Job 6 Cross References - ISV

¹ Job’s Suffering is GraveIn rebuttal, Job replied:
² “If only my grief could be weighed; or my calamity piled together on a balance scale! ³ It would weigh more than the sand on the seashore! Here’s why I’ve talked so rashly: ⁴ “The arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit absorbs their poison; God’s terrors have been arranged just for me! ⁵ “Will the wild donkey bray from hunger if fresh grass is beside him? Will the ox low from distress if it is near its feed? ⁶ Tasteless food isn’t eaten without salt, is it? Is there any taste in an egg white? ⁷ I cannot bring myself to touch them; food like this makes me sick.”
⁸ Job Desires Death“Who will grant my wish? I wish God would grant what I’m hoping for: ⁹ that God would just be willing to crush me; that he would let loose and eliminate me! ¹⁰ At least I could still take comfort and rejoice in unceasing anguish, for I didn’t conceal what the Holy One has to say. ¹¹ “Do I have the strength to wait? And why should I be patient? ¹² Am I as strong as a rock? Am I some kind of iron man? ¹³ There is no help within me, is there? My resources have been driven away from me, haven’t they?
¹⁴ Job Accuses His Friends of TreacheryThe friend shows gracious love for his friend, even if he has forsaken the fear of the Almighty. ¹⁵ But my brothers have acted treacherously like a cascading river, like torrential rivers that overflow. ¹⁶ Filled with waters made cold by ice, they are where the snow goes to hide. ¹⁷ But then the snow melts, and they disappear; when warmed, they evaporate from their stream beds. ¹⁸ Travelers divert in their route; they go into a wasteland and die. ¹⁹ Travelers from Tema search intently; caravans from Sheba hope to find them. ²⁰ For all their expectations, they are doomed to disappointment; even though they have come and searched this far. ²¹ “And now you’re all just like them, aren’t you? You see my terror and are terrified. ²² When did I ever ask you for anything, say ‘Offer a bribe for me from your wealth?’ ²³ or say ‘Deliver me from my enemy’s control,’ or ‘Redeem me from the domination of ruthless people’?”
²⁴ Job Requests Mercy from His Friends“Instruct me, and I’ll remain silent. Help me understand where I’ve gone astray. ²⁵ The truth can be painful, but what has your argument proven? ²⁶ Did you intend your words to reprove, even though the speech of a desperate person is just wind? ²⁷ Indeed, you would gamble to buy an orphan; and barter to buy your friend! ²⁸ Now be willing to face me, and I won’t lie to your face. ²⁹ Repent! Let there be no injustice; Change your ways! My vindication is at stake. ³⁰ Have I said anything that’s unjust? I can discern evil, can’t I?”

¹ Eliphaz: the Innocent Don’t SufferIn reply, Eliphaz from Teman answered:

⁵ “But now it’s your turn, and you’re the one who is worn out! Now it’s striking you, and you’re dismayed!

² “I’m still complaining bitterly today; my hand is heavy because of groaning.

⁶ let my righteousness be weighed in honest scales, and God will make known my integrity.

¹⁹ Tell us! What are we to say to him? Can we prepare our case to face him when our faces are in darkness? ²⁰ Has it been relayed to God that I want to talk? Can a person speak when he is confused?”

⁵ LORD, my God, You have done great things: marvelous works and your thoughts toward us. There is no one who compares to you! I will try to recite your actions, even though there are too many to number.

⁴ You kept my eyes open; I was troubled and couldn’t speak.

³ Rocks are heavy, and sand is weighty, but a fool’s provocation outweighs them both.

²⁸ “Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest.

²³ I’ll bury them in misfortunes and bring them to an end with my arrows. ²⁴ Emaciated from famine, feverish from plague, and destroyed by bitterness, I’ll send fanged beasts against them, along with poisonous snakes that glide through the dust.

⁴² I’ll make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword will devour flesh, along with the blood of the slain, and I’ll take their enemy leaders captive.’

¹⁷ For he crushes me with a storm, and keeps on wounding me for no reason.

¹² “He tore me apart when I was at ease; grabbing me by my neck, he shook me to pieces— then he really made me his target. ¹³ His archers surround me, slashing open my kidneys without pity; he pours out my gall on the ground. ¹⁴ Attack follows attack as he breaks through my defenses! He runs over me like a mighty warrior.

²⁰ Their own eyes will see their destruction; and they’ll drink the wrath of the Almighty.

¹⁵ My greatest fears have overcome me; my honor is assaulted as though by a wind storm; my prosperity evaporates like a morning cloud.”

²³ For I’m terrified of what calamity God may have in store for me; and I cannot endure his grandeur.”

¹³ He prepares weapons of death for himself, he makes his arrows into fiery shafts.

¹⁴ He shot his arrows and scattered them; with many lightning bolts he frightened them.

¹² Indeed, you will make them retreat, when you aim your bow at their faces.

² because your arrows have sunk deep into me, and your hand has come down hard on me.

⁵ Your arrows are sharpened to penetrate the hearts of the king’s enemies. People will fall under you.

¹⁵ Since my youth I have been oppressed and in danger of death. I bear your dread and am overwhelmed. ¹⁶ Your burning anger overwhelms me; your terrors destroy me.

⁷ Answer me quickly, LORD; my spirit is failing. Do not hide your face from me; otherwise, I will become like those who descend to the Pit,

¹⁴ A man’s spirit can sustain him during his illness, but who can bear a crushed spirit?

¹² He bent his bow, aiming at me with his arrow. ¹³ He caused his war arrows to pierce my vital organs.

³³ He took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to feel distressed and troubled. ³⁴ So he told them, “I’m deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Wait here and stay awake.”

³⁴ At three o’clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)

¹¹ The Messiah’s Love Controls UsTherefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade people. We ourselves are perfectly known to God. I hope we are also really known to your consciences.

¹ To the Director: An instruction of the Sons of Korah.
Hope in God When Times of Trouble Come As an antelope pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, God.

¹⁴ He causes grass to sprout for the cattle and plants for people to cultivate, to produce food from the land,

⁶ Wild donkeys stand on the barren hills. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyesight fails because there is no vegetation.”

¹⁸ Oh, how the livestock groan! The herds of cattle wander about because they have no pasture. Even flocks of sheep suffer! ¹⁹ To you, LORD, I cry out, because fire has devoured the open pastures, and has set all the cultivated trees ablaze. ²⁰ The livestock also cries out to you, because their water sources have evaporated and because fire has consumed the open pastures.

¹³ Requirements for Salt“Also, be sure to rub every offering from your grain offering with salt. You are not ever to remove the salt of the covenant of your God from your grain offering. Present all your offerings with salt.”

²⁵ The truth can be painful, but what has your argument proven?

³⁰ Have I said anything that’s unjust? I can discern evil, can’t I?”

¹¹ The ear scrutinizes speech just as the palate tastes food.”

² “I’ve heard many things like this. What miserable comforters you all are!

³ Since the ear tests words like a palate tastes food,

¹⁰³ How pleasing is what you have to say to me— tasting better than honey.

³⁴ Tasteless Salt
“Now, salt is good. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can its flavor be restored?

⁶ Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

⁴ For it is impossible to keep on restoring to repentance time and again people who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have become partners with the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of God’s word and the powers of the coming age,

¹² “As the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have so much as a muffin, just a handful of flour in a bowl and some oil left in a bottle. Now I’m going to find some sticks so I can cook a last meal for my son and for me. Then we’re going to eat it and die.”

²⁷ Give him this order: ‘Place him in prison on survival rations of bread and water only until I come back safely.’”

²⁴ “As far as I’m concerned, my food comes to me in the form of sighs, and my cries of anguish pour out like water.

⁹ I have eaten ashes as food and mixed my drink with tears

¹⁴ “Now, Lord GOD,” I replied, “I’ve never been defiled, ever since I was young until now. I haven’t eaten an animal that died on its own or was torn by beasts, and no unclean meat has ever entered my mouth!”

¹⁶ He also told me, “Son of Man, look! I’m about to disrupt the source of bread in Jerusalem. As a result, they’ll ration bread by weight while their terror continues to grow and they’ll ration drinking water while their horror continues to mount!

¹⁸ “Son of Man, eat your bread with trembling and drink your water with quivering and anxiety. ¹⁹ Then tell the people of the land, ‘This is what the LORD says to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to Israel’s land: “They’ll eat their food in anxiety and drink their water in trepidation, because their land will be desolate in its entirety due to all the violence committed by all who live in it.

³ I ate no fancy foods—neither meat nor wine entered my mouth. Furthermore, I didn’t use any ointment until the end of the entire three weeks.

¹¹ “Do I have the strength to wait? And why should I be patient? ¹² Am I as strong as a rock? Am I some kind of iron man? ¹³ There is no help within me, is there? My resources have been driven away from me, haven’t they?

¹⁴ if I call out to the Pit, ‘You’re my father!’ or say to the worm, ‘My mother!’ or ‘My sister!’ ¹⁵ where would my hope be? “And speaking of my hope, who would notice it? ¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars that lock the doors of the afterlife? Will we descend together into the dust?”

⁸¹ Kaf
On Obeying God’s WordI long for your deliverance; I have looked to your word, placing my hope in it.

¹⁴ I cannot carry this whole nation! The burden is too heavy for me! ¹⁵ If this is how you treat me, please kill me right now, if I’ve found favor in your eyes, because I don’t want to keep staring at all of this misery!”

⁴ and ran for a day’s journey deep into the wilderness. He found a juniper tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he could die. He asked God, “Enough! LORD! Take my life, because I’m not better than my ancestors!”

²⁰ “Why does God give light to the sufferer or life to the bitter person: ²¹ To those who are longing for death— even though it does not come? To those who search for it more than for hidden treasure? ²² To those who are happy beyond measure when they reach their graves?

¹⁵ I would rather die by strangulation than continue living. ¹⁶ I hate the thought of living forever! Leave me alone, because my days are pointless.”

¹³ There is Life after Death“Won’t you keep me safe in the afterlife? Conceal me until your anger subsides. Set an appointment for me, then remember me.

²¹ Job Pleads with His Friends“Be gracious to me, be gracious to me, my friends, because God’s hand has struck me.

⁴ For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my strength was exhausted as in a summer drought. Interlude

¹⁰ Look, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have purified you in the furnace of affliction. ¹¹ For my own sake—Yes, for my own sake!—I’m doing it; indeed, how can I be profaned? Furthermore, I won’t give my glory to another.”
¹² The LORD Calls Israel“Listen to these things, Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called. I am the One: I am the first, I am even the last. ¹³ Moreover, my hands laid the earth’s foundation, and my right hand spread out the heavens. I call out to them, and they stand up together.

³ Therefore, LORD, please kill me, because it’s better for me to die than to live!”

⁸ When the sun rose, God prepared a harsh east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head, he became faint, and he begged to die. “It is better for me to die than to live!” he said.

⁶ In those days people will seek death, but never find it. They will long to die, but death will escape them.

² “Tell the entire assembly of Israel that they are to be holy, since I, the LORD your God, am holy.

²⁰ “The LORD won’t forgive such a person. Instead, the zealous anger of the LORD will blaze against him. All the curses that were written in this book will fall on him. Then the LORD will wipe out his memory from under heaven.

² Indeed, there is no one holy like the LORD, indeed, there is no one besides you, there is no rock like our God.

²² To those who are happy beyond measure when they reach their graves?

⁴ He is wise in heart and strong in will— who can be stubborn against him and succeed?

³³ The runoff from the streams will seem sweet to him; everyone will follow after him; countless crows march ahead of him.

²² Accept what he has to teach you, and treasure his words in your heart.

¹² I haven’t wandered away from the commands that he has spoken; I’ve treasured what he has said more than my own meals.”

³⁰ The mouth of the righteous one produces wisdom; his tongue speaks justice.

⁹ In the great congregation I have proclaimed the righteous good news. Behold, I did not seal my lips, LORD, as you know. ¹⁰ I have not ignored your righteousness in my heart; instead, I have proclaimed your faithfulness and deliverance. I have not concealed your gracious love and truthfulness from the great congregation.

¹⁷ God, you taught me from my youth, so I am still declaring your awesome deeds. ¹⁸ Also, when I reach old age and have gray hair, God, do not forsake me, until I have declared your power to this generation and your might to the next one.

¹³ I have spoken with my lips about all your decrees that you have announced.

¹¹ get out of the way, turn aside from the path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel.”
¹² Rejecting God’s MessageTherefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you reject this message, and put your trust in oppression and enjoy it, and since you rely on it,

¹⁵ “For this is what the high and lofty One says, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “He lives in the height and in holiness, and also with the one who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

⁹ I will not act in my anger; I will not return to destroy Ephraim, For I am God, and not a human— the Holy One among you— so I will not enter the city in anger.

¹² The Prophet’s Second Complaint“Haven’t you existed forever, LORD my God, my Holy One? We won’t die! LORD, you’ve prepared them for judgment; Rock, you’ve sentenced them to correction.

³ God comes from Teman— the Holy One from Mount Paran. Interlude His glory spreads throughout the heavens, and praises about him fill the earth.

²⁰ I never shrank from telling you anything that would help you nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.

²⁷ because I never shrank from telling you the whole plan of God.

³² The one who did not spare his own Son, but offered him as a sacrifice for all of us, surely will give us all things, along with his Son, won’t he?

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into the lowest hell and imprisoned them in chains of deepest darkness, holding them for judgment; ⁵ and if he did not spare the ancient world but protected Noah, a righteous preacher, along with seven others when he brought the flood on the world of ungodly people;

⁷ The Letter to the Church in Philadelphia“To the messenger of the church in Philadelphia, write: ‘The one who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens a door that no one can shut, and who shuts a door that no one can open, ‘says this:

⁸ Each of the four living creatures had six wings and were full of eyes inside and out. Without stopping day or night they were saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is coming.”

⁵ My skin is covered with worms and clods of dirt; my skin becomes rough and then breaks out afresh. ⁶ My days pass as swiftly as a hand-loom; they come to their conclusion without hope. ⁷ Remember that my life is a breath; my eyes won’t go back to seeing good things.

²⁰ My days are so few, aren’t they? So leave me alone, then, so I can smile a little

²⁵ Are you a god who would make a leaf tremble or who would prosecute a dry straw?

²⁸ So I’m a man who wears out like something rotten, like a garment that has become moth-eaten.”

¹ Job Laments and Prepares for Death “My spirit is crushed, my days are over; it’s the grave for me!

⁴ After all, isn’t my complaint against a human being? If so, why shouldn’t I be impatient?

⁵ Look, you have made my life span fit in your hand; It is nothing compared to yours. Surely every person at their best is a puff of wind. Interlude

⁵ You will sweep them away while they are asleep— by morning they are like growing grass. ⁶ In the morning it blossoms and is renewed, but toward evening, it fades and withers. ⁷ Indeed, we are consumed by your anger and terrified by your wrath. ⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, what we have concealed in the light of your presence. ⁹ All our days pass away in your wrath; our years fade away and end like a sigh. ¹⁰ We live for 70 years, or 80 years if we’re healthy, yet even in the prime years there are troubles and sorrow. They pass by quickly and we fly away.

²³ He has weakened my strength along the way. He has cut short my days.

¹⁴ For he knows how we were formed, aware that we were made from dust. ¹⁵ A person’s life is like grass— it blossoms like wild flowers, ¹⁶ but when the wind blows through it, it withers away and no one remembers where it was.

¹⁸ His bones are conduits of bronze; his strong bones are like bars of iron.

²⁴ His heart is as strong as stone, it is as hard as a lower millstone.

² “Truly, you are the people and wisdom will die with you! ³ Like you, I also have understanding. I’m not inferior to you; who doesn’t know things like this?”

² What you know, I know, too; I’m not inferior to you.

²⁸ Job Reminds His Friends of Judgment“When you’re thinking about asking yourselves, ‘How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem is with him?’

² “What a help you are to the weak! How powerfully you deliver those without strength!

¹² Paul’s Reason for BoastingFor this is what we boast about: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world with pure motives and godly sincerity, without earthly wisdom but with God’s grace—especially toward you.

⁴ Each person must examine his own actions, and then he can boast about his own accomplishments and not about someone else.

¹¹ “I thought that there’s no fear of God in this place,” Abraham replied, “and that they would kill me because of my wife.

³ Look! You’ve admonished many people, and you’ve strengthened feeble hands. ⁴ A word from you has supported those who have stumbled, and has strengthened faltering knees. ⁵ “But now it’s your turn, and you’re the one who is worn out! Now it’s striking you, and you’re dismayed!

⁴ Yet you dispense with fear of God and hinder meditations before God.

⁵ and encourage you with what I have to say; my words of comfort would lessen your pain.

¹ To the Director: By the servant of the LORD, David.
An Oracle from the LORD An oracle that came to me about the transgressions of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. ² He flatters himself too much to discover his transgression and hate it. ³ The words from his mouth are vain and deceptive. He has abandoned behaving wisely and doing good.

¹⁷ A friend loves at all times, and a brother is there for times of trouble.

⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him, “Aren’t you afraid of God, since you are suffering the same penalty?

¹⁵ Rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Cry with those who are crying.

²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is praised, every part rejoices with it.

²⁹ Who is weak without me being weak, too? Who is caused to stumble without me becoming indignant?

² Practice carrying each other’s burdens. In this way you will fulfill the law of the Messiah.

³ Continue to remember those in prison as if you were in prison with them, as well as those who are mistreated, since they also are only mortal.

¹⁹ My closest friends detest me; even the ones I love have turned against me.

¹¹ As for my friends and my neighbors, they stand aloof from my distress; even my close relatives stand at a distance.

⁹ As for my best friend, the one in whom I trusted, the one who ate my bread, even he has insulted me!

¹² For it is not an enemy who insults me— I could have handled that— nor is it someone who hates me and who now arises against me— I could have hidden myself from him— ¹³ but it is you— a man whom I treated as my equal— my personal confidant, my close friend! ¹⁴ We had good fellowship together; and we even walked together in the house of God!

¹⁸ You caused my friend and neighbor to shun me; and my acquaintances are confused.

⁴ “Beware of your neighbors, and don’t trust any of your relatives. For all of your relatives act deceitfully, and every friend goes around as a slanderer. ⁵ People deceive their friends, and they don’t tell the truth. They have taught their tongues to tell lies. They exhaust themselves practicing evil.

¹⁸ Why is my pain unending and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
God’s Answer to Jeremiah’s Revised Complaint You are like a deceptive brook, whose waters cannot be depended on.

¹⁴ All your lovers have forgotten you; they don’t seek you. Indeed, I’ve struck you down with the blow of an enemy, with the punishment of a cruel foe because your wickedness is great, and your sins are numerous.

⁵ Don’t trust your friends, don’t confide in a companion, watch what you say to your wife. ⁶ The son disrespects his father, the daughter rebels against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies are the people of his own house.

¹⁸ I’m not talking about all of you. I know the ones I have chosen. But the Scripture must be fulfilled: ‘The one who ate bread with me has turned against me.’

³² Listen, the time is coming, indeed it has already come, when you will be scattered, each of you to his own home, and you will leave me all by myself. Yet I’m not alone, because the Father is with me.

¹² These people are stains on your love feasts. They feast with you without any sense of awe. They are shepherds who care only for themselves. They are waterless clouds blown about by the winds. They are autumn trees that are fruitless, totally dead, and uprooted.

¹ Elijah Calls for a DroughtElijah the foreigner, who was an alien resident from Gilead, told Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I’m standing, there will be neither dew nor rain these next several years, except when I say so.”

¹⁹ As drought and heat evaporate melting snow, that’s what Sheol does with sinners.

⁷ Cush’s descendants included Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca.
Raamah’s descendants included Sheba and Dedan.

³ Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s sons were the Asshurites, Letushites, and Leummites.

¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

¹ The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon
When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s reputation with the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions.

¹⁰ May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores bring gifts, and may the kings of Sheba and Seba offer tribute.

¹⁴ Bring water for the thirsty, you who live in the land of Tema. Meet the fugitive with bread,

²³ Dedan, Tema, Buz, and those who shave the corners of their beards;

²² Traders from Sheba and Raamah paid for the best of what you had to offer with all types of spices, precious stones, and gold. ²³ Haran, Canneh, Eden, merchants from Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad did business with you,

³ Their nobles send their young people for water. They go to the cisterns, but they find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They’re disappointed and dismayed, and they cover their heads in shame. ⁴ The ground is cracked, because there has been no rain in the land. The farmers are disappointed, and they cover their heads in shame.

¹³ LORD, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn aside from you will be written in the dust, because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.

⁵ Now this hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

³³ As it is written, “Look! I am placing a stone in Zion over which people will stumble— a large rock that will make them fall— and the one who believes in him will never be ashamed.”

¹¹ Job’s Friends VisitWhen Job’s three friends heard all these tragedies that happened to him, they each traveled from their home towns to visit him. Eliphaz came from Teman, Bildad came from Shuah, and Zophar came from Naamath. They met together and went to console and comfort him. ¹² Observing him from a distance, at first they didn’t even recognize him, so they raised their voices and burst into tears. They each ripped their robes, threw ashes into the air on their heads, ¹³ and sat with Job on the ground for a full week without saying a word, since they could see the great extent of his anguish.

¹⁵ But my brothers have acted treacherously like a cascading river, like torrential rivers that overflow.

⁴ Job Accuses His Friends“But as for you, you whitewash with lies; all of you are worthless quacks.

⁹ Human beings are a mere vapor, while people in high positions are not what they appear. When they are placed on the scales, they weigh nothing; even when weighed together, they are less than nothing.

⁷ All the relatives of a poor person shun him— how much more do his friends avoid him! Though he runs after them pleading, they aren’t around.

²² “Stop trusting in human beings, whose life breath is in their nostrils, for what are they really worth?”

⁵ Two Ways ContrastedThis is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind, who makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD. ⁶ He will be like a bush in the desert, and he won’t see when good comes. He will dwell in parched places in the wilderness, a land of salt, without inhabitants.

⁹ We tried to heal Babylon, but she wouldn’t be healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country. For her judgment has reached to the heavens, and is lifted up to the sky.

³¹ Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
Then Jesus told them, “All of you will turn against me this very night, because it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

⁵⁶ But all of this has happened so that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.”
Then all the disciples deserted Jesus and ran away.

¹⁶ At my first trial no one came to my defense. Everyone abandoned me. May it not be held against them!

⁹ The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality with her and lived in luxury with her, will cry and mourn over her when they see the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. ¹⁰ Frightened by the torture that she experiences, they will stand far away and cry out, “How terrible, how terrible it is for that great city, the powerful city Babylon, because your judgment arrived in a single hour!”

¹⁷ because all this wealth has been destroyed in a single hour!”
Every ship’s captain, everyone who traveled by ship, sailors, and everyone who made a living from the sea stood far away. ¹⁸ When they saw the smoke rising from the fire that consumed her, they began to cry out, “What city was like that great city?”

³ Here I am. Testify against me in the LORD’s presence and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken? Who have I cheated? Who have I oppressed? Who bribed me to look the other way? I’ll restore it to you.”

¹¹ Then all his brothers and sisters and all those who knew him before arrived. They ate food with him in his house, mourned for him, and consoled him for all the trouble that the LORD had brought and placed on him. Some gave him gold bullion and some brought gold earrings.

³³ I never desired anyone’s silver, gold, or clothes.

⁴⁸ he has the right to be redeemed after he sells himself. One of his brothers may redeem him.

⁸ I accused them, “To the best of our ability, we’ve been buying back our fellow Jews who had been sold to foreigners. Even now you’re selling your fellow countrymen, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet and never spoke a word.

²⁰ He will deliver you from death by famine; in war from the power of the sword.

⁷ No man can redeem the life of another, nor can he give to God a sufficient payment for him— ⁸ for it would cost too much to redeem his life, and the payments would go on forever—

¹⁵ God will truly redeem me from the power of Sheol. He will surely receive me! Interlude

² Let those who have been redeemed by the LORD declare it— those whom he redeemed from the power of the enemy,

²¹ So I’ll deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

²⁷ “Look! We have thought all this through, and what we’ve said is true; So please listen and learn for your own good!”

² I’ll say to God, ‘Don’t condemn me! Let me know why you are fighting me.

¹¹ “Look! I have waited to hear your speech, so I listened to your insights while you searched for the right words to say.

¹⁵ “Job’s friends won’t reason with him anymore; discouraged, words escape them. ¹⁶ Shall I continue to wait, since they’re no longer talking? After all, they’re only standing there; they’re no longer responding.

¹ Elihu Begins His Discourse “Now please listen to what I have to say, Job. Listen to every word!

³¹ Elihu Invites Job to Respond“Job, pay attention! Listen to me! Be silent and let me speak. ³² If you have anything to say, answer me; speak up, because I’d be happy to vindicate you. ³³ But if you have nothing to say, then at least listen to me! Be quiet and learn some wisdom from me.”

³² What I don’t see, instruct me! If I’ve done anything evil, I won’t repeat it!’

¹² Who can detect his own mistake? Cleanse me from hidden sin.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you concerning the path you should walk; I will direct you with my eye.

¹ To the Director: To Jeduthun. A Davidic Psalm.
A Prayer about Life’s Priorities I told myself, “I will keep watch over my tongue to keep from sinning. I will muzzle my mouth when the wicked are around.” ² I was as silent as a mute person; I said nothing, not even something good, and my distress deepened.

⁹ Counsel a wise man, and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man, and he will add to his learning.

¹² Like a gold earring and a necklace of pure gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.

¹⁹ You must understand this, my dear brothers. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

² For all of us make many mistakes. If someone does not make any mistakes when he speaks, he is perfect and able to control his whole body.

⁴ A word from you has supported those who have stumbled, and has strengthened faltering knees.

⁵ I wish you’d all just shut up. Then at least you would appear to be wise.

³ Will windy words like yours never end? What is upsetting you that you keep on arguing? ⁴ “I could also talk like you if only you were in my place! Then I would put together an argument against you. I would shake my head at you ⁵ and encourage you with what I have to say; my words of comfort would lessen your pain.

³⁴ How then, can you console me so worthlessly? What is left of your answers is treachery.”

²⁵ If this weren’t so, who can prove that I’m a liar by showing that there’s nothing to what I’m saying?”

³ Furthermore, he was furious with his three friends because they had not answered Job, but instead had condemned him.

¹⁸ Some speak rashly like the cutting of a sword, but what the wise say promotes healing.

²¹ The wise-hearted person is told to be discerning, and that pleasant speech promotes instruction. ²² Anyone who has understanding is a fountain of life, but foolishness brings punishment to fools. ²³ A wise person’s thoughts control his words, and his speech promotes instruction. ²⁴ Pleasant words are honey from a honeycomb— sweet to the soul and healing for the body.

²¹ The power of the tongue is life and death— those who love to talk will eat what it produces.

¹¹ Like golden apples set in silver is a word spoken at the right time.

¹⁰ The Teacher searched to find appropriate expressions, and what is written here is right and truthful.
¹¹ Sayings from the wise are like cattle prods and well fastened nails; this masterful collection was given by one shepherd.

¹⁰ But he replied to her, “You’re talking like foolish women do. Are we to accept what is good from God but not tragedy?”
Throughout all of this, Job did not sin by what he said.

³ “Let the day when I was born be annihilated, along with the night when it was announced, ‘It’s a boy!’ ⁴ Let that day be dark; let God above not care about it; let no light shine over it. ⁵ Let darkness and deep gloom reclaim it; let clouds settle down on it; let blackness in mid-day terrify it. ⁶ Let darkness carry that night away; let it not take its place joyfully among the days of the year; let it not be entered into the calendar. ⁷ “Yes, let that night be barren; let it not appear with its joyful shout. ⁸ Let whoever curses days curse it— those who are ready to awaken monsters. ⁹ Let the stars of its evening twilight be dark; let it hope for light but let there be none; let it not see the breaking rays of the dawn. ¹⁰ “Because that night refused to shut the doors of my mother’s womb; it failed to keep me from seeing this trouble. ¹¹ Why didn’t I die while I was still in the womb, or die while I was being born? ¹² Why was there a lap to hold me, and why were there breasts to nurse me? ¹³ “If I had died, I would be lying down by now, undisturbed, asleep, and at rest, ¹⁴ along with kings and counselors of the earth, who used to build for themselves what are now only ruins, ¹⁵ or princes who amassed gold for themselves, and who kept filling their houses with silver. ¹⁶ “Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like babies who never saw the light? ¹⁷ In that place, the wicked stop causing trouble, and there, those whose strength is exhausted are at rest. ¹⁸ In that place, those who once were prisoners will be at ease together; they won’t hear the voice of oppressors. ¹⁹ The unimportant and the important are both there, and the servant is free from his master. ²⁰ “Why does God give light to the sufferer or life to the bitter person: ²¹ To those who are longing for death— even though it does not come? To those who search for it more than for hidden treasure? ²² To those who are happy beyond measure when they reach their graves? ²³ To the formerly successful man who lost his way in life, and God fenced him in? ²⁴ “As far as I’m concerned, my food comes to me in the form of sighs, and my cries of anguish pour out like water. ²⁵ For the dreaded thing that I feared has happened to me, what caused me to worry has engulfed me. ²⁶ I will not be at ease; I will not be quiet; I will not rest; because trouble has arrived.”

³ Look! You’ve admonished many people, and you’ve strengthened feeble hands. ⁴ A word from you has supported those who have stumbled, and has strengthened faltering knees.

⁴ “The arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit absorbs their poison; God’s terrors have been arranged just for me!

⁹ that God would just be willing to crush me; that he would let loose and eliminate me!

² “How long will you keep talking like this? How long will you keep talking like a wind storm?

¹ Job Asks God to Acquit Him “I am disgusted with living, so I’m going to talk about my complaint freely. I’ll speak out from the bitterness of my soul.

³ Since the ear tests words like a palate tastes food, ⁴ let’s choose what’s right for us. Let’s consider among ourselves what is good.”
⁵ Elihu Reviews Job’s Complaint against God’s InjusticeNow this is Job’s claim: ‘Even though I’m innocent, God has stopped treating me righteously. ⁶ Have I lied concerning the justice that I deserve? My wound is incurable, though transgression cannot be attributed to me.’ ⁷ “What man is like Job, who drinks mockery like water, ⁸ traffics in those who practice evil, and walks with wicked people? ⁹ Because he says, ‘There’s no profit for a man to find joy with God.’”

² “Who is this who keeps darkening my counsel without knowing what he’s talking about?

⁵ I spoke once, but I can’t answer; I tried a second time, but I won’t do so anymore.”

⁸ Indeed would you annul my justice and condemn me, just so you can claim that you’re righteous?

³ You asked, ‘Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge?’ Well now, I have talked about what I don’t understand— awesome things beyond me that I don’t know.

⁷ Job’s Friends are RestoredAfter these words had been spoken by the LORD to Job, the LORD spoke to Eliphaz from Teman: “My anger is burning against you along with your two friends, since you haven’t spoken correctly about me, as did my servant Job.

¹ Israel’s Sin “Ephraim feeds on the wind, chasing after the eastern winds, storing up lies and desolation day after day. They are making a contract with the Assyrians, and sending oil to Egypt.

³⁷ because by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be little children, tossed like waves and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, or by clever strategies that would lead us astray.

²² “You are not to mistreat any widow or orphan. ²³ If you do mistreat them, they’ll certainly cry out to me, and I’ll immediately hear their cry. ²⁴ And I’ll be angry and will kill you with swords, and your wives will become widows and your children orphans.

⁹ You sent away widows empty-handed, and broke the outstretched arms of orphans.

³ They drive away the orphan’s donkey; they take the ox of the widow as security for a loan;

⁹ “The fatherless are torn from the breast; the poor are taken away as security for a loan.

¹² because I delivered the poor who were crying for help, along with orphans who had no one to help them.

¹⁷ if I ate my meals by myself without feeding orphans,

²¹ if I’ve raised my hand against an orphan when I thought I would against him in court,

¹⁵ He digs a pit, even excavates it; then he fell into the hole that he had made.

⁶ They have set a snare for my feet, which makes me depressed. They dug a pit in front of me, but they are the ones who fell into it! Interlude

³ “Defend the poor and the fatherless. Vindicate the afflicted and the poor.

¹⁰ Don’t move ancient boundaries or invade fields belonging to orphans; ¹¹ for strong is their Redeemer who will take up their case against you.

²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit to take my life. Remember! I stood before you and spoke good on their behalf in order to turn your wrath away from them.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses because you have brought a raiding party against them suddenly. For they have dug a pit to capture me and have set traps for my feet.

⁷ They’ve treated mothers and fathers among you with contempt. They’ve oppressed the foreigner among you. They’ve maltreated the orphan and the widow among you.

³ They cast lots for my people— they sold a young boy in exchange for a prostitute, and a girl for wine, so they could drink.”

¹⁰ But she, too, was exiled— she went into captivity! Her young children were dashed to pieces at every crossroad of their streets, and her famous citizens were sold by lottery, while all of her aristocrats were put in chains.

⁵ The Judgment of God“I’ll come near to you for judgment. I’ll be a witness, quick to speak against sorcerers, against adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who defraud the laborer of his wage, against those who defraud the widow and the orphan, against those who deprive the alien of justice, and against those who don’t fear me,” says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

²⁷ A religion that is pure and stainless according to God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

³ In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. The ancient verdict against them is still in force, and their destruction is not delayed.

³ Will your irrational babble silence people, and when you mock them, will you escape without being shamed?

⁴ I won’t speak lies nor will I utter deceit.

³ I speak from the innocence of my heart; and my lips will utter what I sincerely know.

⁴ because what I have to say isn’t deceptive, and the one who has perfect knowledge is with you.”

¹⁰ Job Prepares for Death“Come here now, all of you, and I won’t find a wise person among you.

¹⁰ Because he knows the road on which I travel, when he had tested me, I’ll come out like gold.

⁴ I won’t speak lies nor will I utter deceit. ⁵ Far be it from me to admit that you’re right! I intend to maintain my integrity even if it kills me! ⁶ I’ll retain my righteousness and not compromise it; my conscience won’t rebuke me at any time.

⁵ Elihu Reviews Job’s Complaint against God’s InjusticeNow this is Job’s claim: ‘Even though I’m innocent, God has stopped treating me righteously.

⁶ As a result, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

¹⁸ When you return, you will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, and between the one who serves God and the one who does not.”

⁶ Tasteless food isn’t eaten without salt, is it? Is there any taste in an egg white?

⁸ Elihu Reviews Job’s Claim for Innocence“You spoke clearly so I could hear; I’ve heard what you’ve said: ⁹ ‘I’m pure. I’m without sin; I’m innocent. I’m harboring no iniquity inside of me. ¹⁰ Nevertheless, God has found a pretext to attack me; he considers me his enemy. ¹¹ He has bound my feet in shackles, and keeps watching everything I do.’”
¹² God Responds to Humanity’s Need“You aren’t right about this; My response is that God is greater than human beings.

³ You asked, ‘Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge?’ Well now, I have talked about what I don’t understand— awesome things beyond me that I don’t know. ⁴ Listen now, and I will speak for myself; I’ll interrogate you and then inform me. ⁵ I’ve heard you with my ears; and now I’ve seen you with my eyes. ⁶ As a result, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

¹⁴ But solid food is for mature people, whose minds are trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.