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Job 13; Job 14; Job 15; Job 16; Job 17; Job 18; Job 19; Job 20; Job 21; Job 22; Job 23; Job 24; Job 25

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Job 13

1 "Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.
2 What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
3 But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.
4 As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.
5 Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom!
6 Hear now my argument and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him?
8 Will you show partiality toward him? Will you plead the case for God?
9 Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?
10 He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality.
11 Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you?
12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
13 "Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may.
14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand?
15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.
16 This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him.
17 Keep listening to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears.
18 Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right.
19 Who is there who will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die.
20 Only grant me two things, then I will not hide myself from your face:
21 withdraw your hand far from me, and let not dread of you terrify me.
22 Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me.
23 How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin.
24 Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?
25 Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff?
26 For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
27 You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; you set a limit for the soles of my feet.
28 Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 14

1 "Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.
2 He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.
3 And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6 look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
7 "For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
8 Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.
10 But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
11 As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up,
12 so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.
13 Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.
15 You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
16 For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin;
17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
18 "But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;
19 the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.
20 You prevail forever against him, and he passes; you change his countenance, and send him away.
21 His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
22 He feels only the pain of his own body, and he mourns only for himself."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 15

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 "Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with 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 and hindering meditation before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.
7 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
8 Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10 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 spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth?
14 What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
15 Behold, Godputs no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who 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 from their fathers,
19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them).
20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in 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 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 prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty,
26 running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield;
27 because he has 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;
30 he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment.
32 It will be paid in full 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 the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 16

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 "I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.
3 Shall 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 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; he has made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.
9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they 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 target;
13 his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18 "O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place.
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.
20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor.
22 For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 17

1 "My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.
3 "Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there who will put up 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 eyes of his children will fail.
6 "He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.
7 My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10 But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.
12 They make night into day: 'The light,' they say, 'is near to the darkness.'
13 If I hope for Sheol as 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 Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 18

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 "How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak.
3 Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?
5 "Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.
6 The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is put out.
7 His strong steps are shortened, and his own schemes throw him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on its mesh.
9 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 Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels.
12 His strength is famished, and calamity is ready for his stumbling.
13 It consumes the parts of his skin; the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
14 He is torn from the tent in which he trusted and is brought to the king of terrors.
15 In his tent dwells that which is none of his; sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
16 His roots dry up beneath, and his branches wither above.
17 His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the street.
18 He is thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world.
19 He has no posterity or progeny among his people, and no survivor where he used to live.
20 They of the west are appalled at his day, and horror seizes them of the east.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 19

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 "How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?
3 These 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 magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me,
6 know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.
7 Behold, I cry out, 'Violence!' but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
9 He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
11 He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.
12 His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
13 "He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me.
15 The guests 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 wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My 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 touched me!
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 "Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
28 If you say, 'How we will pursue him!' and, 'The root of the matter is found in him,'
29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
2 "Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
3 I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
4 Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,
5 that the exulting of the wicked is short, and 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 he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'
8 He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.
10 His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.
11 His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12 "Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,
13 though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,
14 yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.
15 He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.
16 He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
17 He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.
18 He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.
19 For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.
20 "Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
21 There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.
22 In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
23 To fill his belly to the full, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.
24 He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.
25 It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him.
26 Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.
27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God's wrath.
29 This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 21

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 "Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort.
3 Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.
6 When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
8 Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.
10 Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry.
11 They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.
14 They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?'
16 Behold, is not their prosperity 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 upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?
18 That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
19 You say, 'God stores up their iniquity for their children.' Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
20 Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?
22 Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?
23 One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure,
24 his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.
26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.
27 "Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.
28 For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'
29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony
30 that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
31 Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done?
32 When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.
34 How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 22

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
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 if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
4 Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?
5 Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.
6 For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8 The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it.
9 You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
10 Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you,
11 or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
12 "Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
13 But you say, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?
14 Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.'
15 Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?
16 They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.
17 They said to God, 'Depart from us,' and 'What can the Almighty do to 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 one mocks at them,
20 saying, 'Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.'
21 "Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.
22 Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,
24 if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
25 then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.
26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.
28 You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.
29 For when they are humbled you say, 'It is because of pride'; but he saves the lowly.
30 He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 23

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 "Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on account of my groaning.
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!
4 I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; he would pay attention to me.
7 There an upright man could argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
8 "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him;
9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
11 My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
13 But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does.
14 For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.
15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him.
16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me;
17 yet I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 24

1 "Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?
2 Some move landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them.
3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
4 They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5 Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poorgo out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children.
6 They gather their fodder in the field, and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
7 They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter.
9 (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast, and they take a pledge against the poor.)
10 They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves;
11 among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
12 From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong.
13 "There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, 'No eye will see me'; and he veils his face.
16 In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light.
17 For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
18 "You say, 'Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land; no treader turns toward their vineyards.
19 Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.
20 The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like a tree.'
21 "They wrong the barren, childless woman, and do no good to the widow.
22 Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life.
23 He gives them security, and they are supported, and his eyes are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted a little while, and then are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like the heads of grain.
25 If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?"
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.

Job 25

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 "Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.
3 Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise?
4 How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?
5 Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!"
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.