13

1“Behold, my eye has seen all this.

My ear has heard and understood it.

2What you know, I know also.

I am not inferior to you.

3“Surely I would speak to the Almighty.

I desire to reason with God.

4But you are forgers of lies.

You are all physicians of no value.

5Oh that you would be completely silent!

Then you would be wise.

6Hear now my reasoning.

Listen to the pleadings of my lips.

7Will you speak unrighteously for God,

and talk deceitfully for him?

8Will you show partiality to him?

Will you contend for God?

9Is it good that he should search you out?

Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?

10He will surely reprove you

if you secretly show partiality.

11Won’t his majesty make you afraid

and his dread fall on you?

12Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes.

Your defenses are defenses of clay.

13“Be silent!

Leave me alone, that I may speak.

Let come on me what will.

14Why should I take my flesh in my teeth,

and put my life in my hand?

15Behold, he will kill me.

I have no hope.

Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

16This also will be my salvation,

that a godless man will not come before him.

17Listen carefully to my speech.

Let my declaration be in your ears.

18See now, I have set my cause in order.

I know that I am righteous.

19Who is he who will contend with me?

For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.

20“Only don’t do two things to me,

then I will not hide myself from your face:

21withdraw your hand far from me,

and don’t let your terror make me afraid.

22Then call, and I will answer,

or let me speak, and you answer me.

23How many are my iniquities and sins?

Make me know my disobedience and my sin.

24Why do you hide your face,

and consider me your enemy?

25Will you harass a driven leaf?

Will you pursue the dry stubble?

26For you write bitter things against me,

and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

27You also put my feet in the stocks,

and mark all my paths.

You set a bound to the soles of my feet,

28though I am decaying like a rotten thing,

like a garment that is moth-eaten.

14

1“Man, who is born of a woman,

is of few days, and full of trouble.

2He grows up like a flower, and is cut down.

He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

3Do you open your eyes on such a one,

and bring me into judgment with you?

4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

Not one.

5Seeing his days are determined,

the number of his months is with you,

and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass.

6Look away from him, that he may rest,

until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.

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.

8Though its root grows old in the earth,

and its stock dies in the ground,

9yet through the scent of water it will bud,

and sprout boughs like a plant.

10But man dies, and is laid low.

Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

11As the waters fail from the sea,

and the river wastes and dries up,

12so man lies down and doesn’t rise.

Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake,

nor be roused out of their sleep.

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!

14If a man dies, will he live again?

I would wait all the days of my warfare,

until my release should come.

15You would call, and I would answer you.

You would have a desire for the work of your hands.

16But now you count my steps.

Don’t you watch over my sin?

17My disobedience is sealed up in a bag.

You fasten up my iniquity.

18“But the mountain falling comes to nothing.

The rock is removed out of its place.

19The waters wear the stones.

The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth.

So you destroy the hope of man.

20You forever prevail against him, and he departs.

You change his face, and send him away.

21His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it.

They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.

22But his flesh on him has pain,

and his soul within him mourns.”

15

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

2“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge,

and fill himself with the east wind?

3Should he reason with unprofitable talk,

or with speeches with which he can do no good?

4Yes, you do away with fear,

and hinder devotion before God.

5For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

and you choose the language of the crafty.

6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I.

Yes, your own lips testify against you.

7“Are you the first man who was born?

Or were you brought out before the hills?

8Have you heard the secret counsel of God?

Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

9What do you know that we don’t know?

What do you understand which is not in us?

10With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men,

much older than your father.

11Are the consolations of God too small for you,

even the word that is gentle toward you?

12Why does your heart carry you away?

Why do your eyes flash,

13that you turn your spirit against God,

and let such words go out of your mouth?

14What is man, that he should be clean?

What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones.

Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,

a man who drinks iniquity like water!

17“I will show you, listen to me;

that which I have seen I will declare

18(which wise men have told by their fathers,

and have not hidden it;

19to whom alone the land was given,

and no stranger passed among them):

20the wicked man writhes in pain all his days,

even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

21A sound of terrors is in his ears.

In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.

22He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness.

He is waited for by the sword.

23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

24Distress and anguish make him afraid.

They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

25Because he has stretched out his hand against God,

and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,

26he runs at him with a stiff neck,

with the thick shields of his bucklers,

27because he has covered his face with his fatness,

and gathered fat on his thighs.

28He has lived in desolate cities,

in houses which no one inhabited,

which were ready to become heaps.

29He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue,

neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.

30He will not depart out of darkness.

The flame will dry up his branches.

He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.

31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,

for emptiness will be his reward.

32It will be accomplished before his time.

His branch will not be green.

33He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine,

and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.

34For the company of the godless will be barren,

and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

35They conceive mischief and produce iniquity.

Their heart prepares deceit.”

16

1Then Job answered,

2“I have heard many such things.

You are all miserable comforters!

3Shall vain words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

4I 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,

5but I would strengthen you with my mouth.

The solace of my lips would relieve you.

6“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided.

Though I forbear, what am I eased?

7But now, God, you have surely worn me out.

You have made all my company desolate.

8You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me.

My leanness rises up against me.

It testifies to my face.

9He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me.

He has gnashed on me with his teeth.

My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

10They have gaped on me with their mouth.

They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully.

They gather themselves together against me.

11God delivers me to the ungodly,

and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

12I 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.

13His archers surround me.

He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare.

He pours out my bile on the ground.

14He breaks me with breach on breach.

He runs at me like a giant.

15I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,

and have thrust my horn in the dust.

16My face is red with weeping.

Deep darkness is on my eyelids,

17although there is no violence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

18“Earth, don’t cover my blood.

Let my cry have no place to rest.

19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven.

He who vouches for me is on high.

20My friends scoff at me.

My eyes pour out tears to God,

21that he would maintain the right of a man with God,

of a son of man with his neighbor!

22For when a few years have come,

I will go the way of no return.