Job 26:1-14, Job 27:1-23, Job 28:1-28, Job 29:1-31:40 - LSB - Legacy Standard Bible

Job 26:1-14

Who Can Understand God?

Then Job answered and said,
2

“What a help you are to ^athe one without power!

How you have saved the arm ^bwithout strength!

What counsel you have given to one without wisdom!

What sound wisdom you have abundantly made known!

To whom have you declared words?

And whose breath comes out from you?

“The ¹^adeparted spirits tremble

Under the waters and their inhabitants.

Naked is ^aSheol before Him,

And ¹^bAbaddon has no covering.

He ^astretches out the north over what is formless

And hangs the earth on nothing.

He ^awraps up the waters in His clouds,

And the cloud does not break out under them.

He ¹^aobscures the face of His ²throne

And spreads His cloud over it.

He has marked a ^acircle on the surface of the waters

At the ^bboundary of light and darkness.

The pillars of heaven tremble

And are astonished at His rebuke.

He ^aquieted the sea with His power,

And by His ^bunderstanding He crushed ^cRahab.

By His breath the ^aheavens are made beautiful;

His hand has pierced ^bthe fleeing serpent.

Behold, these are the fringes of His ways;

And how only with a whisper of ^aa word do we hear of Him!

But His mighty ^bthunder, who can understand?”

Job 27:1-23

I Hold Fast My Righteousness

Then Job continued to lift up his ¹^adiscourse and said,
2

“As God lives, ^awho has removed my justice,

And the Almighty, ^bwho has embittered my soul,

For as long as breath is in me,

And the ^aspirit from God is in my nostrils,

My lips certainly will not speak unrighteousness,

Nor will ^amy tongue utter deceit.

Far be it from me that I should declare you right;

Till I breathe my last ^aI will not remove my integrity from me.

I ^ahold fast my righteousness and will not let it go.

My heart does not reproach any of my days.

“May my enemy be as the wicked

And the one who rises against me as the unjust.

For what is ^athe hope of the godless ¹when he is cut off,

When God requires ^bhis ²soul?

Will God ^ahear his cry

When ^bdistress comes upon him?

Will he take ^adelight in the Almighty?

Will he call on God at all times?

I will instruct you in the ¹power of God;

What is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

Behold, all of you have seen it;

Why then do you speak with utter vanity?

“This is ^athe portion of a wicked man from God,

And the inheritance which the ^bruthless receive from the Almighty.

Though his sons are many, ¹they are destined ^afor the sword;

And his ^boffspring will not be satisfied with bread.

His survivors will be buried because of the plague,

And ¹their ^awidows will not be able to weep.

Though he piles up silver like dust

And prepares garments as plentiful as the clay,

He may prepare it, ^abut the righteous will wear it,

And the innocent will divide the silver.

He has built his ^ahouse like the ¹moth,

Or as a hut which the watchman has made.

He lies down rich, but never ¹again;

He opens his eyes, and ^ait is no longer.

^aTerrors overtake him like many waters;

A tempest steals him away ^bin the night.

The east ^awind carries him away, and he goes,

And it whirls him ^baway from his place.

For it will hurl at him ^awithout sparing;

He will surely try to ^bflee from its ¹power.

Men will clap their hands at him

And will ^ahiss him from his place.

Job 28:1-28

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

“¹Surely there is a ²mine for silver,

And a place ³where they refine for gold.

Iron is taken from the dust,

And copper is smelted from rock.

Man puts an end to darkness,

And ^ato the farthest limit he searches out

The rock in thick darkness and shadow of death.

He ¹sinks a shaft far from ²habitation,

Forgotten by the foot;

They hang and swing to and fro far from men.

The earth, from it comes food,

And underneath it is overturned as fire.

Its rocks are the ¹source of sapphires,

And its dust contains gold.

The path no bird of prey knows,

Nor has the falcon’s eye caught sight of it.

The ¹proud beasts have not trodden it,

Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

He sends his hand forth to the flint;

He overturns the mountains at the ¹base.

He breaks out channels through the rocks,

And his eye sees anything precious.

He dams up the streams from ¹flowing,

And what is hidden he brings out to the light.

“But ^awhere can wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

^aMan does not know its worth,

And it is not found in the land of the living.

The deep says, ‘It is not in me’;

And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

^aPure gold cannot be given in place of it,

Nor can silver be weighed as its price.

It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

In precious onyx or sapphire.

^aGold or glass cannot meet its worth,

Nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold.

Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned;

And the acquisition of ^awisdom is above that of pearls.

The topaz of ¹Ethiopia cannot meet its worth,

Nor can it be valued in ^apure gold.

^aWhere then does wisdom come from?

And where is the place of understanding?

Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living

And concealed from the birds of the sky.

¹^aAbaddon and Death say,

‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’

“^aGod understands its way,

And He knows its place.

For He ^alooks to the ends of the earth

And sees everything under the heavens.

When He set ^aweight to the wind

And ^bmeted out the waters by measure,

When He set a ^alimit for the rain

And a course for the ^bthunderbolt,

Then He saw it and recounted it;

He established it and also searched it out.

So He said to man, ‘Behold, the ^afear of the Lord, that is wisdom;

And to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Job 29:1-31:40

Job Continues His Discourse

And Job continued to lift up his ¹^adiscourse and said,
2

“Oh that I were as in months gone by,

As in the days when God ^akept me,

When ^aHis lamp shone over my head,

And ^bby His light I walked through darkness,

As I was in ¹the prime of my days,

When the ^aintimate counsel with God was over my tent,

When ¹the Almighty was yet with me,

And my children were around me,

When my steps were bathed in ^abutter,

And the ^brock poured out for me streams of oil!

When I went out to ^athe gate of the city,

When I ¹took my seat in the square,

The young men saw me and hid,

And the old men arose and stood.

The princes ^astopped talking

And ^bput their hands on their mouths;

The voice of the nobles was ^ahidden away,

And their ^btongue clung to their palate.

For ^athe ear heard, and it called me blessed,

And the eye saw, and it gave witness of me,

Because I provided escape for ^athe afflicted who cried for help,

And the ^borphan who had no helper.

The blessing of the one ^aready to perish came upon me,

And I made the ^bwidow’s heart sing for joy.

I ^aclothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed me;

My justice was like a robe and a turban.

I was ^aeyes to the blind

And feet to the lame.

I was a father to ^athe needy,

And I searched out the case which I did not know.

I ^abroke the fangs of the unjust

And snatched the prey from his teeth.

Then I ¹said, ‘I will breathe my last ²in my nest,

And I shall multiply my days as the sand.

My ^aroot is spread out to the waters,

And ^bdew lies all night on my branch.

My glory is ever new with me,

And my ^abow is renewed in my hand.’

“To me ^athey listened and waited,

And kept silent for my counsel.

After my words they did not ^aspeak again,

And ^bmy speech dropped on them.

They waited for me as for the rain,

And opened their mouth as for the ¹late rain.

I laughed with them as they could not believe it,

And the light of my face they did not cast down.

I chose a way for them and sat as their ^ahead,

And dwelt as a king among the troops,

As one who ^bcomforted the mourners.

“But now those younger than I ^alaugh at me,

Whose fathers I rejected even to put with the dogs of my flock.

Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?

Vigor had perished from them.

From want and famine they are gaunt,

Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation,

Who pluck ¹mallow by the bushes,

And whose food is the root of the broom tree.

They are driven from the community;

They shout against them as against a thief,

So that they dwell in the slopes of the ¹valleys,

In holes of the dust and of the rocks.

Among the bushes they ¹cry out;

Under the nettles they are gathered together.

¹Wicked fools, even ²those without a name,

They were scourged from the land.

“And now I have become their mocking ^asong;

I have even become a ^btaunting word to them.

They abhor me and keep a distance from me,

And they do not ¹hold back from ^aspitting at my face.

Because ¹He has loosed ²His ³bowstring and ^aafflicted me,

They have thrust aside ^btheir bridle before me.

On the right hand their ¹brood arises;

They ^athrust aside my feet ^band build up against me their ways to disaster.

They ^abreak up my path;

They profit ¹from my destruction;

They have no helper.

As through a wide breach they come,

¹Amid the storm they roll on.

^aTerrors are turned against me;

They pursue my nobility as the wind,

And my hope for salvation has passed away ^blike a cloud.

“And now ^amy soul is poured out ¹within me;

Days of affliction have seized me.

At night it pierces ^amy bones ¹within me,

And my gnawing pains take no rest.

By a great force my garment is ^adistorted;

It seizes me about as the collar of my tunic.

He has cast me into the ^amire,

And I have become like dust and ashes.

I ^acry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;

I stand up, and You carefully consider how to be against me.

You have ¹become cruel to me;

With the might of Your hand You ^ahunted me down.

You ^alift me up to the wind and cause me to ride;

And You melt me away in a storm.

For I know that You ^awill bring me to death

And to the ^bhouse of meeting for all living.

“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

Or, in his upheaval, is there a ^acry for help because of them?

Have I not ^awept for the ¹one whose life is hard?

Was not my soul grieved for ^bthe needy?

When I ^ahoped for good, then evil came;

When I waited for light, ^bthen thick darkness came.

¹I am boiling ^awithin and cannot be silent;

Days of affliction confront me.

I go about ^adarkened but not by the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and ^bcry out for help.

I have become a brother to ^ajackals

And a companion of ostriches.

My ^askin turns black ¹on me,

And my ^bbones burn with ²fever.

Therefore my ^aharp ¹is turned to mourning,

And my flute to the sound of those who weep.

“I have cut a covenant with my ^aeyes;

How then could I gaze at a virgin?

And what is ^athe portion of God from above

Or the inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

Is it not ^adisaster to the unjust

And misfortune to ^bthose who work iniquity?

Does He not ^asee my ways

And ^bnumber all my steps?

“If I have ^awalked with worthlessness,

And my foot has hastened after deceit,

Let Him ^aweigh me with ¹just scales,

And let God know ^bmy integrity.

If my step has ^aturned from the way,

Or my heart ¹followed my eyes,

Or if any ^bspot has stuck to my hands,

Let me ^asow and another eat,

And let my ¹^bcrops be uprooted.

“If my heart has been ^aenticed by a woman,

Or I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s doorway,

May my wife ^agrind for another,

And let ^bothers ¹kneel down over her.

For that would be ^alewdness;

Moreover, it would be ^ban iniquity punishable by judges.

For it would be ^afire that consumes to ¹^bAbaddon,

And would ^cuproot all my ²produce.

“If I have ^arejected the justice of my male or female ¹slaves

When they filed a complaint against me,

What then could I do when God arises?

And when He calls me to account, with what will I respond to Him?

Did not ^aHe who made me in the womb make him,

And the same one fashion us in the womb?

“If I have held back ^athe poor from their desire,

Or have caused the eyes of ^bthe widow to fail,

Or have ^aeaten my morsel alone,

And ^bthe orphan has not eaten from it

(But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,

And from the womb of my mother I guided her),

If I have seen anyone perish ^afor lack of clothing,

Or that ^bthe needy had no covering,

If his loins have not blessed me,

And if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep,

If I have waved my hand against ^athe orphan

Because I saw my help ^bin the gate,

Let my shoulder fall from the ¹socket,

And my ^aarm be broken off ²at the elbow.

For ^adisaster from God is a dread to me,

And because of ^bHis exaltedness I can do nothing.

“If I have put my confidence in ^agold,

And called fine gold my trust,

If I have ^abeen glad because my wealth was great,

And because my hand had found so much,

If I have ^alooked at the ¹sun when it shone

Or the moon going in splendor,

And my heart became secretly enticed,

And my hand ¹threw a kiss from my mouth,

That too would have been ^aan iniquity calling for ¹judgment,

For I would have ^bdenied God above.

“If I ^ahave been glad at the upheaval of the one who hated me,

Or ¹exulted when evil found him—

But ^aI have not given over my ¹mouth to sin

By asking for his life in ^ba curse—

If the men of my tent have not said,

‘Who can ¹find one who has not been ^asatisfied with his meat’—

The sojourner has not lodged outside,

For I have opened my doors to the ¹traveler—

If I have ^acovered my transgressions like ¹Adam,

By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,

Because I ^afeared the great multitude,

And the contempt of families terrified me,

And I kept silent and did not go out of doors—

Oh that I had one to hear me!

Behold, here is my ¹signature;

^aLet the Almighty answer me!

And the indictment which my ^baccuser has written,

Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;

I would bind it to myself like a crown.

I would declare to Him ^athe number of my steps;

Like ^ba prince I would approach Him—

“If my ^aland cries out against me,

And its furrows weep together,

If I have ^aeaten its ¹fruit without money,

Or have ^bcaused ²its owners to lose their lives,

Let ^abriars come out instead of wheat,

And stinkweed instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.