Job / Job on God's Power and Human Mortality

Job on God's Power and Human Mortality

Job 12:1-14:22

Chapter 12

¹ Job answered and said. ² Indeed, you are the people, and with you wisdom will die. ³ I also have a heart like you all; I have not fallen short of you. And who does not know such things? ⁴ "I have been a laughingstock to my companions—he calls to God, and he answers him—a righteous and blameless one." ⁵ The lamp of contempt for times of security, prepared for times of footstool. ⁶ The tents of raiders are at peace, and those who provoke God are confident, those in whose hand God has brought them. ⁷ But now, please ask the beasts, and they will show you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you. ⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; or the fish of the sea. ⁹ Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? ¹⁰ In his hand is the nephesh of every living thing and the spirit of all human flesh. ¹¹ Does not the ear test words as they enter it, and the palate taste food? ¹² In the aged is wisdom, and length of days is understanding. ¹³ With him are wisdom and power; to him belong counsel and understanding. ¹⁴ Look, he tears down and does not build; he shuts up a man and does not open. ¹⁵ Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up; he sends them, and they turn the earth. ¹⁶ With him is might and sound insight, inadvertent sin and erring. ¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped, and he makes judges rave. ¹⁸ He loosens the bonds of kings and binds a belt around their waists. ¹⁹ He leads away priests as spoil and causes mighty ones to stagger. ²⁰ He removes the lip from the faithful and the discernment of elders. ²¹ pouring contempt on nobles and loosening the belt of the strong. ²² He reveals depths from darkness and brings deep shadow out to light. ²³ He makes nations wander and destroys them; he stretches out to nations and regrets it. ²⁴ He turns away the heart of the chiefs of the people of the land and causes them to wander in an empty waste, with no way. ²⁵ They grope in the darkness and not the light, and they stagger like a drunk.

Chapter 13

¹ Look, all this my eye has seen, my ear has heard, and I understood it. ² As you know, I know also—I. I have not fallen from you. ³ But I will speak to Shaddai, and I will argue my case with El—I delight. ⁴ But you are daubers of falsehood, healers of worthlessness, all of you. ⁵ Who will give the deaf—you will be silent, and it will be wisdom to you. ⁶ Hear now my rebuke and the abundance of my lips—pay attention! ⁷ Will you speak injustice for God? Will you speak deceit for him? ⁸ Will you lift up his face? Will you contend with God? ⁹ Is it good if he examines you? If you deceive like deceiving a human, you deceive him. ¹⁰ He will surely rebuke you if you show partiality. ¹¹ Does not his majesty terrify you, and his dread fall upon you? ¹² Your memorial portions are proverbs of ashes, compared to clay on your ledges. ¹³ Be silent before me, and I will speak, and let whatever will pass over me. ¹⁴ On what will I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my soul in my palm? ¹⁵ Look, he may kill me; I will hope in him, yet I will argue my ways to his face. ¹⁶ He is also salvation to me, for no godless hypocrite will come before His Presence. ¹⁷ Hear my report, my declaration, in your ears. ¹⁸ Look, now I have prepared my defense. I know that I will be righteous. ¹⁹ Who is he who will contend with me? For now, if I am silent, I will die. ²⁰ Only two things—do not do to me; then I will not hide from your face. ²¹ Keep your hand far from me, and do not let your dread terrify me. ²² Call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and respond to me. ²³ How many iniquities and sins? My transgressions and my sins—make them known to me! ²⁴ Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? ²⁵ Will you terrify a driven leaf and pursue dry stubble? ²⁶ For you write bitters against me, and you cause me to inherit the iniquities of my youth. ²⁷ You put my feet in the stocks, and you watch all my paths; you engrave marks on the roots of my feet. ²⁸ And he, as a rotten thing, will wear out, like a garment that moths have eaten.

Chapter 14

¹ Man, born of woman, is short of days and full of trembling. ² He comes forth like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow, and does not endure. ³ Indeed—upon this you have opened your eye, and you bring me into judgment with you and your people. ⁴ Who can bring a pure one from an unclean? Not one. ⁵ If his days are determined, the number of them is with you; you have decreed his limits, and he will not pass beyond them. ⁶ Turn away from him and let him alone until he is pleased, as a hired worker his day. ⁷ For there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, yet it will sprout again, and its shoot will not cease. ⁸ If its root grows old in the earth and its stump dies in the dust. ⁹ It will blossom with the smell of water and make a harvest like a plant. ¹⁰ But a man dies and grows weak and gasps out his last; a human—and he is no more. ¹¹ The waters fail from the sea, and a river is drained and dries up. ¹² And man lies down and does not rise until the heavens awake and rouse themselves from their sleep. ¹³ Who will give you to hide me in the Underworld, to conceal me until your anger has passed, to appoint a set time for me and remember me! ¹⁴ If a man dies, will he live? All the days of my cosmic service I will wait until the coming of my replacement. ¹⁵ You will call, and I will answer you; you will long for the work of your hands. ¹⁶ For now you will count my steps; you will not keep watch over my sin. ¹⁷ You have sealed up my transgressions in a bundle, and you have plastered over my iniquity. ¹⁸ And yet a mountain that falls wastes away, and a rock is removed from its place. ¹⁹ Waters wear down stones; it sweeps away the soil of the earth, and you cause human hope to perish. ²⁰ You overpower him forever, and he goes, changing his face, and you send him away. ²¹ His sons will be honored, but he will not know it; they will grieve, but he will not feel it for them. ²² Only his flesh will ache over him, and his soul will mourn over him.