Job 14:22-19:26

English Standard Version

² “Should ^(B)a wise man answer with ^(C)windy knowledge,
    and fill his ^(D)belly with ^(E)the east wind?
³ Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
    or in words with which he can do no good?
⁴ But you are doing away with the fear of God^[a]
    and hindering meditation before God.
⁵ For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
    and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
⁶ Your ^(F)own mouth condemns you, and not I;
    ^(G)your own lips testify against you.

^7 (H)“Are you the first man who was born?
    Or ^(I)were you brought forth ^(J)before the hills?
⁸ Have you listened in ^(K)the council of God?
    And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
^9 (L)What do you know that we do not know?
    What do you understand that is not clear to us?
^10 (M)Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
    older than your father.
¹¹ Are the comforts of God too small for you,
    or the word that deals gently with you?
¹² Why does your heart carry you away,
    and why do your eyes flash,
¹³ that you turn your ^(N)spirit against God
    and bring such words out of your mouth?
^14 (O)What is man, ^(P)that he can be pure?
    Or he who is ^(Q)born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
¹⁵ Behold, God^{[b] (R)}puts no trust in his ^(S)holy ones,
    and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
^16 (T)how much less one who is abominable and ^(U)corrupt,
    a man who ^(V)drinks injustice like water!

¹⁷ “I will show you; hear me,
    and what I have seen I will declare
¹⁸ (what wise men have told,
    without hiding it ^(W)from their fathers,
¹⁹ to whom alone the land was given,
    and no ^(X)stranger passed among them).
²⁰ The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
    through all the ^(Y)years that are laid up for ^(Z)the ruthless.
^21 (AA)Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
    in ^(AB)prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
²² He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
    and he is marked for the sword.
²³ He ^(AC)wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
    He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
²⁴ distress and anguish terrify him;
    they ^(AD)prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
²⁵ Because he has stretched out his hand against God
    and defies the Almighty,
^26 (AE)running ^(AF)stubbornly against him
    with a thickly bossed shield;
²⁷ because he has ^(AG)covered his face with his fat
    and gathered fat upon his waist
²⁸ and has lived in desolate cities,
    in houses that none should inhabit,
    which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
²⁹ he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
    nor will his possessions spread over the earth;^[c]
30 he will not depart from darkness;
    the flame will dry up his shoots,
    and by ^(AH)the breath of his mouth he will depart.
³¹ Let him not ^(AI)trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
    for emptiness will be his payment.
³² It will be paid in full ^(AJ)before his time,
    and his branch will not be green.
³³ He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
    and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
³⁴ For ^(AK)the company of the godless is barren,
    and ^(AL)fire consumes the tents of bribery.
³⁵ They ^(AM)conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
    and their ^(AN)womb prepares deceit.”

² “I have heard ^(AO)many such things;
    ^(AP)miserable comforters are you all.
³ Shall ^(AQ)windy words have an end?
    Or what provokes you that you answer?
⁴ I also could speak as you do,
    if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
    and ^(AR)shake my head at you.
⁵ I could strengthen you with my mouth,
    and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶ “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
    and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
⁷ Surely now God has worn me out;
    ^(AS)he has^[d] made desolate all my company.
⁸ And he has shriveled me up,
    which is ^(AT)a witness against me,
and my ^(AU)leanness has risen up against me;
    it testifies to my face.
⁹ He has ^(AV)torn me in his wrath ^(AW)and hated me;
    he has ^(AX)gnashed his teeth at me;
    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
¹⁰ Men have ^(AY)gaped at me with their mouth;
    they have ^(AZ)struck me insolently on the cheek;
    they ^(BA)mass themselves together against me.
¹¹ God gives me up to the ungodly
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
    he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his ^(BB)target;
¹³     his ^(BC)archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys ^(BD)and does not spare;
    he ^(BE)pours out my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ He breaks me with ^(BF)breach upon breach;
    he ^(BG)runs upon me like a warrior.
¹⁵ I have sewed ^(BH)sackcloth upon my skin
    and have laid ^(BI)my strength ^(BJ)in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
    and on my eyelids is ^(BK)deep darkness,
¹⁷ although there is no ^(BL)violence in my hands,
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “O earth, ^(BM)cover not my blood,
    and let my ^(BN)cry find no resting place.
¹⁹ Even now, behold, my ^(BO)witness is in heaven,
    and he who testifies for me is ^(BP)on high.
²⁰ My friends ^(BQ)scorn me;
    my eye pours out tears to God,
²¹ that he would ^(BR)argue the case of a man with God,
    as^[e] a son of man does with his neighbor.
²² For when a few years have come
    I shall go the way ^(BS)from which I shall not return.

³ “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up ^(BW)security for me?
⁴ Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
    the ^(BX)eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ “He has made me ^(BY)a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
⁷ My ^(BZ)eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like ^(CA)a shadow.
⁸ The upright are ^(CB)appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has ^(CC)clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But you, ^(CD)come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My ^(CE)days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
¹² They ^(CF)make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’^[f]
13 If I hope for ^(CG)Sheol as ^(CH)my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars of ^(CI)Sheol?
    Shall we ^(CJ)descend together ^(CK)into the dust?”^[g]

² “How long will you ^(CM)hunt for words?
    Consider, and then we will speak.
³ Why are we counted as ^(CN)cattle?
    Why are we stupid in your sight?
⁴ You who ^(CO)tear yourself in your anger,
    shall the earth be forsaken for you,
    or ^(CP)the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ “Indeed, ^(CQ)the light of the wicked is put out,
    and the flame of his fire does not shine.
⁶ The light is ^(CR)dark in his tent,
    and his lamp above him is put out.
⁷ His strong steps are shortened,
    and his ^(CS)own schemes throw him down.
⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
    and he walks on its mesh.
^9 (CT)A trap seizes him by the heel;
    a snare lays hold of him.
¹⁰ A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
    a trap for him in the path.
^11 (CU)Terrors frighten him on every side,
    and chase him at his heels.
¹² His strength is famished,
    and calamity is ^(CV)ready for his stumbling.
¹³ It consumes the parts of his skin;
    ^(CW)the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
¹⁴ He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
    and is brought to ^(CX)the king of terrors.
¹⁵ In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
    ^(CY)sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
¹⁶ His ^(CZ)roots dry up beneath,
    and his branches ^(DA)wither above.
¹⁷ His ^(DB)memory perishes from the earth,
    and he has no name in the street.
^18 (DC)He is thrust from light into darkness,
    and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ He has no ^(DD)posterity or progeny among his people,
    and no survivor where he used to live.
²⁰ They of the west are appalled at his ^(DE)day,
    and ^(DF)horror seizes them of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
    such is the place of him who ^(DG)knows not God.”

² “How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
³ These ^(DH)ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?
⁴ And even if it be true that I have erred,
    my error remains with myself.
⁵ If indeed you ^(DI)magnify yourselves against me
    and make my disgrace an argument against me,
⁶ know then that God has ^(DJ)put me in the wrong
    and closed his net about me.
⁷ Behold, I ^(DK)cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
    I call for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has ^(DL)walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
    and he has set darkness upon my paths.
⁹ He has ^(DM)stripped from me my glory
    and taken the ^(DN)crown from my head.
¹⁰ He breaks me down on every side, and I ^(DO)am gone,
    and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
¹¹ He has kindled his wrath against me
    and ^(DP)counts me as his adversary.
¹² His ^(DQ)troops come on together;
    they have ^(DR)cast up their siege ramp^[h] against me
    and encamp around my tent.

¹³ “He has put my ^(DS)brothers far from me,
    and ^(DT)those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives ^(DU)have failed me,
    my close ^(DV)friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ The guests ^(DW)in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
    I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
¹⁶ I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
    I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
¹⁷ My breath is strange to my ^(DX)wife,
    and I am a stench to the children of ^(DY)my own mother.
¹⁸ Even young ^(DZ)children despise me;
    when I rise they talk against me.
¹⁹ All my ^(EA)intimate friends abhor me,
    and those whom I loved have turned against me.
²⁰ My ^(EB)bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
    and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
²¹ Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has ^(EC)touched me!
²² Why do you, like God, ^(ED)pursue me?
    Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ “Oh that my words were written!
    Oh that they were ^(EE)inscribed in a book!
²⁴ Oh that with an iron ^(EF)pen and lead
    they were engraved in the rock forever!
²⁵ For I ^(EG)know that my ^(EH)Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the ^(EI)earth.^[i]
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in^[j] my flesh I shall ^(EJ)see God,