Aug.
19
Job
13-16
Job
13:1 "Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and
understood it.
Job
13:2 What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.
Job
13:3 "Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason
with God.
Job
13:4 But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no
value.
Job
13:5 Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.
Job
13:6 Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.
Job
13:7 Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for
him?
Job
13:8 Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?
Job
13:9 Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a
man, will you deceive him?
Job
13:10 He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality.
Job
13:11 Shall not his majesty make you afraid, And his dread fall on
you?
Job
13:12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses
are defenses of clay.
Job
13:13 "Be silent, leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on
me what will.
Job
13:14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my
hand?
Job
13:15 Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will
maintain my ways before him.
Job
13:16 This also shall be my salvation, that a godless man shall not
come before him.
Job
13:17 Hear diligently my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.
Job
13:18 See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am
righteous.
Job
13:19 Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my
peace and give up the spirit.
Job
13:20 "Only don't do two things to me; then I will not hide
myself from your face:
Job
13:21 withdraw your hand far from me; and don't let your terror make
me afraid.
Job
13:22 Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you answer
me.
Job
13:23 How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my
disobedience and my sin.
Job
13:24 Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy?
Job
13:25 Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry
stubble?
Job
13:26 For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit
the iniquities of my youth:
Job
13:27 You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You
set a bound to the soles of my feet,
Job
13:28 though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that
is moth-eaten.
Job
14:1 "Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of
trouble.
Job
14:2 He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees
like a shadow, and doesn't continue.
Job
14:3 Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment
with you?
Job
14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
Job
14:5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is
with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass;
Job
14:6 Look away from him, that he may rest, until he shall
accomplish, as a hireling, his day.
Job
14:7 "For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it
will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.
Job
14:8 Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in
the ground,
Job
14:9 yet through the scent of water it will bud, and put forth
boughs like a plant.
Job
14:10 But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit,
and where is he?
Job
14:11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and
dries up,
Job
14:12 so man lies down and doesn't rise. Until the heavens are no
more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
Job
14:13 "Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep
me secret, until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set
time, and remember me!
Job
14:14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare
would I wait, until my release should come.
Job
14:15 You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a
desire to the work of your hands.
Job
14:16 But now you number my steps. Don't you watch over my sin?
Job
14:17 My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my
iniquity.
Job
14:18 "But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is
removed out of its place;
Job
14:19 The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the
dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
Job
14:20 You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change
his face, and send him away.
Job
14:21 His sons come to honor, and he doesn't know it. They are
brought low, but he doesn't perceive it of them.
Job
14:22 But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him
mourns."
Job
15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
Job
15:2 "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill
himself with the east wind?
Job
15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with
which he can do no good?
Job
15:4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
Job
15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the
language of the crafty.
Job
15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips
testify against you.
Job
15:7 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought
forth before the hills?
Job
15:8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom
to yourself?
Job
15:9 What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand,
which is not in us?
Job
15:10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much
elder than your father.
Job
15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word
that is gentle toward you?
Job
15:12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
Job
15:13 That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go
out of your mouth?
Job
15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born
of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Job
15:15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens
are not clean in his sight;
Job
15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who
drinks iniquity like water!
Job
15:17 "I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I
will declare:
Job
15:18 (Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not
hidden it;
Job
15:19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among
them):
Job
15:20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number
of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
Job
15:21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer
shall come on him.
Job
15:22 He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is
waited for by the sword.
Job
15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows
that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
Job
15:24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against
him, as a king ready to the battle.
Job
15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves
himself proudly against the Almighty;
Job
15:26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of
his bucklers;
Job
15:27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered
fat on his thighs.
Job
15:28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one
inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
Job
15:29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
Job
15:30 He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up
his branches. By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.
Job
15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for
emptiness shall be his reward.
Job
15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not
be green.
Job
15:33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall
cast off his flower as the olive tree.
Job
15:34 For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall
consume the tents of bribery.
Job
15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart
prepares deceit."
Job
16:1 Then Job answered,
Job
16:2 "I have heard many such things. You are all miserable
comforters!
Job
16:3 Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you
answer?
Job
16:4 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,
Job
16:5 but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips
would relieve you.
Job
16:6 "Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I
forbear, what am I eased?
Job
16:7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made
desolate all my company.
Job
16:8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My
leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.
Job
16:9 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.
Job
16:10 They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on
the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.
Job
16:11 God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of
the wicked.
Job
16:12 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.
Job
16:13 His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does
not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.
Job
16:14 He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a
giant.
Job
16:15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in
the dust.
Job
16:16 My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids.
Job
16:17 Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is
pure.
Job
16:18 "Earth, don't cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to
rest.
Job
16:19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for
me is on high.
Job
16:20 My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,
Job
16:21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son
of man with his neighbor!
Job
16:22 For when a few years are come, I shall go the way from whence
I shall not return.