The Living Bible (166 page)

Job
23

The reply of Job:

    
²
 “My complaint today is still a bitter one, and my punishment far more severe than my fault deserves.
³
 Oh, that I knew where to find God—that I could go to his throne and talk with him there.
^4-5
 I would tell him all about my side of this argument, and listen to his reply, and understand what he wants.
⁶
 Would he merely overpower me with his greatness? No, he would listen with sympathy.
⁷
 Fair and honest men could reason with him and be acquitted by my Judge.

    
⁸
 “But I search in vain. I seek him here, I seek him there and cannot find him.
⁹
 I seek him in his workshop in the north but cannot find him there; nor can I find him in the south; there, too, he hides himself.
¹⁰
 But he knows every detail of what is happening to me; and when he has examined me, he will pronounce me completely innocent—as pure as solid gold!

    
¹¹
 “I have stayed in God’s paths, following his steps. I have not turned aside.
¹²
 I have not refused his commandments but have enjoyed them more than my daily food.
¹³
 Nevertheless, his mind concerning me remains unchanged, and who can turn him from his purposes? Whatever he wants to do, he does.
¹⁴
 So he will do to me all he has planned, and there is more ahead.
*

    
¹⁵
 “No wonder I am so terrified in his presence. When I think of it, terror grips me.
^16-17
 God has given me a fainting heart; he, the Almighty, has terrified me with darkness all around me, thick, impenetrable darkness everywhere.

Job
24

“Why doesn’t God open the court and listen to my case? Why must the godly wait for him in vain?
²
 For a crime wave has engulfed us—landmarks are moved, flocks of sheep are stolen,
³
 and even the donkeys of the poor and fatherless are taken. Poor widows must surrender the little they have as a pledge to get a loan.
⁴
 The needy are kicked aside; they must get out of the way.
⁵
 Like the wild donkeys in the desert, the poor must spend all their time just getting barely enough to keep soul and body together. They are sent into the desert to search for food for their children.
⁶
 They eat what they find that grows wild and must even glean the vineyards of the wicked.
⁷
 All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering.
⁸
 They are wet with the showers of the mountains and live in caves for want of a home.

    
⁹
 “The wicked snatch fatherless children from their mother’s breasts, and take a poor man’s baby as a pledge before they will loan him any money or grain.
¹⁰
 That is why they must go about naked, without clothing, and are forced to carry food while they are starving.
¹¹
 They are forced to press out the olive oil without tasting it and to tread out the grape juice as they suffer from thirst.
¹²
 The bones of the dying cry from the city; the wounded cry for help; yet God does not respond to their moaning.

    
¹³
 “The wicked rebel against the light and are not acquainted with the right and the good.
^14-15
 They are murderers who rise in the early dawn to kill the poor and needy; at night they are thieves and adulterers, waiting for the twilight ‘when no one will see me,’ they say. They mask their faces so no one will know them.
¹⁶
 They break into houses at night and sleep in the daytime—they are not acquainted with the light.
¹⁷
 The black night is their morning; they ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.

    
¹⁸
 “But how quickly they disappear from the face of the earth. Everything they own is cursed. They leave no property for their children.
¹⁹
 Death consumes sinners as drought and heat consume snow.
²⁰
 Even the sinner’s own mother shall forget him. Worms shall feed sweetly on him. No one will remember him anymore. For wicked men are broken like a tree in the storm.
²¹
 For they have taken advantage of the childless who have no protecting sons. They refuse to help the needy widows.

    
^22-23
 “Yet sometimes
*
it seems as though God preserves the rich by his power and restores them to life when anyone else would die. God gives them confidence and strength, and helps them in many ways.
²⁴
 But though they are very great now, yet in a moment they shall be gone like all others, cut off like heads of grain.
²⁵
 Can anyone claim otherwise? Who can prove me a liar and claim that I am wrong?”

Job
25

The further reply of Bildad the Shuhite:

    
²
 “God is powerful and dreadful. He enforces peace in heaven.
³
 Who is able to number his hosts of angels? And his light shines down on all the earth.
⁴
 How can mere man stand before God and claim to be righteous? Who in all the earth can boast that he is clean?
⁵
 God is so glorious that even the moon and stars are less than nothing as compared to him.
⁶
 How much less is man, who is but a worm in his sight?”

Job
26

Job’s reply:

    
²
 “What wonderful helpers you all are! And how you have encouraged me in my great need!
³
 How you have enlightened my stupidity! What wise things you have said!
⁴
 How did you ever think of all these brilliant comments?

    
^5-6
 “The dead stand naked, trembling before God in the place where they go.
⁷
 God stretches out heaven over empty space and hangs the earth upon nothing.
⁸
 He wraps the rain in his thick clouds, and the clouds are not split by the weight.
⁹
 He shrouds his throne with his clouds.
¹⁰
 He sets a boundary for the ocean, yes, and a boundary for the day and for the night.
¹¹
 The pillars of heaven tremble at his rebuke.
¹²
 And by his power the sea grows calm; he is skilled at crushing its pride!
¹³
 The heavens are made beautiful by his Spirit;
*
he pierces the swiftly gliding serpent.

    
¹⁴
 “These are some of the minor things he does, merely a whisper of his power. Who then can withstand his thunder?”

Job
27

Job’s final defense:

    
²
 “I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights, even the Almighty God who has embittered my soul,
³
 that as long as I live, while I have breath from God,
⁴
 my lips shall speak no evil, my tongue shall speak no lies.
⁵
 I will never, never agree that you are right; until I die I will vow my innocence.
⁶
 I am
not
a sinner—I repeat it again and again. My conscience is clear for as long as I live.
⁷
 Those who declare otherwise are my wicked enemies. They are evil men.

    
⁸
 “But what hope has the godless when God cuts him off and takes away his life?
⁹
 Will God listen to his cry when trouble comes upon him?
¹⁰
 For he does not delight himself in the Almighty or pay any attention to God except in times of crisis.

    
¹¹
 “I will teach you about God—
¹²
 but really, I don’t need to, for you yourselves know as much about him as I do; yet you are saying all these useless things to me.

    
¹³
 “This is the fate awaiting the wicked from the hand of the Almighty:
¹⁴
 If he has a multitude of children, it is so that they will die in war or starve to death.
¹⁵
 Those who survive shall be brought down to the grave by disease and plague, with no one to mourn them, not even their wives.

    
¹⁶
 “The evil man may accumulate money like dust, with closets jammed full of clothing—
¹⁷
 yes, he may order them made by his tailor, but the innocent shall wear that clothing and shall divide his silver among them.
¹⁸
 Every house built by the wicked is as fragile as a spider web, as full of cracks as a leafy booth!

    
¹⁹
 “He goes to bed rich but wakes up to find that all his wealth is gone.
²⁰
 Terror overwhelms him, and he is blown away in the storms of the night.
²¹
 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone. It sweeps him into eternity.
²²
 For God shall hurl at him unsparingly. He longs to flee from God.
²³
 Everyone will cheer at his death and boo him into eternity.