Job: What Can I Say?

1Then the Lord said to Job,

2“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

Let him who reproves God answer it.”

3Then Job answered the Lord and said,

4“Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

5Once I have spoken, and I will not answer;

Even twice, and I will add nothing more.”

God Questions Job

6Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm and said,

7“Now gird up your loins like a man;

I will ask you, and you instruct Me.

8Will you really annul My judgment?

Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?

9Or do you have an arm like God,

And can you thunder with a voice like His?

10“Adorn yourself with eminence and dignity,

And clothe yourself with honor and majesty.

11Pour out the overflowings of your anger,

And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.

12Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him,

And tread down the wicked where they stand.

13Hide them in the dust together;

Bind them in the hidden place.

14Then I will also confess to you,

That your own right hand can save you.

God’s Power Shown in Creatures

15“Behold now, Behemoth, which I made as well as you;

He eats grass like an ox.

16Behold now, his strength in his loins

And his power in the muscles of his belly.

17He bends his tail like a cedar;

The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

18His bones are tubes of bronze;

His limbs are like bars of iron.

19“He is the first of the ways of God;

Let his maker bring near his sword.

20Surely the mountains bring him food,

And all the beasts of the field play there.

21Under the lotus plants he lies down,

In the covert of the reeds and the marsh.

22The lotus plants cover him with shade;

The willows of the brook surround him.

23If a river rages, he is not alarmed;

He is confident, though the Jordan rushes to his mouth.

24Can anyone capture him when he is on watch,

With barbs can anyone pierce his nose?

God’s Power Shown in Creatures

1“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?

Or press down his tongue with a cord?

2Can you put a rope in his nose

Or pierce his jaw with a hook?

3Will he make many supplications to you,

Or will he speak to you soft words?

4Will he make a covenant with you?

Will you take him for a servant forever?

5Will you play with him as with a bird,

Or will you bind him for your maidens?

6Will the traders bargain over him?

Will they divide him among the merchants?

7Can you fill his skin with harpoons,

Or his head with fishing spears?

8Lay your hand on him;

Remember the battle; you will not do it again!

9Behold, your expectation is false;

Will you be laid low even at the sight of him?

10No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse him;

Who then is he that can stand before Me?

11Who has given to Me that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.

12“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,

Or his mighty strength, or his orderly frame.

13Who can strip off his outer armor?

Who can come within his double mail?

14Who can open the doors of his face?

Around his teeth there is terror.

15His strong scales are his pride,

Shut up as with a tight seal.

16One is so near to another

That no air can come between them.

17They are joined one to another;

They clasp each other and cannot be separated.

18His sneezes flash forth light,

And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19Out of his mouth go burning torches;

Sparks of fire leap forth.

20Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth

As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

21His breath kindles coals,

And a flame goes forth from his mouth.

22In his neck lodges strength,

And dismay leaps before him.

23The folds of his flesh are joined together,

Firm on him and immovable.

24His heart is as hard as a stone,

Even as hard as a lower millstone.

25When he raises himself up, the mighty fear;

Because of the crashing they are bewildered.

26The sword that reaches him cannot avail,

Nor the spear, the dart or the javelin.

27He regards iron as straw,

Bronze as rotten wood.

28The arrow cannot make him flee;

Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.

29Clubs are regarded as stubble;

He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.

30His underparts are like sharp potsherds;

He spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mire.

31He makes the depths boil like a pot;

He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

32Behind him he makes a wake to shine;

One would think the deep to be gray-haired.

33Nothing on earth is like him,

One made without fear.

34He looks on everything that is high;

He is king over all the sons of pride.”

Job’s Confession

1Then Job answered the Lord and said,

2“I know that You can do all things,

And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.

3‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’

Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,

Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

4‘Hear, now, and I will speak;

I will ask You, and You instruct me.’

5I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;

But now my eye sees You;

6Therefore I retract,

And I repent in dust and ashes.”

God Displeased with Job’s Friends

7It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. 8Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” 9So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job.

God Restores Job’s Fortunes

10The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. 11Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. 12The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. 13He had seven sons and three daughters. 14He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. 16After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. 17And Job died, an old man and full of days.