Job 10

¹¹Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

⁴while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

¹⁵If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

⁸As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

²¹Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.

¹⁵He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth and from the clutches of the powerful.

¹⁶So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.

²⁴See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting.

²⁹Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?

²Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.

⁷Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O Lord.

¹For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments, according to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.

²Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am frail; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are in agony.

³¹Suppose someone says to God, ‘I have endured my punishment; I will offend no more.

³²Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do it again.’

⁸But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

¹⁵You will call, and I will answer; You will desire the work of Your hands.

⁸The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. O Lord, Your loving devotion endures forever—do not abandon the works of Your hands.

¹Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

²You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

²⁰Behold, God does not reject the blameless, nor will He strengthen the hand of evildoers.

¹⁸But it was He who filled their houses with good things; so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

⁷But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the Lord does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the Lord sees the heart.”

³²For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.

¹⁵So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.

¹⁴The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire.

⁸Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

²Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

³You return man to dust, saying, “Return, O sons of mortals.”

²⁴I say: “O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days! Your years go on through all generations.

²⁵In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

¹²You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed; but You remain the same, and Your years will never end.”

²⁶Indeed, God is great—beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.

¹²But You, O Lord, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures to all generations.

¹⁶For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.

¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call him to account for his wickedness until none is left to be found.

²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

¹²And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’

³⁴Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things

¹⁴If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.

¹⁵If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.

³⁹See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

²You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar.

²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

²⁹My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

¹⁵Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”

⁷After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.

¹³But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.

¹⁴For He carries out His decree against me, and He has many such plans.

⁷³Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.

³Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?

⁷everyone called by My name and created for My glory, whom I have indeed formed and made.”

³So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the wheel.

⁴But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.

⁶And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

⁷So the Lord said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

⁷Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

⁸But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

¹⁹By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

⁷before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁹Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

⁶“O house of Israel, declares the Lord, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

¹⁴I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.

¹⁵My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

⁴And He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and tell them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!

⁵This is what the Lord God says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will come to life.

¹⁶From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.

¹⁷His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.

¹⁸His bones are tubes of bronze; his limbs are rods of iron.

²For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,

³because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.

²⁸‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’

⁴The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

²⁵Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

²⁵Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

¹⁹Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.

¹³But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.

³⁹See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

⁷I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the Lord, do all these things.

⁹Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.

¹⁰I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’

⁶For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him.

⁷Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?

¹¹according to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

²¹Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”

³If You, O Lord, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?

⁷maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

²⁶For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.

²⁷You put my feet in the stocks and stand watch over all my paths; You set a limit for the soles of my feet.

¹⁸‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

¹⁵For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

²⁰Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.

²¹Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.

⁷though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?

¹⁸So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

⁵Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

¹³I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush.

⁹the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

⁷So like a lion I will pounce on them; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

⁸Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion, like a wild beast tearing them apart.

⁸The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken—who will not prophesy?

²⁹If these men die a natural death, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the Lord has not sent me.

³⁰But if the Lord brings about something unprecedented, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them and all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”

⁸You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

²¹I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

¹¹God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;

⁶then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

⁷Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

¹¹Moab has been at ease from youth, settled like wine on its dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel or gone into exile. So his flavor has remained the same, and his aroma is unchanged.

¹⁹God will hear and humiliate them—the One enthroned for the ages—Selah because they do not change and they have no fear of God.

¹⁴Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, saying, “A son is born to you,” bringing him great joy.

¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; they will hope for their last breath.”

¹⁰For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.

¹¹Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?

¹⁰Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

²⁴The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed. It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

⁸Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.

¹“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.

¹³Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may again be cheered before I depart and am no more.”

⁵You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

²⁵My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.

²⁶They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

⁷Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

²¹Withdraw Your hand from me, and do not let Your terror frighten me.

⁵May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

²²For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.

²³But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

⁸The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.

⁹As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.

¹⁴For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.

⁴Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

¹²Will Your wonders be known in the darkness, or Your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

¹⁶Give glory to the Lord your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

⁵May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

¹⁹But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness.

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

⁴Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.