Job 15

¹¹Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him.

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.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²⁶Do you intend to correct my words, and treat as wind my cry of despair?

²“How long will you go on saying such things? The words of your mouth are a blustering wind.

¹Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; he multiplies lies and violence; he makes a covenant with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.

²“Should this stream of words go unanswered and such a speaker be vindicated?

³Should your babbling put others to silence? Will you scoff without rebuke?

¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

²What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

³⁶But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

³⁷For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

⁶Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

¹³“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

¹⁴You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?

¹Then Job answered:

²“How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!

⁴he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and disputes about words, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions,

⁵and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.

²“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

³Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?

³¹Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. An oracle is in my heart regarding the transgression of the wicked man: There is no fear of God before his eyes.

²For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin.

¹⁴A despairing man should have the kindness of his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹³So Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance,

¹⁴and he failed to inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

²¹I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

¹²⁶It is time for the Lord to act, for they have broken Your law.

³“They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the Lord.

⁴“Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

²⁶If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.

⁴⁵The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

²Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.

³You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking truth. Selah

⁸Their tongues are deadly arrows; they speak deception. With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

⁵In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze.

⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

²²His master replied, ‘You wicked servant, I will judge you by your own words. So you knew that I am a harsh man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?

³⁷For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

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

⁸Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?

⁵For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.

⁶Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’

²“Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’

³For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

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

⁴Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?

¹²Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.

²²The Lord created me as His first course, before His works of old.

²³From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, before the earth began.

¹And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man,” she said.

¹⁰Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side—men much older than your father.

³⁴“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”

¹⁸But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and obeyed it?

¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

¹⁴The Lord confides in those who fear Him, and reveals His covenant to them.

²⁵At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

¹¹He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

²What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

⁵I consider myself in no way inferior to those “super-apostles.”

⁷You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself that we belong to Christ just as much as he does.

³How you have counseled the unwise and provided fully sound insight!

⁴To whom have you uttered these words? And whose spirit spoke through you?

³But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

²¹To my shame I concede that we were too weak for that! Speaking as a fool, however, I can match what anyone else dares to boast about.

²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

⁶So Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite declared: “I am young in years, while you are old; that is why I was timid and afraid to tell you what I know.

⁷I thought that age should speak, and many years should teach wisdom.

¹²Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.

⁸Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers.

⁹For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.

⁷Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.

³¹Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is attained along the path of righteousness.

²⁰He deprives the trusted of speech and takes away the discernment of elders.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

²What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

⁸However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and lay my cause before Him—

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

²⁴Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went up, struck Micaiah in the face, and demanded, “Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go when He departed from me to speak with you?”

⁶But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,

¹⁶Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and broad place, to a table full of richness.

¹⁹Let not my enemies gloat over me without cause, nor those who hate me without reason wink in malice.

²¹For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

²²greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

²Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.

¹³As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,

¹⁴But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

¹⁵Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

²²Repent, therefore, of your wickedness, and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for the intent of your heart.

²We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.

³When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can guide the whole animal.

²⁵For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty,

²⁶rushing headlong at Him with a thick, studded shield.

¹³Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.

⁶The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure—those who carry their god in their hands.

¹³“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

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

²⁰Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

⁴Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

⁹Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin”?

¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

⁴How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?

⁵If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,

³All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

⁵If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,

¹⁸If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,

²Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

³And they were calling out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.”

¹“Call out if you please, but who will answer? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

²⁸A corrupt witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.

⁷What man is like Job, who drinks up derision like water?

⁹What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.

¹⁰As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

³All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

²⁸Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

²⁹They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

¹“But now, O Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words.

⁵If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom!

⁶Hear now my argument, and listen to the plea of my lips.

²⁷Indeed, we have investigated, and it is true! So hear it and know for yourself.”

²“Hear my words, O wise men; give ear to me, O men of learning.

²“Bear with me a little longer, and I will show you that there is more to be said on God’s behalf.

⁸Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers.

¹⁸Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

¹⁹The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.

³that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the Lord and His might and the wonders He has performed.

¹⁰Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side—men much older than your father.

¹⁷Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

⁸When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

²⁵Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, and his brother was named Joktan.

³²All these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.

¹Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

²Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.

¹³This is the wicked man’s portion from God—the heritage the ruthless receive from the Almighty.

¹“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

¹²So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.

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

⁴For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.

¹¹Terrors frighten him on every side and harass his every step.

³While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

³⁶As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

¹⁰And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

¹³One day, while Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

¹⁴a messenger came and reported to Job: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,

²⁶in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you,

²⁷when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.

²⁴Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him.

²⁵It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.

¹⁴Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.

²¹They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.

²²Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

⁵So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

²⁹then you should fear the sword yourselves, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.”

¹⁶If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.

¹²His strength is depleted, and calamity is ready at his side.

¹⁰May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes.

¹⁵They scavenge for food, and growl if they are not satisfied.

²⁰Will not the Day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?

⁸So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is futile.

⁶We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.

³⁴and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.

⁹There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek;

²“If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales.

³For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been rash.

¹⁴³Trouble and distress have found me, but Your commandments are my delight.

²⁷when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.

⁷“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

²³Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.

⁹They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut across the earth.

¹³“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

⁶Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?

¹³Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Have the gods of these nations ever been able to deliver their land from my hand?

¹⁴Who among all the gods of these nations that my fathers devoted to destruction has been able to deliver his people from my hand? How then can your God deliver you from my hand?

²²In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord.

⁸Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you.

⁴⁰You have made my enemies retreat before me; I destroyed those who hated me.

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;

¹⁰They have closed their callous hearts; their mouths speak with arrogance.

⁷From their prosperity proceeds iniquity; the imaginations of their hearts run wild.

²⁸They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

¹⁰Make the hearts of this people calloused; deafen their ears and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

¹⁵But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁰But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.

¹⁴with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

¹⁸“Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and told all the people of Judah that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.’

¹¹“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

¹⁵Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling.

¹⁶Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay,

¹⁷what he lays up, the righteous will wear, and his silver will be divided by the innocent.

¹¹For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls and its beauty is lost. So too, the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

¹⁶Do not be afraid when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases.

¹⁷For when he dies, he will carry nothing away; his abundance will not follow him down.

¹⁹Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.

²⁰And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores

²²In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.

²³When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.

⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

²²He despairs of his return from darkness; he is marked for the sword.

⁵Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.

⁶The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.

²⁶Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.

⁴¹Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

¹³Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

⁴No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

³If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

¹⁰Place no trust in extortion or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

⁷Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

⁸The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

⁷For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.

⁸Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.

¹⁷Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.

¹⁶Ephraim is struck down; their root is withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay the darlings of their wombs.

¹¹When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.

⁸It had been planted in good soil by abundant waters in order to yield branches and bear fruit and become a splendid vine.’

⁹So you are to tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Will it flourish? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it shrivels? All its foliage will wither! It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots.

³⁹You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.

⁴⁰You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off.

⁹The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹³and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind.

¹³Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so the hope of the godless will perish.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

²The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

²²Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

⁵¹Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

¹⁴Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.

¹³You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your mighty men,

⁴No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

⁵They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.

¹⁵Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

⁷Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

⁸The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.