May 29 - Job 8-10
Job
1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:2"How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?3Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?4If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.5If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy,6if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.7And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.8"For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out.9For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.10Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?11"Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?12While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.13Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.14His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider's web.15He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.16He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.17His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones.18If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, 'I have never seen you.'19Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring.20"Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.22Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more."
1Then Job answered and said:2"Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?3If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.4He is wise in heart and mighty in strength--who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?--5he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,6who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;7who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;8who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;9who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;10who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.11Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.12Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, 'What are you doing?'13"God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.14How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?15Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.16If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.17For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;18he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.19If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?20Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.21I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.22It is all one; therefore I say, He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.23When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges--if it is not he, who then is it?25"My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.26They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.27If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,'28I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.29I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?30If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,31yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.32For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.33There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.34Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.35Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.
1"I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.2I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.3Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?4Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?5Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years,6that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin,7although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand?8Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether.9Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?10Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?11You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.12You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.13Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose.14If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity.15If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction.16And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me.17You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me.18"Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me19and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.20Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer21before I go--and I shall not return--to the land of darkness and deep shadow,22the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness."