Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

1 Iyov responded:

2 “No doubt you are [the only] people [that matter];

and when you die, so will wisdom.

3 But I too have a brain, as much as you,

In no way am I inferior to you.

Besides, who doesn’t know things like these?

4 “Anyone who calls on God,

and he answers him,

becomes a laughingstock to his friends —

they make fun of an innocent, blameless man.

5 Those at ease have contempt for misfortune,

for the blow that strikes somebody already staggering.

6 The tents of robbers prosper,

[the homes of] those who anger God are secure,

those who carry their gods in their hands.

7 “But ask the animals — they will teach you —

and the birds in the air — they will tell you;

8 or speak to the earth — it will teach you —

and the fish in the sea will inform you:

9 every one of them knows

that the hand ofAdonaihas done this!

10 In his hand is the life of every living thing

and the spirit of every human being.

11 Shouldn’t the ear test words,

just as the palate tastes food?

12 Is wisdom [only] with aged men?

discernment [only] with long life?

13 “With God are wisdom and power;

he has [good] counsel and understanding.

14 When he breaks something down, it can’t be rebuilt;

when he imprisons someone, he can’t be released.

15 When he holds back water, there is drought;

when he sends it out, it overruns the land.

16 With him are strength and common sense;

both the misled and those who mislead are his.

17 He leads counselors away captive,

he makes fools of judges.

18 He removes authority from kings,

then binds them up [as prisoners].

19 He leadscohanimaway captive

and overthrows those long in power.

20 Those who are trusted he deprives of speech,

and he removes the discernment of the aged.

21 He pours contempt on princes

and loosens the belt of the strong.

22 He discloses the deepest recesses of darkness

and brings light into shadows dark as death.

23 He makes nations great and destroys them;

he enlarges nations, then leads them away.

24 He removes understanding from a country’s leaders

and makes them wander in trackless deserts.

25 They grope in unlit darkness;

he makes them stagger like drunks.

1 “All this I have seen with my own eyes;

with my own ears I have heard and understood it.

2 Whatever you know, I know too;

I am not inferior to you.

3 However, it’sShaddaiI want to speak with;

I want to prove my case to God.

4 But you, what you do is whitewash with lies;

you are all witch doctors!

5 I wish you would just stay silent;

for you, that would be wisdom!

6 “Now listen to my reasoning,

pay attention to how I present my dispute.

7 Is it for God’s sake that you speak so wickedly?

for him that you talk deceitfully?

8 Do you need to take his side

and plead God’s case for him?

9 If he examines you, will all go well?

Can you deceive him, as one man deceives another?

10 If you are secretly flattering [him],

he will surely rebuke you.

11 Doesn’t God’s majesty terrify you?

Aren’t you overcome with dread of him?

12 Your maxims are garbage-proverbs;

your answers crumble like clay.

13 “So be quiet! Let me be! I’ll do the talking,

come on me what may!

14 Why am I taking my flesh in my teeth,

taking my life in my hands?

15 Look, he will kill me — I don’t expect more,

but I will still defend my ways to his face.

16 And this is what will save me —

that a hypocrite cannot appear before him.

17 “Listen closely, then, to my words;

pay attention to what I am saying.

18 Here, now, I have prepared my case;

I know I am in the right.

19 If anyone can contend with me,

I will be quiet and die!

20 “Only grant two things to me, God;

then I won’t hide myself from your face —

21 take your hand away from me,

and don’t let fear of you frighten me.

22 Then, if you call, I will answer.

Or let me speak, and you, answer me!

23 How many crimes and sins have I committed?

Make me know my transgression and sin.

24 Why do you hide your face

and think of me as your enemy?

25 Do you want to harass a wind-driven leaf?

do you want to pursue a dry straw?

26 Is this why you draw up bitter charges against me

and punish me for the faults of my youth?

27 You put my feet in the stocks,

you watch me closely wherever I go,

you trace out each footprint of mine —

28 though [my body] decays like something rotten

or like a moth-eaten garment.

1 “A human being, born from a woman,

lives a short, trouble-filled life.

2 He comes up like a flower and withers away,

flees like a shadow, doesn’t last.

3 You fix your eyes on a creature like this?

You drag him to court with you?

4 Who can bring what is pure from something impure?

No one!

5 Since his days are fixed in advance,

the number of his months is known to you,

and you have fixed the limits which he can’t cross;

6 look away from him, and let him be;

so that, like a hired worker,

he can finish his day in peace.

7 “For a tree, there is hope

that if cut down, it will sprout again,

that its shoots will continue to grow.

8 Even if its roots grow old in the earth

and its stump dies in the ground,

9 yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put forth branches like a young plant.

10 But when a human being grows weak and dies,

he expires; and then where is he?

11 Just as water in a lake disappears,

as a river shrinks and dries up;

12 so a person lies down and doesn’t arise —

until the sky no longer exists;

it will not awaken,

it won’t be roused from its sleep.

13 “I wish you would hide me in Sh’ol,

conceal me until your anger has passed,

then fix a time and remember me!

14 If a man dies, will he live again?

I will wait all the days of my life

for my change to come.

15 You will call, and I will answer you;

you will long to see what you made again.

16 Whereas now you count each step of mine,

then you will not keep watch for my sin.

17 You will seal up my crime in a bag

and cover over my iniquity.

18 “Just as a mountain erodes and falls away,

its rock is removed from its place,

19 the water wears away its stones,

and the floods wash away its soil,

so you destroy a person’s hope.

20 You overpower him, and he passes on;

you change his appearance and send him away.

21 His children earn honor, but he doesn’t know it;

or they are brought low, but he doesn’t notice.

22 He feels pain only for his own flesh;

he laments only for himself.”

1 Then Elifaz the Teimani spoke:

2 “Should a wise man answer with hot-air arguments?

Should he fill up his belly with the hot east wind?

3 Should he reason with useless talk

or make speeches that do him no good?

4 “Why, you are abolishing fear of God

and hindering prayer to him!

5 Your iniquity is teaching you how to speak,

and deceit is your language of choice.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I;

your own lips testify against you.

7 “Were you the firstborn of the human race,

brought forth before the hills?

8 Do you listen in on God’s secrets?

Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

9 What do you know that we don’t know?

What discernment do you have that we don’t?

10 With us are gray-haired men, old men,

men much older than your father.

11 Are the comfortings of God not enough for you,

or a word that deals gently with you?

12 Why does your heart carry you away,

and why do your eyes flash angrily,

13 so that you turn your spirit against God

and let such words escape your mouth?

14 “What is a human being, that he could be innocent,

someone born from a woman, that he could be righteous?

15 God doesn’t trust even his holy ones;

no, even the heavens are not innocent in his view.

16 How much less one loathesome and corrupt,

a human being, who drinks iniquity like water.

17 “I will tell you — hear me out!

I will recount what I have seen;

18 wise men have told it,

and it wasn’t hidden from their fathers either,

19 to whom alone the land was given —

no foreigner passed among them.

20 “The wicked is in torment all his life,

for all the years allotted to the tyrant.

21 Terrifying sounds are in his ears;

in prosperity, robbers swoop down on him.

22 He despairs of returning from darkness —

he is destined to meet the sword.

23 He wanders and looks for food, which isn’t there.

He knows the day of darkness is ready, at hand.

24 Distress and anguish overwhelm him,

assaulting him like a king about to enter battle.

25 “He raises his hand against God

and boldly defiesShaddai,

26 running against him with head held high

and thickly ornamented shield.

27 “He lets his face grow gross and fat,

and the rest of him bulges with blubber;

28 he lives in abandoned cities,

in houses no one would inhabit,

houses about to become ruins;

29 therefore he will not remain rich,

his wealth will not endure,

his produce will not bend

[the grain stalks] to the earth.

30 “He will not escape from darkness.

The flame will dry up his branches.

By a breath from the mouth of [God],

he will go away.

31 Let him not rely on futile methods,

thereby deceiving himself;

for what he will receive in exchange

will be only futility.

32 This will be accomplished in advance of its day.

His palm frond will not be fresh and green;

33 he will be like a vine that sheds its unripe grapes,

like an olive tree that drops its flowers.

34 “For the community of the ungodly is sterile;

fire consumes the tents of bribery.

35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;

their womb prepares deceit.”

1 In response Iyov said:

2 “I have heard this stuff so often!

Such sorry comforters, all of you!

3 Is there no end to words of wind?

What provokes you to answer this way?

4 “If I were in your place,

I too could speak as you do —

I could string phrases together against you

and shake my head at you.

5 I could ‘strengthen’ you with my mouth,

with lip service I could ‘ease your grief.’

6 If I speak, my own pain isn’t eased;

and if I don’t speak, it still doesn’t leave.

7 “But now he has worn me out;

you have desolated this whole community of mine.

8 Besides, you have shriveled me up;

and this serves to witness against me.

My being so thin rises up against me

and testifies to my face.

9 He tears me apart in his anger;

he holds a grudge against me;

he gnashes on me with his teeth.

“My enemies look daggers at me.

10 Wide-mouthed, they gape at me;

with scorn, they slap my cheeks;

they gather themselves together against me.

11 “God delivers me to the perverse,

throws me into the hands of the wicked.

12 I was at peace, and he shook me apart.

Yes, he grabbed me by the neck and dashed me to pieces.

He set me up as his target —

13 his archers surrounded me.

He slashes my innards and shows no mercy,

he pours my gall on the ground.

14 He breaks in on me again and again,

attacking me like a warrior.

15 “I sewed sackcloth together to cover my skin

and laid my pride in the dust;

16 my face is red from crying,

and on my eyelids is a death-dark shadow.

17 Yet my hands are free from violence,

and my prayer is pure.

18 “Earth, don’t cover my blood;

don’t let my cry rest [without being answered].

19 Even now, my witness is in heaven;

my advocate is there on high.

20 With friends like these as intercessors,

my eyes pour out tears to God,

21 that he would arbitrate between a man and God,

just as one does for his fellow human being.

22 For I have but few years left

before I leave on the road of no return.

1 “My spirit is broken, my days are quenched,

I am marked for the grave.

2 Mockers are all around me;

my eye meets only their hostility.

3 Be my guarantor, yourself!

Who else will put up a pledge for me?

4 For you have shut their minds to common sense;

therefore you will not let them triumph.

5 Should people share with their friends

when their own children’s eyes are so sad?

6 “He has made me a byword among the peoples,

a creature in whose face they spit.

7 I am nearly blind with grief,

my limbs reduced to a shadow.

8 The upright are perplexed at this,

the innocent aroused against the hypocrites.

9 Yet the righteous hold on to their way,

and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

10 “But as for you all, turn around! Come back! —

yet I won’t find a wise man among you.

11 My days are over, my plans cut off,

which I had cherished so;

12 but they [try to] turn [my] night into day,

[saying,] ‘Light is near!’ — in the face of darkness.

13 “If I hope for Sh’ol to be my house;

if I spread my couch in the dark;

14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’

and to worms, ‘You are my mother and sister,’

15 then where is my hope?

And that hope of mine, who will see it?

16 Only those who go down with me

to the bars of Sh’ol,

when we rest together in the dust.”

1 Bildad the Shuchi said,

2 “When will you put an end to words?

Think about it — then we’ll talk!

3 Why are we thought of as cattle,

stupid in your view?

4 You can tear yourself to pieces in your anger,

but the earth won’t be abandoned just for your sake;

not even a rock will be moved from its place.

5 “The light of the wicked will flicker and die,

not a spark from his fire will shine,

6 the light in his tent is darkened,

the lamp over him will be snuffed out.

7 His vigorous stride is shortened,

his own plans make him trip and fall.

8 For his own feet plunge him into a net,

he wanders into its meshes.

9 A trap grabs him by the heel,

a snare catches hold of him.

10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground;

pitfalls lie in his path.

11 Terrors overwhelm him on every side

and scatter about his feet.

12 “Trouble is hungry for him,

calamity ready for his fall;

13 disease eats away at his skin;

the first stages of death devour him gradually.

14 What he relied on will be torn from his tent,

and he will be marched before the king of terrors.

15 “What isn’t his at all will live in his tent;

sulfur will be scattered on his home.

16 His roots beneath him will dry up;

above him, his branch will wither.

17 Memory of him will fade from the land,

while abroad his name will be unknown.

18 He will be pushed from light into darkness

and driven out of the world.

19 “Without son or grandson among his people,

no one will remain in his dwellings.

20 Those who come after will be appalled at his fate,

just as those there before were struck with horror.

21 “This is how things are in the homes of the wicked,

and this is the place of those who don’t know God.”

1 Then Iyov answered:

2 “How long will you go on making me angry,

crushing me with words?

3 You’ve insulted me ten times already;

aren’t you ashamed to treat me so badly?

4 Even if it’s true that I made a mistake,

my error stays with me.

5 “You may take a superior attitude toward me

and cite my disgrace as proof against me;

6 but know that it’s God who has put me in the wrong

and closed his net around me.

7 If I cry, ‘Violence!’ no one hears me;

I cry aloud, but there is no justice.

8 “He has fenced off my way, so that I can’t pass;

he has covered my paths with darkness.

9 He has stripped me of my glory

and removed the crown from my head.

10 He tears every part of me down — I am gone;

he uproots my hope like a tree.

11 “Inflamed with anger against me,

he counts me as one of his foes.

12 His troops advance together,

they make their way against me

and encamp around my tent.

13 “He has made my brothers keep their distance,

those who know me are wholly estranged from me,

14 my kinsfolk have failed me,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

15 Those living in my house consider me a stranger;

my slave-girls too — in their view I’m a foreigner.

16 I call my servant, and he doesn’t answer,

even if I beg him for a favor!

17 “My wife can’t stand my breath,

I am loathsome to my own family.

18 Even young children despise me —

if I stand up, they start jeering at me.

19 All my intimate friends abhor me,

and those I loved have turned against me.

20 My bones stick to my skin and flesh;

I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Pity me, friends of mine, pity me!

For the hand of God has struck me!

22 Must you pursue me as God does,

never satisfied with my flesh?

23 I wish my words were written down,

that they were inscribed in a scroll,

24 that, engraved with iron and filled with lead,

they were cut into rock forever!

25 “But I know that my Redeemer lives,

that in the end he will rise on the dust;

26 so that after my skin has been thus destroyed,

then even without my flesh, I will see God.

27 I will see him for myself,

my eyes, not someone else’s, will behold him.

My heart grows weak inside me!

28 “If you say, ‘How will we persecute him?’ —

the root of the matter is found in me.

29 You had best fear the sword,

for anger brings the punishment of the sword,

so that you will know there is judgment!”

1 Tzofar the Na‘amati replied,

2 “My thoughts are pressing me to answer;

I feel such an urge to speak!

3 I have heard reproof that outrages me,

but a spirit past my understanding gives me a reply.

4 “Don’t you know that ever since time began,

ever since humans were placed on earth,

5 that the triumph of the wicked is always short-lived,

and the joy of the ungodly is gone in a moment?

6 His pride may mount to the heavens,

his head may touch the clouds;

7 but he will vanish completely, like his own dung —

those who used to see him will ask, ‘Where is he?’

8 Like a dream he flies off and is not found again;

like a vision in the night he is chased away.

9 The eye which once saw him will see him no more,

his place will not behold him again.

10 His children will have to pay back the poor;

his hands will restore their wealth.

11 His bones may be filled with [the vigor of] his youth,

but it will join him lying in the dust.

12 “Wickedness may taste sweet in his mouth,

he may savor and roll it around on his tongue,

13 he may linger over it and not let it go

but keep it there in his mouth —

14 yet in his stomach his food goes bad,

it works inside him like snake venom;

15 the wealth he swallows he vomits back up;

God makes him disgorge it.

16 He sucks the poison of asps,

the viper’s fangs will kill him.

17 He will not enjoy the rivers,

the streams flowing with honey and cream.

18 He will have to give back what he toiled for;

he won’t get to swallow it down —

to the degree that he acquired wealth,

he won’t get to enjoy it.

19 “For he crushed and abandoned the poor,

seizing houses he did not build,

20 because his appetite would not let him rest,

in his greed he let nothing escape;

21 nothing is left that he did not devour;

therefore his well-being will not last.

22 With all needs satisfied, he will be in distress;

the full force of misery will come over him.

23 “This is what will fill his belly! —

[God] will lay on him all his burning anger

and make it rain over him, into his insides.

24 If he flees from the weapon of iron,

the bow of bronze will pierce him through —

25 he pulls the arrow out of his back,

the shining tip comes out from his innards;

terrors come upon him.

26 “Total darkness is laid up for his treasures,

a fire fanned by no one will consume him,

and calamity awaits what is left in his tent.

27 The heavens will reveal his guilt,

and the earth will rise up against him.

28 The income of his household will be carried off;

his goods will flow away on the day of his wrath.

29 This is God’s reward for the wicked,

the heritage God decrees for him.”

1 Then Iyov responded:

2 “Listen carefully to my words;

let this be the comfort you give me.

3 Bear with me as I speak;

then, after I have spoken, you can go on mocking.

4 “As for me, is my complaint merely to other people?

Don’t I have grounds for being short-tempered?

5 Look at me, and be appalled;

cover your mouth with your hand!

6 Whenever I recall it, I am in shock;

my whole body shudders.

7 “Why do the wicked go on living,

grow old and keep increasing their power?

8 They see their children settled with them,

their posterity assured.

9 Their houses are safe, with nothing to fear;

God’s rod is not on them.

10 Their bulls are fertile without fail,

their cows get pregnant and don’t miscarry.

11 They produce flocks of babies,

and their children dance around.

12 They sing with tambourines and lyres

and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

13 They spend their days in prosperity

and go down to the grave in peace.

14 “Yet to God they said, ‘Leave us alone!

We don’t want to know about your ways.

15 What isShaddai, that we should serve him?

What do we gain if we pray to him?’

16 Isn’t their prosperity already theirs?

The plans of the wicked are far from me.

17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?

How often does their calamity come upon them?

How often does [God] deal out pain in his anger,

18 to make them like straw in the wind,

like chaff carried off by a storm?

19 God lays up for their children

[the punishment for their] iniquity.

He should lay it on [the wicked] themselves,

so that they can feel it!

20 Let their own eyes see their own destruction

and themselves drink the wrath ofShaddai.

21 What joy can they have in their family after them,

given that their months are numbered?

22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge?

After all, he judges those who are on high.

23 One person dies in his full strength,

completely at ease and content;

24 his pails are full of milk,

and the marrow in his bones is moist.

25 Another dies with embittered heart,

never having tasted happiness.

26 They lie down alike in the dust,

and the worm covers them both.

27 “Look, I know what you are thinking

and your plans to do me wrong.

28 You ask, ‘Where is the great man’s house?

Where is the tent where the wicked once lived?’

29 Haven’t you ever questioned travelers?

Don’t you accept their testimony

30 that the evil man is saved on the day of disaster,

rescued on the day of wrath?

31 So who will confront him with his ways?

Who will repay him for what he has done?

32 For he is carried off to the grave,

people keep watch over his tomb,

33 the clods of the valley are sweet to him;

so everyone follows his example,

just as before him were countless others.

34 “Why offer me such meaningless comfort?

Of your answers, only the perfidy remains.”