Job, starting at chapter 13
{13:1} "Behold, my eye has seen all this.
My ear has heard and understood it.
{13:2} What you know, I know also.
I am not inferior to you.
{13:3} "Surely I would speak to the Almighty.
I desire to reason with God.
{13:4} But you are forgers of lies.
You are all physicians of no value.
{13:5} Oh that you would be completely silent!
Then you would be wise.
{13:6} Hear now my reasoning.
Listen to the pleadings of my lips.
{13:7} Will you speak unrighteously for God,
and talk deceitfully for him?
{13:8} Will you show partiality to him?
Will you contend for God?
{13:9} Is it good that he should search you out?
Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
{13:10} He will surely reprove you
if you secretly show partiality.
{13:11} Shall not his majesty make you afraid,
And his dread fall on you?
{13:12} Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes,
Your defenses are defenses of clay.
{13:13} "Be silent, leave me alone, that I may speak.
Let come on me what will.
{13:14} Why should I take my flesh in my teeth,
and put my life in my hand?
{13:15} Behold, he will kill me.
I have no hope.
Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
{13:16} This also shall be my salvation,
that a godless man shall not come before him.
{13:17} Hear diligently my speech.
Let my declaration be in your ears.
{13:18} See now, I have set my cause in order.
I know that I am righteous.
{13:19} Who is he who will contend with me?
For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.
{13:20} "Only don't do two things to me;
then I will not hide myself from your face:
{13:21} withdraw your hand far from me;
and don't let your terror make me afraid.
{13:22} Then call, and I will answer;
or let me speak, and you answer me.
{13:23} How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make me know my disobedience and my sin.
{13:24} Why hide you your face,
and hold me for your enemy?
{13:25} Will you harass a driven leaf?
Will you pursue the dry stubble?
{13:26} For you write bitter things against me,
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth:
{13:27} You also put my feet in the stocks,
and mark all my paths.
You set a bound to the soles of my feet,
{13:28} though I am decaying like a rotten thing,
like a garment that is moth-eaten.
{14:1} "Man, who is born of a woman,
is of few days, and full of trouble.
{14:2} He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down.
He also flees like a shadow, and doesn't continue.
{14:3} Do you open your eyes on such a one,
and bring me into judgment with you?
{14:4} Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one.
{14:5} Seeing his days are determined,
the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass;
{14:6} Look away from him, that he may rest,
until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.
{14:7} "For there is hope for a tree,
If it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
that the tender branch of it will not cease.
{14:8} Though its root grows old in the earth,
and its stock dies in the ground,
{14:9} yet through the scent of water it will bud,
and put forth boughs like a plant.
{14:10} But man dies, and is laid low.
Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
{14:11} As the waters fail from the sea,
and the river wastes and dries up,
{14:12} so man lies down and doesn't rise.
Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake,
nor be roused out of their sleep.
{14:13} "Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past,
that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
{14:14} If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my warfare would I wait,
until my release should come.
{14:15} You would call, and I would answer you.
You would have a desire to the work of your hands.
{14:16} But now you number my steps.
Don't you watch over my sin?
{14:17} My disobedience is sealed up in a bag.
You fasten up my iniquity.
{14:18} "But the mountain falling comes to nothing.
The rock is removed out of its place;
{14:19} The waters wear the stones.
The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth.
So you destroy the hope of man.
{14:20} You forever prevail against him, and he departs.
You change his face, and send him away.
{14:21} His sons come to honor, and he doesn't know it.
They are brought low, but he doesn't perceive it of them.
{14:22} But his flesh on him has pain,
and his soul within him mourns."
{15:1} Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
{15:2} "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge,
and fill himself with the east wind?
{15:3} Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
or with speeches with which he can do no good?
{15:4} Yes, you do away with fear,
and hinder devotion before God.
{15:5} For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the language of the crafty.
{15:6} Your own mouth condemns you, and not I.
Yes, your own lips testify against you.
{15:7} "Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you brought forth before the hills?
{15:8} Have you heard the secret counsel of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
{15:9} What do you know, that we don't know?
What do you understand, which is not in us?
{15:10} With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men,
much elder than your father.
{15:11} Are the consolations of God too small for you,
even the word that is gentle toward you?
{15:12} Why does your heart carry you away?
Why do your eyes flash,
{15:13} That you turn your spirit against God,
and let such words go out of your mouth?
{15:14} What is man, that he should be clean?
What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
{15:15} Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones.
Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
{15:16} how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks iniquity like water!
{15:17} "I will show you, listen to me;
that which I have seen I will declare:
{15:18} (Which wise men have told by their fathers,
and have not hidden it;
{15:19} to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them):
{15:20} the wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
{15:21} A sound of terrors is in his ears.
In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
{15:22} He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness.
He is waited for by the sword.
{15:23} He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?'
He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
{15:24} Distress and anguish make him afraid.
They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
{15:25} Because he has stretched out his hand against God,
and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
{15:26} he runs at him with a stiff neck,
with the thick shields of his bucklers;
{15:27} because he has covered his face with his fatness,
and gathered fat on his thighs.
{15:28} He has lived in desolate cities,
in houses which no one inhabited,
which were ready to become heaps.
{15:29} He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
{15:30} He shall not depart out of darkness.
The flame shall dry up his branches.
By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.
{15:31} Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;
for emptiness shall be his reward.
{15:32} It shall be accomplished before his time.
His branch shall not be green.
{15:33} He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
{15:34} For the company of the godless shall be barren,
and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
{15:35} They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
Their heart prepares deceit."
___
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