Job’s Final Defense before the God He Cannot Find

Job 22

22:1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

22:2“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

22:3Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?

22:4Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?

22:5Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.

22:6For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

22:7You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

22:8But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.

22:9You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

22:10Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,

22:11or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.

22:12“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!

22:13You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

22:14Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’

22:15Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,

22:16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

22:17who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’

22:18Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

22:19The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,

22:20saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’

22:21“Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you.

22:22Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

22:23If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.

22:24Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

22:25The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.

22:26For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God.

22:27You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.

22:28You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.

22:29When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.

22:30He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

Job 23

23:1Then Job answered,

23:2“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

23:3Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!

23:4I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

23:5I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me.

23:6Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me.

23:7There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

23:8“If I go east, he is not there. If I go west, I can’t find him.

23:9He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him.

23:10But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I will come out like gold.

23:11My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned away.

23:12I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

23:13But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does.

23:14For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.

23:15Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him.

23:16For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

23:17Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

Job 24

24:1“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?

24:2There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

24:3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

24:4They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

24:5Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

24:6They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.

24:7They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

24:8They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

24:9There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,

24:10so that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.

24:11They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

24:12From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.

24:13“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.

24:14The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.

24:15The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face.

24:16In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.

24:17For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

24:18“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.

24:19Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.

24:20The womb will forget him. The worm will feed sweetly on him. He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree.

24:21He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.

24:22Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.

24:23God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.

24:24They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

24:25If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”

Job 25

25:1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

25:2“Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.

25:3Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?

25:4How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

25:5Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;

25:6How much less man, who is a worm, and the son of man, who is a worm!”

Job 26

26:1Then Job answered,

26:2“How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!

26:3How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

26:4To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came out of you?

26:5“The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

26:6Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

26:7He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.

26:8He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them.

26:9He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.

26:10He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.

26:11The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

26:12He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.

26:13By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.

26:14Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

Job 27

27:1Job again took up his parable, and said,

27:2“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter

27:3(for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);

27:4surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, neither will my tongue utter deceit.

27:5Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

27:6I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.

27:7“Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

27:8For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

27:9Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

27:10Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?

27:11I will teach you about the hand of God. I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty.

27:12Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

27:13“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

27:14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

27:15Those who remain of him will be buried in death. His widows will make no lamentation.

27:16Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

27:17he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver.

27:18He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.

27:19He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not.

27:20Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.

27:21The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place.

27:22For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.

27:23Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place.