Job Chides His Accusers

1Then Job responded,

2“Truly then you are the people,

And with you wisdom will die!

3But I have intelligence as well as you;

I am not inferior to you.

And who does not know such things as these?

4I am a joke to my friends,

The one who called on God and He answered him;

The just and blameless man is a joke.

5He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt,

As prepared for those whose feet slip.

6The tents of the destroyers prosper,

And those who provoke God are secure,

Whom God brings into their power.

7“But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;

And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.

8Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;

And let the fish of the sea declare to you.

9Who among all these does not know

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

10In whose hand is the life of every living thing,

And the breath of all mankind?

11Does not the ear test words,

As the palate tastes its food?

12Wisdom is with aged men,

With long life is understanding.

Job Speaks of the Power of God

13“With Him are wisdom and might;

To Him belong counsel and understanding.

14Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt;

He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

15Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up;

And He sends them out, and they inundate the earth.

16With Him are strength and sound wisdom,

The misled and the misleader belong to Him.

17He makes counselors walk barefoot

And makes fools of judges.

18He loosens the bond of kings

And binds their loins with a girdle.

19He makes priests walk barefoot

And overthrows the secure ones.

20He deprives the trusted ones of speech

And takes away the discernment of the elders.

21He pours contempt on nobles

And loosens the belt of the strong.

22He reveals mysteries from the darkness

And brings the deep darkness into light.

23He makes the nations great, then destroys them;

He enlarges the nations, then leads them away.

24He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people

And makes them wander in a pathless waste.

25They grope in darkness with no light,

And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Job Says His Friends’ Proverbs Are Ashes

1“Behold, my eye has seen all this,

My ear has heard and understood it.

2What you know I also know;

I am not inferior to you.

3“But I would speak to the Almighty,

And I desire to argue with God.

4But you smear with lies;

You are all worthless physicians.

5O that you would be completely silent,

And that it would become your wisdom!

6Please hear my argument

And listen to the contentions of my lips.

7Will you speak what is unjust for God,

And speak what is deceitful for Him?

8Will you show partiality for Him?

Will you contend for God?

9Will it be well when He examines you?

Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man?

10He will surely reprove you

If you secretly show partiality.

11Will not His majesty terrify you,

And the dread of Him fall on you?

12Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes,

Your defenses are defenses of clay.

Job Is Sure He Will Be Vindicated

13“Be silent before me so that I may speak;

Then let come on me what may.

14Why should I take my flesh in my teeth

And put my life in my hands?

15Though He slay me,

I will hope in Him.

Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.

16This also will be my salvation,

For a godless man may not come before His presence.

17Listen carefully to my speech,

And let my declaration fill your ears.

18Behold now, I have prepared my case;

I know that I will be vindicated.

19Who will contend with me?

For then I would be silent and die.

20“Only two things do not do to me,

Then I will not hide from Your face:

21Remove Your hand from me,

And let not the dread of You terrify me.

22Then call, and I will answer;

Or let me speak, then reply to me.

23How many are my iniquities and sins?

Make known to me my rebellion and my sin.

24Why do You hide Your face

And consider me Your enemy?

25Will You cause a driven leaf to tremble?

Or will You pursue the dry chaff?

26For You write bitter things against me

And make me to inherit the iniquities of my youth.

27You put my feet in the stocks

And watch all my paths;

You set a limit for the soles of my feet,

28While I am decaying like a rotten thing,

Like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Job Speaks of the Finality of Death

1“Man, who is born of woman,

Is short-lived and full of turmoil.

2Like a flower he comes forth and withers.

He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.

3You also open Your eyes on him

And bring him into judgment with Yourself.

4Who can make the clean out of the unclean?

No one!

5Since his days are determined,

The number of his months is with You;

And his limits You have set so that he cannot pass.

6Turn Your gaze from him that he may rest,

Until he fulfills his day like a hired man.

7“For there is hope for a tree,

When it is cut down, that it will sprout again,

And its shoots will not fail.

8Though its roots grow old in the ground

And its stump dies in the dry soil,

9At the scent of water it will flourish

And put forth sprigs like a plant.

10But man dies and lies prostrate.

Man expires, and where is he?

11As water evaporates from the sea,

And a river becomes parched and dried up,

12So man lies down and does not rise.

Until the heavens are no longer,

He will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep.

13“Oh that You would hide me in Sheol,

That You would conceal me until Your wrath returns to You,

That You would set a limit for me and remember me!

14If a man dies, will he live again?

All the days of my struggle I will wait

Until my change comes.

15You will call, and I will answer You;

You will long for the work of Your hands.

16For now You number my steps,

You do not observe my sin.

17My transgression is sealed up in a bag,

And You wrap up my iniquity.

18“But the falling mountain crumbles away,

And the rock moves from its place;

19Water wears away stones,

Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth;

So You destroy man’s hope.

20You forever overpower him and he departs;

You change his appearance and send him away.

21His sons achieve honor, but he does not know it;

Or they become insignificant, but he does not perceive it.

22But his body pains him,

And he mourns only for himself.”

Eliphaz Says Job Presumes Much

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded,

2“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge

And fill himself with the east wind?

3Should he argue with useless talk,

Or with words which are not profitable?

4Indeed, you do away with reverence

And hinder meditation before God.

5For your guilt teaches your mouth,

And you choose the language of the crafty.

6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;

And your own lips testify against you.

7“Were you the first man to be born,

Or were you brought forth before the hills?

8Do you hear the secret counsel of God,

And limit wisdom to yourself?

9What do you know that we do not know?

What do you understand that we do not?

10Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,

Older than your father.

11Are the consolations of God too small for you,

Even the word spoken gently with you?

12Why does your heart carry you away?

And why do your eyes flash,

13That you should turn your spirit against God

And allow such words to go out of your mouth?

14What is man, that he should be pure,

Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones,

And the heavens are not pure in His sight;

16How much less one who is detestable and corrupt,

Man, who drinks iniquity like water!

What Eliphaz Has Seen of Life

17“I will tell you, listen to me;

And what I have seen I will also declare;

18What wise men have told,

And have not concealed from their fathers,

19To whom alone the land was given,

And no alien passed among them.

20The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,

And numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless.

21Sounds of terror are in his ears;

While at peace the destroyer comes upon him.

22He does not believe that he will return from darkness,

And he is destined for the sword.

23He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that a day of darkness is at hand.

24Distress and anguish terrify him,

They overpower him like a king ready for the attack,

25Because he has stretched out his hand against God

And conducts himself arrogantly against the Almighty.

26He rushes headlong at Him

With his massive shield.

27For he has covered his face with his fat

And made his thighs heavy with flesh.

28He has lived in desolate cities,

In houses no one would inhabit,

Which are destined to become ruins.

29He will not become rich, nor will his wealth endure;

And his grain will not bend down to the ground.

30He will not escape from darkness;

The flame will wither his shoots,

And by the breath of His mouth he will go away.

31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;

For emptiness will be his reward.

32It will be accomplished before his time,

And his palm branch will not be green.

33He will drop off his unripe grape like the vine,

And will cast off his flower like the olive tree.

34For the company of the godless is barren,

And fire consumes the tents of the corrupt.

35They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity,

And their mind prepares deception.”

29Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? 30Why are we also in danger every hour? 31I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 33Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” 34Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

35But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” 36You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; 37and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. 39All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. 40There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

42So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 48As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

The Mystery of Resurrection

50Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

PSALM 39

The Vanity of Life.

For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

1I said, “I will guard my ways

That I may not sin with my tongue;

I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle

While the wicked are in my presence.”

2I was mute and silent,

I refrained even from good,

And my sorrow grew worse.

3My heart was hot within me,

While I was musing the fire burned;

Then I spoke with my tongue:

4“Lord, make me to know my end

And what is the extent of my days;

Let me know how transient I am.

5Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,

And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;

Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.

6Surely every man walks about as a phantom;

Surely they make an uproar for nothing;

He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.

7“And now, Lord, for what do I wait?

My hope is in You.

8Deliver me from all my transgressions;

Make me not the reproach of the foolish.

9I have become mute, I do not open my mouth,

Because it is You who have done it.

10Remove Your plague from me;

Because of the opposition of Your hand I am perishing.

11With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity;

You consume as a moth what is precious to him;

Surely every man is a mere breath. Selah.

12“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry;

Do not be silent at my tears;

For I am a stranger with You,

A sojourner like all my fathers.

13Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again

Before I depart and am no more.”

30There is no wisdom and no understanding

And no counsel against the Lord.

31The horse is prepared for the day of battle,

But victory belongs to the Lord.