Category: Job

How Wisdom Looks from the Inside

1-6 Now it was the turn of Zophar from Naamath:

“What a flood of words! Shouldn’t we put a stop to it?

Should this kind of loose talk be permitted?

Job, do you think you can carry on like this and we’ll say nothing?

That we’ll let you rail and mock and not step in?

You claim, ‘My doctrine is sound

and my conduct impeccable.’

How I wish God would give you a piece of his mind,

tell you what’s what!

I wish he’d show you how wisdom looks from the inside,

for true wisdom is mostly ‘inside.’

But you can be sure of this,

you haven’t gotten half of what you deserve.

7-12 “Do you think you can explain the mystery of God?

Do you think you can diagram God Almighty?

God is far higher than you can imagine,

far deeper than you can comprehend,

Stretching farther than earth’s horizons,

far wider than the endless ocean.

If he happens along, throws you in jail

then hauls you into court, can you do anything about it?

He sees through vain pretensions,

spots evil a long way off—

no one pulls the wool overhiseyes!

Hollow men, hollow women, will wise up

about the same time mules learn to talk.

Reach Out to God

13-20 “Still, if you set your heart on God

and reach out to him,

If you scrub your hands of sin

and refuse to entertain evil in your home,

You’ll be able to face the world unashamed

and keep a firm grip on life, guiltless and fearless.

You’ll forget your troubles;

they’ll be like old, faded photographs.

Your world will be washed in sunshine,

every shadow dispersed by dayspring.

Full of hope, you’ll relax, confident again;

you’ll look around, sit back, and take it easy.

Expansive, without a care in the world,

you’ll be hunted out by many for your blessing.

But the wicked will see none of this.

They’re headed down a dead-end road

with nothing to look forward to—nothing.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/11-19a01b66c20ebbd5a950f7ae0459df37.mp3?version_id=97—

Put Your Ear to the Earth

1-3 Job answered:

“I’m sure you speak for all the experts,

and when you die there’ll be no one left to tell us how to live.

But don’t forget that I also have a brain—

I don’t intend to play second fiddle to you.

It doesn’t take an expert to know these things.

4-6 “I’m ridiculed by my friends:

‘So that’s the man who had conversations with God!’

Ridiculed without mercy:

‘Look at the man who never did wrong!’

It’s easy for the well-to-do to point their fingers in blame,

for the well-fixed to pour scorn on the strugglers.

Crooks reside safely in high-security houses,

insolent blasphemers live in luxury;

they’ve bought and paid for a god who’ll protect them.

7-12 “But ask the animals what they think—let them teach you;

let the birds tell you what’s going on.

Put your ear to the earth—learn the basics.

Listen—the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.

Isn’t it clear that they all know and agree

thatGodis sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand—

Every living soul, yes,

every breathing creature?

Isn’t this all just common sense,

as common as the sense of taste?

Do you think the elderly have a corner on wisdom,

that you have to grow old before you understand life?

From God We Learn How to Live

13-25 “True wisdom and real power belong to God;

from him we learn how to live,

and also what to live for.

If he tears something down, it’s down for good;

if he locks people up, they’re locked up for good.

If he holds back the rain, there’s a drought;

if he lets it loose, there’s a flood.

Strength and success belong to God;

both deceived and deceiver must answer to him.

He strips experts of their vaunted credentials,

exposes judges as witless fools.

He divests kings of their royal garments,

then ties a rag around their waists.

He strips priests of their robes,

and fires high officials from their jobs.

He forces trusted sages to keep silence,

deprives elders of their good sense and wisdom.

He dumps contempt on famous people,

disarms the strong and mighty.

He shines a spotlight into caves of darkness,

hauls deepest darkness into the noonday sun.

He makes nations rise and then fall,

builds up some and abandons others.

He robs world leaders of their reason,

and sends them off into no-man’s-land.

They grope in the dark without a clue,

lurching and staggering like drunks.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/12-8c0d30f41fc0db4fdfa3f6ff11ad21e1.mp3?version_id=97—

I’m Taking My Case to God

1-5 “Yes, I’ve seen all this with my own eyes,

heard and understood it with my very own ears.

Everything you know, I know,

so I’m not taking a backseat to any of you.

I’m taking my case straight to God Almighty;

I’ve had it with you—I’m going directly to God.

You graffiti my life with lies.

You’re a bunch of pompous quacks!

I wish you’d shut your mouths—

silence is your only claim to wisdom.

6-12 “Listen now while I make my case,

consider my side of things for a change.

Or are you going to keep on lying ‘to do God a service’?

to make up stories ‘to get him off the hook’?

Why do you always take his side?

Do you think he needs a lawyer to defend himself?

How would you fare if you were in the dock?

Your lies might convince a jury—but would they

convinceGod?

He’d reprimand you on the spot

if he detected a bias in your witness.

Doesn’t his splendor put you in awe?

Aren’t you afraid to speak cheap lies before him?

Your wise sayings are knickknack wisdom,

good for nothing but gathering dust.

13-19 “So hold your tongue while I have my say,

then I’ll take whatever I have coming to me.

Why do I go out on a limb like this

and take my life in my hands?

Because even if he killed me, I’d keep on hoping.

I’d defend my innocence to the very end.

Just wait, this is going to work out for the best—my salvation!

If I were guilt-stricken do you think I’d be doing this—

laying myself on the line before God?

You’d better pay attention to what I’m telling you,

listen carefully with both ears.

Now that I’ve laid out my defense,

I’m sure that I’ll be acquitted.

Can anyone prove charges against me?

I’ve said my piece. I rest my case.

Why Does God Stay Hidden and Silent?

20-27 “Please, God, I have two requests;

grant them so I’ll know I count with you:

First, lay off the afflictions;

the terror is too much for me.

Second, address me directly so I can answer you,

or let me speak and then you answer me.

How many sins have been charged against me?

Show me the list—how bad is it?

Why do you stay hidden and silent?

Why treat me like I’m your enemy?

Why kick me around like an old tin can?

Why beat a dead horse?

You compile a long list of mean things about me,

even hold me accountable for the sins of my youth.

You hobble me so I can’t move about.

You watch every move I make,

and brand me as a dangerous character.

28 “Like something rotten, human life fast decomposes,

like a moth-eaten shirt or a mildewed blouse.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/13-7cfcffc067d4a975965ca4efad6e4eb2.mp3?version_id=97—

If We Die, Will We Live Again?

1-17 “We’re all adrift in the same boat:

too few days, too many troubles.

We spring up like wildflowers in the desert and then wilt,

transient as the shadow of a cloud.

Do you occupy your time with such fragile wisps?

Why even bother hauling me into court?

There’s nothing much to us to start with;

how do you expect us to amount to anything?

Mortals have a limited life span.

You’ve already decided how long we’ll live—

you set the boundary and no one can cross it.

So why not give us a break? Ease up!

Even ditchdiggers get occasional days off.

For a tree there is always hope.

Chop it down and it still has a chance—

its roots can put out fresh sprouts.

Even if its roots are old and gnarled,

its stump long dormant,

At the first whiff of water it comes to life,

buds and grows like a sapling.

But men and women? They die and stay dead.

They breathe their last, and that’s it.

Like lakes and rivers that have dried up,

parched reminders of what once was,

So mortals lie down and never get up,

never wake up again—never.

Why don’t you just bury me alive,

get me out of the way until your anger cools?

But don’t leave me there!

Set a date when you’ll see me again.

If we humans die, will we live again? That’s my question.

All through these difficult days I keep hoping,

waiting for the final change—for resurrection!

Homesick with longing for the creature you made,

you’ll call—and I’ll answer!

You’ll watch over every step I take,

but you won’t keep track of my missteps.

My sins will be stuffed in a sack

and thrown into the sea—sunk in deep ocean.

18-22 “Meanwhile, mountains wear down

and boulders break up,

Stones wear smooth

and soil erodes,

as you relentlessly grind down our hope.

You’re too much for us.

As always, you get the last word.

We don’t like it and our faces show it,

but you send us off anyway.

If our children do well for themselves, we never know it;

if they do badly, we’re spared the hurt.

Body and soul, that’s it for us—

a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of sorrow.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/14-2daa98d903cc9e5ce577f24d3bddadab.mp3?version_id=97—

You Trivialize Religion

1-16 Eliphaz of Teman spoke a second time:

“If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a

windbag, belching hot air?

Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument,

babbling baloney?

Look at you! You trivialize religion,

turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.

It’s your sin that taught you to talk this way.

You chose an education in fraud.

Your own words have exposed your guilt.

It’s nothing I’ve said—you’ve incriminated yourself!

Do you think you’re the first person to have to deal with these things?

Have you been around as long as the hills?

Were you listening in when God planned all this?

Do you think you’re the only one who knows anything?

What do you know that we don’t know?

What insights do you have that we’ve missed?

Gray beards and white hair back us up—

old folks who’ve been around a lot longer than you.

Are God’s promises not enough for you,

spoken so gently and tenderly?

Why do you let your emotions take over,

lashing out and spitting fire,

Pitting your whole being against God

by letting words like this come out of your mouth?

Do you think it’s possible for any mere mortal to be sinless in God’s sight,

for anyone born of a human mother to get it all together?

Why, God can’t even trust his holy angels.

He sees the flaws in the very heavens themselves,

So how much less we humans, smelly and foul,

who lap up evil like water?

Always at Odds with God

17-26 “I’ve a thing or two to tell you, so listen up!

I’m letting you in on my views;

It’s what wise men and women have always taught,

holding nothing back from whattheywere taught

By their parents, back in the days

when they had this land all to themselves:

Those who live by their own rules, not God’s, can expect nothing but trouble,

and the longer they live, the worse it gets.

Every little sound terrifies them.

Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes.

They despair of things ever getting better—

they’re on the list of people for whom things always turn out for the worst.

They wander here and there,

never knowing where the next meal is coming from—

every day is doomsday!

They live in constant terror,

always with their backs up against the wall

Because they insist on shaking their fists at God,

defying God Almighty to his face,

Always and ever at odds with God,

always on the defensive.

27-35 “Even if they’re the picture of health,

trim and fit and youthful,

They’ll end up living in a ghost town

sleeping in a hovel not fit for a dog,

a ramshackle shack.

They’ll never get ahead,

never amount to a hill of beans.

And then death—don’t think they’ll escape that!

They’ll end up shriveled weeds,

brought down by a puff of God’s breath.

There’s a lesson here: Whoever invests in lies,

gets lies for interest,

Paid in full before the due date.

Some investment!

They’ll be like fruit frost-killed before it ripens,

like buds sheared off before they bloom.

The godless are fruitless—a barren crew;

a life built on bribes goes up in smoke.

They have sex with sin and give birth to evil.

Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/15-d8bba00061e798c2136080d26cd6f2eb.mp3?version_id=97—

If You Were in My Shoes

1-5 Then Job defended himself:

“I’ve had all I can take of your talk.

What a bunch of miserable comforters!

Is there no end to your windbag speeches?

What’s your problem that you go on and on like this?

If you were in my shoes,

I could talk just like you.

I could put together a terrific harangue

and really let you have it.

But I’d never do that. I’d console and comfort,

make things better, not worse!

6-14 “When I speak up, I feel no better;

if I say nothing, that doesn’t help either.

I feel worn down.

God, you have wasted me totally—me and my family!

You’ve shriveled me like a dried prune,

showing the world that you’re against me.

My gaunt face stares back at me from the mirror,

a mute witness to your treatment of me.

Your anger tears at me,

your teeth rip me to shreds,

your eyes burn holes in me—God, my enemy!

People take one look at me and gasp.

Contemptuous, they slap me around

and gang up against me.

And God just stands there and lets them do it,

lets wicked people do what they want with me.

I was contentedly minding my business when God beat me up.

He grabbed me by the neck and threw me around.

He set me up as his target,

then rounded up archers to shoot at me.

Merciless, they shot me full of arrows;

bitter bile poured from my gut to the ground.

He burst in on me, onslaught after onslaught,

charging me like a mad bull.

15-17 “I sewed myself a shroud and wore it like a shirt;

I lay facedown in the dirt.

Now my face is blotched red from weeping;

look at the dark shadows under my eyes,

Even though I’ve never hurt a soul

and my prayers are sincere!

The One Who Represents Mortals Before God

18-22 “O Earth, don’t cover up the wrong done to me!

Don’t muffle my cry!

There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me,

in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name—

My Champion, my Friend,

while I’m weeping my eyes out before God.

I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God

as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor.

“Only a few years are left

before I set out on the road of no return.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/16-94a2ef85ad0136a685a835551c18a917.mp3?version_id=97—

1-2 “My spirit is broken,

my days used up,

my grave dug and waiting.

See how these mockers close in on me?

How long do I have to put up with their insolence?

3-5 “O God, pledge your support for me.

Give it to me in writing, with your signature.

You’re the only one who can do it!

These people are so useless!

You know firsthand how stupid they can be.

You wouldn’t let them have the last word, would you?

Those who betray their own friends

leave a legacy of abuse to their children.

6-8 “God, you’ve made me the talk of the town—

people spit in my face;

I can hardly see from crying so much;

I’m nothing but skin and bones.

Decent people can’t believe what they’re seeing;

the good-hearted wake up and insist I’ve given up on God.

9 “But principled people hold tight, keep a firm grip on life,

sure that their clean, pure hands will get stronger and stronger!

10-16 “Maybe you’d all like to start over,

to try it again, the bunch of you.

So far I haven’t come across one scrap

of wisdom in anything you’ve said.

My life’s about over. All my plans are smashed,

all my hopes are snuffed out—

My hope that night would turn into day,

my hope that dawn was about to break.

If all I have to look forward to is a home in the graveyard,

if my only hope for comfort is a well-built coffin,

If a family reunion means going six feet under,

and the only family that shows up is worms,

Do you call that hope?

Who on earth could find any hope in that?

No. If hope and I are to be buried together,

I suppose you’ll all come to the double funeral!”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/17-4c68aff40be70347bad15023da13fae5.mp3?version_id=97—

Plunged from Light into Darkness

1-4 Bildad from Shuhah chimed in:

“How monotonous these word games are getting!

Get serious! We need to get down to business.

Why do you treat your friends like slow-witted animals?

You look down on us as if we don’t know anything.

Why are you working yourself up like this?

Do you want the world redesigned to suit you?

Should reality be suspended to accommodate you?

5-21 “Here’s the rule: The light of the wicked is put out.

Their flame dies down and is extinguished.

Their house goes dark—

every lamp in the place goes out.

Their strong strides weaken, falter;

they stumble into their own traps.

They get all tangled up

in their own red tape,

Their feet are grabbed and caught,

their necks in a noose.

They trip on ropes they’ve hidden,

and fall into pits they’ve dug themselves.

Terrors come at them from all sides.

They run helter-skelter.

The hungry grave is ready

to gobble them up for supper,

To lay them out for a gourmet meal,

a treat for ravenous Death.

They are snatched from their home sweet home

and marched straight to the death house.

Their lives go up in smoke;

acid rain soaks their ruins.

Their roots rot

and their branches wither.

They’ll never again be remembered—

nameless in unmarked graves.

They are plunged from light into darkness,

banished from the world.

And they leave empty-handed—not one single child—

nothing to show for their life on this earth.

Westerners are aghast at their fate,

easterners are horrified:

‘Oh no! So this is what happens to perverse people.

This is how the God-ignorant end up!’”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/18-d1dc9858ecbe40f041787b40f0228ec2.mp3?version_id=97—

I Call for Help and No One Bothers

1-6 Job answered:

“How long are you going to keep battering away at me,

pounding me with these harangues?

Time after time after time you jump all over me.

Do you have no conscience, abusing me like this?

Even if I have, somehow or other, gotten off the track,

what business is that of yours?

Why do you insist on putting me down,

using my troubles as a stick to beat me?

Tell it to God—he’s the one behind all this,

he’s the one who dragged me into this mess.

7-12 “Look at me—I shout ‘Murder!’ and I’m ignored;

I call for help and no one bothers to stop.

God threw a barricade across my path—I’m stymied;

he turned out all the lights—I’m stuck in the dark.

He destroyed my reputation,

robbed me of all self-respect.

He tore me apart piece by piece—I’m ruined!

Then he yanked out hope by the roots.

He’s angry with me—oh, how he’s angry!

He treats me like his worst enemy.

He has launched a major campaign against me,

using every weapon he can think of,

coming at me from all sides at once.

I Know That God Lives

13-20 “God alienated my family from me;

everyone who knows me avoids me.

My relatives and friends have all left;

houseguests forget I ever existed.

The servant girls treat me like a bum off the street,

look at me like they’ve never seen me before.

I call my attendant and he ignores me,

ignores me even though I plead with him.

My wife can’t stand to be around me anymore.

I’m repulsive to my family.

Even street urchins despise me;

when I come out, they taunt and jeer.

Everyone I’ve ever been close to abhors me;

my dearest loved ones reject me.

I’m nothing but a bag of bones;

my life hangs by a thread.

21-22 “Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me.

God has come down hard on me!

Do you have to be hard on me, too?

Don’t you ever tire of abusing me?

23-27 “If only my words were written in a book—

better yet, chiseled in stone!

Still, I know that God lives—the One who gives me back my life—

and eventually he’ll take his stand on earth.

And I’ll see him—even though I get skinned alive!—

see God myself, with my very own eyes.

Oh, how I long for that day!

28-29 “If you’re thinking, ‘How can we get through to him,

get him to see that his trouble is all his own fault?’

Forget it. Start worrying aboutyourselves.

Worry about your own sins and God’s coming judgment,

for judgment is most certainly on the way.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/19-33fb32bbd63832cd335382bcc83f279b.mp3?version_id=97—

Savoring Evil as a Delicacy

1-3 Zophar from Naamath again took his turn:

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!

You’ve put my teeth on edge, my stomach in a knot.

How dare you insult my intelligence like this!

Well, here’s a piece of my mind!

4-11 “Don’t you even know the basics,

how things have been since the earliest days,

when Adam and Eve were first placed on earth?

The good times of the wicked are short-lived;

godless joy is only momentary.

The evil might become world famous,

strutting at the head of the celebrity parade,

But still end up in a pile of dung.

Acquaintances look at them with disgust and say, ‘What’s that?’

They fly off like a dream that can’t be remembered,

like a shadowy illusion that vanishes in the light.

Though once notorious public figures, now they’re nobodies,

unnoticed, whether they come or go.

Their children will go begging on skid row,

and they’ll have to give back their ill-gotten gain.

Right in the prime of life,

and youthful and vigorous, they’ll die.

12-19 “They savor evil as a delicacy,

roll it around on their tongues,

Prolong the flavor, a dalliance in decadence—

real gourmets of evil!

But then they get stomach cramps,

a bad case of food poisoning.

They gag on all that rich food;

God makes them vomit it up.

They gorge on evil, make a diet of that poison—

a deadly diet—and it kills them.

No quiet picnics for them beside gentle streams

with fresh-baked bread and cheese, and tall, cool drinks.

They spit out their food half-chewed,

unable to relax and enjoy anything they’ve worked for.

And why? Because they exploited the poor,

took what never belonged to them.

20-29 “Such God-denying people are never content with what they have

or who they are;

their greed drives them relentlessly.

They plunder everything

but they can’t hold on to any of it.

Just when they think they have it all, disaster strikes;

they’re served up a plate full of misery.

When they’ve filled their bellies with that,

God gives them a taste of his anger,

and they get to chew on that for a while.

As they run for their lives from one disaster,

they run smack into another.

They’re knocked around from pillar to post,

beaten to within an inch of their lives.

They’re trapped in a house of horrors,

and see their loot disappear down a black hole.

Their lives are a total loss—

not a penny to their name, not so much as a bean.

God will strip them of their sin-soaked clothes

and hang their dirty laundry out for all to see.

Life is a complete wipeout for them,

nothing surviving God’s wrath.

There! That’s God’s blueprint for the wicked—

what they have to look forward to.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/85/32k/JOB/20-7c8aa439979c6c230964a69578cd39bd.mp3?version_id=97—