The wager in the throne room and four messengers arriving before each other has finished speaking. Everything taken in a single afternoon, and a man who tears his robe and worships anyway.

“He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.”— Job 1:21 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 1:1-22 WEB

1. 1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.
2. 2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
3. 3His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.
4. 4His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
5. 5It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.
6. 6Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them.
7. 7Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”
8. 8Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”
9. 9Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
10. 10Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11. 11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”
12. 12Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh.
13. 13It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
14. 14that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,
15. 15and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
16. 16While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
17. 17While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
18. 18While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
19. 19and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20. 20Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped.
21. 21He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.”
22. 22In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.

The second round: skin for skin. Sores from sole to crown, a potsherd, ashes, and three friends who sit with him seven days without saying a word — the best thing they do.

“So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.”— Job 2:13 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 2:1-13 WEB

1. 1Again, on the day when the God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh.
2. 2Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”
3. 3Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”
4. 4Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
5. 5But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”
6. 6Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.”
7. 7So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
8. 8He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
9. 9Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”
10. 10But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.
11. 11Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.
12. 12When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.
13. 13So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

Job opens his mouth and curses the day he was born. Let that day be darkness; let God above not seek for it. The silence breaks and never re-forms.

“For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.”— Job 3:25 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 3:1-26 WEB

1. 1After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.
2. 2Job answered:
3. 3“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’
4. 4Let that day be darkness. Don’t let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.
5. 5Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
6. 6As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.
7. 7Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.
8. 8Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
9. 9Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,
10. 10because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
11. 11“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
12. 12Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should nurse?
13. 13For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
14. 14with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;
15. 15or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16. 16or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.
17. 17There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest.
18. 18There the prisoners are at ease together. They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19. 19The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.
20. 20“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,
21. 21Who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22. 22who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23. 23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
24. 24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
25. 25For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.
26. 26I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble comes.”

Eliphaz and the spirit that passed before his face, making the hair of his flesh stand up. Consolation delivered as a ghost story.

“‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?”— Job 4:17 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 4:1-21 WEB

1. 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2. 2“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
3. 3Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.
4. 4Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees.
5. 5But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.
6. 6Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?
7. 7“Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?
8. 8According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
9. 9By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
10. 10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
11. 11The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
12. 12“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.
13. 13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14. 14fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
15. 15Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.
16. 16It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,
17. 17‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
18. 18Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.
19. 19How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!
20. 20Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.
21. 21Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’

Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Eliphaz recommending that Job commit his cause to God — sound advice, offered to the wrong man at the wrong time.

“but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”— Job 5:7 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 5:1-27 WEB

1. 1“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
2. 2For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.
3. 3I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
4. 4His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
5. 5whose harvest the hungry eats up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.
6. 6For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
7. 7but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
8. 8“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,
9. 9who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;
10. 10who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;
11. 11so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.
12. 12He frustrates the plans of the crafty, So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.
13. 13He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.
14. 14They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.
15. 15But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.
16. 16So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
17. 17“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
18. 18For he wounds, and binds up. He injures, and his hands make whole.
19. 19He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.
20. 20In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.
21. 21You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
22. 22At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth.
23. 23For you shall be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.
24. 24You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing.
25. 25You shall know also that your offspring shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth.
26. 26You shall come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.
27. 27Look this, we have searched it, so it is. Hear it, and know it for your good.”

The arrows of the Almighty are within me. Job asking for his grief to be weighed on a scale, and calling his friends a wadi that dries up exactly when the caravans arrive.

“My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;”— Job 6:15 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 6:1-30 WEB

1. 1Then Job answered,
2. 2“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
3. 3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash.
4. 4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
5. 5Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder?
6. 6Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
7. 7My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.
8. 8“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for,
9. 9even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
10. 10Be it still my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
11. 11What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?
12. 12Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?
13. 13Isn’t it that I have no help in me, That wisdom is driven quite from me?
14. 14“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15. 15My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;
16. 16Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.
17. 17In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
18. 18The caravans that travel beside them turn away. They go up into the waste, and perish.
19. 19The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them.
20. 20They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.
21. 21For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.
22. 22Did I say, ‘Give to me?’ or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance?’
23. 23or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand?’ or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?’
24. 24“Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
25. 25How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?
26. 26Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?
27. 27Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend.
28. 28Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I shall not lie to your face.
29. 29Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.
30. 30Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?

Is not man forced to labor on earth? Nights of tossing until dawn, flesh clothed with worms, and the first direct address to God in the book: let me alone.

“I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.”— Job 7:16 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 7:1-21 WEB

1. 1“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
2. 2As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,
3. 3so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4. 4When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
5. 5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
6. 6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
7. 7Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.
8. 8The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.
9. 9As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.
10. 10He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.
11. 11“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12. 12Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?
13. 13When I say, ‘My bed shall comfort me. My couch shall ease my complaint;’
14. 14then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions:
15. 15so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
16. 16I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
17. 17What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,
18. 18that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?
19. 19How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
20. 20If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
21. 21Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”

Bildad on the papyrus that cannot grow without water. Your children sinned, therefore they died — orthodoxy at its most efficient and most cruel.

“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.”— Job 8:20 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 8:1-22 WEB

1. 1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
2. 2“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
3. 3Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
4. 4If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.
5. 5If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.
6. 6If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.
7. 7Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.
8. 8“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.
9. 9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)
10. 10Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?
11. 11“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?
12. 12While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.
13. 13So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish,
14. 14Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider’s web.
15. 15He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand. He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.
16. 16He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden.
17. 17His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.
18. 18If he is destroyed from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
19. 19Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others shall spring.
20. 20“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.
21. 21He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.
22. 22Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more.”

How can a man be just with God? He removes mountains and they don’t know it. Job conceding every point about power while refusing the point about guilt.

“There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.”— Job 9:33 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 9:1-35 WEB

1. 1Then Job answered,
2. 2“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?
3. 3If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
4. 4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
5. 5He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when he overturns them in his anger.
6. 6He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.
7. 7He commands the sun, and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars.
8. 8He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.
9. 9He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south.
10. 10He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.
11. 11Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.
12. 12Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’
13. 13“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
14. 14How much less shall I answer him, And choose my words to argue with him?
15. 15Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.
16. 16If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
17. 17For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18. 18He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
19. 19If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
20. 20Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
21. 21I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.
22. 22“It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
23. 23If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.
24. 24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?
25. 25“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good.
26. 26They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.
27. 27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;’
28. 28I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.
29. 29I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?
30. 30If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
31. 31yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.
32. 32For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.
33. 33There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.
34. 34Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;
35. 35then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

Your hands have framed me and fashioned me, and now you destroy me. The complaint turning intimate — poured out like milk, curdled like cheese, clothed with skin and flesh.

“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.”— Job 10:8 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 10:1-22 WEB

1. 1“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2. 2I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.
3. 3Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
4. 4Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?
5. 5Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,
6. 6that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?
7. 7Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
8. 8“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
9. 9Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?
10. 10Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
11. 11You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12. 12You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.
13. 13Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:
14. 14if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
15. 15If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.
16. 16If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.
17. 17You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.
18. 18“‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
19. 19I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20. 20Aren’t my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,
21. 21before I go where I shall not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
22. 22the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”

Zophar arrives with the shortest fuse of the three. Can you fathom the deep things of God? Know then that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?”— Job 11:7 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 11:1-20 WEB

1. 1Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,
2. 2“Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?
3. 3Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?
4. 4For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’
5. 5But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,
6. 6that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
7. 7“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
8. 8They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?
9. 9Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
10. 10If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
11. 11For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it.
12. 12An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt.
13. 13“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.
14. 14If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.
15. 15Surely then you shall lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:
16. 16for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it like waters that have passed away.
17. 17Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.
18. 18You shall be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety.
19. 19Also you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid. Yes, many shall court your favor.
20. 20But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit.”

No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. Job’s sarcasm at full strength, followed by a hymn to the God who leads counselors away stripped.

“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.”— Job 12:2 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 12:1-25 WEB

1. 1Then Job answered,
2. 2“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
3. 3But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?
4. 4I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
5. 5In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
6. 6The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.
7. 7“But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
8. 8Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.
9. 9Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this,
10. 10in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
11. 11Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
12. 12With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.
13. 13“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
14. 14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
15. 15Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
16. 16With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
17. 17He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.
18. 18He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.
19. 19He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
20. 20He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.
21. 21He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.
22. 22He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.
23. 23He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.
24. 24He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
25. 25They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Act one closes with a man dismissing his friends as forgers of lies and physicians of no value, and requesting a hearing directly.

“Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.”— Job 13:15 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 13:1-28 WEB

1. 1“Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it.
2. 2What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.
3. 3“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.
4. 4But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.
5. 5Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.
6. 6Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7. 7Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?
8. 8Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?
9. 9Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
10. 10He will surely reprove you, if you secretly show partiality.
11. 11Shall not his majesty make you afraid, And his dread fall on you?
12. 12Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
13. 13“Be silent, leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.
14. 14Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?
15. 15Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
16. 16This also shall be my salvation, that a godless man shall not come before him.
17. 17Hear diligently my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.
18. 18See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.
19. 19Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.
20. 20“Only don’t do two things to me; then I will not hide myself from your face:
21. 21withdraw your hand far from me; and don’t let your terror make me afraid.
22. 22Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you answer me.
23. 23How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.
24. 24Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy?
25. 25Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?
26. 26For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth:
27. 27You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,
28. 28though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. There is hope for a tree — cut it down and it sprouts again — but the water fails from the sea and the man lies down and does not rise.

“For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.”— Job 14:7 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 14:1-22 WEB

1. 1“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
2. 2He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
3. 3Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?
4. 4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
5. 5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;
6. 6Look away from him, that he may rest, until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.
7. 7“For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.
8. 8Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground,
9. 9yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.
10. 10But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
11. 11As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,
12. 12so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
13. 13“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14. 14If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come.
15. 15You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire to the work of your hands.
16. 16But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?
17. 17My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
18. 18“But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place;
19. 19The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
20. 20You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.
21. 21His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.
22. 22But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”

Eliphaz, second round, with the gloves off. Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge? The argument stops pretending to be consolation.

“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?”— Job 15:2 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 15:1-35 WEB

1. 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2. 2“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
3. 3Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4. 4Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
5. 5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
6. 6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
7. 7“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
8. 8Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9. 9What do you know, that we don’t know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
10. 10With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.
11. 11Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
12. 12Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
13. 13That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
14. 14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15. 15Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16. 16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
17. 17“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
18. 18(which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
19. 19to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
20. 20the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21. 21A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
22. 22He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
23. 23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24. 24Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25. 25Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
26. 26he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;
27. 27because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
28. 28He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
29. 29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
30. 30He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.
31. 31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
32. 32It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
33. 33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
34. 34For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
35. 35They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”

Miserable comforters are you all. Job turning the accusation back on the room, and locating a witness somewhere above it.

“I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!”— Job 16:2 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 16:1-22 WEB

1. 1Then Job answered,
2. 2“I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!
3. 3Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
4. 4I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,
5. 5but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.
6. 6“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?
7. 7But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made desolate all my company.
8. 8You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.
9. 9He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
10. 10They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.
11. 11God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12. 12I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.
13. 13His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.
14. 14He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a giant.
15. 15I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust.
16. 16My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids.
17. 17Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18. 18“Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.
19. 19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.
20. 20My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,
21. 21that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!
22. 22For when a few years have come, I shall go the way of no return.

My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me. The lowest point in the dialogue, scored at the lowest possible tempo.

“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.”— Job 17:1 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 17:1-16 WEB

1. 1“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
2. 2Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
3. 3“Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
4. 4For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore you shall not exalt them.
5. 5He who denounces his friends for plunder, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6. 6“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
7. 7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
8. 8Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
9. 9Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
10. 10But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.
11. 11My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
12. 12They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
13. 13If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
14. 14If I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’
15. 15where then is my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
16. 16Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”

Bildad on the snare, the trap, the noose in the ground. A whole chapter of hunting equipment, aimed at a friend.

“Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.”— Job 18:5 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 18:1-21 WEB

1. 1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
2. 2“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
3. 3Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?
4. 4You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
5. 5“Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.
6. 6The light shall be dark in his tent. His lamp above him shall be put out.
7. 7The steps of his strength shall be shortened. His own counsel shall cast him down.
8. 8For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.
9. 9A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him.
10. 10A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path.
11. 11Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall chase him at his heels.
12. 12His strength shall be famished. Calamity shall be ready at his side.
13. 13The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members.
14. 14He shall be rooted out of the security of his tent. He shall be brought to the king of terrors.
15. 15There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.
16. 16His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off.
17. 17His memory shall perish from the earth. He shall have no name in the street.
18. 18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
19. 19He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived.
20. 20Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.
21. 21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

The pivot of the entire epic. Abandoned by kin, servants, and wife, Job asks for his words to be cut into rock with an iron pen — and says he knows his Redeemer lives.

“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.”— Job 19:25 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 19:1-29 WEB

1. 1Then Job answered,
2. 2“How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?
3. 3You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
4. 4If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.
5. 5If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach;
6. 6know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.
7. 7“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8. 8He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
9. 9He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10. 10He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.
11. 11He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.
12. 12His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.
13. 13“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14. 14My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.
15. 15Those who dwell in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.
16. 16I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.
17. 17My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18. 18Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.
19. 19All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.
20. 20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21. 21“Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.
22. 22Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23. 23“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24. 24That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
25. 25But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
26. 26After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,
27. 27Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.
28. 28If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,
29. 29be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

Zophar on the short-lived triumph of the wicked. Honey and butter swallowed and vomited back up — the most physical speech in the book.

“that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?”— Job 20:5 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 20:1-29 WEB

1. 1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,
2. 2“Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.
3. 3I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.
4. 4Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,
5. 5that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?
6. 6Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
7. 7yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’
8. 8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.
9. 9The eye which saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more see him.
10. 10His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth.
11. 11His bones are full of his youth, but youth shall lie down with him in the dust.
12. 12“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,
13. 13though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;
14. 14yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.
15. 15He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
16. 16He shall suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue shall kill him.
17. 17He shall not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
18. 18That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.
19. 19For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.
20. 20“Because he knew no quietness within him, he shall not save anything of that in which he delights.
21. 21There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure.
22. 22In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.
23. 23When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.
24. 24He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through.
25. 25He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.
26. 26All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.
27. 27The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him.
28. 28The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.
29. 29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”

The rebuttal that breaks the machine. Why do the wicked live, grow old, and grow mighty in power? Job simply reports what everyone can see out the window.

“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?”— Job 21:7 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 21:1-34 WEB

1. 1Then Job answered,
2. 2“Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.
3. 3Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.
4. 4As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
5. 5Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
6. 6When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.
7. 7“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
8. 8Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.
9. 9Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
10. 10Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
11. 11They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
12. 12They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
13. 13They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.
14. 14They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
15. 15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
16. 16Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17. 17“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
18. 18How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
19. 19You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
20. 20Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21. 21For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
22. 22“Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?
23. 23One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
24. 24His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
25. 25Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
26. 26They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.
27. 27“Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.
28. 28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
29. 29Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,
30. 30that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led out to the day of wrath?
31. 31Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?
32. 32Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb.
33. 33The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
34. 34So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”

Eliphaz inventing crimes to fit the punishment — you stripped the naked of their clothing — because the theology requires a cause and none is available.

“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you.”— Job 22:21 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 22:1-30 WEB

1. 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2. 2“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
3. 3Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?
4. 4Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?
5. 5Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
6. 6For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7. 7You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8. 8But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.
9. 9You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
10. 10Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,
11. 11or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
12. 12“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
13. 13You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
14. 14Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’
15. 15Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,
16. 16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
17. 17who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
18. 18Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19. 19The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,
20. 20saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’
21. 21“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you.
22. 22Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
23. 23If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
24. 24Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
25. 25The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.
26. 26For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God.
27. 27You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You shall pay your vows.
28. 28You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you. Light shall shine on your ways.
29. 29When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.
30. 30He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

Oh that I knew where I might find him. Job looking forward, backward, left and right and finding nobody, and still saying: when he has tried me, I will come out as gold.

“But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold.”— Job 23:10 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 23:1-17 WEB

1. 1Then Job answered,
2. 2“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
3. 3Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!
4. 4I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
5. 5I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me.
6. 6Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me.
7. 7There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.
8. 8“If I go east, he is not there; if west, I can’t find him;
9. 9He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him.
10. 10But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold.
11. 11My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned away.
12. 12I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
13. 13But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does.
14. 14For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.
15. 15Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him.
16. 16For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.
17. 17Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

A catalogue of injustices done in the dark — landmarks removed, the fatherless donkey driven off, the murderer rising with the light. Nobody is charged.

“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?”— Job 24:1 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 24:1-25 WEB

1. 1“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?
2. 2There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
3. 3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4. 4They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5. 5Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
6. 6They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
7. 7They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
8. 8They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
9. 9There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,
10. 10So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
11. 11They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
12. 12From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
13. 13“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.
14. 14The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
15. 15The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’ He disguises his face.
16. 16In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.
17. 17For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
18. 18“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.
19. 19Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.
20. 20The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
21. 21He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.
22. 22Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
23. 23God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.
24. 24They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
25. 25If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”

Bildad’s last words, six verses long, the argument finally out of fuel. Dominion and fear are with him; how then can man be just with God?

“Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.”— Job 25:2 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 25:1-6 WEB

1. 1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
2. 2“Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.
3. 3Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?
4. 4How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
5. 5Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;
6. 6How much less man, who is a worm, the son of man, who is a worm!”

He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. Job out-preaching his comforters on the subject they raised.

“He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.”— Job 26:7 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 26:1-14 WEB

1. 1Then Job answered,
2. 2“How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!
3. 3How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
4. 4To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came out of you?
5. 5“The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
6. 6Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.
7. 7He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.
8. 8He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them.
9. 9He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.
10. 10He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.
11. 11The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.
12. 12He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
13. 13By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.
14. 14Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

Till I die I will not put away my integrity. The dialogue ends not in resolution but in a man refusing to sign a false confession.

“Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.”— Job 27:5 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 27:1-23 WEB

1. 1Job again took up his parable, and said,
2. 2“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter
3. 3(for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
4. 4surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, neither shall my tongue utter deceit.
5. 5Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
6. 6I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
7. 7“Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
8. 8For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
9. 9Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
10. 10Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?
11. 11I will teach you about the hand of God. That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
12. 12Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?
13. 13“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
14. 14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
15. 15Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows shall make no lamentation.
16. 16Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;
17. 17he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.
18. 18He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.
19. 19He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not.
20. 20Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.
21. 21The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place.
22. 22For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.
23. 23Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.

The wisdom poem. Miners sink shafts into the earth for sapphire and gold and find everything except the one thing they were looking for.

“But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?”— Job 28:12 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 28:1-28 WEB

1. 1“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.
2. 2Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.
3. 3Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
4. 4He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
5. 5As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
6. 6Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
7. 7That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.
8. 8The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
9. 9He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
10. 10He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.
11. 11He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
12. 12“But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?
13. 13Man doesn’t know its price; Neither is it found in the land of the living.
14. 14The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
15. 15It can’t be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for its price.
16. 16It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17. 17Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
18. 18No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19. 19The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20. 20Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?
21. 21Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
22. 22Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
23. 23“God understands its way, and he knows its place.
24. 24For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.
25. 25He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
26. 26When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
27. 27then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.
28. 28To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”

Job remembering the good years. When the gate was his, when young men stepped aside, when he was eyes to the blind — an elegy for a version of himself.

“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;”— Job 29:2 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 29:1-25 WEB

1. 1Job again took up his parable, and said,
2. 2“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;
3. 3when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
4. 4as I was in the ripeness of my days, when the friendship of God was in my tent,
5. 5when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me,
6. 6when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,
7. 7when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.
8. 8The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood.
9. 9The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
10. 10The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11. 11For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it commended me:
12. 12Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,
13. 13the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14. 14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.
15. 15I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
16. 16I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out.
17. 17I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the prey out of his teeth.
18. 18Then I said, ‘I shall die in my own house, I shall count my days as the sand.
19. 19My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.
20. 20My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’
21. 21“Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.
22. 22After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them.
23. 23They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.
24. 24I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.
25. 25I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

And now. The sons of men he would not have set with the dogs of his flock make him their song. The reversal of the previous track, note for note.

“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.”— Job 30:9 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 30:1-31 WEB

1. 1“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
2. 2Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?
3. 3They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
4. 4They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.
5. 5They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief;
6. 6So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7. 7Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together.
8. 8They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.
9. 9“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
10. 10They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.
11. 11For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.
12. 12On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13. 13They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, without anyone’s help.
14. 14As through a wide breach they come, in the middle of the ruin they roll themselves in.
15. 15Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
16. 16“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.
17. 17In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
18. 18By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
19. 19He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
20. 20I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.
21. 21You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.
22. 22You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.
23. 23For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.
24. 24“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
25. 25Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?
26. 26When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.
27. 27My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.
28. 28I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
29. 29I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
30. 30My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
31. 31Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

The oath of innocence. A covenant made with his eyes, a ledger of things he never did, and a closing demand that the indictment be written down so he can wear it.

“oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!”— Job 31:35 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 31:1-40 WEB

1. 1“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
2. 2For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?
3. 3Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
4. 4Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?
5. 5“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit
6. 6(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);
7. 7if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
8. 8then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
9. 9“If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,
10. 10then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.
11. 11For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges:
12. 12For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.
13. 13“If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me;
14. 14What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits, what shall I answer him?
15. 15Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?
16. 16“If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
17. 17or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it
18. 18(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, her I have guided from my mother’s womb);
19. 19if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;
20. 20if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;
21. 21if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate,
22. 22then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.
23. 23For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because his majesty, I can do nothing.
24. 24“If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’
25. 25If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;
26. 26if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor,
27. 27and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
28. 28this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above.
29. 29“If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him
30. 30(yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);
31. 31if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’
32. 32(the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler);
33. 33if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
34. 34because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—
35. 35oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!
36. 36Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; and I would bind it to me as a crown.
37. 37I would declare to him the number of my steps. as a prince would I go near to him.
38. 38If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;
39. 39if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,
40. 40let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.

Elihu, angry and young, who waited because of their years and has now stopped waiting. Full of words, constrained by the spirit within, like new wineskins about to burst.

“But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.”— Job 32:8 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 32:1-22 WEB

1. 1So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
2. 2Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God.
3. 3Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.
4. 4Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he.
5. 5When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled.
6. 6Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, “I am young, and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion.
7. 7I said, ‘Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’
8. 8But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
9. 9It is not the great who are wise, nor the aged who understand justice.
10. 10Therefore I said, ‘Listen to me; I also will show my opinion.’
11. 11“Behold, I waited for your words, and I listened for your reasoning, while you searched out what to say.
12. 12Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who convinced Job, or who answered his words, among you.
13. 13Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom, God may refute him, not man;’
14. 14for he has not directed his words against me; neither will I answer him with your speeches.
15. 15“They are amazed. They answer no more. They don’t have a word to say.
16. 16Shall I wait, because they don’t speak, because they stand still, and answer no more?
17. 17I also will answer my part, and I also will show my opinion.
18. 18For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me.
19. 19Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst.
20. 20I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer.
21. 21Please don’t let me respect any man’s person, neither will I give flattering titles to any man.
22. 22For I don’t know how to give flattering titles; or else my Maker would soon take me away.

God speaks in dreams and in pain — Elihu’s argument that suffering is instruction rather than sentence, delivered with the confidence only a young man could bring to it.

“For God speaks once, yes twice, though man pays no attention.”— Job 33:14 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 33:1-33 WEB

1. 1“However, Job, please hear my speech, and listen to all my words.
2. 2See now, I have opened my mouth. My tongue has spoken in my mouth.
3. 3My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart. That which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.
4. 4The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
5. 5If you can, answer me. Set your words in order before me, and stand up.
6. 6Behold, I am toward God even as you are. I am also formed out of the clay.
7. 7Behold, my terror shall not make you afraid, neither shall my pressure be heavy on you.
8. 8“Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I have heard the voice of your words, saying,
9. 9‘I am clean, without disobedience. I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.
10. 10Behold, he finds occasions against me. He counts me for his enemy.
11. 11He puts my feet in the stocks. He marks all my paths.’
12. 12“Behold, I will answer you. In this you are not just, for God is greater than man.
13. 13Why do you strive against him, because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters?
14. 14For God speaks once, yes twice, though man pays no attention.
15. 15In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbering on the bed;
16. 16Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,
17. 17That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
18. 18He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
19. 19He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones;
20. 20So that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty food.
21. 21His flesh is so consumed away, that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.
22. 22Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers.
23. 23“If there is beside him an angel, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him;
24. 24then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’
25. 25His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s. He returns to the days of his youth.
26. 26He prays to God, and he is favorable to him, so that he sees his face with joy. He restores to man his righteousness.
27. 27He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.
28. 28He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life shall see the light.’
29. 29“Behold, God does all these things, twice, yes three times, with a man,
30. 30to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.
31. 31Mark well, Job, and listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will speak.
32. 32If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak, for I desire to justify you.
33. 33If not, listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom.”

Far be it from God to do wickedness. A defense of divine justice built entirely out of assertion, hammered flat over an industrial pulse.

“Yes surely, God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice.”— Job 34:12 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 34:1-37 WEB

1. 1Moreover Elihu answered,
2. 2“Hear my words, you wise men. Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.
3. 3For the ear tries words, as the palate tastes food.
4. 4Let us choose for us that which is right. Let us know among ourselves what is good.
5. 5For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right:
6. 6Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’
7. 7What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,
8. 8Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men?
9. 9For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.’
10. 10“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
11. 11For the work of a man he will render to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
12. 12Yes surely, God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice.
13. 13Who put him in charge of the earth? or who has appointed him over the whole world?
14. 14If he set his heart on himself, If he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,
15. 15all flesh would perish together, and man would turn again to dust.
16. 16“If now you have understanding, hear this. Listen to the voice of my words.
17. 17Shall even one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty?—
18. 18Who says to a king, ‘Vile!’ or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’?
19. 19Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands.
20. 20In a moment they die, even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand.
21. 21“For his eyes are on the ways of a man. He sees all his goings.
22. 22There is no darkness, nor thick gloom, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
23. 23For he doesn’t need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.
24. 24He breaks in pieces mighty men in ways past finding out, and sets others in their place.
25. 25Therefore he takes knowledge of their works. He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.
26. 26He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others;
27. 27because they turned away from following him, and wouldn’t pay attention to any of his ways,
28. 28so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.
29. 29When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? Alike whether to a nation, or to a man,
30. 30that the godless man may not reign, that there be no one to ensnare the people.
31. 31“For has any said to God, ‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.
32. 32Teach me that which I don’t see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?
33. 33Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it? For you must choose, and not I. Therefore speak what you know.
34. 34Men of understanding will tell me, yes, every wise man who hears me:
35. 35‘Job speaks without knowledge. His words are without wisdom.’
36. 36I wish that Job were tried to the end, because of his answering like wicked men.
37. 37For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.”

The cry of the oppressed that goes unanswered because of pride. Elihu narrowing in, and getting closer to the truth than the other three ever managed.

“But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,”— Job 35:10 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 35:1-16 WEB

1. 1Moreover Elihu answered,
2. 2“Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’
3. 3That you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’
4. 4I will answer you, and your companions with you.
5. 5Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.
6. 6If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
7. 7If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?
8. 8Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit a son of man.
9. 9“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
10. 10But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,
11. 11who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
12. 12There they cry, but no one gives answer, because of the pride of evil men.
13. 13Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it.
14. 14How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him!
15. 15But now, because he has not visited in his anger, neither does he greatly regard arrogance.
16. 16Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”

The thunder of his power. Elihu turning from argument to weather — clouds, lightning, the balancings of the clouds — and losing the thread of his own case in the awe.

“Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.”— Job 36:26 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 36:1-33 WEB

1. 1Elihu also continued, and said,
2. 2“Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
3. 3I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4. 4For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5. 5“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.
6. 6He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives to the afflicted their right.
7. 7He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
8. 8If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,
9. 9then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
10. 10He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.
11. 11If they listen and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
12. 12But if they don’t listen, they shall perish by the sword; they shall die without knowledge.
13. 13“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
14. 14They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.
15. 15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.
16. 16Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
17. 17“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.
18. 18Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
19. 19Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?
20. 20Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.
21. 21Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
22. 22Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?
23. 23Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’
24. 24“Remember that you magnify his work, whereof men have sung.
25. 25All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.
26. 26Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
27. 27For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
28. 28Which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.
29. 29Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, and the thunderings of his pavilion?
30. 30Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
31. 31For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.
32. 32He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
33. 33Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also concerning the storm that comes up.

The storm arriving during the speech. Elihu describing golden splendor out of the north while the actual whirlwind gathers behind him, and he never gets to finish.

“God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.”— Job 37:5 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 37:1-24 WEB

1. 1“Yes, at this my heart trembles, and is moved out of its place.
2. 2Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, the sound that goes out of his mouth.
3. 3He sends it out under the whole sky, and his lightning to the ends of the earth.
4. 4After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his majesty. He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard.
5. 5God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.
6. 6For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth;’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.
7. 7He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he has made may know it.
8. 8Then the animals take cover, and remain in their dens.
9. 9Out of its room comes the storm, and cold out of the north.
10. 10By the breath of God, ice is given, and the width of the waters is frozen.
11. 11Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
12. 12It is turned around by his guidance, that they may do whatever he commands them on the surface of the habitable world,
13. 13Whether it is for correction, or for his land, or for loving kindness, that he causes it to come.
14. 14“Listen to this, Job. Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
15. 15Do you know how God controls them, and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16. 16Do you know the workings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
17. 17You whose clothing is warm, when the earth is still by reason of the south wind?
18. 18Can you, with him, spread out the sky, which is strong as a cast metal mirror?
19. 19Teach us what we shall tell him, for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness.
20. 20Will it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
21. 21Now men don’t see the light which is bright in the skies, but the wind passes, and clears them.
22. 22Out of the north comes golden splendor. With God is awesome majesty.
23. 23We can’t reach the Almighty. He is exalted in power. In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.
24. 24Therefore men revere him. He doesn’t regard any who are wise of heart.”

The answer, at last, and it is a cross-examination. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth — seventy questions, none of them about Job’s case.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.”— Job 38:4 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 38:1-41 WEB

1. 1Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
2. 2“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3. 3Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!
4. 4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
5. 5Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?
6. 6Whereupon were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,
7. 7when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8. 8“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,
9. 9when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10. 10marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors,
11. 11and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further. Here your proud waves shall be stayed?’
12. 12“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place;
13. 13that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it?
14. 14It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment.
15. 15From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken.
16. 16“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
17. 17Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18. 18Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all.
19. 19“What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,
20. 20that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?
21. 21Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
22. 22Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
23. 23which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24. 24By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?
25. 25Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm;
26. 26To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;
27. 27to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?
28. 28Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?
29. 29Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?
30. 30The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.
31. 31“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?
32. 32Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
33. 33Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
34. 34“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you?
35. 35Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?’
36. 36Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?
37. 37Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,
38. 38when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?
39. 39“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40. 40when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?
41. 41Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?

The interrogation continues into the animal kingdom — mountain goats, wild donkeys, the ostrich who forgets her eggs, the horse who laughs at fear.

“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?”— Job 39:19 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 39:1-30 WEB

1. 1“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?
2. 2Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?
3. 3They bow themselves, they bear their young. They end their labor pains.
4. 4Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again.
5. 5“Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,
6. 6Whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place?
7. 7He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.
8. 8The range of the mountains is his pasture, He searches after every green thing.
9. 9“Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?
10. 10Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you?
11. 11Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?
12. 12Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor?
13. 13“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly; but are they the feathers and plumage of love?
14. 14For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust,
15. 15and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them.
16. 16She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,
17. 17because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding.
18. 18When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.
19. 19“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?
20. 20Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.
21. 21He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.
22. 22He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword.
23. 23The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin.
24. 24He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
25. 25As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
26. 26“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?
27. 27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?
28. 28On the cliff he dwells, and makes his home, on the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.
29. 29From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.
30. 30His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.”

Brace yourself like a man. A second round of questions, and Behemoth introduced as exhibit one — chief of the ways of God, lying under the lotus.

“Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?”— Job 40:8 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 40:1-24 WEB

1. 1Moreover Yahweh answered Job,
2. 2“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”
3. 3Then Job answered Yahweh,
4. 4“Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
5. 5I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
6. 6Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
7. 7“Now brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me.
8. 8Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
9. 9Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
10. 10“Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty.
11. 11Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
12. 12Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place.
13. 13Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place.
14. 14Then I will also admit to you that your own right hand can save you.
15. 15“See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox.
16. 16Look now, his strength is in his thighs. His force is in the muscles of his belly.
17. 17He moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
18. 18His bones are like tubes of brass. His limbs are like bars of iron.
19. 19He is the chief of the ways of God. He who made him gives him his sword.
20. 20Surely the mountains produce food for him, where all the animals of the field play.
21. 21He lies under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.
22. 22The lotuses cover him with their shade. The willows of the brook surround him.
23. 23Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble. He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.
24. 24Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with a snare?

Leviathan unchained. Four chapters of divine speech culminating in a creature nobody can hook, tame, or sell, whose sneezes flash light — brutalist and unhurried.

“On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear.”— Job 41:33 (WEB)

Full passage — Job 41:1-34 WEB

1. 1“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
2. 2Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
3. 3Will he make many petitions to you, or will he speak soft words to you?
4. 4Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever?
5. 5Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls?
6. 6Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants?
7. 7Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears?
8. 8Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more.
9. 9Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10. 10None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?
11. 11Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.
12. 12“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.
13. 13Who can strip off his outer garment? Who shall come within his jaws?
14. 14Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.
15. 15Strong scales are his pride, shut up together with a close seal.
16. 16One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.
17. 17They are joined to one another. They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart.
18. 18His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19. 19Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out.
20. 20Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21. 21His breath kindles coals. A flame goes out of his mouth.
22. 22There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him.
23. 23The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can’t be moved.
24. 24His heart is as firm as a stone, yes, firm as the lower millstone.
25. 25When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing.
26. 26If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail; nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
27. 27He counts iron as straw; and brass as rotten wood.
28. 28The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him.
29. 29Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.
30. 30His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31. 31He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32. 32He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair.
33. 33On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear.
34. 34He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.”

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. The retraction, the restoration, and the friends told to bring seven bulls and let Job pray for them.

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.”— Job 42:5 (WEB)