Chronological Plan

¹“Why are times not kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?

²The wicked remove landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them.

³They drive away the donkey of the orphan; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

⁴They thrust the needy off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

⁵Like wild asses in the desert they go out to their toil, scavenging in the wasteland food for their young.

⁶They reap in a field not their own and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

⁸They are wet with the rain of the mountains, and cling to the rock for want of shelter.

⁹“There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast, and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.

¹⁰They go about naked, without clothing; though hungry, they carry the sheaves;

¹¹between their terraces they press out oil; they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.

¹²From the city the dying groan, and the throat of the wounded cries for help; yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

¹³“There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises at dusk to kill the poor and needy, and in the night is like a thief.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me’; and he disguises his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light.

¹⁷For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

¹⁸“Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion in the land is cursed; no treader turns toward their vineyards.

¹⁹Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered; so wickedness is broken like a tree.

²¹“They harm the childless woman, and do no good to the widow.

²²Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life.

²³He gives them security, and they are supported; his eyes are upon their ways.

²⁴They are exalted a little while, and then are gone; they wither and fade like the mallow; they are cut off like the heads of grain.

²⁵If it is not so, who will prove me a liar, and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

²“Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.

³Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise?

⁴How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure?

⁵If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his sight,

⁶how much less a mortal, who is a maggot, and a human being, who is a worm!”

¹Then Job answered:

²“How you have helped one who has no power! How you have assisted the arm that has no strength!

³How you have counseled one who has no wisdom, and given much good advice!

⁴With whose help have you uttered words, and whose spirit has come forth from you?

⁵The shades below tremble, the waters and their inhabitants.

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

⁷He stretches out Zaphon over the void, and hangs the earth upon nothing.

⁸He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not torn open by them.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon, and spreads over it his cloud.

¹⁰He has described a circle on the face of the waters, at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astounded at his rebuke.

¹²By his power he stilled the Sea; by his understanding he struck down Rahab.

¹³By his wind the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

¹⁴These are indeed but the outskirts of his ways; and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

¹Job again took up his discourse and said:

²“As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,

³as long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

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

⁵Far be it from me to say that you are right; until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

⁶I hold fast my righteousness, and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

⁷“May my enemy be like the wicked, and may my opponent be like the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts them off, when God takes away their lives?

⁹Will God hear their cry when trouble comes upon them?

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

¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of God; that which is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹²All of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

¹³“This is the portion of the wicked with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

¹⁴If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and their offspring have not enough to eat.

¹⁵Those who survive them the pestilence buries, and their widows make no lamentation.

¹⁶Though they heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay —

¹⁷they may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸They build their houses like nests, like booths made by sentinels of the vineyard.

¹⁹They go to bed with wealth, but will do so no more; they open their eyes, and it is gone.

²⁰Terrors overtake them like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries them off.

²¹The east wind lifts them up and they are gone; it sweeps them out of their place.

²²It hurls at them without pity; they flee from its power in headlong flight.

²³It claps its hands at them, and hisses at them from its place.

¹“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold to be refined.

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

³Miners put an end to darkness, and search out to the farthest bound the ore in gloom and deep darkness.

⁴They open shafts in a valley away from human habitation; they are forgotten by travelers, they sway suspended, remote from people.

⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread; but underneath it is turned up as by fire.

⁶Its stones are the place of sapphires, and its dust contains gold.

⁷“That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

⁸The proud wild animals have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it.

⁹“They put their hand to the flinty rock, and overturn mountains by the roots.

¹⁰They cut out channels in the rocks, and their eyes see every precious thing.

¹¹The sources of the rivers they probe; hidden things they bring to light.

¹²“But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?

¹³Mortals do not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵It cannot be gotten for gold, and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.

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

¹⁷Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls.

¹⁹The chrysolite of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰“Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air.

²²Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

²³“God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.

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

²⁵When he gave to the wind its weight, and apportioned out the waters by measure;

²⁶when he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the thunderbolt;

²⁷then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out.

²⁸And he said to humankind, ‘Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’”