Reading the Bible again for the First Time
Page 46
21 if I have raised my hand against the orphan, because I saw I had supporters at the gate;
22 then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket.
23 For I was in terror of calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty.
24 “If I have made gold my trust, or called fine gold my confidence;
25 if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, or because my hand had gotten much;
26 if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor,
27 and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand;
28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false to God above.
29 “If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him that hated me, or exulted when evil overtook them—
30 I have not let my mouth sin by asking for their lives with a curse—
31 if those of my tent ever said, ‘O that we might be sated with his flesh!’—
32 the stranger has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler—
33 if I have concealed my transgressions as others do, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom,
34 because I stood in great fear of the multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors—
35 O that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!) O that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me like a crown;
37 I would give him an account of all my steps; like a prince I would approach him.
38 “If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept together;
39 if I have eaten its yield without payment, and caused the death of its owners;
40 let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
Job 32
32 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
2 Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God;
3 he was angry also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, though they had declared Job to be in the wrong.
4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he.
5 But when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of these three men, he became angry.
6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you.
7 I said, ‘Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.’
8 But truly it is the spirit in a mortal, the breath of the Almighty, that makes for understanding.
9 It is not the old that are wise, nor the aged that understand what is right.
10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion.’
11 “Behold, I waited for your words, I listened for your wise sayings, while you searched out what to say.
12 I gave you my attention, but there was in fact no one that confuted Job, no one among you answered his words.
13 Yet do not say, ‘We have found wisdom; God may vanquish him, not a human.’
14 He has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your speeches.
15 “They are dismayed, they answer no more; they have not a word to say.
16 And am I to wait, because they do not speak, because they stand there, and answer no more?
17 I also will give my answer; I also will declare my opinion.
18 For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me.
19 My heart is indeed like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins, it is ready to burst.
20 I must speak, so that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer.
21 I will not show partiality to any person or use flattery toward anyone.
22 For I do not know how to flatter— or my Maker would soon put an end to me!
Job 33
33 “But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words.
2 See, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks.
3 My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely.
4 The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
5 Answer me, if you can; set your words in order before me; take your stand.
6 See, before God I am as you are; I too was formed from a piece of clay.
7 No fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy on you.
8 “Surely, you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words.
9 You say, ‘I am clean, without transgression; I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me.
10 Look, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy;
11 he puts my feet in the stocks, and watches all my paths.’
12 “But in this you are not right. I will answer you: God is greater than any mortal.
13 Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of my words’?
14 For God speaks in one way, and in two, though people do not perceive it.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals, while they slumber on their beds,
16 then he opens their ears, and terrifies them with warnings,
17 that he may turn them aside from their deeds, and keep them from pride;
18 to spare their souls from the Pit, their lives from traversing the River.
19 They are also chastened with pain upon their beds, and with continual strife in their bones;
20 so that their lives loathe bread, and their appetites dainty food.
21 Their flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen; and their bones, once invisible, now stick out.
22 Their souls draw near the Pit, and their lives to those who bring death.
23 The, if there be for one of them an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, one who declares a person upright,
24 and he is gracious to that person, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the Pit, I have found a ransom;
25 let their flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of their youthful vigor’;
26 then man prays to God, and he accept by him, he comes into his presence with joy, and God repays him for his righteousness.
27 That person sings to others and says, ‘I sinned, and perverted what was right, and it was not paid back to me.
28 He has redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and my life shall see the light.’
29 “God indeed does all these things, twice, three times, with mortals,
30 to bring back their souls from the Pit, so that he may see the light of life.
31 Pay heed, Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.
32 If you have anything to say, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you.
33 If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”
Job 34
34 Then Elihu said:
2 “Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know;
3 for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.
4 Let us choose what is right; let us determine among ourselves what is good.
5 For Job has said, ‘I am innocent, and God has taken away my right;
6 in spite of being right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’
7 Who is there like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water,
8 who goes in company with evildoers and walks with wicked?
9 For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing to take delight in God.’
10 “Therefore, hear me, you who have sense, far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and fr
om the Almighty that he should do wrong.
11 For according to their deeds he will repay them, and according to their ways he will make it befall them.
12 Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.
13 Who gave him charge over the earth and who laid on him the whole world?
14 If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath,
15 all flesh would perish together, and all mortals would return to dust.
16 “If you have understanding, hear this; listen to what I say.
17 Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,
18 who says to a king, ‘You scoundrel!’ and to princes, ‘You wicked men!’;
19 who shows no partiality to nobles, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?
20 In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.
21 “For his eyes are upon the ways of mortals, and he sees all their steps.
22 There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves.
23 For he has not appointed a time for anyone to go before God in judgment.
24 He shatters the mighty without investigation, and sets others in their place.
25 Thus, knowing their works, he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.
26 He strikes them for their wickedness while others look on,
27 because they turned aside from following him, and had no regard for any of his ways,
28 so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted—
29 When he is quiet, who can condemn? When he hides his face, who can behold him, whether it be a nation or an individual? —
30 so that the godless should not reign, or those who ensnare the people.
31 “For has anyone said to God, ‘I have endured punishment; I will not offend any more;
32 teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?
33 Will he then pay back to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; therefore declare what you know.
34 Those who have sense will say to me, and the wise who hear me will say,
35 ‘Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without insight.’
36 Would that Job were tried to the limit, because his answers are those of the wicked.
37 For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.”
Job 35
35 Elihu continued and said:
2 “Do you think this to be just? You say, ‘I am in the right before God,’
3 that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’
4 I will answer you and your friends with you.
5 Look at the heavens and see; observe the clouds, which are higher than you.
6 If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him; or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness affects others like you, and your righteousness, other human beings.
9 “Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives strength in the night,
11 who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
12 There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evildoers.
13 Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.
14 How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!
15 And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not greatly heed transgression,
16 Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge.”
Job 36
36 Elihu continued and said:
2 “Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.
3 I will bring my knowledge from far away, and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5 “Surely God is mighty and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding.
6 He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right.
7 He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings upon the throne he sets them for ever, and they are exalted.
8 And if they are bound in fetters and caught in the cords of affliction,
9 then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
10 He opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.
11 If they listen, and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.
12 But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword, and die without knowledge.
13 “The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them.
14 They die in youth, and their life ends in shame.
15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear by adversity.
16 He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no constraint, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.
17 “But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked; judgment and justice seize you.
18 Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing; and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
19 Will your cry avail to keep you from distress, or will all the force of your strength?
20 Do not long for the night, when peoples are cut off in their place.
21 Beware! Do not turn to iniquity, because of that you have been tried by affliction.
22 See, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?
23 Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?
24 “Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung.
25 All people have looked on it; everyone watches it from far away.
26 Surely God is great, and we do not know him; the number of his years is unsearchable.
27 For he draws up the drops of water, he distils his mist in rain
28 which the skies pour down and drop upon mortals abundantly.
29 Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?
30 Behold, he scatters his lightning around him, and covers the roots of the sea.
31 For by these he governs peoples; he gives food in abundance.
32 He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
33 Its crashing tells about him, he is jealous with anger against iniquity.
Job 37
37 “At this also my heart trembles, and leaps out of its place.
2 Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
3 Under the whole heaven he lets it loose, and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
4 After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.
5 God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things which we cannot comprehend.
6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’; and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain,
7 serves as a sign on everyone’s head, so that all whom he had made may know it.