Job 6 Cross References - MSB

¹ Then Job replied: ² “If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales. ³ For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been rash. ⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. ⁵ Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass, or an ox low over its fodder? ⁶ Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg? ⁷ My soul refuses to touch them; they are loathsome food to me. ⁸ If only my request were granted and God would fulfill my hope: ⁹ that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off! ¹⁰ It still brings me comfort, and joy through unrelenting pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One. ¹¹ What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient? ¹² Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze? ¹³ Is there any help within me now that success is driven from me? ¹⁴ A despairing man should have the kindness of his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. ¹⁵ But my brothers are as faithless as wadis, as seasonal streams that overflow, ¹⁶ darkened because of the ice and the inflow of melting snow, ¹⁷ but ceasing in the dry season and vanishing from their channels in the heat. ¹⁸ Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish. ¹⁹ The caravans of Tema look for water; the travelers of Sheba hope to find it. ²⁰ They are confounded because they had hoped; their arrival brings disappointment. ²¹ For now you are of no help; you see terror, and you are afraid. ²² Have I ever said, ‘Give me something; offer me a bribe from your wealth; ²³ deliver me from the hand of the enemy; redeem me from the grasp of the ruthless’? ²⁴ Teach me, and I will be silent. Help me understand how I have erred. ²⁵ How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove? ²⁶ Do you intend to correct my words, and treat as wind my cry of despair? ²⁷ You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend. ²⁸ But now, please look at me. Would I lie to your face? ²⁹ Reconsider; do not be unjust. Reconsider, for my righteousness is at stake. ³⁰ Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

⁵ But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

² “Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

⁶ let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.

¹⁹ Teach us what we should say to Him; we cannot draw up our case when our faces are in darkness. ²⁰ Should He be told that I want to speak? Would a man ask to be swallowed up?

⁵ Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.

⁴ You have kept my eyes from closing; I am too troubled to speak.

³ A stone is heavy and sand is a burden, but aggravation from a fool outweighs them both.

²⁸ Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

²³ I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them. ²⁴ They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

⁴² I will make My arrows drunk with blood, while My sword devours flesh—the blood of the slain and captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”

¹⁷ For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.

¹² I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target; ¹³ His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground. ¹⁴ He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.

²⁰ Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.

¹⁵ Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

²³ For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.

¹³ He has prepared His deadly weapons; He ordains His arrows with fire.

¹⁴ He shot His arrows and scattered the foes; He hurled lightning and routed them.

¹² For You will put them to flight when Your bow is trained upon them.

² For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.

⁵ Your arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s foes; the nations fall beneath your feet.

¹⁵ From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair. ¹⁶ Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

⁷ Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will be like those who descend to the Pit.

¹⁴ The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?

¹² He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow. ¹³ He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

³³ He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed. ³⁴ Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”

³⁴ At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lima sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

¹¹ Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is clear to God, and I hope it is clear to your conscience as well.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.

¹⁴ He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:

⁶ Wild donkeys stand on barren heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail for lack of pasture.”

¹⁸ How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. ¹⁹ To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. ²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

¹³ And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings.

²⁵ How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?

³⁰ Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?

¹¹ Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes its food?

² “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

³ For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food.

¹⁰³ How sweet are Your words to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth!

³⁴ Salt is good, but if the salt loses its savor, with what will it be seasoned?

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

⁴ It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age—

¹² But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”

²⁷ and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’”

²⁴ I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

⁹ For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears

¹⁴ “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

¹⁶ Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

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 that this is what the Lord GOD says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: ‘They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who dwell in it.

³ I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.

¹¹ What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient? ¹² Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze? ¹³ Is there any help within me now that success is driven from me?

¹⁴ and 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 Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”

⁸¹ My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word.

¹⁴ I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too burdensome for me. ¹⁵ If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

⁴ while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

²⁰ Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul, ²¹ who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure, ²² who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?

¹⁵ so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body. ¹⁶ I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

¹³ If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!

²¹ Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah

¹⁰ See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. ¹¹ For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act; for how can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another. ¹² Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called: I am He; I am the first, and I am the last. ¹³ Surely My own hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand up together.

³ And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁸ As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁶ In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.

² “Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

²⁰ The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven

² There is no one holy like the LORD. Indeed, there is no one besides You! And there is no Rock like our God.

²² who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?

⁴ God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

³³ The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.

²² Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.

¹² I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.

³⁰ The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.

⁹ I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know. ¹⁰ I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation; I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness from the great assembly.

¹⁷ O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds. ¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

¹³ With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of Your mouth.

¹¹ Get out of the way; turn off the road. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!” ¹² Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,

¹⁵ For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

⁹ I will not execute the full fury of My anger; I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man—the Holy One among you—and I will not come in wrath.

¹² Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. O LORD, You have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, You have established them for correction.

³ God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, and His praise filled the earth.

²⁰ I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was helpful to you as I taught you publicly and from house to house,

²⁷ For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God.

³² He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; ⁵ if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

⁷ To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut (except Him who opens) and no one can open.

⁸ And each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering. ⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. ⁷ Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

²⁰ Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,

²⁵ Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?

²⁸ So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.

¹ “My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.

⁴ Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?

⁵ You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

⁵ You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning— ⁶ in the morning it springs up new, but by evening it fades and withers. ⁷ For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath. ⁸ You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. ⁹ For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh. ¹⁰ The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

²³ He has broken my strength on the way; He has cut short my days.

¹⁴ For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust. ¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field; ¹⁶ when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more.

¹⁸ His bones are tubes of bronze; his limbs are rods of iron.

²⁴ His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!

² “Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die! ³ But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

² What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

²⁸ If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’

² “How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!

¹² And this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the integrity and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

⁴ Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.

¹¹ Abraham replied, “I thought to myself, ‘Surely there is no fear of God in this place. They will kill me on account of my wife.’

³ Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands. ⁴ Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling. ⁵ But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

⁴ But you even undermine the fear of God and hinder meditation before Him.

⁵ But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD. An oracle is in my heart regarding the transgression of the wicked man: There is no fear of God before his eyes. ² For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin. ³ The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.

¹⁷ A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

⁴⁰ But the other one rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same judgment?

¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with grief?

² Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

³ Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them, and those who are mistreated as if you were suffering with them.

¹⁹ All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.

¹¹ My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.

⁹ Even my close friend whom I trusted, the one who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

¹² For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide. ¹³ But it is you, a man like myself, my companion and close friend. ¹⁴ We shared sweet fellowship together; we walked with the crowd into the house of God.

¹⁸ You have removed my beloved and my friend; darkness is my closest companion.

⁴ “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander. ⁵ Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

¹⁸ Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.

¹⁴ All your lovers have forgotten you; they no longer seek you, for I have struck you as an enemy would, with the discipline of someone cruel, because of your great iniquity and your numerous sins.

⁵ Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms. ⁶ For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies are the members of his own household.

¹⁸ I am not speaking about all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the Scripture: ‘The one who shares bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.’

³² “Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

¹² These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.

¹ Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

¹⁹ As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.

⁷ The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

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

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

¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions.

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

¹⁴ Bring water for the thirsty, O dwellers of Tema; meet the refugees with food.

²³ Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair;

²² The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; for your wares they exchanged gold, the finest of all spices, and precious stones. ²³ Haran, Canneh, and Eden traded with you, and so did the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad.

³ The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; their jars return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads. ⁴ The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

¹³ O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.

⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

³³ as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

¹¹ Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him. ¹² When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head. ¹³ Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.

¹⁵ But my brothers are as faithless as wadis, as seasonal streams that overflow,

⁴ You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.

⁹ Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.

⁷ All the brothers of a poor man hate him—how much more do his friends avoid him! He may pursue them with pleading, but they are nowhere to be found.

²² Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

⁵ This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD. ⁶ He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

⁹ “We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches to the clouds.”

³¹ Then Jesus said to them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of Me. For it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

⁵⁶ But this has all happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.

¹⁶ At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.

⁹ Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. ¹⁰ In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

¹⁷ For in a single hour such fabulous wealth has been destroyed!” Every shipmaster, passenger, and sailor, and all who make their living from the sea, will stand at a distance ¹⁸ and cry out at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. “What city was ever like this great city?” they will exclaim.

³ Here I am. Bear witness against me before the LORD and before His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe and closed my eyes? Tell me, and I will restore it to you.”

¹¹ All his brothers and sisters and prior acquaintances came and dined with him in his house. They consoled him and comforted him over all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. And each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

³³ I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.

⁴⁸ he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:

⁸ and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.

²⁰ In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.

⁷ No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God. ⁸ For the redemption of his soul is costly, and never can payment suffice,

¹⁵ But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself. Selah

² Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

²¹ I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

²⁷ Indeed, we have investigated, and it is true! So hear it and know for yourself.”

² I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.

¹¹ Indeed, I waited while you spoke; I listened to your reasoning; as you searched for words,

¹⁵ Job’s friends are dismayed, with no more to say; words have escaped them. ¹⁶ Must I wait, now that they are silent, now that they stand and no longer reply?

¹ “But now, O Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words.

³¹ Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak. ³² But if you have something to say, answer me; speak up, for I would like to vindicate you. ³³ But if not, then listen to me; be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.”

³² Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do it again.’

¹² Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.

¹ For the choirmaster. For Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present.” ² I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred.

⁹ Instruct a wise man, and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man, and he will increase his learning.

¹² Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear.

¹⁹ So then, my beloved brothers, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

² We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.

⁴ Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

⁵ If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom!

³ Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying? ⁴ I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you. ⁵ But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

³⁴ So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”

²⁵ If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”

³ and he burned with anger against Job’s three friends because they had failed to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.

¹⁸ Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

²¹ The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant speech promotes instruction. ²² Understanding is a fountain of life to its possessor, but the discipline of fools is folly. ²³ The heart of the wise man instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips. ²⁴ Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

²¹ Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

¹¹ A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

¹⁰ The Teacher searched to find delightful sayings and to record accurate words of truth. ¹¹ The words of the wise are like goads, and the anthologies of the masters are like firmly embedded nails driven by a single Shepherd.

¹⁰ “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

³ “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’ ⁴ If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it. ⁵ May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it. ⁶ If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year; may it never be entered in any of the months. ⁷ Behold, may that night be barren; may no joyful voice come into it. ⁸ May it be cursed by those who curse the day—those prepared to rouse Leviathan. ⁹ May its morning stars grow dark; may it wait in vain for daylight; may it not see the breaking of dawn. ¹⁰ For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes. ¹¹ Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb? ¹² Why were there knees to receive me, and breasts that I should be nursed? ¹³ For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest ¹⁴ with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins, ¹⁵ or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. ¹⁶ Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight? ¹⁷ There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest. ¹⁸ The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. ¹⁹ Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master. ²⁰ Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul, ²¹ who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure, ²² who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave? ²³ Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? ²⁴ I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water. ²⁵ For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me. ²⁶ I am not at ease or quiet; I have no rest, for trouble has come.”

³ Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands. ⁴ Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

⁹ that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off!

² “How long will you go on saying such things? The words of your mouth are a blustering wind.

¹ “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

³ For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food. ⁴ Let us choose for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good. ⁵ For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice. ⁶ Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’ ⁷ What man is like Job, who drinks up derision like water? ⁸ He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men. ⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’

² “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?

⁵ I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”

⁸ Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?

³ You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

⁷ After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.

¹ Ephraim chases the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; he multiplies lies and violence; he makes a covenant with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.

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

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

²² You must not mistreat any widow or orphan. ²³ If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to Me in distress, I will surely hear their cry. ²⁴ My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will become widows and your children will be fatherless.

⁹ You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

³ They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.

⁹ The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.

¹² because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.

¹⁷ if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

²¹ if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,

¹⁵ He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

⁶ They spread a net for my feet; my soul was despondent. They dug a pit before me, but they themselves have fallen into it! Selah

³ Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.

¹⁰ Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, ¹¹ for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.

²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

³ They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

¹⁰ Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.

⁵ “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

³ In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction will not sleep.

³ Should your babbling put others to silence? Will you scoff without rebuke?

⁴ my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

³ My words are from an upright heart, and my lips speak sincerely what I know.

⁴ For truly my words are free of falsehood; one perfect in knowledge is with you.

¹⁰ But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.

¹⁰ Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

⁴ my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit. ⁵ I will never say that you are right; I will maintain my integrity until I die. ⁶ I will cling to my righteousness and never let go. As long as I live, my conscience will not accuse me.

⁵ For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.

⁶ Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

¹⁸ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

⁶ Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?

⁸ Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard these very words: ⁹ ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me. ¹⁰ Yet God finds occasions against me; He counts me as His enemy. ¹¹ He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches over all my paths.’ ¹² Behold, you are not right in this matter. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.

³ You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. ⁴ You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall inform Me.’ ⁵ My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You. ⁶ Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.