Job 24-28

Job 24

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

²Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.

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

⁴They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

⁵Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.

⁶They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked.

⁷Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold.

⁸Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter.

⁹The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.

¹⁰Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.

¹¹They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

¹²From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.

¹³Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths.

¹⁴When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light.

¹⁷For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness!

¹⁸They are but foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one turns toward their vineyards.

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

²⁰The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is like a broken tree.

²¹They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow.

²²Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life.

²³He gives them a sense of security, but His eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.

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

Job 25

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²“Dominion and awe belong to God; He establishes harmony in the heights of heaven.

³Can His troops be numbered? On whom does His light not rise?

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,

⁶how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!”

Job 26

¹Then Job answered:

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

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

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

⁵The dead tremble— those beneath the waters and those who dwell in them.

⁶Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

⁷He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.

⁸He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their own weight.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon, spreading over it His cloud.

¹⁰He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The foundations of heaven quake, astounded at His rebuke.

¹²By His power He stirred the sea; by His understanding He shattered Rahab.

¹³By His breath the skies were cleared; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

¹⁴Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”

Job 27

¹Job continued his discourse:

²“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice— the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—

³as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils,

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.

⁶I will cling to my righteousness and never let go. As long as I live, my conscience will not accuse me.

⁷May my enemy be like the wicked and my opponent like the unjust.

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

⁹Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?

¹⁰Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

¹¹I will instruct you in the power of God. I will not conceal the ways of the Almighty.

¹²Surely all of you have seen it for yourselves. Why then do you keep up this empty talk?

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

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

¹⁵His survivors will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them.

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.

¹⁸The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut set up by a watchman.

¹⁹He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night.

²¹The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

²²It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.

²³It claps its hands at him and hisses him out of his place.

Job 28

¹“Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.

²Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore.

³Man puts an end to the darkness; he probes the farthest recesses for ore in deepest darkness.

⁴Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft in places forgotten by the foot of man. Far from men he dangles and sways.

⁵Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.

⁶Its rocks are the source of sapphires, containing flecks of gold.

⁷No bird of prey knows that path; no falcon’s eye has seen it.

⁸Proud beasts have never trodden it; no lion has ever prowled over it.

⁹The miner strikes the flint; he overturns mountains at their base.

¹⁰He hews out channels in the rocks, and his eyes spot every treasure.

¹¹He stops up the sources of the streams to bring what is hidden to light.

¹²But where can wisdom be found, and where does understanding dwell?

¹³No man can know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The ocean depths say, ‘It is not in me,’ while the sea declares, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵It cannot be bought with gold, nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.

¹⁷Neither gold nor crystal can compare to it, nor jewels of fine gold be exchanged for it.

¹⁸Coral and quartz are unworthy of mention; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

¹⁹Topaz from Cush cannot compare to it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰From where then does wisdom come, and where does understanding dwell?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the air.

²²Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor about it.’

²³But God understands its way, and He knows its place.

²⁴For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵When God fixed the weight of the wind and measured out the waters,

²⁶when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁷then He looked at wisdom and appraised it; He established it and searched it out.

²⁸And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”