Job 11 - 12 - Legacy Standard Bible

Job 11 - 12

Zophar Asks, Can You Find the Depths of God?

Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said, 2

“Shall a multitude of words go unanswered,

And a man of lips be in the right?

Shall your boasts silence men?

And shall you mock and none rebuke?

You have said, ‘My learning is pure,

And I am innocent in your eyes.’

But would that God might speak,

And open His lips against you,

And tell you the secrets of wisdom!

For sound wisdom has two sides.

Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity.

“Can you find the depths of God?

Can you find the limits of the Almighty?

They are high as the heavens, what can you do?

Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?

Its measure is longer than the earth

And broader than the sea.

If He sweeps by or shuts up,

Or calls an assembly, who can turn Him around?

For He knows worthless men,

And He sees wickedness, so will He not carefully consider it?

Yet an empty headed man will obtain a heart of wisdom,

And the foal of a wild donkey is born a man.

“If you would set your heart right

And spread out your hand to Him,

If wickedness is in your hand, put it far away,

And do not let unrighteousness dwell in your tents;

Then, indeed, you could lift up your face without moral defect,

And you would be steadfast and not fear.

For you would forget your trouble,

As waters that pass by, so you would remember it.

And your lifetime would arise brighter than noonday;

Darkness would be like the morning.

Then you would trust, because there is hope;

And you would search around and rest securely.

You would lie down and none would make you tremble,

And many would entreat your favor.

But the eyes of the wicked will come to an end,

And escape will perish from them;

And their hope is the expiring of their soul.”

Job Answers

Then Job answered and said, 2

“Truly then you are the people,

And with you wisdom will die!

But I have a heart of wisdom as well as you;

I do not fall short of you.

And who does not know such things as these?

I am a laughingstock to my friends,

The one who called on God and He answered him;

The righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock.

As for upheaval, there is only contempt by the one who acts at ease,

But it is prepared for those whose feet slip.

The tents of the destroyers are complacent,

And those who provoke God are secure,

Whom God brings into their power.

“But now ask the beasts, and let them instruct you;

And the birds of the sky, and let them tell you.

Or muse to the earth, and let it instruct you;

And let the fish of the sea recount it to you.

Who among all these does not know

That the hand of Yahweh has done this,

In whose hand is the life of every living thing,

And the breath of all the flesh of man?

Does not the ear test words,

As the palate tastes its food?

Wisdom is with aged men,

With long life is discernment.

Job Speaks of God’s Strength

“With Him are wisdom and might;

To Him belong counsel and discernment.

Behold, He pulls down, and it cannot be rebuilt;

He closes a man in, and it cannot be opened.

Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up;

And He sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

With Him are strength and sound wisdom;

The misled and the misleader belong to Him.

He makes counselors walk barefoot

And makes fools of judges.

He opens the bond of kings

And binds their loins with a belt.

He makes priests walk barefoot

And subverts the enduring ones.

He removes speech from the faithful

And takes away the discerning taste of the elders.

He pours contempt on nobles

And loosens the belt of the strong.

He reveals mysteries from the darkness

And brings out the shadows of death into light.

He makes the nations great, then makes them perish;

He enlarges the nations, then leads them away.

He removes the heart of wisdom from the heads of the earth’s people

And makes them wander in a pathless waste.

They grope in darkness with no light,

And He makes them wander about like a drunken man.