Job’s First Lament and the Failure of Easy Answers

Job 3

3:1After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.

3:2Job answered:

3:3“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’

3:4Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.

3:5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the day black terrify it.

3:6As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

3:7Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

3:8Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

3:9Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

3:10because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

3:11“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

3:12Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?

3:13For now I should have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

3:14with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

3:15or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;

3:16or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

3:17There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.

3:18There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.

3:19The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.

3:20“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,

3:21who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

3:22who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

3:23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

3:24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.

3:25For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.

3:26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”

Job 4

4:1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

4:2“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

4:3Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.

4:4Your words have supported him who was falling, you have made the feeble knees firm.

4:5But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.

4:6Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?

4:7“Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?

4:8According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same.

4:9By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

4:10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

4:11The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.

4:12“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.

4:13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

4:14fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

4:15Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.

4:16It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,

4:17‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

4:18Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.

4:19How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

4:20Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

4:21Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’

Job 5

5:1“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

5:2For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.

5:3I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

5:4His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

5:5whose harvest the hungry eat up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.

5:6For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;

5:7but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

5:8“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,

5:9who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;

5:10who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;

5:11so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.

5:12He frustrates the plans of the crafty, so that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.

5:13He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

5:14They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.

5:15But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

5:16So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

5:17“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

5:18For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole.

5:19He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you.

5:20In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.

5:21You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

5:22You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth.

5:23For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you.

5:24You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.

5:25You will know also that your offspring will be great, your offspring as the grass of the earth.

5:26You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.

5:27Behold, we have researched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”

Job 6

6:1Then Job answered,

6:2“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

6:3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore my words have been rash.

6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

6:5Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder?

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

6:7My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.

6:8“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for,

6:9even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

6:10Let 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.

6:11What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

6:12Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of bronze?

6:13Isn’t it that I have no help in me, that wisdom is driven away from me?

6:14“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

6:15My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;

6:16which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.

6:17In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

6:18The caravans that travel beside them turn away. They go up into the waste, and perish.

6:19The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them.

6:20They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.

6:21For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.

6:22Did I ever say, ‘Give to me’? or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance’?

6:23or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors’?

6:24“Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand my error.

6:25How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?

6:26Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

6:27Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend.

6:28Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I will not lie to your face.

6:29Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.

6:30Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?

Job 7

7:1“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

7:2As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

7:3so I am made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

7:4When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

7:5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

7:6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

7:7Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.

7:8The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.

7:9As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.

7:10He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.

7:11“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

7:12Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?

7:13When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint,’

7:14then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,

7:15so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.

7:16I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

7:17What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,

7:18that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

7:19How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

7:20If 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?

7:21Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”

Job 8

8:1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

8:2“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

8:3Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

8:4If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.

8:5If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.

8:6If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

8:7Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.

8:8“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.

8:9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

8:10Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?

8:11“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?

8:12While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.

8:13So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish,

8:14whose confidence will break apart, whose trust is a spider’s web.

8:15He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will cling to it, but it will not endure.

8:16He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden.

8:17His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.

8:18If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’

8:19Behold, this is the joy of his way. Out of the earth, others will spring.

8:20“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.

8:21He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.

8:22Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.”

Job 9

9:1Then Job answered,

9:2“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?

9:3If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.

9:4God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered?

9:5He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.

9:6He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.

9:7He commands the sun and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars.

9:8He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.

9:9He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.

9:10He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.

9:11Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.

9:12Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’

9:13“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.

9:14How much less will I answer him, and choose my words to argue with him?

9:15Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

9:16If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.

9:17For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

9:18He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

9:19If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’

9:20Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.

9:21I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.

9:22“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.

9:23If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

9:24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

9:25“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.

9:26They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

9:27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up,’

9:28I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me innocent.

9:29I will be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?

9:30If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

9:31yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes will abhor me.

9:32For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

9:33There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.

9:34Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

9:35then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

Job 10

10:1“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

10:2I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.

10:3Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

10:4Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

10:5Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,

10:6that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?

10:7Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

10:8“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

10:9Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

10:10Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?

10:11You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

10:12You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

10:13Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:

10:14if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.

10:15If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.

10:16If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

10:17You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

10:18“‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.

10:19I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

10:20Aren’t my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

10:21before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

10:22the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”

Job 11

11:1Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,

11:2“Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?

11:3Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, will no man make you ashamed?

11:4For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’

11:5But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,

11:6that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

11:7“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

11:8They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

11:9Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

11:10If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?

11:11For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it.

11:12An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt.

11:13“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.

11:14If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

11:15Surely then you will lift up your face without spot. Yes, you will be steadfast, and will not fear,

11:16for you will forget your misery. You will remember it like waters that have passed away.

11:17Life will be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it will be as the morning.

11:18You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety.

11:19Also you will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. Yes, many will court your favor.

11:20But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”

Job 12

12:1Then Job answered,

12:2“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

12:3But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?

12:4I 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.

12:5In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

12:6The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

12:7“But ask the animals now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.

12:8Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you.

12:9Who doesn’t know that in all these, the LORD’s hand has done this,

12:10in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

12:11Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

12:12With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.

12:13“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

12:14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

12:15Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

12:16With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

12:17He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.

12:18He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.

12:19He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

12:20He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.

12:21He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.

12:22He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.

12:23He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

12:24He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

12:25They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Job 13

13:1“Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it.

13:2What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.

13:3“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

13:4But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.

13:5Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.

13:6Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.

13:7Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?

13:8Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?

13:9Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?

13:10He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality.

13:11Won’t his majesty make you afraid and his dread fall on you?

13:12Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay.

13:13“Be silent! Leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.

13:14Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?

13:15Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

13:16This also will be my salvation, that a godless man will not come before him.

13:17Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.

13:18See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.

13:19Who is he who will contend with me? For then I would hold my peace and give up the spirit.

13:20“Only don’t do two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face:

13:21withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.

13:22Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me.

13:23How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.

13:24Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy?

13:25Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?

13:26For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

13:27You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,

13:28though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Job 14

14:1“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

14:2He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

14:3Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?

14:4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

14:5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass.

14:6Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.

14:7“For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.

14:8Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground,

14:9yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.

14:10But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

14:11As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,

14:12so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

14:13“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!

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

14:15You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.

14:16But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?

14:17My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.

14:18“But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place.

14:19The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.

14:20You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.

14:21His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.

14:22But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”