II. Job’s Dialogue With His Friends
(3:1-27:33)
3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born.
5:10 he gives rain on the earth,
and sends water on the fields;
5:11 he sets the lowly on high,
that those who mourn are raised to safety.
5:19 He will deliver you from six calamities;
yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
8:4 If your children sinned against him,
he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
8:16 He is a well-watered plant in the sun,
its shoots spread over its garden.
8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with gladness.
9:3 If someone wishes to contend with him,
he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.
9:4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength –
who has resisted him and remained safe?
9:5 He who removes mountains suddenly,
who overturns them in his anger;
9:6 he who shakes the earth out of its place
so that its pillars tremble;
9:7 he who commands the sun and it does not shine
and seals up the stars;
9:8 he alone spreads out the heavens,
and treads on the waves of the sea;
9:9 he makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
and the constellations of the southern sky;
9:10 he does great and unsearchable things,
and wonderful things without number.
9:17 he who crushes me with a tempest,
and multiplies my wounds for no reason.
9:22 “It is all one! That is why I say,
‘He destroys the blameless and the guilty.’
9:23 If a scourge brings sudden death,
he mocks at the despair of the innocent.
11:5 But if only God would speak,
if only he would open his lips against you,
11:10 If he comes by and confines you
and convenes a court,
then who can prevent him?
12:18 He loosens the bonds of kings
and binds a loincloth around their waist.
12:20 He deprives the trusted advisers of speech
and takes away the discernment of elders.
12:22 He reveals the deep things of darkness,
and brings deep shadows into the light.
12:25 They grope about in darkness without light;
he makes them stagger like drunkards.
13:11 Would not his splendor terrify you
and the fear he inspires fall on you?
14:22 Only his flesh has pain for himself,
and he mourns for himself.”
15:3 Does he argue with useless talk,
with words that have no value in them?
15:25 for he stretches out his hand against God,
and vaunts himself against the Almighty,
15:27 Because he covered his face with fat,
and made his hips bulge with fat,
15:32 Before his time he will be paid in full,
and his branches will not flourish.
16:7 Surely now he has worn me out,
you have devastated my entire household.
16:21 and he contends with God on behalf of man
as a man pleads for his friend.
18:17 His memory perishes from the earth,
he has no name in the land.
18:18 He is driven from light into darkness
and is banished from the world.
19:8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass,
and has set darkness over my paths.
19:9 He has stripped me of my honor
and has taken the crown off my head.
19:11 Thus his anger burns against me,
and he considers me among his enemies.
19:13 “He has put my relatives far from me;
my acquaintances only turn away from me.
20:12 “If evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
20:16 He sucks the poison of serpents;
the fangs of a viper kill him.
20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon,
then an arrow from a bronze bow pierces him.
21:22 Can anyone teach God knowledge,
since he judges those that are on high?
21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs,
and watch is kept over the funeral mound,
22:4 Is it because of your piety that he rebukes you
and goes to judgment with you?
22:13 But you have said, ‘What does God know?
Does he judge through such deep darkness?
23:14 For he fulfills his decree against me,
and many such things are his plans.
24:21 He preys on the barren and childless woman,
and does not treat the widow well.
25:2 “Dominion and awesome might belong to God;
he establishes peace in his heights.
26:9 He conceals the face of the full moon,
shrouding it with his clouds.
27:16 If he piles up silver like dust
and stores up clothing like mounds of clay,
27:22 It hurls itself against him without pity
as he flees headlong from its power.
28:10 He has cut out channels through the rocks;
his eyes have spotted every precious thing.
28:23 God understands the way to it,
and he alone knows its place.
28:24 For he looks to the ends of the earth
and observes everything under the heavens.
28:25 When he made the force of the wind
and measured the waters with a gauge.
28:26 When he imposed a limit for the rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
30:18 With great power God grasps my clothing;
he binds me like the collar of my tunic.
30:19 He has flung me into the mud,
and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.
31:4 Does he not see my ways
and count all my steps?
33:10 Yet God finds occasions with me;
he regards me as his enemy!
33:16 Then he gives a revelation to people,
and terrifies them with warnings,
33:22 He draws near to the place of corruption,
and his life to the messengers of death.
34:24 He shatters the great without inquiry,
and sets up others in their place.
34:26 He strikes them for their wickedness,
in a place where people can see,
35:12 Then they cry out – but he does not answer –
because of the arrogance of the wicked.
35:16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose;
without knowledge he multiplies words.”
36:10 And he reveals this for correction,
and says that they must turn from evil.
36:13 The godless at heart nourish anger,
they do not cry out even when he binds them.
36:27 He draws up drops of water;
they distill the rain into its mist,
36:31 It is by these that he judges the nations
and supplies food in abundance.
36:32 With his hands he covers the lightning,
and directs it against its target.
37:5 God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.
37:6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall to earth,’
and to the torrential rains, ‘Pour down.’
37:7 He causes everyone to stop working,
so that all people may know his work.
37:15 Do you know how God commands them,
how he makes lightning flash in his storm cloud?
37:22 From the north he comes in golden splendor;
around God is awesome majesty.
37:24 Therefore people fear him,
for he does not regard all the wise in heart.”
41:9 (41:1) See, his expectation is wrong,
he is laid low even at the sight of it.