Chronological Plan

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.

¹Then Job answered:

²Yes, I know what you’ve said is true, but how can a person be justified before God?

³If one wanted to take him to court, he could not answer God once in a thousand times.

⁴God is wise and all-powerful. Who has opposed him and come out unharmed?

⁵He removes mountains without their knowledge, overturning them in his anger.

⁶He shakes the earth from its place so that its pillars tremble.

⁷He commands the sun not to shine and seals off the stars.

⁸He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

⁹He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.

¹⁰He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

¹¹If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.

¹²If he snatches something, who can stop him? Who can ask him, “What are you doing?”

¹³God does not hold back his anger; Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him!

¹⁴How then can I answer him or choose my arguments against him?

¹⁵Even if I were in the right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.

¹⁷He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause.

¹⁸He doesn’t let me catch my breath but fills me with bitter experiences.

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?

²⁰Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.

²¹Though I am blameless, I no longer care about myself; I renounce my life.

²²It is all the same. Therefore I say, “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”

²³When catastrophe brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is handed over to the wicked; he blindfolds its judges. If it isn’t he, then who is it?

²⁵My days fly by faster than a runner; they flee without seeing any good.

²⁶They sweep by like boats made of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

²⁷If I said, “I will forget my complaint, change my expression, and smile,”

²⁸I would still live in terror of all my pains. I know you will not acquit me.

²⁹Since I will be found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹then you dip me in a pit of mud, and my own clothes despise me!

³²For he is not a man like me, that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court.

³³There is no mediator between us, to lay his hand on both of us.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me so his terror will no longer frighten me.

³⁵Then I would speak and not fear him. But that is not the case; I am on my own.