Book Order Plan

¹Call out! Will anyone answer you? Which of the holy ones will you turn to?

²For anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible.

³I have seen a fool taking root, but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.

⁴His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the city gate, with no one to rescue them.

⁵The hungry consume his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns. The thirsty pant for his children’s wealth.

⁶For distress does not grow out of the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

⁷But humans are born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

⁸However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to him.

⁹He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

¹⁰He gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.

¹¹He sets the lowly on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.

¹³He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly brought to an end.

¹⁴They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.

¹⁵He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful.

¹⁶So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷See how happy is the person whom God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.

¹⁹He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.

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

²¹You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.

²²You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land’s wild creatures.

²³For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

²⁴You will know that your tent is secure, and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.

²⁵You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

²⁶You will approach the grave in full vigor, as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.

²⁷We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand it for yourself.

¹Then Job answered:

²If only my grief could be weighed and my devastation placed with it on the scales.

³For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas! That is why my words are rash.

⁴Surely the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks their poison. God’s terrors are arrayed against me.

⁵Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass or an ox low over its fodder?

⁶Is bland food eaten without salt? Is there flavor in an egg white?

⁷I refuse to touch them; they are like contaminated food.

⁸If only my request would be granted and God would provide what I hope for:

⁹that he would decide to crush me, to unleash his power and cut me off!

¹⁰It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

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

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

¹³Since I cannot help myself, the hope for success has been banished from me.

¹⁴A despairing man should receive loyalty from his friends, even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi, as seasonal streams that overflow

¹⁶and become darkened because of ice, and the snow melts into them.

¹⁷The wadis evaporate in warm weather; they disappear from their channels in hot weather.

¹⁸Caravans turn away from their routes, go up into the desert, and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema look for these streams. The traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.

²⁰They are ashamed because they had been confident of finding water. When they arrive there, they are disappointed.

²¹So this is what you have now become to me. When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.

²²Have I ever said: “Give me something” or “Pay a bribe for me from your wealth”

²³or “Deliver me from the enemy’s hand” or “Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless”?

²⁴Teach me, and I will be silent. Help me understand what I did wrong.

²⁵How painful honest words can be! But what does your rebuke prove?

²⁶Do you think that you can disprove my words or that a despairing man’s words are mere wind?

²⁷No doubt you would cast lots for a fatherless child and negotiate a price to sell your friend.

²⁸But now, please look at me; I will not lie to your face.

²⁹Reconsider; don’t be unjust. Reconsider; my righteousness is still the issue.

³⁰Is there injustice on my tongue or can my palate not taste disaster?

¹Isn’t each person consigned to forced labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired worker?

²Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hired worker he waits for his pay.

³So I have been made to inherit months of futility, and troubled nights have been assigned to me.

⁴When I lie down I think, “When will I get up?” But the evening drags on endlessly, and I toss and turn until dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt. My skin forms scabs and then oozes.

⁶My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

⁷Remember that my life is but a breath. My eye will never again see anything good.

⁸The eye of anyone who looks on me will no longer see me. Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.

⁹As a cloud fades away and vanishes, so the one who goes down to Sheol will never rise again.

¹⁰He will never return to his house; his hometown will no longer remember him.

¹¹Therefore I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the sea or a sea monster, that you keep me under guard?

¹³When I say, “My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint,”

¹⁴then you frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions,

¹⁵so that I prefer strangling  — death rather than life in this body.

¹⁶I give up! I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him?

¹⁸You inspect him every morning, and put him to the test every moment.

¹⁹Will you ever look away from me, or leave me alone long enough to swallow?

²⁰If I have sinned, what have I done to you, Watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to you?

²¹Why not forgive my sin and pardon my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the grave. You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²How long will you go on saying these things? Your words are a blast of wind.

³Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

⁴Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to their rebellion.

⁵But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,

⁶if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.

⁷Then, even if your beginnings were modest, your final days will be full of prosperity.

⁸For ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their fathers discovered,

⁹since we were born only yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are but a shadow.

¹⁰Will they not teach you and tell you and speak from their understanding?

¹¹Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water?

¹²While still uncut shoots, they would dry up quicker than any other plant.

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

¹⁴His source of confidence is fragile; what he trusts in is a spider’s web.

¹⁵He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm. He grabs it, but it does not hold up.

¹⁶He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine; his shoots spread out over his garden.

¹⁷His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks. He looks for a home among the stones.

¹⁸If he is uprooted from his place, it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”

¹⁹Surely this is the joy of his way of life; yet others will sprout from the dust.

²⁰Look, God does not reject a person of integrity, and he will not support evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy.

²²Your enemies will be clothed with shame; the tent of the wicked will no longer exist.