Job 6

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

⁶let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.

⁵But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

³A stone is heavy and sand is a burden, but aggravation from a fool outweighs them both.

²“Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

⁴You have kept my eyes from closing; I am too troubled to speak.

⁵Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.

¹⁹Teach us what we should say to Him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness.

²⁰Should He be told that I want to speak? Would a man ask to be swallowed up?

²⁸Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

²For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.

¹⁵Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

¹⁵From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.

¹⁶Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

¹⁴The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?

³⁴At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken 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;

¹³His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

⁶Wild donkeys stand on barren heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail for lack of pasture.”

¹⁴He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:

¹⁸How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

¹⁹To You, O Lord, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.

¹For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.

³For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food.

³⁰Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?

¹¹Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes its food?

¹³And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings.

³⁴Salt is good, but if the salt loses its savor, with what will it be seasoned?

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

²⁴I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

¹⁸“Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with quivering and anxiety.

¹⁹Then tell the people of the land that this is what the Lord God says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: ‘They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who dwell in it.

⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears

³I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.

¹⁶Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

¹²But she replied, “As surely as the Lord your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”

⁸¹My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word.

¹⁴and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

¹⁵where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?

¹¹What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient?

¹²Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?

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.”

³And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

¹⁵so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.

¹⁶I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

¹⁰See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act; for how can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another.

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.”

⁴For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah

¹²I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.

²“Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

¹⁵For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

⁹I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O Lord, do know.

¹⁰I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation; I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness from the great assembly.

¹⁷O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds.

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.

³³The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.

¹⁴For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.

¹⁵As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field;

²³He has broken my strength on the way; He has cut short my days.

¹“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.

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

²⁰Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,

⁵You sweep them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—

⁶in the morning it springs up new, but by evening it fades and withers.

²⁴His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!

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

¹²For this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

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

²“Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die!

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

²⁸If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’

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

⁴Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.

²Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

¹⁷A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with grief?

³Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them, and those who are mistreated as if you were suffering with them.

¹¹My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.

¹⁸Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.

⁹Even my close friend whom I trusted, the one who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

¹⁸I am not speaking about all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the Scripture: ‘The one who shares My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’

³²“Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

¹²For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide.

¹³But it is you, a man like myself, my companion and close friend.

¹⁹As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.

¹Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

¹⁴Bring water for the thirsty, O dwellers of Tema; meet the refugees with food.

¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

²³Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair;

¹Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with difficult questions.

⁷The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

²²The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; for your wares they exchanged gold, the finest of all spices, and precious stones.

²³Haran, Canneh, and Eden traded with you, and so did the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad.

¹³O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.

³³as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

³The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; their jars return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads.

⁴The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

¹¹My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.

¹⁶At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.

⁵This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.

⁶He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

⁴You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.

¹⁵But my brothers are as faithless as wadis, as seasonal streams that overflow,

⁵⁶But this has all happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.

³³I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.

¹¹All his brothers and sisters and prior acquaintances came and dined with him in his house. They consoled him and comforted him over all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. And each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

³Here I am. Bear witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe and closed my eyes? Tell me, and I will restore it to you.”

²⁰In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.

¹⁵But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself. Selah

²Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

²¹I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

⁷No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.

⁸For the redemption of his soul is costly, and never can payment suffice,

⁸and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.

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.

⁹Instruct a wise man, and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man, and he will increase his learning.

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

¹²Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.

¹For the choirmaster. For Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present.”

²I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred.

²I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.

¹¹A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

¹⁰The Teacher searched to find delightful sayings and to record accurate words of truth.

¹¹The words of the wise are like goads, and the anthologies of the masters are like firmly embedded nails driven by a single Shepherd.

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

⁴I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

²⁵If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”

⁴Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

¹⁸Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

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

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

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

¹“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

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

⁵I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”

³They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.

⁹You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

¹⁵He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

³In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

³They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

⁴You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.

⁴my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

³My words are from an upright heart, and my lips speak sincerely what I know.

⁴For truly my words are free of falsehood; one perfect in knowledge is with you.

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

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

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

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

⁴my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

⁵I will never say that you are right; I will maintain my integrity until I die.

⁶Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

¹⁰Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

¹¹Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes its food?

³For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food.

⁶Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?

⁸Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard these very words:

⁹‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.

³You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall inform Me.’

¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.