May 24 Job 15-18

15Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2‘Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,
and fill themselves with the east wind?
3Should they argue in unprofitable talk,
or in words with which they can do no good?
4But you are doing away with the fear of God,
and hindering meditation before God.
5For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
your own lips testify against you.


7‘Are you the firstborn of the human race?
Were you brought forth before the hills?
8Have you listened in the council of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10The grey-haired and the aged are on our side,
those older than your father.
11Are the consolations of God too small for you,
or the word that deals gently with you?
12Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,*
13so that you turn your spirit against God,
and let such words go out of your mouth?
14What are mortals, that they can be clean?
Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?
15God puts no trust even in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
one who drinks iniquity like water!


17‘I will show you; listen to me;
what I have seen I will declare—
18what sages have told,
and their ancestors have not hidden,
19to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them.
20The wicked writhe in pain all their days,
through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
21Terrifying sounds are in their ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.
22They despair of returning from darkness,
and they are destined for the sword.
23They wander abroad for bread, saying, “Where is it?”
They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;
24distress and anguish terrify them;
they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle.
25Because they stretched out their hands against God,
and bid defiance to the Almighty,*
26running stubbornly against him
with a thick-bossed shield;
27because they have covered their faces with their fat,
and gathered fat upon their loins,
28they will live in desolate cities,
in houses that no one should inhabit,
houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
29they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure,
nor will they strike root in the earth;*
30they will not escape from darkness;
the flame will dry up their shoots,
and their blossom* will be swept away* by the wind.
31Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves;
for emptiness will be their recompense.
32It will be paid in full before their time,
and their branch will not be green.
33They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine,
and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.
34For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
35They conceive mischief and bring forth evil
and their heart prepares deceit.’


Job Reaffirms His Innocence16Then Job answered:
2‘I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
3Have windy words no limit?
Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?
4I also could talk as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you,
and shake my head at you.
5I could encourage you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.


6‘If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7Surely now God has worn me out;
he has* made desolate all my company.
8And he has* shrivelled me up,
which is a witness against me;
my leanness has risen up against me,
and it testifies to my face.
9He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10They have gaped at me with their mouths;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
11God gives me up to the ungodly,
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12I was at ease, and he broke me in two;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
13 his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
14He bursts upon me again and again;
he rushes at me like a warrior.
15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,
and have laid my strength in the dust.
16My face is red with weeping,
and deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17though there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.


18‘O earth, do not cover my blood;
let my outcry find no resting-place.
19Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven,
and he that vouches for me is on high.
20My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God,
as* one does for a neighbour.
22For when a few years have come,
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
Job Prays for Relief17My spirit is broken, my days are extinct,
the grave is ready for me.
2Surely there are mockers around me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.


3‘Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is there that will give surety for me?
4Since you have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5Those who denounce friends for reward—
the eyes of their children will fail.


6‘He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom people spit.
7My eye has grown dim from grief,
and all my members are like a shadow.
8The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.
9Yet the righteous hold to their way,
and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.
10But you, come back now, all of you,
and I shall not find a sensible person among you.
11My days are past, my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
12They make night into day;
“The light”, they say, “is near to the darkness.”*
13If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I spread my couch in darkness,
14if I say to the Pit, “You are my father”,
and to the worm, “My mother”, or “My sister”,
15where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
16Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?’


Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked18Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2‘How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and then we shall speak.
3Why are we counted as cattle?
Why are we stupid in your sight?
4You who tear yourself in your anger—
shall the earth be forsaken because of you,
or the rock be removed out of its place?


5‘Surely the light of the wicked is put out,
and the flame of their fire does not shine.
6The light is dark in their tent,
and the lamp above them is put out.
7Their strong steps are shortened,
and their own schemes throw them down.
8For they are thrust into a net by their own feet,
and they walk into a pitfall.
9A trap seizes them by the heel;
a snare lays hold of them.
10A rope is hid for them in the ground,
a trap for them in the path.
11Terrors frighten them on every side,
and chase them at their heels.
12Their strength is consumed by hunger,*
and calamity is ready for their stumbling.
13By disease their skin is consumed,*
the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.
14They are torn from the tent in which they trusted,
and are brought to the king of terrors.
15In their tents nothing remains;
sulphur is scattered upon their habitations.
16Their roots dry up beneath,
and their branches wither above.
17Their memory perishes from the earth,
and they have no name in the street.
18They are thrust from light into darkness,
and driven out of the world.
19They have no offspring or descendant among their people,
and no survivor where they used to live.
20They of the west are appalled at their fate,
and horror seizes those of the east.
21Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly,
such is the place of those who do not know God.’