World English Bible

1 Then Job answered,

2 “How long will you torment me,

and crush me with words?

3 You have reproached me ten times.

You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.

4 If it is true that I have erred,

my error remains with myself.

5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me,

and plead against me my reproach;

6 know now that God has subverted me,

and has surrounded me with his net.

7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard.

I cry for help, but there is no justice.

8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass,

and has set darkness in my paths.

9 He has stripped me of my glory,

and taken the crown from my head.

10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone.

My hope he has plucked up like a tree.

11 He has also kindled his wrath against me.

He counts me among his adversaries.

12 His troops come on together,

build a siege ramp against me,

and encamp around my tent.

13 “He has put my brothers far from me.

My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

14 My relatives have gone away.

My familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.

I am an alien in their sight.

16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer.

I beg him with my mouth.

17 My breath is offensive to my wife.

I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

18 Even young children despise me.

If I arise, they speak against me.

19 All my familiar friends abhor me.

They whom I loved have turned against me.

20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh.

I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends;

for the hand of God has touched me.

22 Why do you persecute me as God,

and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 “Oh that my words were now written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24 That with an iron pen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.

In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

26 After my skin is destroyed,

then in my flesh shall I see God,

27 Whom I, even I, shall see on my side.

My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger.

“My heart is consumed within me.

28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’

because the root of the matter is found in me,

29 be afraid of the sword,

for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,

that you may know there is a judgment.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/19-447b2c31983fc4fc332e784026cb8b65.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

2 “Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,

even by reason of my haste that is in me.

3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame.

The spirit of my understanding answers me.

4 Don’t you know this from old time,

since man was placed on earth,

5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short,

the joy of the godless but for a moment?

6 Though his height mount up to the heavens,

and his head reach to the clouds,

7 yet he shall perish forever like his own dung.

Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’

8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found.

Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.

9 The eye which saw him shall see him no more,

neither shall his place any more see him.

10 His children shall seek the favor of the poor.

His hands shall give back his wealth.

11 His bones are full of his youth,

but youth shall lie down with him in the dust.

12 “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth,

though he hide it under his tongue,

13 though he spare it, and will not let it go,

but keep it still within his mouth;

14 yet his food in his bowels is turned.

It is cobra venom within him.

15 He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again.

God will cast them out of his belly.

16 He shall suck cobra venom.

The viper’s tongue shall kill him.

17 He shall not look at the rivers,

the flowing streams of honey and butter.

18 That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down.

According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.

19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor.

He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

20 “Because he knew no quietness within him,

he shall not save anything of that in which he delights.

21 There was nothing left that he didn’t devour,

therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him.

The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him.

It will rain on him while he is eating.

24 He shall flee from the iron weapon.

The bronze arrow shall strike him through.

25 He draws it out, and it comes out of his body.

Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver.

Terrors are on him.

26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures.

An unfanned fire shall devour him.

It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity.

The earth shall rise up against him.

28 The increase of his house shall depart.

They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.

29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God,

the heritage appointed to him by God.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/20-faf6ba756664db135d09aaed427a5e11.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Then Job answered,

2 “Listen diligently to my speech.

Let this be your consolation.

3 Allow me, and I also will speak;

After I have spoken, mock on.

4 As for me, is my complaint to man?

Why shouldn’t I be impatient?

5 Look at me, and be astonished.

Lay your hand on your mouth.

6 When I remember, I am troubled.

Horror takes hold of my flesh.

7 “Why do the wicked live,

become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

8 Their child is established with them in their sight,

their offspring before their eyes.

9 Their houses are safe from fear,

neither is the rod of God upon them.

10 Their bulls breed without fail.

Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.

11 They send out their little ones like a flock.

Their children dance.

12 They sing to the tambourine and harp,

and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

13 They spend their days in prosperity.

In an instant they go down to Sheol.

14 They tell God, ‘Depart from us,

for we don’t want to know about your ways.

15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand.

The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out,

that their calamity comes on them,

that God distributes sorrows in his anger?

18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind,

as chaff that the storm carries away?

19 You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’

Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

20 Let his own eyes see his destruction.

Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21 For what does he care for his house after him,

when the number of his months is cut off?

22 “Shall any teach God knowledge,

since he judges those who are high?

23 One dies in his full strength,

being wholly at ease and quiet.

24 His pails are full of milk.

The marrow of his bones is moistened.

25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,

and never tastes of good.

26 They lie down alike in the dust.

The worm covers them.

27 “Behold, I know your thoughts,

the devices with which you would wrong me.

28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?

Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

29 Haven’t you asked wayfaring men?

Don’t you know their evidences,

30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity,

That they are led out to the day of wrath?

31 Who shall declare his way to his face?

Who shall repay him what he has done?

32 Yet he will be borne to the grave.

Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him.

All men shall draw after him,

as there were innumerable before him.

34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense,

because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/21-79c202111362b8941283f71c5b98006c.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

2 “Can a man be profitable to God?

Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous?

Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?

4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you,

that he enters with you into judgment?

5 Isn’t your wickedness great?

Neither is there any end to your iniquities.

6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing,

and stripped the naked of their clothing.

7 You haven’t given water to the weary to drink,

and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth.

The honorable man, he lived in it.

9 You have sent widows away empty,

and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

10 Therefore snares are around you.

Sudden fear troubles you,

11 or darkness, so that you can not see,

and floods of waters cover you.

12 “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven?

See the height of the stars, how high they are!

13 You say, ‘What does God know?

Can he judge through the thick darkness?

14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see.

He walks on the vault of the sky.’

15 Will you keep the old way,

which wicked men have trodden,

16 who were snatched away before their time,

whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

17 who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’

and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’

18 Yet he filled their houses with good things,

but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

19 The righteous see it, and are glad.

The innocent ridicule them,

20 saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off.

The fire has consumed their remnant.’

21 “Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace.

Thereby good shall come to you.

22 Please receive instruction from his mouth,

and lay up his words in your heart.

23 If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up,

if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.

24 Lay your treasure in the dust,

the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

25 The Almighty will be your treasure,

and precious silver to you.

26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,

and shall lift up your face to God.

27 You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you.

You shall pay your vows.

28 You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you.

Light shall shine on your ways.

29 When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’

He will save the humble person.

30 He will even deliver him who is not innocent.

Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/22-5ab09e367d7cfca7b5a1c1d88c4a7298.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Then Job answered,

2 “Even today my complaint is rebellious.

His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

3 Oh that I knew where I might find him!

That I might come even to his seat!

4 I would set my cause in order before him,

and fill my mouth with arguments.

5 I would know the words which he would answer me,

and understand what he would tell me.

6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?

No, but he would listen to me.

7 There the upright might reason with him,

so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

8 “If I go east, he is not there;

if west, I can’t find him;

9 He works to the north, but I can’t see him.

He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him.

10 But he knows the way that I take.

When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold.

11 My foot has held fast to his steps.

I have kept his way, and not turned aside.

12 I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips.

I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

13 But he stands alone, and who can oppose him?

What his soul desires, even that he does.

14 For he performs that which is appointed for me.

Many such things are with him.

15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence.

When I consider, I am afraid of him.

16 For God has made my heart faint.

The Almighty has terrified me.

17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness,

neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/23-b8d6e713d2e6de11efc57cb391504734.mp3?version_id=206—

1 “Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty?

Why don’t those who know him see his days?

2 There are people who remove the landmarks.

They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless,

and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

4 They turn the needy out of the way.

The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

5 Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert,

they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food.

The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

6 They cut their food in the field.

They glean the vineyard of the wicked.

7 They lie all night naked without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.

8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains,

and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

9 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast,

and take a pledge of the poor,

10 So that they go around naked without clothing.

Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.

11 They make oil within the walls of these men.

They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

12 From out of the populous city, men groan.

The soul of the wounded cries out,

yet God doesn’t regard the folly.

13 “These are of those who rebel against the light.

They don’t know its ways,

nor stay in its paths.

14 The murderer rises with the light.

He kills the poor and needy.

In the night he is like a thief.

15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight,

saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’

He disguises his face.

16 In the dark they dig through houses.

They shut themselves up in the daytime.

They don’t know the light.

17 For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness,

for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

18 “They are foam on the surface of the waters.

Their portion is cursed in the earth.

They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.

19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters,

so does Sheolthose who have sinned.

20 The womb shall forget him.

The worm shall feed sweetly on him.

He shall be no more remembered.

Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.

21 He devours the barren who don’t bear.

He shows no kindness to the widow.

22 Yet God preserves the mighty by his power.

He rises up who has no assurance of life.

23 God gives them security, and they rest in it.

His eyes are on their ways.

24 They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone.

Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others,

and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

25 If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar,

and make my speech worth nothing?”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/24-1290820223358bff7a67b7fc391fbc2e.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

2 “Dominion and fear are with him.

He makes peace in his high places.

3 Can his armies be counted?

On whom does his light not arise?

4 How then can man be just with God?

Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

5 Behold, even the moon has no brightness,

and the stars are not pure in his sight;

6 How much less man, who is a worm,

the son of man, who is a worm!”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/25-9a7d963af5c70fd0f65f9bcd49aaa6d8.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Then Job answered,

2 “How have you helped him who is without power!

How have you saved the arm that has no strength!

3 How have you counseled him who has no wisdom,

and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

4 To whom have you uttered words?

Whose spirit came out of you?

5 “The departed spirits tremble,

those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

6 Sheolis naked before God,

and Abaddonhas no covering.

7 He stretches out the north over empty space,

and hangs the earth on nothing.

8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

and the cloud is not burst under them.

9 He encloses the face of his throne,

and spreads his cloud on it.

10 He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters,

and to the confines of light and darkness.

11 The pillars of heaven tremble

and are astonished at his rebuke.

12 He stirs up the sea with his power,

and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.

13 By his Spirit the heavens are garnished.

His hand has pierced the swift serpent.

14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways.

How small a whisper do we hear of him!

But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/26-31899841cc70dbce687a1940ebed7346.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Job again took up his parable, and said,

2 “As God lives, who has taken away my right,

the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter

3 (for the length of my life is still in me,

and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);

4 surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness,

neither shall my tongue utter deceit.

5 Far be it from me that I should justify you.

Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

6 I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go.

My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

7 “Let my enemy be as the wicked.

Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

8 For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty,

and call on God at all times?

11 I will teach you about the hand of God.

That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

13 “This is the portion of a wicked man with God,

the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword.

His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

15 Those who remain of him shall be buried in death.

His widows shall make no lamentation.

16 Though he heap up silver as the dust,

and prepare clothing as the clay;

17 he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on,

and the innocent shall divide the silver.

18 He builds his house as the moth,

as a booth which the watchman makes.

19 He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again.

He opens his eyes, and he is not.

20 Terrors overtake him like waters.

A storm steals him away in the night.

21 The east wind carries him away, and he departs.

It sweeps him out of his place.

22 For it hurls at him, and does not spare,

as he flees away from his hand.

23 Men shall clap their hands at him,

and shall hiss him out of his place.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/27-853b4da48c915f21d02d185d3a1007e0.mp3?version_id=206—

1 “Surely there is a mine for silver,

and a place for gold which they refine.

2 Iron is taken out of the earth,

and copper is smelted out of the ore.

3 Man sets an end to darkness,

and searches out, to the furthest bound,

the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

4 He breaks open a shaft away from where people live.

They are forgotten by the foot.

They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread;

Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

6 Sapphires come from its rocks.

It has dust of gold.

7 That path no bird of prey knows,

neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.

8 The proud animals have not trodden it,

nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

9 He puts his hand on the flinty rock,

and he overturns the mountains by the roots.

10 He cuts out channels among the rocks.

His eye sees every precious thing.

11 He binds the streams that they don’t trickle.

The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

12 “But where shall wisdom be found?

Where is the place of understanding?

13 Man doesn’t know its price;

Neither is it found in the land of the living.

14 The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’

The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’

15 It can’t be gotten for gold,

neither shall silver be weighed for its price.

16 It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir,

with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

17 Gold and glass can’t equal it,

neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

18 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal.

Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.

19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,

Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

20 Where then does wisdom come from?

Where is the place of understanding?

21 Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living,

and kept close from the birds of the sky.

22 Destruction and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

23 “God understands its way,

and he knows its place.

24 For he looks to the ends of the earth,

and sees under the whole sky.

25 He establishes the force of the wind.

Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.

26 When he made a decree for the rain,

and a way for the lightning of the thunder;

27 then he saw it, and declared it.

He established it, yes, and searched it out.

28 To man he said,

‘Behold, the fear of the Lord,that is wisdom.

To depart from evil is understanding.’”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/JOB/28-350c8d5efc1d8eea5b715b20a8fdb8c9.mp3?version_id=206—