- In the land of Uz there lived Job, blameless and upright, with 7 sons, 3 daughters & vast wealth. The Lord praises Job’s piety. Satan says that Job will curse God when everything he has is destroyed. Woe comes to Job by messengers, the only ones who escaped to tell of it. #Job1
- The Lord asks Satan from whence he comes. From going to and fro on the Earth, & from walking up and down in it. Job rebukes his wife: Shall we accept good from God, & not trouble? Job’s friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, & Zophar the Naamathite, comfort Job. #Job2
- Job suffered sore boils. He cursed the day of his birth & the night on which he was conceived. Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of your belly? I should have slept. In death, the wicked cease from troubling as do the bitter in soul. #Job3
- Eliphaz speaks: Consider now. Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? The teeth of the young lions are broken; the old lion perishes for lack of prey. Houses of clay are crushed, and they die without wisdom. #Job4
- The lot of man is affliction. Man is born unto trouble, as sparks fly upward. Yea, in 6 troubles, shall no evil touch thee: famine, war, lash of the tongue, destruction, beasts of the field, stolen goods. Come to thy grave in a full age as a shock of corn to the season. #Job5
- Job answered that his grief would be heavier than the sands in the sea. Do wild ass bray, is there taste in the white of an egg? In the midst of this misery, then I would still have this consolation—my joy in unrelenting pain—that I had not denied the words of the Holy One. #Job6
- My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more. #Job7
- Bildad the Shuhite speaks: Only God can restore you. Life without God is relying on a spider’s web for support. Can reeds thrive without water, or papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? When the web is torn from its spot, that place disowns it & says I never saw you. #Job8
- Job replies: The greatness of God shakes the earth, moves mountains, & makes pillars tremble. He is not a mere mortal. His terror frightens me. My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy. They skim past like eagles swooping down on their prey. #Job9
- Your hands shaped & made me. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk & curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin & flesh & knit me with bones & sinews? If only I had never come into being. A moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return. #Job10
- Zophar the Naamathite speaks: Can you fathom the mysteries of the Almighty? How I wish God would speak and disclose the 2 sides of true wisdom. Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin. Stand firm and without fear. Recall your troubles as waters gone by. #Job11
- Job responds, No doubt you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you. The just upright man is laughed to scorn. Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food? Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding? #Job12
- If someone taught you to be quiet, that would be wisdom. Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses defenses of clay. My words are for Shaddai. Grant these 2 things: withdraw your hands, & stop frightening me. Why do you hide your face & consider me your enemy? #Job13
- Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and have their fill of sorrows. A man cannot grow new shoots like a tree, and he never rises once he lays down and dies. My offenses will be sealed in a bag. Hide me in the grave and conceal me until the danger has passed. #Job14
- Eliphaz the Temanite says: Your own lips testify against you. What do you know that we don’t? The company of the Godless is barren. All his days the wicked man suffers torment, he despairs of escaping the realm of darkness, marked for the sword to wither before time. #Job15
- Job bitterly rebukes his friends: You are miserable comforters, all of you! Will your long-winded speeches never end? Job feels he is being mocked by the ungodly & resents the Lord’s indifference. Earth, do not cover my blood, & may my cry never be laid to rest. #Job16
- My spirit is broken, my days cut short. If anyone denounces their friends for reward, the eyes of their children will fail. My days have passed, my plans are shattered. The only home I hope for is the grave. #Job17
- Bildad the Shuhite replies: Be sensible, we are not cattle. Why should the rocks move for you? The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out, the flame in his fire stops burning, his roots dry up, he has no offspring, and he who does not know God is seized with terror. #Job18
- Job cries out against his misfortunes, & he who blocks my way, shrouds my path, strips me of honor, takes my family & friends, & makes me offensive to my wife. I escaped by the skin of my teeth. I know that my redeemer lives & shall stand upon the Earth at the latter day. #Job19
- Zophar says that the triumph of the wicked is short. The hypocrite’s joy is but for a moment. He shall perish forever like his dung & suck the poison of asps. He will swallow down riches & vomit them back up. The heaven reveals his iniquity; the earth rises up against him. #Job20
- Job asks why the wicked should have anything to do with God, as their cows still calve & their wheat still grows. They live in prosperity, but one day the wrath of God will sweep them away as chaff in a gale. God stores up the punishment of the wicked for their children. #Job21
- Eliphaz asks how it helps God if one is righteous. Would he gain were you blameless? But you are wicked, sending widows away empty-handed, giving no food to the hungry. You cower in terror as darkness comes, trading gold of Ophir for the Lord’s light shining on your ways. #Job22
- Job replies that even today my complaint is bitter: his hand is heavy on me despite my groaning. If I only knew where to find him, I would state my case. Where I go, he is not there. Yet I have not departed from his decree. I treasure his words more than my daily bread. #Job23
- God does not set times for judgment, making those who know him ask if wickedness goes unpunished. The groans of the dying & poor rise from the city. The wicked shun the light & steal away like a thief. They will be judged: the womb forgets them and the worm feeds on them. #Job24
- Bildad makes the point that in contrast to God’s dominion and awe, man is a small thing, a maggot, only a worm. How can anything born of woman be pure? So there’s that. #Job25
- Job mocks Bildad. What advice you have offered to one without wisdom! Who has helped you utter these words? Job speaks of the realm of the dead (naked before God) & the division of God’s being. His power churned up the sea & his wisdom cut the serpent Rahab to pieces. #Job26
- Job continues to protest his innocence & integrity. He asserts—hopes really—that the wicked suffer horrible fates. Just for starters: However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat. God should not hear the cry of the wicked. #Job27
- Mortals enter dark mine shafts to seek gold, iron, & copper. The Earth that gives us food is transformed by fire into precious stones. The price of wisdom is beyond onyx, gold of Ophir, or topaz of Cush. The fear of the Lord is wisdom, & to shun evil is understanding. #Job28
- Job looks fondly back on his own life with children, riches & happy memories. He was granted the approval of men. I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe & my turban. He did good & expects reward: My glory will not fade. People were moved by my presence. #Job29
- The same luckless youth that Job despised now despise him in turn. Now that God has unstrung my bow & afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence. They break up my road, terror overwhelms me & my life ebbs away. I go about blackened; my lyre is tuned to mourning. #Job30
- Let God weigh me in proper scales & he will know that I am blameless. If I have walked with vanity or if my heart was deceived by a woman, God may know if it is an iniquity to be punished by judges. If I withheld gifts to the poor, let my arm fall from my shoulder blade. #Job31
- Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, is angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God, & with Job’s friends for not finding an answer to Job. Due to his youth, Elihu waited to speak last & is ready to burst like new bottles which have no vent. #Job32
- The breath of the Almighty has given me life. God speaks, but man perceives it not. God speaks to man in dreams, visions that come in the night, & during slumbers. They will correct a man on his sickbed and save his soul from the pit and his life from the pathway to Sheol. #Job33
- Elihu notes that the ear judges words as the tongue tastes food. Job has questioned God’s judgment—though I have not sinned, my wounds are past all cure. But God never does wrong, do not doubt that. Could an enemy of justice ever govern? Job’s words lack sense. #Job34
- Elihu asks how Job can say he is is in the right, not God. How do you gain by not sinning? Your sins do not affect him, but they affect humans like yourself, whether wicked or righteous. God does not listen to empty pleas stemming from the arrogance of the wicked. #Job35
- Elihu continues to speak on God’s behalf. God is mighty, but despises no one. He is firm in his work. The righteous are rewarded and the wicked are bound by cords of affliction, making them repent, else they perish by the sword. How great is God—beyond our understanding! #Job36
- Elihu speaks of God’s wonder and how he is responsible for weather-related events: He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ Listen to this, Job, stop and consider God’s wonders. Do you know how God controls the clouds? #Job37
- The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? When the morning stars all sang together & the sons of God shouted for joy? Hath the rain a father? Who can number the clouds in wisdom? Who can stay the bottles of heaven? #Job38
- The Lord asks Job what he can do. Did you give the goodly wings unto the peacocks? Or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? Hast thou given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Doth the hawk fly by your wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? #Job39
- Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct him? Job replies that he is vile & has no answer. The Lord says, Gird up thy loins now like a man. Look at the proud & bring him low, & tread down the wicked. Behold behemoth, his bones are like brass, though he eats grass. #Job40
- Consider Leviathan. Can you catch him with a hook, or hold him down with a cord? He will not be tamed. None is so fierce as to stir him up. Out of his mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire. Arrows or swords cannot stop him. He makes the deep boil like a pot. #Job41
- Job answers the Lord, saying I know that you can do all things; I have uttered when I did not understand. I have seen you, now I repent in dust and ashes. The Lord approves of Job’s reply, requires his 3 friends to make offerings, and restores Job’s prosperity and family. #Job42