me,
So that I need not hide from You:
21Remove Your hand from me,
And let not Your terror frighten me.
22Then summon me and I will respond,
Or I will speak and You reply to me.
23How many are my iniquities and sins?
Advise me of my transgression and sin.
24Why do You hide Your face,
And treat me like an enemy?
25Will You harass a driven leaf,
Will You pursue dried-up straw,
26That You decree for me bitter things
And make me e-answer for-e the iniquities of my youth,
27That You put my feet in the stocks
And watch all my ways,
f-Hemming in my footsteps?-f
28Man wastes away like a rotten thing,
Like a garment eaten by moths.
14
Man born of woman is short-lived and sated with trouble.
2He blossoms like a flower and withers;
He vanishes like a shadow and does not endure.
3Do You fix Your gaze on such a one?
Will You go to law with me?
4a-Who can produce a clean thing out of an unclean one? No one!-a
5His days are determined;
You know the number of his months;
You have set him limits that he cannot pass.
6Turn away from him, that he may be at ease
Until, like a hireling, he finishes out his day.
7There is hope for a tree;
If it is cut down it will renew itself;
Its shoots will not cease.
8If its roots are old in the earth,
And its stump dies in the ground,
9At the scent of water it will bud
And produce branches like a sapling.
10But mortals languish and die;
Man expires; where is he?
11The waters of the sea fail,
And the river dries up and is parched.
12So man lies down never to rise;
He will awake only when the heavens are no more,
Only then be aroused from his sleep.
13O that You would hide me in Sheol,
Conceal me until Your anger passes,
Set me a fixed time to attend to me.
14If a man dies, can he live again?
All the time of my service I wait
Until my replacement comes.
15You would call and I would answer You;
You would set Your heart on Your handiwork.
16Then You would not count my steps,
Or keep watch over my sin.
17My transgression would be sealed up in a pouch;
You would coat over my iniquity.
18Mountains collapse and crumble;
Rocks are dislodged from their place.
19Water wears away stone;
Torrents wash away earth;
So you destroy man’s hope,
20You overpower him forever and he perishes;
You alter his visage and dispatch him.
21His sons attain honor and he does not know it;
They are humbled and he is not aware of it.
22He feels only the pain of his flesh,
And his spirit mourns in him.
15 Eliphaz the Temanite said in reply:
2Does a wise man answer with windy opinions,
And fill his belly with the east wind?
3Should he argue with useless talk,
With words that are of no worth?
4You subvert piety
And restrain prayer to God.
5Your sinfulness dictates your speech,
So you choose crafty language.
6Your own mouth condemns you—not I;
Your lips testify against you.
7Were you the first man born?
Were you created before the hills?
8Have you listened in on the council of God?
Have you sole possession of wisdom?
9What do you know that we do not know,
Or understand that we do not?
10Among us are gray-haired old men,
Older by far than your father.
11Are God’s consolations not enough for you,
And His gentle words to you?
12How your heart has carried you away,
How your eyes a-have failed-a you,
13That you could vent your anger on God,
And let such words out of your mouth!
14What is man that he can be cleared of guilt,
One born of woman, that he be in the right?
15He puts no trust in His holy ones;
The heavens are not guiltless in His sight;
16What then of one loathsome and foul,
Man, who drinks wrongdoing like water!
17I will hold forth; listen to me;
What I have seen, I will declare—
18That which wise men have transmitted from their fathers,And have not withheld,
19To whom alone the land was given,
No stranger passing among them:
20The wicked man writhes in torment all his days;
Few years are reserved for the ruthless.
21Frightening sounds fill his ears;
When he is at ease a robber falls upon him.
22He is never sure he will come back from the dark;
A sword stares him in the face.
23He wanders about for bread—where is it?
He knows that the day of darkness has been readied for him.
24Troubles terrify him, anxiety overpowers him,
Like a king a-expecting a siege.-a
25For he has raised his arm against God
And played the hero against the Almighty.
26He runs at Him defiantlyb
a-With his thickly bossed shield.
27His face is covered with fat
And his loins with blubber.-a
28He dwells in cities doomed to ruin,
In houses that shall not be lived in,
That are destined to become heaps of rubble.
29He will not be rich;
His wealth will not endure;
a-His produce shall not bend to the earth.-a
30He will never get away from the darkness;
Flames will sear his shoots;
a-He will pass away by the breath of His mouth.
31He will not be trusted;
He will be misled by falsehood,
And falsehood will be his recompense.-a
32He will wither before his time,
His boughs never having flourished.
33He will drop his unripe grapes like a vine;
He will shed his blossoms like an olive tree.
34For the company of the impious is desolate;
Fire consumes the tents of the briber;
35For they have conceived mischief, given birth to evil,
And their womb has produced deceit.
16 Job said in reply:
2I have often heard such things;
You are all mischievous comforters.
3Have windy words no limit?
What afflicts you that you speak on?
4I would also talk like you
If you were in my place;
I would barrage you with words,
I would wag my head over you.
5I would encourage you with words,a
My moving lips would bring relief.
6If I speak, my pain will not be relieved,
And if I do not—what have I lost?
7Now He has truly worn me out;
You have destroyed my whole community.
8You have shriveled me;
My gauntness serves as a witness,
And testifies against me.
9In His anger He tears and persecutes me;
He gnashes His teeth at me;
My foe stabs me with his eyes.
10They open wide their mouths at me;
Reviling me, they strike my cheeks;
They inflame themselves against me.
11God hands me over to an evil man,
Thrusts me into the clutches of the wicked.
12I had been untroubled, and He broke me in pieces;
He took me by the scruff and shattered me;
He set me up as His target;
13His bowmen surrounded me;
He pierced my kidneys; He showed no mercy;
He spilled my bile onto the ground.
14He breached me, breach after breach;
He rushed at me like a warrior.
15I sewed sackcloth over my skin;
I b-buried my glory-b in the dust.
16My face is red with weeping;
Darkness covers my eyes
17c-For no injustice on my part
And for the purity of my prayer!-c
18Earth, do not cover my blood;
Let there be no resting place for my outcry!
19Surely now my witness is in heaven;
He who can testify for me is on high.
20O my advocates, my fellows,
Before God my eyes shed tears;
21Let Him arbitrate between a man and God
As between a man and his fellow.
22For a few more years will pass,
17
And I shall go the way of no return.
1My spirit is crushed, my days run out;
The graveyard waits for me.
2Surely mocking men keep me company,
And with their provocations I close my eyes.
3Come now, stand surety for me!
Who will give his hand on my behalf?
4You have hidden understanding from their minds;
Therefore You must not exalt [them].
5He informs on his friends for a share [of their property],
And his children’s eyes pine away.
6He made me a byword among people;
I have become like Topheta of old.
7My eyes fail from vexation;
All shapes seem to me like shadows.
8The upright are amazed at this;
The pure are aroused against the impious.
9The righteous man holds to his way;
He whose hands are clean grows stronger.
10But all of you, come back now;
I shall not find a wise man among you.
11My days are done, my tendons severed,
The strings of my heart.
12They say that night is day,
That light is here—in the face of darkness.
13If I must look forward to Sheol as my home,
And make my bed in the dark place,
14Say to the Pit, “You are my father,”
To the maggots, “Mother,” “Sister”—
15Where, then, is my hope?
Who can see hope for me?
16Will it descend to Sheol?
Shall we go down together to the dust?
18 Then Bildad the Shuhite said in reply:
2How long? Put an end to talk!
Consider, and then we shall speak.
3Why are we thought of as brutes,
Regarded by you as stupid?
4You who tear yourself to pieces in anger—
Will a-earth’s order be disrupted-a for your sake?
Will rocks be dislodged from their place?
5Indeed, the light of the wicked fails;
The flame of his fire does not shine.
6The light in his tent darkens;
His lamp fails him.
7His iniquitous strides are hobbled;
His schemes overthrow him.
8He is led by his feet into the net;
He walks onto the toils.
9The trap seizes his heel;
The noose tightens on him.
10The rope for him lies hidden on the ground;
His snare, on the path.
11Terrors assault him on all sides
And send his feet flying.
12His progeny hunger;
Disaster awaits his wife.b
13The tendons under his skin are consumed;
Death’s first-born consumes his tendons.
14He is torn from the safety of his tent;
Terror marches him to the king.c
15It lodges in his desolate tent;
Sulfur is strewn upon his home.
16His roots below dry up,
And above, his branches wither.
17All mention of him vanishes from the earth;
He has no name abroad.
18He is thrust from light to darkness,
Driven from the world.
19He has no seed or breed among his people,
No survivor where he once lived.
20Generations to come will be appalled at his fate,
As the previous ones are seized with horror.
21“These were the haunts of the wicked;
Here was the place of him who knew not God.”
19 Job said in reply:
2How long will you grieve my spirit,
And crush me with words?
3a-Time and again-a you humiliate me,
And are not ashamed to abuse me.
4If indeed I have erred,
My error remains with me.
5Though you are overbearing toward me,
Reproaching me with my disgrace,
6Yet know that God has wronged me;
He has thrown up siege works around me.
7I cry, “Violence!” but am not answered;
I shout, but can get no justice.
8He has