Chronological Plan

¹Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why do those who know him never see his days?

²The wicked displace boundary markers. They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.

³They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless and take the widow’s ox as collateral.

⁴They push the needy off the road; the poor of the land are forced into hiding.

⁵Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor go out to their task of foraging for food; the desert provides nourishment for their children.

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

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

⁸Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks, shelterless.

⁹The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.

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

¹¹They crush olives in their presses; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

¹²From the city, men groan; the mortally wounded cry for help, yet God pays no attention to this crime.

¹³The wicked are those who rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways or stay on its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises at dawn to kill the poor and needy, and by night he becomes a thief.

¹⁵The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight, thinking, “No eye will see me,” and he covers his face.

¹⁶In the dark they break into houses; by day they lock themselves in, never experiencing the light.

¹⁷For the morning is like darkness to them. Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!

¹⁸They float on the surface of the water. Their section of the land is cursed, so that they never go to their vineyards.

¹⁹As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.

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

²¹They prey on the childless woman who is unable to conceive, and do not deal kindly with the widow.

²²Yet God drags away the mighty by his power; when he rises up, they have no assurance of life.

²³He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it, but his eyes watch over their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a moment, then gone; they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else. They wither like heads of grain.

²⁵If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar and show that my speech is worthless?

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²Dominion and dread belong to him, the one who establishes harmony in his heights.

³Can his troops be numbered? Does his light not shine on everyone?

⁴How can a human be justified 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 a human, who is a maggot, a son of man, who is a worm!

¹Then Job answered:

²How you have helped the powerless and delivered the arm that is weak!

³How you have counseled the unwise and abundantly provided insight!

⁴With whom did you speak these words? Whose breath came out of your mouth?

⁵The departed spirits tremble beneath the waters and all that inhabit them.

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

⁷He stretches the northern skies over empty space; he hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He wraps up the water in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst beneath its weight.

⁹He obscures the view of his throne, spreading his cloud over it.

¹⁰He laid out the horizon on the surface of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars that hold up the sky tremble, astounded at his rebuke.

¹²By his power he stirred the sea, and by his understanding he crushed Rahab.

¹³By his breath the heavens gained their beauty; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

¹⁴These are but the fringes of his ways; how faint is the word we hear of him! Who can understand his mighty thunder?

¹Job continued his discourse, saying:

²As God lives, who has deprived me of justice, and the Almighty who has made me bitter,

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

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

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

⁶I will cling to my righteousness and never let it go. My conscience will not accuse me as long as I live!

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

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

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

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

¹¹I will teach you about God’s power. I will not conceal what the Almighty has planned.

¹²All of you have seen this for yourselves, why do you keep up this empty talk?

¹³This is a wicked man’s lot from God, the inheritance the ruthless receive from the Almighty.

¹⁴Even if his children increase, they are destined for the sword; his descendants will never have enough food.

¹⁵Those who survive him will be buried by the plague, yet their widows will not weep for them.

¹⁶Though he piles up silver like dust and heaps up fine clothing like clay —

¹⁷he may heap it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide up his silver.

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

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

²⁰Terrors overtake him like a flood; a storm wind sweeps him away at night.

²¹An east wind picks him up, and he is gone; it carries him away from his place.

²²It blasts at him without mercy, while he flees desperately from its force.

²³It claps its hands at him and scoffs at him from its place.

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

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

³A miner puts an end to the darkness; he probes the deepest recesses for ore in the gloomy darkness.

⁴He cuts a shaft far from human habitation, in places unknown to those who walk above ground. Suspended far away from people, the miners swing back and forth.

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

⁶Its rocks are a source of lapis lazuli, containing flecks of gold.

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

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

⁹The miner uses a flint tool and turns up ore from the root of the mountains.

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

¹¹He dams up the streams from flowing so that he may bring to light what is hidden.

¹²But where can wisdom be found, and where is understanding located?

¹³No one can know its value, since it cannot be found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,” while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”

¹⁵Gold cannot be exchanged for it, and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.

¹⁶Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or lapis lazuli.

¹⁷Gold and glass do not compare with it, and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.

¹⁸Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning. The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.

¹⁹Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it, and it cannot be valued in pure gold.

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from, and where is understanding located?

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

²²Abaddon and Death say, “We have heard news of it with our ears.”

²³But God understands the way to wisdom, and he knows its location.

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

²⁵When God fixed the weight of the wind and distributed the water by measure,

²⁶when he established a limit for the rain and a path for the lightning,

²⁷he considered wisdom and evaluated it; he established it and examined it.

²⁸He said to mankind, “The fear of the LORD—that is wisdom. And to turn from evil is understanding.”