Job 16 Cross References - WEB

¹ Then Job answered, ² “I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters! ³ Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? ⁴ I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you, ⁵ but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you. ⁶ “Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased? ⁷ But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate. ⁸ You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face. ⁹ He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me. ¹⁰ They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me. ¹¹ God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. ¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target. ¹³ His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my bile on the ground. ¹⁴ He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant. ¹⁵ I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust. ¹⁶ My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids, ¹⁷ although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. ¹⁸ “Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest. ¹⁹ Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high. ²⁰ My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God, ²¹ that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor! ²² For when a few years have come, I will go the way of no return.

⁶ Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

²⁵ How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?

² “Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified? ³ Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, will no man make you ashamed?

⁴ But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value. ⁵ Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.

² “How long will you torment me, and crush me with words? ³ You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.

² “How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength! ³ How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

²⁶ For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.

¹⁶ The former insincerely preach Christ from selfish ambition, thinking that they add affliction to my chains;

¹⁹ So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;

²⁶ Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

² “How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

² “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

³ I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.

³ Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. ⁴ Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he. ⁵ When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled. ⁶ Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, “I am young, and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion.

⁴⁶ No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forward.

¹¹ whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.

⁸ and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned, that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us.

²¹ This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

² “Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! ³ For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash. ⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me. ⁵ Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder?

¹⁴ “To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

² “Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?

¹⁶ therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”

⁷ All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,

¹⁴ You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

²⁵ I have also become a reproach to them. When they see me, they shake their head.

¹⁹ In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.

¹⁴ A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?

¹⁶ to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and shake his head.

¹⁵ All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?”

¹⁵ This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.

¹² Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

³⁹ Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”

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

²⁶ When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. When one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

³ Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands. ⁴ Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made the feeble knees firm.

²⁵ I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

¹⁴ Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.

⁹ Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man’s friend.

¹⁷ Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance.

³ Strengthen the weak hands, and make the feeble knees firm. ⁴ Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.

¹ Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.

¹ “My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

¹ For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by Asaph. My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, and for him to listen to me. ² In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted. ³ I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah. ⁴ You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak. ⁵ I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. ⁶ I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit diligently inquires: ⁷ “Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more? ⁸ Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations? ⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.

¹⁵ I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted. ¹⁶ Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off. ¹⁷ They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me. ¹⁸ You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.

¹⁵ and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁶ While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁷ While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁸ While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁹ and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

³ so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

¹⁶ I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

⁵ when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me, ⁶ when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me, ⁷ when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street. ⁸ The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood. ⁹ The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. ¹⁰ The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. ¹¹ For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it commended me: ¹² Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him, ¹³ the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. ¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem. ¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. ¹⁶ I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know. ¹⁷ I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth. ¹⁸ Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand. ¹⁹ My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch. ²⁰ My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’ ²¹ “Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel. ²² After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them. ²³ They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain. ²⁴ I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face. ²⁵ I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

⁶ I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears. ⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.

¹¹ My son, don’t despise Yahweh’s discipline, neither be weary of his correction; ¹² for whom Yahweh loves, he corrects, even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.

⁴ The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

¹³ Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.

²¹ I went out full, and Yahweh has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since Yahweh has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

¹⁷ You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

²⁰ My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

¹⁵ He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.

²⁴ My knees are weak through fasting. My body is thin and lacks fat.

¹⁶ Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.

¹⁶ From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.

²⁷ that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.

¹⁶ If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me. ¹⁷ You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

²⁴ Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy?

²⁷ You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,

⁴ You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place?

¹¹ He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

¹⁶ Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.

¹² The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth.

²² “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.

¹⁶ All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for. We have found it. We have seen it.”

¹⁰ He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.

¹⁴ For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.

¹ “Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.

⁸ Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.

⁵⁴ Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

²⁴ Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did Yahweh’s Spirit go from me to speak to you?”

²³ Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did Yahweh’s Spirit go from me to speak to you?”

¹³ They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.

¹⁶ For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet. ¹⁷ I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.

¹⁵ But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.

²¹ Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me. They said, “Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!”

²¹ They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.

⁶ I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.

³⁰ Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.

¹ Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

⁶⁷ Then they spat in his face and beat him with their fists, and some slapped him,

³⁵ The people stood watching. The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!” ³⁶ The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar,

²² When he had said this, one of the officers standing by slapped Jesus with his hand, saying, “Do you answer the high priest like that?”

²⁷ “For truly, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed,

² The high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

²⁰ For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.

¹⁸ You have declared today how you have dealt well with me, because when Yahweh had delivered me up into your hand, you didn’t kill me.

¹³ It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁴ that a messenger came to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,

⁷ So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.

¹⁴ Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood.

¹² Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.

⁸ You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.

¹⁶ So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away.

³² For God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.

⁷ By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.

² There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. ³ His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.

²⁶ I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”

¹⁰ The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

¹² Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?

²⁰ If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

¹⁷ For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

²⁶ he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,

³ when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,

¹⁸ Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand. ¹⁹ My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.

¹⁹ though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.

⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.

¹¹ He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. ¹² He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

⁷ When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders. When they leaned on you, you broke, and paralyzed all of their thighs.”

⁴⁴ He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”

⁴ who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles.

²³ The archers have severely grieved him, shot at him, and persecuted him:

²⁰ Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.

⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

¹⁰ Let it still be my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

²⁷ whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.

²⁵ He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

¹² If a man doesn’t repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow. ¹³ He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows.

¹¹ My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.

¹³ He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.

¹¹ Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity.

³² He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?

⁵ and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

⁸ He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cave in Etam’s rock.

⁷ Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

³ Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long. ⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. ⁵ He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

⁷ They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course.

³⁴ Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

¹⁰ Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces. He will thunder against them in the sky. “Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

²⁷ When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.

¹⁹ He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

⁵ let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

⁵ Don’t lift up your horn on high. Don’t speak with a stiff neck.”

¹⁰ I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

¹² In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth;

⁷ My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

⁹ Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

³ When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

³ I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.

³ For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. ⁴ My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread. ⁵ By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.

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

³ The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.

¹⁴ Just as many were astonished at you— his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—

¹⁶ “For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”

¹ Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish’s belly. ² He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice. ³ For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. ⁴ I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ ⁵ The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head. ⁶ I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God. ⁷ “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Yahweh. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple. ⁸ Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy. ⁹ But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh.” ¹⁰ Then Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.

³⁴ He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch.”

⁵ If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty. ⁶ If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

¹⁴ If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

²⁰ the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

³⁴ For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

²⁷ “Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me. ²⁸ For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

⁵ Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities. ⁶ For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. ⁷ You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. ⁸ But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. ⁹ You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

⁶ I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live. ⁷ “Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

¹² Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him, ¹³ the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. ¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem. ¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. ¹⁶ I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know. ¹⁷ I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹ “I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? ² For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high? ³ Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity? ⁴ Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps? ⁵ “If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit ⁶ (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity); ⁷ if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands, ⁸ then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out. ⁹ “If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, ¹⁰ then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her. ¹¹ For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; ¹² for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase. ¹³ “If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, ¹⁴ what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? ¹⁵ Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb? ¹⁶ “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, ¹⁷ or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it ¹⁸ (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); ¹⁹ if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; ²⁰ if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; ²¹ if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate, ²² then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone. ²³ For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing. ²⁴ “If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’ ²⁵ If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; ²⁶ if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor, ²⁷ and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, ²⁸ this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above. ²⁹ “If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him ³⁰ (yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse); ³¹ if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’ ³² (the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler); ³³ if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart, ³⁴ because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door— ³⁵ oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment! ³⁶ Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; and I would bind it to me as a crown. ³⁷ I would declare to him the number of my steps. as a prince would I go near to him. ³⁸ If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; ³⁹ if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life, ⁴⁰ let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.

³ Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, ⁴ if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary), ⁵ let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

¹⁷ All this has come on us, yet we haven’t forgotten you. We haven’t been false to your covenant. ¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps strayed from your path, ¹⁹ though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death. ²⁰ If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god, ²¹ won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

¹⁸ If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened. ¹⁹ But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer.

⁸ The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

⁶ Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.

⁸ but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.

⁸ I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.

¹¹ Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

⁵ Don’t cover their iniquity. Don’t let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders.”

⁹ Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

²¹ For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.

⁹ Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly; ¹⁰ and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth, hear Yahweh’s word!

⁷ “‘“For her blood is in the middle of her. She set it on the bare rock. She didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.

³ You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴ You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵⁰ If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you.”

⁵ He said to them, “Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” They said, “He is witness.”

² “Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.

⁵ Who is like Yahweh, our God, who has his seat on high,

⁹ For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,

¹ I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit

²³ But I call God for a witness to my soul, that I didn’t come to Corinth to spare you.

³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.

⁵ For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),

¹⁰ You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.

⁴ I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. ⁵ In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

⁴ I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

² Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.

⁴ In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer.

² I pour out my complaint before him. I tell him my troubles.

⁴ Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us, ⁵ even Yahweh, the God of Armies; Yahweh is his name of renown!

¹¹ But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus. ¹² In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God.

⁷ He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,

³⁴ Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid; ³⁵ then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

³ “Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

²² Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me.

³ Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! ⁴ I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. ⁵ I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me. ⁶ Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me. ⁷ There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

³⁵ oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!

¹ Moreover Yahweh answered Job, ² “Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” ³ Then Job answered Yahweh, ⁴ “Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. ⁵ I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”

¹⁰ Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.

⁹ Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’

²⁰ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”

⁹ As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more. ¹⁰ He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.

⁵ Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;

¹⁰ But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

¹⁴ If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come.

⁵ yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets: