Job 25

Bildad

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

² “Dominion and awe belong to God;
he establishes order in the heights of heaven.

³ Can his forces be numbered?
Upon whom does his light not rise?

⁴ How then can a man be righteous before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?

⁵ If even the moon is not bright
and the stars are not pure in his eyes,

⁶ how much less man, who is but a maggot—
a son of man, who is only a worm!”

Job 26

Job

¹Then Job replied:

² “How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the arm that is feeble!

³ What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
And what great insight you have displayed!

⁴ Who has helped you utter these words?
And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?

⁵ “The dead are in deep anguish,
those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

⁶ Death ^[a] is naked before God;
Destruction ^[b]lies uncovered.

⁷ He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.

⁸ He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.

⁹ He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.

¹⁰ He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹ The pillars of the heavens quake,
aghast at his rebuke.

¹² By his power he churned up the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.

¹³ By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the gliding serpent.

¹⁴ And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

Job 27

¹And Job continued his discourse:

² “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul,

³ as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God in my nostrils,

⁴ my lips will not speak wickedness,
and my tongue will utter no deceit.

⁵ I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.

⁶ I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it;
my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

⁷ “May my enemies be like the wicked,
my adversaries like the unjust!

⁸ For what hope has the godless when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?

⁹ Does God listen to his cry
when distress comes upon him?

¹⁰ Will he find delight in the Almighty?
Will he call upon God at all times?

¹¹ “I will teach you about the power of God;
the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹² You have all seen this yourselves.
Why then this meaningless talk?

¹³ “Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,
the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:

¹⁴ However many his children, their fate is the sword;
his offspring will never have enough to eat.

¹⁵ The plague will bury those who survive him,
and their widows will not weep for them.

¹⁶ Though he heaps up silver like dust
and clothes like piles of clay,

¹⁷ what he lays up the righteous will wear,
and the innocent will divide his silver.

¹⁸ The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,
like a hut made by a watchman.

¹⁹ He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;
when he opens his eyes, all is gone.

²⁰ Terrors overtake him like a flood;
a tempest snatches him away in the night.

²¹ The east wind carries him off, and he is gone;
it sweeps him out of his place.

²² It hurls itself against him without mercy
as he flees headlong from its power.

²³ It claps its hands in derision
and hisses him out of his place.