Chronological Plan

¹Then Job answered:

²Pay close attention to my words; let this be the consolation you offer.

³Bear with me while I speak; then after I have spoken, you may continue mocking.

⁴As for me, is my complaint against a human being? Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?

⁵Look at me and shudder; put your hand over your mouth.

⁶When I think about it, I am terrified and my body trembles in horror.

⁷Why do the wicked continue to live, growing old and becoming powerful?

⁸Their children are established while they are still alive, and their descendants, before their eyes.

⁹Their homes are secure and free of fear; no rod from God strikes them.

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.

¹¹They let their little ones run around like lambs; their children skip about,

¹²singing to the tambourine and lyre and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.

¹⁴Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone! We don’t want to know your ways.

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what will we gain by pleading with him?”

¹⁶But their prosperity is not of their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come on them? Does he apportion destruction in his anger?

¹⁸Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff a storm sweeps away?

¹⁹God reserves a person’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the person himself, so that he may know it.

²⁰Let his own eyes see his demise; let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!

²¹For what does he care about his family once he is dead, when the number of his months has run out?

²²Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges the exalted ones?

²³One person dies in excellent health, completely secure and at ease.

²⁴His body is well fed, and his bones are full of marrow.

²⁵Yet another person dies with a bitter soul, having never tasted prosperity.

²⁶But they both lie in the dust, and worms cover them.

²⁷I know your thoughts very well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.

²⁸For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house?” and “Where are the tents the wicked lived in?”

²⁹Have you never consulted those who travel the roads? Don’t you accept their reports?

³⁰Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster, rescued from the day of wrath.

³¹Who would denounce his behavior to his face? Who would repay him for what he has done?

³²He is carried to the grave, and someone keeps watch over his tomb.

³³The dirt on his grave is sweet to him. Everyone follows behind him, and those who go before him are without number.

³⁴So how can you offer me such futile comfort? Your answers are deceptive.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²Can a man be of any use to God? Can even a wise man be of use to him?

³Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous? Does he profit if you perfect your behavior?

⁴Does he correct you and take you to court because of your piety?

⁵Isn’t your wickedness abundant and aren’t your iniquities endless?

⁶For you took collateral from your brothers without cause, stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.

⁷You gave no water to the thirsty and withheld food from the famished,

⁸while the land belonged to a powerful man and an influential man lived on it.

⁹You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares surround you, and sudden dread terrifies you,

¹¹or darkness, so you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

¹²Isn’t God as high as the heavens? And look at the highest stars — how lofty they are!

¹³Yet you say, “What does God know? Can he judge through total darkness?

¹⁴Clouds veil him so that he cannot see, as he walks on the circle of the sky.”

¹⁵Will you continue on the ancient path that wicked men have walked?

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were washed away by a river.

¹⁷They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!” and “What can the Almighty do to us?”

¹⁸But it was he who filled their houses with good things. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

¹⁹The righteous see this and rejoice; the innocent mock them, saying,

²⁰“Surely our opponents are destroyed, and fire has consumed what they left behind.”

²¹Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.

²²Receive instruction from his mouth, and place his sayings in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed. If you banish injustice from your tent

²⁴and consign your gold to the dust, the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis,

²⁵the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver.

²⁶Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

²⁸When you make a decision, it will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,” God will save the humble.

³⁰He will even rescue the guilty one, who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.

¹Then Job answered:

²Today also my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

³If only I knew how to find him, so that I could go to his throne.

⁴I would plead my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn how he would answer me; and understand what he would say to me.

⁶Would he prosecute me forcefully? No, he would certainly pay attention to me.

⁷Then an upright man could reason with him, and I would escape from my Judge forever.

⁸If I go east, he is not there, and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.

⁹When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him; when he turns south, I cannot find him.

¹⁰Yet he knows the way I have taken; when he has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.

¹¹My feet have followed in his tracks; I have kept to his way and not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from the commands from his lips; I have treasured the words from his mouth more than my daily food.

¹³But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him? He does what he desires.

¹⁴He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me, and he has many more things like these in mind.

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified in his presence; when I consider this, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Yet I am not destroyed by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.