Job 10 Cross References - ISV

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. ² I’ll say to God, ‘Don’t condemn me! Let me know why you are fighting me. ³ Does it delight you to oppress or despise what you have made, while you smile at the plans of the wicked? ⁴ Do you have eyes made of flesh? Can you look at things as humans do? ⁵ Can you live only as long as a human being? Or live the years of a mortal man? ⁶ “‘For you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin. ⁷ Although you know that I’m not guilty, there’s no one to deliver me from you! ⁸ Your hands formed and fashioned me, but then you have destroyed me all at once on all sides. ⁹ “‘Please remember that you’ve made me like clay and you’ll return me to dust. ¹⁰ Didn’t you pour me out like milk and let me congeal like cheese? ¹¹ You covered me with skin and flesh, weaving me together with bones and sinews. ¹² You gave life and gracious love to me; your providential care has preserved my spirit. ¹³ But you’ve hidden these things in your heart— I know this was your purpose: ¹⁴ If I sin, you watch me and won’t acquit me for my iniquity. ¹⁵ “‘Woe to me if I’m guilty! If I’m innocent, I cannot lift my head, because I am filled with disgrace. Look at my affliction! ¹⁶ But if I do lift up my head, you will hunt me like a lion! You will perform miracles in order to fight against me. ¹⁷ “‘You have brought new witnesses against me, you’re even more angry with me— you’ve brought fresh troops to attack me! ¹⁸ So why did you bring me out from the womb? I wish I had died, before anyone had seen me, ¹⁹ as if I had never existed; carried from the womb to the grave. ²⁰ My days are so few, aren’t they? So leave me alone, then, so I can smile a little ²¹ before I go, never to return, leaving for the land of deep darkness and shadow. ²² It’s a gloomy land, like deepest darkness; where there’s no order, and where even the brightness is like darkness.’”

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? ²³ To the formerly successful man who lost his way in life, and God fenced him in?

¹⁵ So he delivers from the sword of their mouth— the poor from the power of the mighty. ¹⁶ Therefore there is hope for those who are poor, and iniquity shuts its mouth.

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

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!

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!

²⁶ Did you intend your words to reprove, even though the speech of a desperate person is just wind?

¹¹ Job Intends to Complain“In addition, I won’t keep my opinion to myself; I’ll speak from my distressed spirit; I’ll complain with my bitter soul.

¹⁶ I hate the thought of living forever! Leave me alone, because my days are pointless.”

²¹ “I’m blameless; I don’t know myself; I despise my life.

¹⁵ “‘Woe to me if I’m guilty! If I’m innocent, I cannot lift my head, because I am filled with disgrace. Look at my affliction! ¹⁶ But if I do lift up my head, you will hunt me like a lion! You will perform miracles in order to fight against me.

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.

⁶ “But if I speak, my pain isn’t assuaged; if I refrain from speaking, what do I have to lose?”
⁷ Job Claims of God’s Mistreatment“God has certainly worn me out; you devastated my entire world. ⁸ You’ve arrested me, making me testify against myself! My leanness rises up to attack me, accusing me to my face. ⁹ His anger tears me in his persistent resentment against me; he gnashes his teeth at me. My adversary glares at me. ¹⁰ People gaped at me with mouths wide open; they slap me in their scorn and gather together against me. ¹¹ God has delivered me over to the ungodly, throwing me into the control of the wicked. 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. ¹⁵ “I’ve even sewn sackcloth directly to my skin; I’ve buried my strength in the dust. ¹⁶ My face is red from my tears, and dark shadows encircle my eyelids,

⁴ Even if it’s true that I’ve erred, my error only affects me.

² “Listen carefully to my words; let this encourage all of you. ³ Bear with me and let me speak! Then, after I’ve spoken, you’ll be free to mock me. ⁴ After all, isn’t my complaint against a human being? If so, why shouldn’t I be impatient?

³ When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away by my groaning all day long. ⁴ For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my strength was exhausted as in a summer drought. Interlude ⁵ My sin I acknowledged to you; my iniquity I did not hide. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin! Interlude

¹⁵ What can I say, so I tell myself, since he has done this to me? I will walk slowly all my years because of my soul’s anguish.

¹⁷ Yes, it was for my own good that I suffered extreme anguish. But in love you have held back my life from the Pit in which it has been confined; you have tossed all my sins behind your back.

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.

⁵ If you seek God, if you ask the Almighty for mercy, ⁶ if you are clean and upright, surely then, he’ll act on your behalf and restore your rightful place.

²⁹ I will be condemned, so why should I wear myself out with this futility?

³¹ Elihu’s Challenge to Job“Has anyone ever really told God, ‘I’ve endured, and I won’t act corruptly anymore. ³² What I don’t see, instruct me! If I’ve done anything evil, I won’t repeat it!’

¹ To the Director: With stringed instruments. On an eight-stringed harp. A Davidic Psalm
A Prayer in Times of Trouble LORD, in your anger, do not rebuke me, in your wrath, do not discipline me. ² Be gracious to me, LORD, because I am fading away. Heal me, because my body is distressed. ³ And my soul is deeply distressed. But you, LORD, how long do I wait? ⁴ Return, LORD, save my life! Deliver me, because of your gracious love.

⁷ Do not remember my youthful sins and transgressions; but remember me in light of your gracious love, in light of your goodness, LORD.

¹ A Davidic Psalm: As a Reminder.
The Outcast Cries Out LORD! Do not rebuke me in your anger; do not correct me in your wrath, ² because your arrows have sunk deep into me, and your hand has come down hard on me. ³ My body is unhealthy due to your anger, and my bones have no rest due to my sin. ⁴ My iniquities loom over my head; like a cumbersome burden, they are too heavy for me. ⁵ My wounds have putrefied and festered because of my foolishness. ⁶ I am bent over and walk about greatly bowed down; all day long I go around mourning. ⁷ My insides are burning and my body is unhealthy. ⁸ I am weak and utterly crushed; I cry out in distress because of my heart’s anguish.

²¹ Now you, LORD my God, defend me for your name’s sake; because your gracious love is good, deliver me!

²³ Examine me, God, and know my mind, test me, and know my thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any offensive tendency in me, and lead me in the eternal way.

² Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no living person is righteous in your sight.

⁴⁰ Let us examine our lifestyles, putting them to the test, and turn back to the LORD. ⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven. ⁴² As for us, we have sinned and rebelled; but you have not pardoned us.

¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head— woe to us, because we have sinned! ¹⁷ This is why our hearts faint, and why our eyes grow dim:

¹ The Spirit Gives LifeTherefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in union with the Messiah Jesus.

³¹ But if we judged ourselves correctly, we would not be judged. ³² Now, while we are being judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so we won’t be condemned along with the world.

²⁰ Surely God won’t reject those who are blameless or hold hands with those who practice evil.

²² I say it’s all the same— he destroys both the blameless and the guilty.

²⁴ A land is given into the hands of a wicked person; he covers the faces of its judges. If it is not God, then who is it?”

¹⁵ You’ll call and I’ll answer you; you’ll long for your creatures that your hands have made.

¹⁶ Behold! Their prosperity isn’t in their control! The counsel of the wicked will remain far from me.”

¹⁸ “Though God fills their houses with good things, the counsel of the wicked will remain far from me.

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,

¹⁸ Can one say to a king, ‘You’re vile!’ or to nobles, ‘You’re wicked!’? ¹⁹ Who isn’t partial to princes? Who doesn’t give preference to the nobles over the poor? Nevertheless, all of them are his handiwork.

⁷ He won’t stop looking at righteous people; he seats them on thrones with kings forever, and they are exalted. ⁸ “If they’re bound in chains, caught in ropes of affliction, ⁹ he’ll reveal their actions to them, when their transgressions have become excessive.

¹⁷ But now you are occupied with the case of the wicked; but justice and judgment will be served. ¹⁸ So that no one entices you with riches, don’t let a large ransom turn you astray.

² “Should the one who is fighting the Almighty find fault with him? Let God’s accuser answer.”

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

³³ For the LORD listens to the needy and doesn’t despise those in bondage.

⁸ The LORD will complete what his purpose is for me. LORD, your gracious love is eternal; do not abandon your personal work in me.

⁸ God, our Father, will ActBut as for you, O LORD, you are our Father; and we are clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hands.

¹ Jeremiah’s Complaint about Justice You are righteous, LORD, even when I bring a complaint to you. But I want to discuss justice with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper, while all who are treacherous are at ease? ² You plant them and they take root, they grow and bear fruit. “You are near to us,” they say with their mouths, but the truth is that you’re far from their hearts. ³ You know me, LORD. You see me and test my thoughts toward you. Pull the wicked out like sheep for slaughter; set them apart for the day of butchering.

² He has led me—brought me into darkness, not into light. ³ He truly turned his hand against me, again and again, all day long. ⁴ He made my flesh and skin prematurely old; he broke my bones. ⁵ He laid siege against me, surrounding me with bitterness and suffering. ⁶ He has forced me to live in darkness, like those who are long dead. ⁷ He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he placed heavy chains on me. ⁸ Indeed, when I cry out, calling for help, he shuts out my prayer. ⁹ He impeded my way with blocks of stone, making my paths uneven. ¹⁰ He is like a bear that lies in wait for me, a lion in hiding. ¹¹ He forced me off my path, tearing me to pieces and making me desolate. ¹² He bent his bow, aiming at me with his arrow. ¹³ He caused his war arrows to pierce my vital organs. ¹⁴ I have become a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunts throughout the day. ¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness, making me drink wormwood. ¹⁶ He broke my teeth on gravel, covering me with dust. ¹⁷ You have removed peace from my life; I have forgotten what prosperity is. ¹⁸ So I say, “My strength is gone as is my hope in the LORD.”

¹⁹ So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should entrust their souls to their faithful Creator and continue to do what is good.

⁷ The LORD told Samuel, “Don’t look at his appearance or his height, for I’ve rejected him. Truly, God does not see what man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”

³² He’s not a man like me, so that I can answer him, or that we can enter into litigation with one another.

¹⁵ So he told them, “You try to justify yourselves in front of people, but God knows your hearts, because what is highly valued by people is detestable to God.

¹⁴ His head and his hair were white like wool, in fact, as white as snow. His eyes were like flames of fire,

²⁶ God Controls the Weather“God is truly awesome, beyond what we know; the number of his years is unknowable.

² Before the mountains were formed or the earth and the world were brought forth, you are God from eternity to eternity. ³ You return people to dust merely by saying, “Return, you mortals!” ⁴ One thousand years in your sight are but a single day that passes by, just like a night watch.

¹² But you, LORD, are enthroned forever; You are remembered throughout all generations.

²⁴ I say, “My God, whose years continue through all generations, do not take me in the middle of my life. ²⁵ You established the earth long ago; the heavens are the work of your hands. ²⁶ They will perish, but you will remain; and they all will become worn out, like a garment. You will change them like clothing, and they will pass away. ²⁷ But you remain the same; your years never end.

¹² You will roll them up like a robe, and they will be changed like clothes. But you remain the same, and your life will never end.”

⁸ Don’t forget this fact, dear friends: With the Lord a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day.

¹⁴ If I sin, you watch me and won’t acquit me for my iniquity. ¹⁵ “‘Woe to me if I’m guilty! If I’m innocent, I cannot lift my head, because I am filled with disgrace. Look at my affliction! ¹⁶ But if I do lift up my head, you will hunt me like a lion! You will perform miracles in order to fight against me. ¹⁷ “‘You have brought new witnesses against me, you’re even more angry with me— you’ve brought fresh troops to attack me!

¹⁶ Then you’ll certainly count every step I took, but you won’t keep an inventory of my sin.

¹⁵ Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; so that when you seek out his wickedness you will find it no more.

²¹ wouldn’t God find out since he knows the secrets of the heart?

³⁴ On your skirts is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, even though you didn’t catch them breaking in. Yet despite all these things,

¹² And it will come about that I will search Jerusalem with candles, punishing the self-satisfied and complacent, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do neither good nor evil.’

²⁴ Jesus, however, did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people ²⁵ and didn’t need anyone to tell him what people were like, because he himself knew what was in every person.

⁵ Therefore, stop judging prematurely, before the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness and reveal the motives of our hearts. Then each person will receive his praise from God.

³⁹ “Look now! I AM, and there is no other god besides me. I myself cause death and I sustain life; I wound severely and I also heal; from my power no one can deliver.

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

¹³ Job Stands Petrified Before God“But he is One—who can change him? He does whatever he wants to do. ¹⁴ He’ll complete what he has planned for me; he has many things in mind for me!

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

¹⁴ what will I do when God stands up to act? When he asks the questions, how will I answer him?

³⁵ Request for A Hearing“Who will grant me a hearing? Here’s my signature—let the Almighty answer! Since my adversary indicted me,

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.

⁶ For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will be destroyed.

³ LORD, my God, if I have done this thing, if there is injustice on my hands,

⁸ For the LORD will judge the peoples. Judge me according to my righteousness, LORD, and according to my integrity, Exalted One. ⁹ Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous. For you are the righteous God who discerns the inner thoughts.

³ When you probe my heart, and examine me at night; when you refine me, you will find nothing wrong, for I have determined that I will not transgress with my mouth.

¹ Davidic
A Man of Integrity Pleads for Justice Vindicate me, LORD, because I have walked in integrity; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. ² Examine me, LORD, and inspect me! Test my heart and mind. ³ For your gracious love precedes me, and I continuously walk according to your truth. ⁴ I do not sit with those committed to what is false, nor do I travel with hypocrites. ⁵ I hate the company of those who practice evil, nor do I sit with the wicked.

²² Consider this, you who have forgotten God— Otherwise, I will tear you in pieces and there will be no deliverer:

¹ To the Music Director: A Davidic Song
God’s Knowledge and Presence LORD, you have examined me; you have known me. ² You know when I rest and when I am active. You understand what I am thinking when I am distant from you.

²¹ I hate those who hate you, LORD, do I not? I loathe those who rebel against you, do I not ? ²² With consummate hatred I hate them; I consider them my enemies.

¹⁵ Now, if you are ready at this very moment to obey ‘the sound of the trumpet, the flute, the lyre, the four-stringed lyre, and the harp,’ and worship the image that I have made… If you do not so worship, you will immediately have cast yourselves into the middle of the blazing fire, and what god is there who can deliver you from my power?”

¹⁰ So now I’ll reveal her lewdness to the eyes of her lovers, and no man will rescue her from my control.

²⁸ I give them eternal life, they’ll never be lost, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ What my Father has given me is more important than anything, and no one can snatch it from the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

¹⁷ He asked him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was deeply hurt that he had asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” So he told him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you!”
Jesus told him, “Feed my sheep.

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.

¹⁰ You and God are witnesses of how pure, honest, and blameless our conduct was among you who believe.

⁶ Then the LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and he was deeply grieved about that. ⁷ So the LORD said, “I will annihilate these human beings whom I’ve created from the earth, including people, animals, crawling things, and flying creatures, because I’m grieving that I made them.”

³ Does it delight you to oppress or despise what you have made, while you smile at the plans of the wicked?

⁷³ Yod
Prayer for God’s GraceYour hands made and formed me; give me understanding, that I may learn your commands.

⁷ everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

³ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was doing work at the potter’s wheel. ⁴ But the vessel he was working on with the clay was ruined in the potter’s hand. So he remade it into another vessel that seemed appropriate to him.
⁵ Then this message from the LORD came to me: ⁶ “Israel, can’t I deal with you like this potter?” declares the LORD. “Look, Israel, like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. ⁷ At one moment I may speak about a nation or a kingdom to uproot it, pull it down, or destroy it. ⁸ But if that nation about which I spoke turns from its evil way, I’ll change my mind about the disaster that I had planned for it. ⁹ At another moment I may speak about a nation or kingdom to build it or plant it. ¹⁰ But if that nation does evil in my eyes by not obeying me, I’ll change my mind about the good that I said I would bring on it.

⁷ So the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed life into his lungs, and the man became a living being.

¹⁹ You will eat food by the sweat of your brow until you’re buried in the ground, because you were taken from it. You’re made from dust and you’ll return to dust.”

⁷ Remember that my life is a breath; my eyes won’t go back to seeing good things.

¹⁴ if I call out to the Pit, ‘You’re my father!’ or say to the worm, ‘My mother!’ or ‘My sister!’

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like broken pottery; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, and you have brought me down to the dust of death.

⁶ Remember, LORD, your tender mercies and your gracious love; indeed, they are eternal! ⁷ Do not remember my youthful sins and transgressions; but remember me in light of your gracious love, in light of your goodness, LORD.

¹⁸ Look upon my distress and affliction; forgive all my sins.

⁴⁷ Remember how short my lifetime is! How powerless have you created all human beings!

³ You return people to dust merely by saying, “Return, you mortals!”

⁴ Remember me, LORD, when you show favor to your people. Visit us with your deliverance,

⁷ then man’s dust will go back to the earth, returning to what it was, and the spirit will return to the God who gave it.

⁹ “Woe to the one who quarrels with his makers, a mere potsherd with the potsherds of the earth! Woe to the one who says to the one forming him, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no human hands?’!

⁶ “Israel, can’t I deal with you like this potter?” declares the LORD. “Look, Israel, like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.

²¹ A potter has the right to do what he wants to with his clay, doesn’t he? He can make something for a special occasion or something for ordinary use from the same lump of clay.

¹⁴ I praise you, because you are fearful and wondrous! Your work is wonderful, and I am fully aware of it. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you while I was being crafted in a hidden place, knit together in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes looked upon my embryo, and everything was recorded in your book. The days scheduled for my formation were inscribed, even though not one of them had come yet.

¹⁷ His tail protrudes stiffly, like cedar; the sinews of his thigh interlink for strength. ¹⁸ His bones are conduits of bronze; his strong bones are like bars of iron.

⁴ Then the LORD told me, “Prophesy to these bones. Tell them: ‘You dry bones, listen to the message from the LORD: “ ⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says to you dry bones! ‘Pay attention! I’m bringing my Spirit into you right now, and you’re going to live! ⁶ I’m going to grow tendons on you, regenerate your flesh, cover you with skin, and make you breathe again so that you can come back to life and learn that I am the LORD.’”’”
⁷ The Bones are Raised to LifeSo I prophesied, just as I had been ordered to do so. Immediately there was a noise and a rattling—and then all of a sudden the bones came together by themselves! Each bone came together, all of them attached together! ⁸ As I continued to watch, I saw tendons growing on the bones, and muscles growing and covering them, and then skin covered the flesh from above. But the bodies weren’t breathing.

² For in this one we sigh, since we long to put on our heavenly dwelling. ³ Of course, if we do put it on, we will not be found without a body.

¹⁶ in whom the whole body is united and held together by every ligament with which it is supplied. As each individual part does its job, the body builds itself up in love.

¹⁹ “Your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me your gracious love in how you have dealt with me by keeping me alive. I cannot escape to the hills, because I’m afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.

⁴ “The spirit of God fashioned me; and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

²⁵ Stop Worrying
“That’s why I’m telling you to stop worrying about your life—what you will eat or what you will drink—or about your body—what you will wear. Life is more than food, isn’t it, and the body more than clothing?

²⁵ and he isn’t served by people as if he needed anything. He himself gives everyone life, breath, and everything else.

²⁸ For we live, move, and exist because of him, as some of your own poets have said: ‘…Since we are his children, too.’

⁹ If he’s working in the north, I can’t observe him; If he turns south, I can’t see him.

¹³ Job Stands Petrified Before God“But he is One—who can change him? He does whatever he wants to do.

⁶ Indeed, there is an appropriate time and a response for every circumstance, since human misery weighs heavily upon him. ⁷ For he has absolutely no knowledge what will happen, since who can declare to him when it will come about?

⁷ God is Sovereign“I form light and create darkness, I make goodness and create disaster. I am the LORD, who does all these things.

¹⁵ God as Savior of Israel“Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

⁹ Remember the former things from long ago, Because I am God, and there is no one else; I am God, and there is none like me. ¹⁰ I declare from the beginning things to follow, and from ancient times things that have not yet been done; saying, ‘My purpose will stand, and he will accomplish everything that I please.’ ¹¹ I am calling a bird of prey from the east, and from a far country a man with his purpose. Indeed, I’ve spoken; I will certainly make it happen; I’ve planned it; and I will certainly carry it out.

³⁷ Who can command, and it happens, without the Lord having ordered it?

³³ In Praise of God’s WaysO how deep are God’s riches, and wisdom, and knowledge! How unfathomable are his decisions and unexplainable are his ways!

¹¹ in keeping with the eternal purpose that God carried out through the Messiah Jesus our Lord,

⁷ He graciously loves thousands, and forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. But he does not leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the ancestors on their children, and on their children’s children to the third and fourth generation.”

¹⁸ ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he won’t acquit the guilty. He recalls the iniquity of fathers to the third and fourth generation.’

²¹ Why haven’t you pardoned my transgression and taken away my iniquity? Now I’m about to lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I won’t be around!”

²⁸ then I still dread all of my suffering; I know you still won’t acquit me.

²⁶ You’ve accused me of bitter things; you’ve caused me to reap the sins of my youth. ²⁷ You’ve locked my feet in stocks; you watch all my steps; You’ve limited where I can walk.

³ LORD, if you were to record iniquities, Lord, who could remain standing?

¹ To the Music Director: A Davidic Song
God’s Knowledge and Presence LORD, you have examined me; you have known me.

⁷ The LORD said, “I have certainly seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry caused by their slave masters. I really do understand their pain,

¹² Indeed, if he snatches someone away, who could restrain him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

¹⁵ Even if I’m in the right, I cannot answer him. I can only appeal for mercy.

²⁰ Though I’m in the right, my own mouth will condemn me; though I’m blameless, he’ll pronounce me as guilty. ²¹ “I’m blameless; I don’t know myself; I despise my life.

⁷ Although you know that I’m not guilty, there’s no one to deliver me from you!

⁶ When I think about this, I’m petrified with terror and my body shudders uncontrollably.”

¹⁵ That’s why I’m terrified at his presence! When I think about it, I’m afraid of him.

⁷ “May my enemy be like the wicked; my adversary like the unjust.

¹⁷ The wicked will turn back to where the dead are— all the nations that have forgotten God.

¹⁵³ Resh
God’s Word is TruthLook on my misery, and rescue me, for I do not ignore your instruction.

¹¹ Warning to the Wicked“How terrible it will be for the wicked! Disaster is headed their way, because what they did with their hand will be repaid to them.

⁵ “How terrible it will be for me!” I cried, “because I am ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips! And my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies!”

⁵ You come to the aid of those who gladly do what’s right, To those who remember you in your ways. See, you were angry, and we sinned against them for a long time, but we will be saved. ⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy rag; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our iniquities sweep us away.

²⁰ Look, LORD, how distressed I am; all my insides are churning. My heart is troubled within me, because I vigorously rebelled. Outside the sword brings loss of life, while at home death rules.

¹ A Prayer for Deliverance LORD, remember what has happened to us. Pay attention, and look at our shame! ² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, and our homes to foreigners. ³ We are now orphans—without fathers— and our mothers are like widows. ⁴ We pay to drink our own water, and our own wood is sold to us at high price. ⁵ Our pursuers breathe down our necks; we are weary, but there is no rest for us. ⁶ We made a deal with the Egyptians and the Assyrians for the price of food. ⁷ Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist yet we continue to bear the consequences of their sin. ⁸ Slaves rule over us, and no one delivers us from their control. ⁹ We risk our lives to obtain our food, facing death in the desert. ¹⁰ Our skin blisters as from an oven, due to ravaging blasts of the famine. ¹¹ They have raped women in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah. ¹² Princes they have hung by their hands; elders they have disrespected. ¹³ Our young men must grind grain with a millstone; our youths stumble under the weight of wood. ¹⁴ Our elders have ceased ruling at the gate; our young men have abandoned their music. ¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has ceased, and our dancing has turned into dirges. ¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head— woe to us, because we have sinned! ¹⁷ This is why our hearts faint, and why our eyes grow dim: ¹⁸ Because Mount Zion is desolate; foxes roam around it. ¹⁹ You, LORD, are forever— your throne endures from generation to generation. ²⁰ So why have you completely forgotten us, forsaking us for so long? ²¹ Restore us to yourself, LORD, so that we may return. Renew our days as before, ²² unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us without limit.

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.”

¹⁰ That’s the way it is with you. When you have done everything you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless servants. We have done only what we ought to have done.’”

⁸ but wrath and fury for those who in their selfish pride refuse to believe the truth and practice wickedness instead. ⁹ There will be suffering and anguish for every human being who practices doing evil, for Jews first and for Greeks as well.

²⁹ If these people die a death similar to all other human beings, or if they are punished with a punishment common to other men, then the LORD didn’t send me. ³⁰ But if the LORD creates something new, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and everything that belongs to them and they all descend directly to Sheol while still alive, then you’ll know that these men have spurned the LORD.”

⁵⁹ then he will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses.

⁹ He is always doing great things that cannot be explained, countless awesome deeds.

¹³ I’ve been swept bare until morning; just like a lion, he breaks all my bones— day and night you make an end of me.

¹⁰ He is like a bear that lies in wait for me, a lion in hiding.

⁷ “So I will be like a lion to them. Like a leopard I will stalk them along the road. ⁸ I will confront them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their ribs. I will devour them like a lion— the wild beasts will rip them apart.

⁸ A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who will not prophesy?

²¹ I left here full, but the LORD brought me back empty. So why call me ‘Naomi’? After all, the LORD is against me, and the Almighty has broken me.”

⁸ You’ve arrested me, making me testify against myself! My leanness rises up to attack me, accusing me to my face.

⁶ then at least you must know that God has accused me of wrong, and trapped me with his net.”
⁷ Job Accuses God of Being Angry“Although I cried out ‘Violence!’ I received no answer; I cried for help, but there was no justice. ⁸ He blocked my path, so I cannot pass; and he turned out the lights on my pathways. ⁹ “He has stripped me of my honor; he has stolen the crown off my head! ¹⁰ He is breaking me down on every side, and now it’s too late for me; he has uprooted my hopes like a tree. ¹¹ His anger burns against me; he regards me as his adversary.

¹⁹ God, who is enthroned from long ago, will hear me and humble them. Interlude Because they do not repent, they do not fear God.

¹¹ Moab has been at ease from his youth. He has been undisturbed like wine on its dregs and not poured from vessel to vessel. He has not gone into exile. Therefore, his flavor has remained, and his aroma has not changed.

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?

²⁰ But what the wicked look for will fail; their way of escape will be taken away from them; their only hope is to take their final breath.”

¹⁰ “But when a person dies and wastes away, when a person breathes his last, where will he be?

¹⁰ Jeremiah’s ComplaintHow terrible for me, my mother, that you gave birth to me, a man of strife and contention for the whole land! I’ve neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

¹⁴ Jeremiah Curses the Day of His BirthLet the day on which I was born be cursed. Don’t let the day on which my mother gave birth to me be blessed. ¹⁵ Cursed is the person who brought the good news to my father, “A baby boy has been born to you,” making him very happy. ¹⁶ May that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without compassion. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and a battle cry at noon, ¹⁷ because he didn’t kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb forever pregnant. ¹⁸ Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow, and to finish my life living in shame?

²⁴ The Son of Man is going away, just as it has been written about him. How terrible it will be for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had never been born.”

⁸ May they be like a snail that dries up as it crawls; like a woman’s stillborn baby, who never saw the sun.

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.

¹⁶ I hate the thought of living forever! Leave me alone, because my days are pointless.”
¹⁷ Job Acknowledges Humankind’s Insignificance“What is a human being, that you make so much of him; that you set your affections on him, ¹⁸ visit him every morning, and test him continually? ¹⁹ Why won’t you look away from me? Why don’t you leave me alone so I can swallow my saliva? ²⁰ So what if I sin? What have I done against you, you observer of humankind? Why have you made me your target? Why burden yourself with me? ²¹ Why haven’t you pardoned my transgression and taken away my iniquity? Now I’m about to lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I won’t be around!”

⁹ Because we are of yesterday and we know nothing, for our time on earth is only a shadow.

²⁵ Job Argues that God Won’t Acquit Him“My days pass faster than a runner; but they pass quickly without seeing anything good. ²⁶ They pass by like a ship made of reeds, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

²¹ Withdraw your hand far from me and keep me from being petrified with terror.

¹ Human Beings Live and DieHuman beings born by women are short-lived and full of trouble.

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

¹³ Stop looking at me with chastisement, so I can smile again, before I depart and am no more.

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.

²³ But now that he has died, what’s the point of fasting? Can I bring him back again? I’ll be going to be with him, but he won’t be returning to me.”

¹⁴ After all, even though we all die, and we’re all like water being spilled on the ground that cannot be recovered, nevertheless God doesn’t take away life, but carries out his plans so as not to cast away permanently from him those who are presently estranged.

⁵ Let darkness and deep gloom reclaim it; let clouds settle down on it; let blackness in mid-day terrify it.

¹³ “If I had died, I would be lying down by now, undisturbed, asleep, and at rest,

⁸ The eyes of the one who sees me won’t see me anymore; your eyes will look for me but I won’t be around! ⁹ As a cloud fades away and vanishes, the one who descends to the afterlife doesn’t return. ¹⁰ He doesn’t return again to his house, and his place won’t recognize him anymore.”

¹⁰ “But when a person dies and wastes away, when a person breathes his last, where will he be? ¹¹ As water disappears from the sea, or water evaporates from a river, ¹² so also a person lies down and does not get up; they won’t awaken until the heavens are no more, nor will they arise from their sleep.”
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. ¹⁴ If a human being dies, will he live again? I will endure the entire time of my assigned service, until I am changed.

²² For when only a few years have elapsed, I’ll start down a path from which I’ll never return.”

⁴ Even when I walk through a valley of deep darkness, I will not be afraid because you are with me. Your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

⁶ You have assigned me to the lowest part of the Pit, to the darkest depths.

¹¹ Can your gracious love be declared in the grave or your faithfulness in Abaddon? ¹² Can your awesome deeds be known in darkness or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

¹¹ I said, “I won’t see the LORD in the land of the living; and I’ll no longer observe human beings among the denizens of the grave.

⁶ “They didn’t ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through the land of desert and pits, through the land of dryness and deep darkness, a land that people don’t pass through, and where no one lives?’

²² There’s no such thing as darkness to him— not even deep darkness— that can conceal those who practice evil.

¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?

¹⁹ Nevertheless, you crushed us in the lair of jackals, and covered us in deep darkness.

¹² Can your awesome deeds be known in darkness or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight. You hope for light, but he turns it into deep darkness. He changes it into heavy gloom.

²⁶ Besides all this, a wide chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross from this side to you cannot do so, nor can they cross from your side to us.’