May 22 Job 6-10

6Then Job answered:
2‘O that my vexation were weighed,
and all my calamity laid in the balances!
3For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
therefore my words have been rash.
4For the arrows of the Almighty* are in me;
my spirit drinks their poison;
the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
5Does the wild ass bray over its grass,
or the ox low over its fodder?
6Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt,
or is there any flavour in the juice of mallows?*
7My appetite refuses to touch them;
they are like food that is loathsome to me.*


8‘O that I might have my request,
and that God would grant my desire;
9that it would please God to crush me,
that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
10This would be my consolation;
I would even exult* in unrelenting pain;
for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
11What is my strength, that I should wait?
And what is my end, that I should be patient?
12Is my strength the strength of stones,
or is my flesh bronze?
13In truth I have no help in me,
and any resource is driven from me.


14‘Those who withhold* kindness from a friend
forsake the fear of the Almighty.*
15My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed,
like freshets that pass away,
16that run dark with ice,
turbid with melting snow.
17In time of heat they disappear;
when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
18The caravans turn aside from their course;
they go up into the waste, and perish.
19The caravans of Tema look,
the travellers of Sheba hope.
20They are disappointed because they were confident;
they come there and are confounded.
21Such you have now become to me;*
you see my calamity, and are afraid.
22Have I said, “Make me a gift”?
Or, “From your wealth offer a bribe for me”?
23Or, “Save me from an opponent’s hand”?
Or, “Ransom me from the hand of oppressors”?


24‘Teach me, and I will be silent;
make me understand how I have gone wrong.
25How forceful are honest words!
But your reproof, what does it reprove?
26Do you think that you can reprove words,
as if the speech of the desperate were wind?
27You would even cast lots over the orphan,
and bargain over your friend.


28‘But now, be pleased to look at me;
for I will not lie to your face.
29Turn, I pray, let no wrong be done.
Turn now, my vindication is at stake.
30Is there any wrong on my tongue?
Cannot my taste discern calamity?


Job: My Suffering Is without End7‘Do not human beings have a hard service on earth,
and are not their days like the days of a labourer?
2Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like labourers who look for their wages,
3so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
4When I lie down I say, “When shall I rise?”
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing until dawn.
5My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out again.
6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and come to their end without hope.*


7‘Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.
8The eye that beholds me will see me no more;
while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.
9As the cloud fades and vanishes,
so those who go down to Sheol do not come up;
10they return no more to their houses,
nor do their places know them any more.


11‘Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12Am I the Sea, or the Dragon,
that you set a guard over me?
13When I say, “My bed will comfort me,
my couch will ease my complaint”,
14then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
15so that I would choose strangling
and death rather than this body.
16I loathe my life; I would not live for ever.
Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
17What are human beings, that you make so much of them,
that you set your mind on them,
18visit them every morning,
test them every moment?
19Will you not look away from me for a while,
let me alone until I swallow my spittle?
20If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?
Why have you made me your target?
Why have I become a burden to you?
21Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.’


Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent8Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2‘How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty* pervert the right?
4If your children sinned against him,
he delivered them into the power of their transgression.
5If you will seek God
and make supplication to the Almighty,*
6if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore to you your rightful place.
7Though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.


8‘For inquire now of bygone generations,
and consider what their ancestors have found;
9for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,
for our days on earth are but a shadow.
10Will they not teach you and tell you
and utter words out of their understanding?


11‘Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12While yet in flower and not cut down,
they wither before any other plant.
13Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless shall perish.
14Their confidence is gossamer,
a spider’s house their trust.
15If one leans against its house, it will not stand;
if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.
16The wicked thrive* before the sun,
and their shoots spread over the garden.
17Their roots twine around the stoneheap;
they live among the rocks.*
18If they are destroyed from their place,
then it will deny them, saying, “I have never seen you.”
19See, these are their happy ways,*
and out of the earth still others will spring.


20‘See, God will not reject a blameless person,
nor take the hand of evildoers.
21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouts of joy.
22Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.’


Job Replies: There Is No Mediator9Then Job answered:
2‘Indeed I know that this is so;
but how can a mortal be just before God?
3If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand.
4He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength
—who has resisted him, and succeeded?—
5he who removes mountains, and they do not know it,
when he overturns them in his anger;
6who shakes the earth out of its place,
and its pillars tremble;
7who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
who seals up the stars;
8who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the Sea;*
9who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10who does great things beyond understanding,
and marvellous things without number.
11Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12He snatches away; who can stop him?
Who will say to him, “What are you doing?”


13‘God will not turn back his anger;
the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.
14How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
15Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.*
16If I summoned him and he answered me,
I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
17For he crushes me with a tempest,
and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
19If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?*
20Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21I am blameless; I do not know myself;
I loathe my life.
22It is all one; therefore I say,
he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity* of the innocent.
24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the eyes of its judges—
if it is not he, who then is it?


25‘My days are swifter than a runner;
they flee away, they see no good.
26They go by like skiffs of reed,
like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27If I say, “I will forget my complaint;
I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer”,
28I become afraid of all my suffering,
for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29I shall be condemned;
why then do I labour in vain?
30If I wash myself with soap
and cleanse my hands with lye,
31yet you will plunge me into filth,
and my own clothes will abhor me.
32For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,
that we should come to trial together.
33There is no umpire* between us,
who might lay his hand on us both.
34If he would take his rod away from me,
and not let dread of him terrify me,
35then I would speak without fear of him,
for I know I am not what I am thought to be.*


Job: I Loathe My Life10‘I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.
3Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands
and favour the schemes of the wicked?
4Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as humans see?
5Are your days like the days of mortals,
or your years like human years,
6that you seek out my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7although you know that I am not guilty,
and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?
8Your hands fashioned and made me;
and now you turn and destroy me.*
9Remember that you fashioned me like clay;
and will you turn me to dust again?
10Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit.
13Yet these things you hid in your heart;
I know that this was your purpose.
14If I sin, you watch me,
and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
15If I am wicked, woe to me!
If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
and look upon my affliction.
16Bold as a lion you hunt me;
you repeat your exploits against me.
17You renew your witnesses against me,
and increase your vexation towards me;
you bring fresh troops against me.*


18‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me,
19and were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.
20Are not the days of my life few?*
Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort*
21before I go, never to return,
to the land of gloom and deep darkness,
22the land of gloom* and chaos,
where light is like darkness.’