The Living Bible (164 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Job’s reply:
2
“I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters all of you are.
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Won’t you ever stop your flow of foolish words? What have I said that makes you speak so endlessly?
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But perhaps I’d sermonize the same as you—if you were I and I were you. I would spout off my criticisms against you and shake my head at you.
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But no! I would speak in such a way that it would help you. I would try to take away your grief.
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“But now my grief remains no matter how I defend myself; nor does it help if I refuse to speak.
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For God has ground me down and taken away my family.
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O God, you have turned me to skin and bones—as a proof, they say, of my sins.
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God hates me and angrily tears at my flesh; he has gnashed upon me with his teeth and watched to snuff out any sign of life.
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These ‘comforters’ have gaping jaws to swallow me; they slap my cheek. My enemies gather themselves against me.
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And God has delivered me over to sinners, into the hands of the wicked.
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“I was living quietly until he broke me apart. He has taken me by the neck and dashed me to pieces, then hung me up as his target.
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His archers surround me, letting fly their arrows, so that the ground is wet from my blood.
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Again and again he attacks me, running upon me like a giant.
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Here I sit in sackcloth; and have laid all hope in the dust.
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My eyes are red with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death.
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“Yet I am innocent, and my prayer is pure.
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O Earth, do not conceal my blood. Let it protest on my behalf.
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“Yet even now the witness to my innocence is there in heaven; my advocate is there on high.
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My friends scoff at me, but I pour out my tears to God,
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pleading that he will listen as a man would listen to his neighbor.
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For all too soon I must go down that road from which I shall never return.
“I am sick and near to death; the grave is ready to receive me.
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I am surrounded by mockers. I see them everywhere.
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Will no one anywhere confirm my innocence? But you, O God, have kept them back from understanding this. Oh, do not let them triumph.
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If they accept bribes to denounce their friends, their children shall go blind.
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“He has made me a mockery among the people; they spit in my face.
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My eyes are dim with weeping and I am but a shadow of my former self.
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Fair-minded men are astonished when they see me.
“Yet, finally, the innocent shall come out on top, above the godless;
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the righteous shall move onward and forward; those with pure hearts shall become stronger and stronger.
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“As for you—all of you please go away; for I do not find a wise man among you.
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My good days are in the past. My hopes have disappeared. My heart’s desires are broken.
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They say that night is day and day is night; how they pervert the truth!
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“If I die, I go out into darkness, and call the grave my father, and the worm my mother and my sister.
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Where then is my hope? Can anyone find any?
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No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We shall rest together in the dust!”
The further reply of Bildad the Shuhite:
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“Who are you trying to fool? Speak some sense if you want us to answer!
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Have we become like animals to you, stupid and dumb?
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Just because you tear your clothes in anger, is this going to start an earthquake? Shall we all go and hide?
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“The truth remains that if you do not prosper, it is because you are wicked. And your bright flame shall be put out.
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There will be darkness in every home where there is wickedness.
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“The confident stride of the wicked man will be shortened; he will realize his failing strength.
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He walks into traps, and robbers will ambush him.
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There is a booby trap in every path he takes.
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He has good cause for fear—his enemy is close behind him!
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“His vigor is depleted by hunger; calamity stands ready to pounce upon him.
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His skin is eaten by disease. Death shall devour him.
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The wealth he trusted in shall reject him, and he shall be brought down to the king of terrors.
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His home shall disappear beneath a fiery barrage of brimstone.
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He shall die from the roots up, and all his branches will be lopped off.
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“All memory of his existence will perish from the earth; no one will remember him.
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He will be driven out from the kingdom of light into darkness and chased out of the world.
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He will have neither son nor grandson left, nor any other relatives.
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Old and young alike will be horrified by his fate.
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Yes, that is what happens to sinners, to those rejecting God.”
The reply of Job:
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“How long are you going to trouble me, and try to break me with your words?
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Ten times now you have declared I am a sinner. Why aren’t you ashamed to deal with me so harshly?
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And if indeed I was wrong, you have yet to prove it.
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You think yourselves so great? Then prove my guilt!
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“The fact of the matter is that God has overthrown me and caught me in his net.
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I scream for help and no one hears me. I shriek, but get no justice.
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God has blocked my path and turned my light to darkness.
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He has stripped me of my glory and removed the crown from my head.
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He has broken me down on every side, and I am done for. He has destroyed all hope.
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His fury burns against me; he counts me as an enemy.
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He sends his troops to surround my tent.
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“He has sent away my brothers and my friends.
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My relatives have failed me; my friends have all forsaken me.
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Those living in my home, even my servants, regard me as a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them.
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I call my servant, but he doesn’t come; I even beg him!
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My own wife and brothers refuse to recognize me.
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Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they mock.
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“My best friends abhor me. Those I loved have turned against me.
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I am skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.
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“Oh, my friends, pity me, for the angry hand of God has touched me.
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Why must you persecute me as God does? Why aren’t you satisfied with my anguish?
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Oh, that I could write my plea with an iron pen in the rock forever.
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“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last.
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And I know that after this body has decayed, this body shall see God!
*
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Then he will be on
my
side! Yes, I shall see him, not as a stranger, but as a friend! What a glorious hope!
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“How dare you go on persecuting me, as though I were proven guilty?
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I warn you, you yourselves are in danger of punishment for your attitude.”