June 13
Job 25:1 — 29:25
25 And Bildad the Shuhite proceeded to answer and say:
2 “Rulership and dreadfulness are with him;
He is making peace on his heights.
3 Is there any number to his troops?
And upon whom does his light not rise?
4 So how can mortal man be in the right before God,
Or how can one born of a woman be clean?
5 Look! There is even the moon, and it is not bright;
And the stars themselves have not proved clean in his eyes.
6 How much less so mortal man, who is a maggot,
And a son of man, who is a worm!”
26 And Job proceeded to answer and say:
2 “O how much help you have been to one without power!
O [how] you have saved an arm that is without strength!
3 How much you have advised one that is without wisdom,
And you have made practical wisdom itself known to the multitude!
4 To whom have you told words,
And whose breath has come forth from you?
5 Those impotent in death keep trembling
Beneath the waters and those residing in them.
6 Sheol is naked in front of him,
And [the place of] destruction has no covering.
7 He is stretching out the north over the empty place,
Hanging the earth upon nothing;
8 Wrapping up the waters in his clouds,
So that the cloud mass is not split under them;
9 Enclosing the face of the throne,
Spreading out over it his cloud.
10 He has described a circle upon the face of the waters,
To where light ends in darkness.
11 The very pillars of heaven shake,
And they are amazed because of his rebuke.
12 By his power he has stirred up the sea,
And by his understanding he has broken the stormer to pieces.
13 By his wind he has polished up heaven itself,
His hand has pierced the gliding serpent.
14 Look! These are the fringes of his ways,
And what a whisper of a matter has been heard of him!
But of his mighty thunder who can show an understanding?”
27 And Job proceeded again to lift up his proverbial utterance and went on to say:
2 “As God lives, who has taken away my judgment,
And as the Almighty [lives], who has made my soul bitter,
3 While my breath is yet whole within me,
And the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
4 My lips will speak no unrighteousness
And my own tongue will mutter no deceit!
5 It is unthinkable on my part that I should declare YOU men righteous!
Until I expire I shall not take away my integrity from myself!
6 On my justness I have laid hold, and I shall not let it go;
My heart will not taunt [me] for any of my days.
7 Let my enemy become in every way a wicked man,
And the one revolting against me really a wrongdoer.
8 For what is the hope of an apostate in case he cuts [him] off,
In case God carries off his soul from him?
9 Will God hear an outcry of his
In case distress comes upon him?
10 Or in the Almighty will he find exquisite delight?
Will he call to God at all times?
11 I shall instruct YOU men by the hand of God;
That which is with the Almighty I shall not hide.
12 Look! YOU yourselves have all of YOU seen visions;
So why is it that YOU show yourselves utterly vain?
13 This is the share of the wicked man from God;
And the inheritance of the tyrants they will receive from the Almighty himself.
14 If his sons become many, it is for a sword;
And his descendants themselves will not have enough food.
15 His own survivors will be buried during a deadly plague,
And their own widows will not weep.
16 If he should pile up silver like dust itself,
And he should prepare attire just as if clay,
17 He would prepare, but the righteous would be the one to clothe himself,
And in the silver the innocent would be the one to have a share.
18 He has built his house like a mere moth,
And like a booth that a watchman has made.
19 Rich he will lie down, but nothing will be gathered;
His eyes he has opened, but there will be nothing.
20 Like waters sudden terrors will overtake him;
At night a storm wind will certainly steal him away.
21 An east wind will carry him off and he will go away,
And it will whirl him away from his place.
22 And it will hurl itself at him and have no compassion;
From its power he will without fail try to run away.
23 One will clap his hands at him
And will whistle at him from his place.
28 “Indeed, for silver there exists a place to find it
And a place for gold that they refine;
2 Iron itself is taken from the very dust
And [from] stone copper is being poured out.
3 An end to the darkness he has set;
And to every limit he is searching out
Stone in the gloom and deep shadow.
4 He has sunk a shaft far from where [people] reside as aliens,
Places forgotten far from the foot;
Some of mortal men have swung down, they have dangled.
5 As for the earth, out of it food goes forth;
But underneath it, it has been upturned as if by fire.
6 Its stones are the place of the sapphire,
And it has gold dust.
7 A pathway—no bird of prey has known it,
Nor has the eye of a black kite caught sight of it.
8 The majestic wild beasts have not trodden it down solid;
The young lion has not paced over it.
9 Upon the flint he has thrust out his hand;
He has overthrown mountains from [their] root;
10 Into the rocks he has channeled water-filled galleries,
And all precious things his eye has seen.
11 The places from which rivers trickled he has dammed up,
And the concealed thing he brings forth to the light.
12 But wisdom—where can it be found,
And where, now, is the place of understanding?
13 Mortal man has not come to know its valuation,
And it is not found in the land of those living.
14 The watery deep itself has said,
‘It is not in me!’
The sea too has said, ‘It is not with me!’
15 Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it,
And silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
16 It cannot be paid for with gold of Ophir,
With the rare onyx stone and the sapphire.
17 Gold and glass cannot be compared to it,
Nor is any vessel of refined gold an exchange for it.
18 Coral and rock crystal themselves will not be mentioned,
But a bagful of wisdom is worth more than [one full of] pearls.
19 The topaz of Cush cannot be compared to it;
It cannot be paid for even with gold in its purity.
20 But wisdom itself—from where does it come,
And where, now, is the place of understanding?
21 It has been hidden even from the eyes of everyone alive,
And from the flying creatures of the heavens it has been concealed.
22 Destruction and death themselves have said,
‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’
23 God is the One who has understood its way,
And he himself has known its place,
24 For he himself looks to the very ends of the earth;
Under the whole heavens he sees,
25 To make a weight for the wind,
While he has proportioned the waters themselves by a measure;
26 When he made for the rain a regulation,
And a way for the thunderous storm cloud,
27 Then it was that he saw [wisdom] and proceeded to tell about it;
He prepared it and also searched it through.
28 And he went on to say to man,
‘Look! The fear of Jehovah—that is wisdom,
And to turn away from bad is understanding.’”
29 And Job proceeded again to lift up his proverbial utterance and went on to say:
2 “O that I were as in the lunar months of long ago,
As in the days when God was guarding me;
3 When he caused his lamp to shine upon my head,
[When] I would walk [through] darkness by his light;
4 Just as I happened to be in the days of my prime,
When intimacy with God was at my tent;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me,
[When] my attendants were all around me!
6 When I washed my steps in butter,
And the rock kept pouring out streams of oil for me;
7 When I went forth to the gate by the town,
In the public square I would prepare my seat!
8 The boys saw me and hid themselves,
And even the aged ones rose up, they stood.
9 Princes themselves restrained words,
And the palm they would put upon their mouth.
10 The voice of the leaders themselves was hidden,
And their very tongue cleaved to their palate.
11 For the ear itself listened and proceeded to pronounce me happy,
And the eye itself saw and proceeded to bear witness for me.
12 For I would rescue the afflicted one crying for help,
And the fatherless boy and anyone that had no helper.
13 The blessing of the one about to perish—upon me it would come,
And the heart of the widow I would make glad.
14 With righteousness I clothed myself, and it was clothing me.
My justice was like a sleeveless coat—and a turban.
15 Eyes I became to the blind one;
And feet to the lame one I was.
16 I was a real father to the poor ones;
And the legal case of one whom I did not know—I would examine it.
17 And I would break the jawbones of the wrongdoer,
And from his teeth I would tear away the prey.
18 And I used to say, ‘Within my nest I shall expire,
And like the grains of sand I shall multiply [my] days.
19 My root is opened for the waters,
And dew itself will stay overnight upon my bough.
20 My glory is fresh with me,
And my bow in my hand will shoot repeatedly.’
21 To me they listened; and they waited,
And they would keep silent for my counsel.
22 After my word they would not speak again,
And upon them my word would drip.
23 And they waited for me as for the rain,
And their mouth they opened wide for the spring rain.
24 I would smile at them—they would not believe [it]—
And the light of my face they would not cast down.
25 I would choose the way for them, and I was sitting as head;
And I resided as a king among [his] troops,
As one who comforts the mourners.