pain all their days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
21 Terrifying sounds are in their ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.
22 They despair of returning from darkness, and they are destined for the sword.
23 They wander abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ They know that a day of darkness is ready at their hand;
24 distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle.
25 Because they has stretched out their hands against God, and bid defiance to the Almighty,
26 running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield;
27 because they has covered their faces with their fat, and gathered fat on their loins,
28 they will live in desolate cities, in houses which no one should inhabit, hosues destined to become heaps of ruins;
29 they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure, nor will they strike root in the earth;
30 they will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up their shoots, and their blossom will be swept away by the wind.
31 Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be their recompense.
32 It will be paid in full before their time, and their branch will not be green.
33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off their blossom, like the olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares deceit.”
Job 16
16 Then Job answered:
2 “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.
3 Have windy words no limit? Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?
4 I also could talk as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you.
5 I could encourage 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; he has made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; and my leanness has risen up against me, it testifies to my face.
9 He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 They have gaped at me with their mouths, they have struck me insolently on the cheek, they mass 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 in two; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target,
13 his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy; he pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He bursts upon me again and again; he rushes at me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my strength in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, cover not my blood, and let my outcry find no resting place.
19 Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high.
20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God, as one does for a neighbor.
22 For when a few years have come, I shall go the way which I shall not return.
Job 17
17 My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.
3 “Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me?
4 Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 Those who denounce friends for reward— the eyes of their children will fail.
6 “He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.
7 My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.
10 But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you.
11 My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.
12 They make night into day; ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
13 If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,
14 if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
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