Sermon Central
Job 14:7-19:27
View Full Chapter7“At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.
8Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil,
9yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.
10But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.
11As the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,
12so he lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, people will not awake or be roused from their sleep.
13“If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me!
14If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal
15You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made.
16Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.
17My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.
18“But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place,
19as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy a person’s hope.
20You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their countenance and send them away.
21If their children are honored, they do not know it; if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it. 22They feel but the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves.”
Eliphaz 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2“Would a wise person answer with empty notions or fill their belly with the hot east wind?
3Would they argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value?
4But you even undermine piety and hinder devotion to God.
5Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty.
6Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you.
7“Are you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills?
8Do you listen in on God’s council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?
9What do you know that we do not know? What insights do you have that we do not have?
10The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men even older than your father.
11Are God’s consolations not enough for you, words spoken gently to you?
12Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash,
13so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?
14“What are mortals, that they could be pure, or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?
15If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,
16how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt, who drink up evil like water!
17“Listen to me and I will explain to you; let me tell you what I have seen,
18what the wise have declared, hiding nothing received from their ancestors
19(to whom alone the land was given when no foreigners moved among them):
20All his days the wicked man suffers torment, the ruthless man through all the years stored up for him.
21Terrifying sounds fill his ears; when all seems well, marauders attack him.
22He despairs of escaping the realm of darkness; he is marked for the sword.
23He wanders about for food like a vulture; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.
24Distress and anguish fill him with terror; troubles overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack,
25because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty,
26defiantly charging against him with a thick, strong shield.
27“Though his face is covered with fat and his waist bulges with flesh,
28he will inhabit ruined towns and houses where no one lives, houses crumbling to rubble.
29He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land.
30He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.
31Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return.
32Before his time he will wither, and his branches will not flourish.
33He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.
34For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes. 35They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit.”
Job 1Then Job replied:
2“I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!
3Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?
4I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.
5But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
6“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.
7Surely, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
8You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
9God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
10People open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.
11God has turned me over to the ungodly and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
12All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;
13his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
14Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.
15“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.
16My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes;
17yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
18“Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!
19Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
20My intercessor is my friend
21on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend. 22“Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return.
1My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave awaits me.
2Surely mockers surround me; my eyes must dwell on their hostility.
3“Give me, O God, the pledge you demand. Who else will put up security for me?
4You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore you will not let them triumph.
5If anyone denounces their friends for reward, the eyes of their children will fail.
6“God has made me a byword to everyone, a man in whose face people spit.
7My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.
8The upright are appalled at this; the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
9Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.
10“But come on, all of you, try again! I will not find a wise man among you.
11My days have passed, my plans are shattered. Yet the desires of my heart
12turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near.
13If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
14if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
15where then is my hope— who can see any hope for me? 16Will it go down to the gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?”
Bildad 1Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2“When will you end these speeches? Be sensible, and then we can talk.
3Why are we regarded as cattle and considered stupid in your sight?
4You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place?
5“The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops burning.
6The light in his tent becomes dark; the lamp beside him goes out.
7The vigor of his step is weakened; his own schemes throw him down.
8His feet thrust him into a net; he wanders into its mesh.
9A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare holds him fast.
10A noose is hidden for him on the ground; a trap lies in his path.
11Terrors startle him on every side and dog his every step.
12Calamity is hungry for him; disaster is ready for him when he falls.
13It eats away parts of his skin; death’s firstborn devours his limbs.
14He is torn from the security of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors.
15Fire resides
16His roots dry up below and his branches wither above.
17The memory of him perishes from the earth; he has no name in the land.
18He is driven from light into the realm of darkness and is banished from the world.
19He has no offspring or descendants among his people, no survivor where once he lived.
20People of the west are appalled at his fate; those of the east are seized with horror. 21Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man; such is the place of one who does not know God.”
Job 1Then Job replied:
2“How long will you torment me and crush me with words?
3Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me.
4If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone.
5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,
6then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.
7“Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
10He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree.
11His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.
12His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
13“He has alienated my family from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14My relatives have gone away; my closest friends have forgotten me.
15My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner; they look on me as on a stranger.
16I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth.
17My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family.
18Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me.
19All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.
20I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21“Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
22Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,
24that they were inscribed with an iron tool on
25I know that my redeemer
26And after my skin has been destroyed, yet
27I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!