Sermon Central
Job 4-11
Eliphaz 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2“If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
3Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.
4Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.
5But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
7“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.
9At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more.
10The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
11The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12“A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.
13Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people,
14fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.
15A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.
16It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:
17‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
18If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error,
19how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!
20Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever. 21Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
1“Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
2Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
3I myself have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.
4His children are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
5The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from among thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
6For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground.
7Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
8“But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.
9He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
10He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside.
11The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
12He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.
13He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away.
14Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night.
15He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.
16So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
17“Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
18For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.
19From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch you.
20In famine he will deliver you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
21You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes.
22You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the wild animals.
23For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
24You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
25You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
26You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season. 27“We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
Job 1Then Job replied:
2“If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales!
3It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas— no wonder my words have been impetuous.
4The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me.
5Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder?
6Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow
7I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.
8“Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for,
9that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life!
10Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.
11“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?
12Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?
13Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?
14“Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow
16when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,
17but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.
18Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go off into the wasteland and perish.
19The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.
20They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.
21Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.
22Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth,
23deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?
24“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.
25How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?
26Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?
27You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.
28“But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face?
29Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.
1“Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers?
2Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid,
3so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
4When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
5My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.
6“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
7Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.
8The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more.
9As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
10He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.
11“Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard?
13When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
14even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
15so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine.
16I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
17“What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention,
18that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?
19Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant?
20If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?
Bildad 1Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2“How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
3Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
4When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
5But if you will seek God earnestly and plead with the Almighty,
6if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state.
7Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.
8“Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned,
9for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
10Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
11Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
12While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
13Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
14What they trust in is fragile
15They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.
16They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
17it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
18But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
19Surely its life withers away, and
20“Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. 22Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”
Job 1Then Job replied:
2“Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?
3Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thousand.
4His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?
5He moves mountains without their knowing it and overturns them in his anger.
6He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble.
7He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars.
8He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.
9He is the Maker of the Bear
10He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
11When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by, I cannot perceive him.
12If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13God does not restrain his anger; even the cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet.
14“How then can I dispute with him? How can I find words to argue with him?
15Though I were innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy.
16Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not believe he would give me a hearing.
17He would crush me with a storm and multiply my wounds for no reason.
18He would not let me catch my breath but would overwhelm me with misery.
19If it is a matter of strength, he is mighty! And if it is a matter of justice, who can challenge him
20Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty.
21“Although I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life.
22It is all the same; that is why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
23When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?
25“My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.
26They skim past like boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down on their prey.
27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,’
28I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?
30Even if I washed myself with soap and my hands with cleansing powder,
31you would plunge me into a slime pit so that even my clothes would detest me.
32“He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.
33If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together,
34someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. 35Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
1“I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
2I say to God: Do not declare me guilty, but tell me what charges you have against me.
3Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked?
4Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?
5Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a strong man,
6that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin—
7though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand?
8“Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me?
9Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?
10Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese,
11clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?
12You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.
13“But this is what you concealed in your heart, and I know that this was in your mind:
14If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished.
15If I am guilty—woe to me! Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, for I am full of shame and drowned in
16If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion and again display your awesome power against me.
17You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me; your forces come against me wave upon wave.
18“Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
19If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
20Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy
21before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness, 22to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
Zophar 1Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2“Are all these words to go unanswered? Is this talker to be vindicated?
3Will your idle talk reduce others to silence? Will no one rebuke you when you mock?
4You say to God, ‘My beliefs are flawless and I am pure in your sight.’
5Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you
6and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.
7“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
8They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?
9Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
10“If he comes along and confines you in prison and convenes a court, who can oppose him?
11Surely he recognizes deceivers; and when he sees evil, does he not take note?
12But the witless can no more become wise than a wild donkey’s colt can be born human.
13“Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him,
14if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
15then, free of fault, you will lift up your face; you will stand firm and without fear.
16You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by.
17Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning.
18You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.
19You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid, and many will court your favor. 20But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; their hope will become a dying gasp.”