June 11

Job 14

1 “Mortals, born of woman,

are of few days and full of trouble.    

2 They spring up like flowers and wither away;

like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

3 Do you fix your eye on them?

Will you bring them before you for judgment?

4 Who can bring what is pure from the impure?

No one!

5 A person’s days are determined;

you have decreed the number of his months

and have set limits he cannot exceed.

6 So look away from him and let him alone,

till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.

7 “At least there is hope for a tree:

If it is cut down, it will sprout again,

and its new shoots will not fail.

8 Its roots may grow old in the ground

and its stump die in the soil,

9 yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put forth shoots like a plant.

10 But a man dies and is laid low;

he breathes his last and is no more.

11 As the water of a lake dries up

or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

12 so he lies down and does not rise;

till the heavens are no more, people will not awake

or be roused from their sleep.

13 “If only you would hide me in the grave

and conceal me till your anger has passed!

If only you would set me a time

and then remember me!

14 If someone dies, will they live again?

All the days of my hard service

I will wait for my renewal to come.

15 You will call and I will answer you;

you will long for the creature your hands have made.

16 Surely then you will count my steps

but not keep track of my sin.

17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;

you will cover over my sin.

18 “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles

and as a rock is moved from its place,

19 as water wears away stones

and torrents wash away the soil,

so you destroy a person’s hope.

20 You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;

you change their countenance and send them away.

21 If their children are honored, they do not know it;

if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.

22 They feel but the pain of their own bodies

and mourn only for themselves.”

Job 15

Eliphaz

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 “Would a wise person answer with empty notions

or fill their belly with the hot east wind?

3 Would they argue with useless words,

with speeches that have no value?

4 But you even undermine piety

and hinder devotion to God.

5 Your sin prompts your mouth;

you adopt the tongue of the crafty.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;

your own lips testify against you.

7 “Are you the first man ever born?

Were you brought forth before the hills?

8 Do you listen in on God’s council?

Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?

9 What do you know that we do not know?

What insights do you have that we do not have?

10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,

men even older than your father.

11 Are God’s consolations not enough for you,

words spoken gently to you?

12 Why has your heart carried you away,

and why do your eyes flash,

13 so that you vent your rage against God

and pour out such words from your mouth?

14 “What are mortals, that they could be pure,

or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?

15 If God places no trust in his holy ones,

if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,

16 how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt,

who drink up evil like water!

17 “Listen to me and I will explain to you;

let me tell you what I have seen,

18 what the wise have declared,

hiding nothing received from their ancestors

19 (to whom alone the land was given

when no foreigners moved among them):

20 All his days the wicked man suffers torment,

the ruthless man through all the years stored up for him.

21 Terrifying sounds fill his ears;

when all seems well, marauders attack him.

22 He despairs of escaping the realm of darkness;

he is marked for the sword.

23 He wanders about for food like a vulture;

he knows the day of darkness is at hand.

24 Distress and anguish fill him with terror;

troubles overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack,

25 because he shakes his fist at God

and vaunts himself against the Almighty,

26 defiantly charging against him

with a thick, strong shield.

27 “Though his face is covered with fat

and his waist bulges with flesh,

28 he will inhabit ruined towns

and houses where no one lives,

houses crumbling to rubble.

29 He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure,

nor will his possessions spread over the land.

30 He will not escape the darkness;

a flame will wither his shoots,

and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.

31 Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless,

for he will get nothing in return.

32 Before his time he will wither,

and his branches will not flourish.

33 He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes,

like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.

34 For the company of the godless will be barren,

and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.

35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;

their womb fashions deceit.”

Job 16

Job

1 Then Job replied:

2 “I have heard many things like these;

you are miserable comforters, all of you!

3 Will your long-winded speeches never end?

What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4 I also could speak like you,

if you were in my place;

I could make fine speeches against you

and shake my head at you.

5 But my mouth would encourage you;

comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

6 “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;

and if I refrain, it does not go away.

7 Surely, God, you have worn me out;

you have devastated my entire household.

8 You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;

my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9 God assails me and tears me in his anger

and gnashes his teeth at me;

my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10 People open their mouths to jeer at me;

they strike my cheek in scorn

and unite together against me.

11 God has turned me over to the ungodly

and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12 All was well with me, but he shattered me;

he seized me by the neck and crushed me.

He has made me his target;

13 his archers surround me.

Without pity, he pierces my kidneys

and spills my gall on the ground.

14 Again and again he bursts upon me;

he rushes at me like a warrior.

15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin

and buried my brow in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping,

dark shadows ring my eyes;

17 yet my hands have been free of violence

and my prayer is pure.

18 “Earth, do not cover my blood;

may my cry never be laid to rest!

19 Even now my witness is in heaven;

my advocate is on high.

20 My intercessor is my friend

as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God

as one pleads for a friend.

22 “Only a few years will pass

before I take the path of no return.

Job 17

1 My spirit is broken,

my days are cut short,

the grave awaits me.

2 Surely mockers surround me;

my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

3 “Give me, O God, the pledge you demand.

Who else will put up security for me?

4 You have closed their minds to understanding;

therefore you will not let them triumph.

5 If anyone denounces their friends for reward,

the eyes of their children will fail.

6 “God has made me a byword to everyone,

a man in whose face people spit.

7 My eyes have grown dim with grief;

my whole frame is but a shadow.

8 The upright are appalled at this;

the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.

9 Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,

and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

10 “But come on, all of you, try again!

I will not find a wise man among you.

11 My days have passed, my plans are shattered.

Yet the desires of my heart

12 turn night into day;

in the face of the darkness light is near.

13 If the only home I hope for is the grave,

if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,

14 if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’

15 where then is my hope—

who can see any hope for me?

16 Will it go down to the gates of death?

Will we descend together into the dust?”

Job 18

Bildad

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 “When will you end these speeches?

Be sensible, and then we can talk.

3 Why are we regarded as cattle

and considered stupid in your sight?

4 You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger,

is the earth to be abandoned for your sake?

Or must the rocks be moved from their place?

5 “The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out;

the flame of his fire stops burning.

6 The light in his tent becomes dark;

the lamp beside him goes out.

7 The vigor of his step is weakened;

his own schemes throw him down.

8 His feet thrust him into a net;

he wanders into its mesh.

9 A trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare holds him fast.

10 A noose is hidden for him on the ground;

a trap lies in his path.

11 Terrors startle him on every side

and dog his every step.

12 Calamity is hungry for him;

disaster is ready for him when he falls.

13 It eats away parts of his skin;

death’s firstborn devours his limbs.

14 He is torn from the security of his tent

and marched off to the king of terrors.

15 Fire resides in his tent;

burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling.

16 His roots dry up below

and his branches wither above.

17 The memory of him perishes from the earth;

he has no name in the land.

18 He is driven from light into the realm of darkness

and is banished from the world.

19 He has no offspring or descendants among his people,

 no survivor where once he lived.

20 People of the west are appalled at his fate;

those of the east are seized with horror.

21 Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man;

such is the place of one who does not know God.”