June 17

Job 39:1 — 42:17

39 “Have you come to know the appointed time for the mountain goats of the crag to give birth?

          Do you observe just when the hinds bring forth with birth pangs?

 2 Do you count the lunar months that they fulfill,

          Or have you come to know the appointed time that they give birth?

 3 They bow down when they cast forth their young ones,

           [When] they get rid of their pangs.

 4 Their sons become robust, they get big in the open field;

          They actually go forth and do not return to them.

 5 Who sent forth the zebra free,

          And who loosened the very bands of the wild ass,

 6 Whose house I have appointed the desert plain

          And whose dwelling places the salt country?

 7 It laughs at the turmoil of a town;

          The noises of a stalker it does not hear.

 8 It explores mountains for its pasturage

          And after every sort of green plant it seeks.

 9 Does a wild bull want to serve you,

          Or will it spend the night by your manger?

10 Will you bind a wild bull fast with its ropes in the furrow,

          Or will it harrow low plains after you?

11 Will you trust in it because its power is abundant,

          And will you leave your toil to it?

12 Will you rely on it that it will bring back your seed

          And that it will gather to your threshing floor?

13 Has the wing of the female ostrich flapped joyously,

          Or [has she] the pinions of a stork and the plumage?

14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth itself

          And in the dust she keeps them warm,

15 And she forgets that some foot may crush them

          Or even a wild beast of the field may tread on them.

16 She does treat her sons roughly, as if not hers—

          In vain is her toil [because she has] no dread.

17 For God has made her forget wisdom,

          And he has not given her a share in understanding.

18 At the time she flaps [her wings] on high,

          She laughs at the horse and at its rider.

19 Can you give to the horse mightiness?

          Can you clothe its neck with a rustling mane?

20 Can you cause it to leap like a locust?

          The dignity of its snorting is frightful.

21 It paws in the low plain and exults in power;

          It goes forth to meet armor.

22 It laughs at dread, and is not terrified;

          Nor does it turn back on account of a sword.

23 Against it a quiver rattles,

          The blade of a spear and a javelin.

24 With pounding and excitement it swallows up the earth,

          And it does not believe that it is the sound of a horn.

25 As soon as the horn blows it says Aha!

          And from far off it smells the battle,

          The uproar of chiefs and the war cry.

26 Is it owing to your understanding that the falcon soars up,

          That it spreads its wings to the south wind?

27 Or is it at your order that an eagle flies upward

          And that it builds its nest high up,

28 That on a crag it resides and stays during the night

          Upon the tooth of a crag and an inaccessible place?

29 From there it has to search for food;

          Far into the distance its eyes keep looking.

30 And its young ones themselves keep sipping up blood;

          And where the slain are, there it is.”

40 And Jehovah proceeded to answer Job and say:

       2 “Should there be any contending of a faultfinder with the Almighty?

                Let the reprover of God himself answer it.”
 

  3 And Job went on to answer Jehovah and say:

       4 “Look! I have become of little account.
    What shall I reply to you?
    My hand I have put over my mouth.

       5 Once have I spoken, and I will not answer;
    And twice, and I will add nothing.”
 

  6 And Jehovah went on to answer Job out of the windstorm and say:

 7 “Gird up your loins, please, like an able-bodied man;

          I shall question you, and you inform me.

 8 Really, will you invalidate my justice?

          Will you pronounce me wicked in order that you may be in the right?

 9 Or do you have an arm like that of the [true] God,

          And with a voice like his can you make it thunder?

10 Deck yourself, please, with superiority and highness;

          And with dignity and splendor may you clothe yourself.

11 Let flow the furious outbursts of your anger,

          And see every one haughty and bring him low.

12 See every one haughty, humble him,

          And tread down the wicked right where they are.

13 Hide them together in the dust,

          Bind their very faces in the hidden place,

14 And I, even I, shall commend you,

          Because your right hand can save you.

15 Here, now, is Behemoth that I have made as well as you.

          Green grass it eats just as a bull does.

16 Here, now, its power is in its hips,

          And its dynamic energy in the tendons of its belly.

17 It bends down its tail like a cedar;

          The sinews of its thighs are interwoven.

18 Its bones are tubes of copper;

          Its strong bones are like wrought-iron rods.

19 It is the beginning of the ways of God;

          Its Maker can bring near his sword.

20 For the mountains themselves bear their produce for it,

          And all the wild beasts of the field themselves play there.

21 Under the thorny lotus trees it lies down,

          In the concealed place of reeds and the swampy place.

22 The thorny lotus trees keep it blocked off with their shadow;

          The poplars of the torrent valley surround it.

23 If the river acts violently, it does not run in panic.

          It is confident, although the Jordan should burst forth against its mouth.

24 Before its eyes can anyone take it?

          With snares can anyone bore [its] nose?

41 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook,

          Or with a rope can you hold down its tongue?

 2 Can you put a rush in its nostrils,

          Or with a thorn can you bore its jaws?

 3 Will it make many entreaties to you,

          Or will it say soft words to you?

 4 Will it conclude a covenant with you,

          That you may take it as a slave to time indefinite?

 5 Will you play with it as with a bird,

          Or will you tie it for your young girls?

 6 Will partners barter for it?

          Will they divide it up among tradesmen?

 7 Will you fill its skin with harpoons,

          Or its head with fish spears?

 8 Put your hand upon it.

          Remember the battle. Do not do it again.

 9 Look! One’s expectation about it will certainly be disappointed.

          One will also be hurled down at the mere sight of it.

10 None is so audacious that he should stir it up.

          And who is it that can hold his ground before me?

11 Who has given me something first, that I ought to reward him?

          Under the whole heavens it is mine.

12 I shall not keep silent about its parts

          Or the matter of [its] mightiness and the grace of its proportions.

13 Who has uncovered the face of its clothing?

          Into its double jaw who will enter?

14 The doors of its face who has opened?

          Its teeth round about are frightful.

15 Furrows of scales are its haughtiness,

          Closed as with a tight seal.

16 One to the other they fit closely,

          And not even air can come in between them.

17 Each one to the other they are stuck together;

          They grasp one another and cannot be separated.

18 Its very sneezings flash forth light,

          And its eyes are like the beams of dawn.

19 Out of its mouth there go lightning flashes,

          Even sparks of fire make their escape.

20 Out of its nostrils smoke goes forth,

          Like a furnace set aflame even with rushes.

21 Its soul itself sets coals ablaze,

          And even a flame goes forth out of its mouth.

22 In its neck lodges strength,

          And before it despair leaps.

23 The folds of its flesh do cling together;

          They are as a casting upon it, immovable.

24 Its heart is cast like stone,

          Yes, cast like a lower millstone.

25 Due to its rising up the strong get frightened;

          Due to consternation they get bewildered.

26 Overtaking it, the sword itself does not prove equal,

          Nor spear, dart or arrowhead.

27 It regards iron as mere straw,

          Copper as mere rotten wood.

28 An arrow does not chase it away;

          The slingstones have been changed for it into mere stubble.

29 A club has been regarded [by it] as mere stubble,

          And it laughs at the rattling of a javelin.

30 As pointed earthenware fragments are its underparts;

          It spreads out a threshing instrument upon the mire.

31 It causes the depths to boil just like a pot;

          It makes the very sea like an ointment pot.

32 Behind itself it makes a pathway shine;

          One would regard the watery deep as gray-headedness.

33 Upon the dust there is not the like of it,

          The one made to be without terror.

34 Everything high it sees.

          It is king over all majestic wild beasts.”

42 And Job proceeded to answer Jehovah and say:

 2 “I have come to know that you are able to do all things,

          And there is no idea that is unattainable for you.

 3 ‘Who is this that is obscuring counsel without knowledge?’

          Therefore I talked, but I was not understanding

          Things too wonderful for me, which I do not know.

 4 ‘Hear, please, and I myself shall speak.

          I shall question you, and you inform me.’

 5 In hearsay I have heard about you,

          But now my own eye does see you.

 6 That is why I make a retraction,

          And I do repent in dust and ashes.”
 

7 And it came about after Jehovah had spoken these words to Job, that Jehovah proceeded to say to Eliphaz the Temanite:

“My anger has grown hot against you and your two companions, for YOU men have not spoken concerning me what is truthful as has my servant Job. 8 And now take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job, and YOU men must offer up a burnt sacrifice in YOUR own behalf; and Job my servant will himself pray for YOU. His face only I shall accept so as not to commit disgraceful folly with YOU, for YOU have not spoken concerning me what is truthful, as has my servant Job.”

9 Accordingly Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite [and] Zophar the Naamathite went and did just as Jehovah had spoken to them; and so Jehovah accepted Job’s face.

10 And Jehovah himself turned back the captive condition of Job when he prayed in behalf of his companions, and Jehovah began to give in addition all that had been Job’s, in double amount. 11 And there kept coming to him all his brothers and all his sisters and all those formerly knowing him, and they began to eat bread with him in his house and to sympathize with him and to comfort him over all the calamity that Jehovah had let come upon him; and they proceeded each one to give him a piece of money and each one a gold ring.

12 As for Jehovah, he blessed the end of Job afterward more than his beginning, so that he came to have fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels and a thousand spans of cattle and a thousand she-asses. 13 He also came to have seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he went calling the name of the first Jemimah and the name of the second Keziah and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And no women were found as pretty as Job’s daughters in all the land, and their father proceeded to give them an inheritance in among their brothers.

16 And Job continued living after this a hundred and forty years and came to see his sons and his grandsons—four generations. 17 And gradually Job died, old and satisfied with days.