Aug.
23
Job
27-29
Job
27:1 Job again took up his parable, and said,
Job
27:2 "As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty,
who has made my soul bitter.
Job
27:3 (For the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of
God is in my nostrils);
Job
27:4 surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, neither shall
my tongue utter deceit.
Job
27:5 Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will
not put away my integrity from me.
Job
27:6 I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My
heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job
27:7 "Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up
against me be as the unrighteous.
Job
27:8 For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when
God takes away his life?
Job
27:9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
Job
27:10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at
all times?
Job
27:11 I will teach you about the hand of God. That which is with the
Almighty will I not conceal.
Job
27:12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you
become altogether vain?
Job
27:13 "This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the
heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
Job
27:14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His
offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
Job
27:15 Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows
shall make no lamentation.
Job
27:16 Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as
the clay;
Job
27:17 he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the
innocent shall divide the silver.
Job
27:18 He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman
makes.
Job
27:19 He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again. He opens his
eyes, and he is not.
Job
27:20 Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in
the night.
Job
27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him
out of his place.
Job
27:22 For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from
his hand.
Job
27:23 Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of
his place.
Job
28:1 "Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold
which they refine.
Job
28:2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of
the ore.
Job
28:3 Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest
bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
Job
28:4 He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are
forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and
forth.
Job
28:5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is
turned up as it were by fire.
Job
28:6 Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
Job
28:7 That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon's eye
seen it.
Job
28:8 The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion
passed by there.
Job
28:9 He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the
mountains by the roots.
Job
28:10 He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every
precious thing.
Job
28:11 He binds the streams that they don't trickle. The thing that
is hidden he brings forth to light.
Job
28:12 "But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of
understanding?
Job
28:13 Man doesn't know its price; Neither is it found in the land of
the living.
Job
28:14 The deep says, 'It isn't in me.' The sea says, 'It isn't with
me.'
Job
28:15 It can't be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed
for its price.
Job
28:16 It can't be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious
onyx, or the sapphire.
Job
28:17 Gold and glass can't equal it, neither shall it be exchanged
for jewels of fine gold.
Job
28:18 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the
price of wisdom is above rubies.
Job
28:19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be
valued with pure gold.
Job
28:20 Whence then comes wisdom? Where is the place of understanding?
Job
28:21 Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept
close from the birds of the sky.
Job
28:22 Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it with
our ears.'
Job
28:23 "God understands its way, and he knows its place.
Job
28:24 For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the
whole sky.
Job
28:25 He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the
waters by measure.
Job
28:26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the
lightning of the thunder;
Job
28:27 then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and
searched it out.
Job
28:28 To man he said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
To depart from evil is understanding.' "
Job
29:1 Job again took up his parable, and said,
Job
29:2 "Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days
when God watched over me;
Job
29:3 when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked
through darkness,
Job
29:4 as I was in the ripeness of my days, when the friendship of God
was in my tent,
Job
29:5 when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around
me,
Job
29:6 when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out
streams of oil for me,
Job
29:7 when I went forth to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in
the street.
Job
29:8 The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and
stood.
Job
29:9 The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on
their mouth.
Job
29:10 The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to
the roof of their mouth.
Job
29:11 For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the
eye saw me, it commended me:
Job
29:12 Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless
also, who had none to help him,
Job
29:13 the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I
caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
Job
29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a
robe and a diadem.
Job
29:15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
Job
29:16 I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn't
know, I searched out.
Job
29:17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the prey out
of his teeth.
Job
29:18 Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house, I shall number my
days as the sand.
Job
29:19 My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on
my branch.
Job
29:20 My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.'
Job
29:21 "Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my
counsel.
Job
29:22 After my words they didn't speak again. My speech fell on
them.
Job
29:23 They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with
the spring rain.
Job
29:24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn't
reject the light of my face.
Job
29:25 I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in
the army, as one who comforts the mourners.