25

1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

2“Dominion and fear are with him.

He makes peace in his high places.

3Can his armies be counted?

On whom does his light not arise?

4How then can man be just with God?

Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

5Behold, even the moon has no brightness,

and the stars are not pure in his sight;

6How much less man, who is a worm,

and the son of man, who is a worm!”

26

1Then Job answered,

2“How have you helped him who is without power!

How have you saved the arm that has no strength!

3How have you counseled him who has no wisdom,

and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

4To whom have you uttered words?

Whose spirit came out of you?

5“The departed spirits tremble,

those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

6Sheol is naked before God,

and Abaddon has no covering.

7He stretches out the north over empty space,

and hangs the earth on nothing.

8He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

and the cloud is not burst under them.

9He encloses the face of his throne,

and spreads his cloud on it.

10He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters,

and to the confines of light and darkness.

11The pillars of heaven tremble

and are astonished at his rebuke.

12He stirs up the sea with his power,

and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.

13By his Spirit the heavens are garnished.

His hand has pierced the swift serpent.

14Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways.

How small a whisper do we hear of him!

But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

27

1Job again took up his parable, and said,

2“As God lives, who has taken away my right,

the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter

3(for the length of my life is still in me,

and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);

4surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness,

neither will my tongue utter deceit.

5Far be it from me that I should justify you.

Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

6I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go.

My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.

7“Let my enemy be as the wicked.

Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

8For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off,

when God takes away his life?

9Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

10Will he delight himself in the Almighty,

and call on God at all times?

11I will teach you about the hand of God.

I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty.

12Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

13“This is the portion of a wicked man with God,

the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword.

His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

15Those who remain of him will be buried in death.

His widows will make no lamentation.

16Though he heap up silver as the dust,

and prepare clothing as the clay;

17he may prepare it, but the just will put it on,

and the innocent will divide the silver.

18He builds his house as the moth,

as a booth which the watchman makes.

19He lies down rich, but he will not do so again.

He opens his eyes, and he is not.

20Terrors overtake him like waters.

A storm steals him away in the night.

21The east wind carries him away, and he departs.

It sweeps him out of his place.

22For it hurls at him, and does not spare,

as he flees away from his hand.

23Men will clap their hands at him,

and will hiss him out of his place.

28

1“Surely there is a mine for silver,

and a place for gold which they refine.

2Iron is taken out of the earth,

and copper is smelted out of the ore.

3Man sets an end to darkness,

and searches out, to the furthest bound,

the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

4He 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.

5As for the earth, out of it comes bread.

Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

6Sapphires come from its rocks.

It has dust of gold.

7That path no bird of prey knows,

neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.

8The proud animals have not trodden it,

nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

9He puts his hand on the flinty rock,

and he overturns the mountains by the roots.

10He cuts out channels among the rocks.

His eye sees every precious thing.

11He binds the streams that they don’t trickle.

The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

12“But where will wisdom be found?

Where is the place of understanding?

13Man doesn’t know its price,

and it isn’t found in the land of the living.

14The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’

The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’

15It can’t be gotten for gold,

neither will silver be weighed for its price.

16It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir,

with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

17Gold and glass can’t equal it,

neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

18No mention will be made of coral or of crystal.

Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.

19The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it.

It won’t be valued with pure gold.

20Where then does wisdom come from?

Where is the place of understanding?

21Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living,

and kept close from the birds of the sky.

22Destruction and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

23“God understands its way,

and he knows its place.

24For he looks to the ends of the earth,

and sees under the whole sky.

25He establishes the force of the wind.

Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.

26When he made a decree for the rain,

and a way for the lightning of the thunder,

27then he saw it, and declared it.

He established it, yes, and searched it out.

28To man he said,

‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.

To depart from evil is understanding.’”

29

1Job again took up his parable, and said,

2“Oh that I were as in the months of old,

as in the days when God watched over me;

3when his lamp shone on my head,

and by his light I walked through darkness,

4as I was in my prime,

when the friendship of God was in my tent,

5when the Almighty was yet with me,

and my children were around me,

6when my steps were washed with butter,

and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

7when I went out to the city gate,

when I prepared my seat in the street.

8The young men saw me and hid themselves.

The aged rose up and stood.

9The princes refrained from talking,

and laid their hand on their mouth.

10The voice of the nobles was hushed,

and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

11For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me,

and when the eye saw me, it commended me,

12because I delivered the poor who cried,

and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,

13the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me,

and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me.

My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

15I was eyes to the blind,

and feet to the lame.

16I was a father to the needy.

I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.

17I broke the jaws of the unrighteous

and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

18Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house,

I will count my days as the sand.

19My root is spread out to the waters.

The dew lies all night on my branch.

20My glory is fresh in me.

My bow is renewed in my hand.’

21“Men listened to me, waited,

and kept silence for my counsel.

22After my words they didn’t speak again.

My speech fell on them.

23They waited for me as for the rain.

Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

24I smiled on them when they had no confidence.

They didn’t reject the light of my face.

25I chose out their way, and sat as chief.

I lived as a king in the army,

as one who comforts the mourners.

30

1“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision,

whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.

2Of what use is the strength of their hands to me,

men in whom ripe age has perished?

3They are gaunt from lack and famine.

They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

4They pluck salt herbs by the bushes.

The roots of the broom tree are their food.

5They are driven out from among men.

They cry after them as after a thief,

6so that they live in frightful valleys,

and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

7They bray among the bushes.

They are gathered together under the nettles.

8They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men.

They were flogged out of the land.

9“Now I have become their song.

Yes, I am a byword to them.

10They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,

and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.

11For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me;

and they have thrown off restraint before me.

12On my right hand rise the rabble.

They thrust aside my feet.

They cast their ways of destruction up against me.

13They mar my path.

They promote my destruction

without anyone’s help.

14As through a wide breach they come.

They roll themselves in amid the ruin.

15Terrors have turned on me.

They chase my honor as the wind.

My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

16“Now my soul is poured out within me.

Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

17In the night season my bones are pierced in me,

and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

18My garment is disfigured by great force.

It binds me about as the collar of my tunic.

19He has cast me into the mire.

I have become like dust and ashes.

20I cry to you, and you do not answer me.

I stand up, and you gaze at me.

21You have turned to be cruel to me.

With the might of your hand you persecute me.

22You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it.

You dissolve me in the storm.

23For I know that you will bring me to death,

to the house appointed for all living.

24“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall?

Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

25Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble?

Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?

26When I looked for good, then evil came.

When I waited for light, darkness came.

27My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest.

Days of affliction have come on me.

28I go mourning without the sun.

I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

29I am a brother to jackals,

and a companion to ostriches.

30My skin grows black and peels from me.

My bones are burned with heat.

31Therefore my harp has turned to mourning,

and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.