Aug.
18
Job
9-12
Job
9:1 Then Job answered,
Job
9:2 "Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with
God?
Job
9:3 If he is pleased to contend with him, he can't answer him one
time in a thousand.
Job
9:4 God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has
hardened himself against him, and prospered?
Job
9:5 He removes the mountains, and they don't know it, when he
overturns them in his anger.
Job
9:6 He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.
Job
9:7 He commands the sun, and it doesn't rise, and seals up the
stars.
Job
9:8 He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of
the sea.
Job
9:9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of
the south.
Job
9:10 He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things
without number.
Job
9:11 Behold, he goes by me, and I don't see him. He passes on also,
but I don't perceive him.
Job
9:12 Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him,
'What are you doing?'
Job
9:13 "God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab
stoop under him.
Job
9:14 How much less shall I answer him, And choose my words to argue
with him?
Job
9:15 Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn't answer him. I would
make supplication to my judge.
Job
9:16 If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn't believe
that he listened to my voice.
Job
9:17 For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without
cause.
Job
9:18 He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with
bitterness.
Job
9:19 If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of
justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?'
Job
9:20 Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I
am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
Job
9:21 I am blameless. I don't regard myself. I despise my life.
Job
9:22 "It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the
blameless and the wicked.
Job
9:23 If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the
innocent.
Job
9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the
faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?
Job
9:25 "Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away,
they see no good,
Job
9:26 They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that
swoops on the prey.
Job
9:27 If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad
face, and cheer up;'
Job
9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me
innocent.
Job
9:29 I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?
Job
9:30 If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
Job
9:31 yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor
me.
Job
9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we
should come together in judgment.
Job
9:33 There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us
both.
Job
9:34 Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me
afraid;
Job
9:35 then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in
myself.
Job
10:1 "My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to
my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job
10:2 I will tell God, 'Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend
with me.
Job
10:3 Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should
despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the
wicked?
Job
10:4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?
Job
10:5 Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man's
years,
Job
10:6 that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?
Job
10:7 Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can
deliver out of your hand.
Job
10:8 " 'Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether,
yet you destroy me.
Job
10:9 Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will
you bring me into dust again?
Job
10:10 Haven't you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like
cheese?
Job
10:11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together
with bones and sinews.
Job
10:12 You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation
has preserved my spirit.
Job
10:13 Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is
with you:
Job
10:14 if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my
iniquity.
Job
10:15 If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall
not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my
affliction.
Job
10:16 If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you
show yourself powerful to me.
Job
10:17 You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your
indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.
Job
10:18 " 'Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb?
I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
Job
10:19 I should have been as though I had not been. I should have
been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job
10:20 Aren't my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may
find a little comfort,
Job
10:21 before I go where I shall not return from, to the land of
darkness and of the shadow of death;
Job
10:22 the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any
order, where the light is as midnight.' "
Job
11:1 Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,
Job
11:2 "Shouldn't the multitude of words be answered? Should a
man full of talk be justified?
Job
11:3 Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock,
shall no man make you ashamed?
Job
11:4 For you say, 'My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.'
Job
11:5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,
Job
11:6 that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom
has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your
iniquity deserves.
Job
11:7 "Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the
limits of the Almighty?
Job
11:8 They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than
Sheol. What can you know?
Job
11:9 Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Job
11:10 If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who
can oppose him?
Job
11:11 For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he
doesn't consider it.
Job
11:12 An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild
donkey's colt.
Job
11:13 "If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands
toward him.
Job
11:14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don't let
unrighteousness dwell in your tents.
Job
11:15 Surely then you shall lift up your face without spot; Yes, you
shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:
Job
11:16 for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it as
waters that are passed away.
Job
11:17 Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is
darkness, it shall be as the morning.
Job
11:18 You shall be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you shall
search, and shall take your rest in safety.
Job
11:19 Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. Yes,
many shall court your favor.
Job
11:20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way
to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit."
Job
12:1 Then Job answered,
Job
12:2 "No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die
with you.
Job
12:3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to
you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?
Job
12:4 I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on
God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
Job
12:5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for
misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
Job
12:6 The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure,
who carry their God in their hands.
Job
12:7 "But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the
birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
Job
12:8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the
sea shall declare to you.
Job
12:9 Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done
this,
Job
12:10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the
breath of all mankind?
Job
12:11 Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
Job
12:12 With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.
Job
12:13 "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and
understanding.
Job
12:14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He
imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
Job
12:15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he
sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
Job
12:16 With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver
are his.
Job
12:17 He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.
Job
12:18 He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a
belt.
Job
12:19 He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
Job
12:20 He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away
the understanding of the elders.
Job
12:21 He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the
strong.
Job
12:22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to
light the shadow of death.
Job
12:23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges
the nations, and he leads them captive.
Job
12:24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of
the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is
no way.
Job
12:25 They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger
like a drunken man.