Job 14 - 17

If a Man Dies, Will He Live Again?

“Man, who is born of woman,

Is short‑lived and full of turmoil.

Like a flower he comes forth and withers.

He also flees like a shadow and does not stand.

You also open Your eyes on him

And bring me into judgment with Yourself.

Who can make the clean out of the unclean?

No one!

Since his days are determined,

The number of his months is with You;

And his limits You have set so that he cannot pass.

Turn Your gaze from him that he may cease from toil,

Until he accepts his day like a hired man.

“For there is hope for a tree,

When it is cut down, that it will change back sprouting again,

And its shoots will not cease.

Though its roots grow old in the ground

And its stump dies in the dry soil,

At the scent of water it will flourish

And put forth sprigs like a plant.

But man dies and lies prostrate.

Man breathes his last, and where is he?

As water evaporates from the sea,

And a river becomes parched and dried up,

So man lies down and does not rise.

Until the heavens are no longer,

He will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep.

“Oh that You would conceal me in Sheol,

That You would hide me until Your anger returns to You,

That You would set a limit for me and remember me!

If a man dies, will he live again?

All the days of my labor I will wait

Until my change comes.

You will call, and I will answer You;

You will long for the work of Your hands.

For now You number my steps,

You do not keep watch over my sin.

My transgression is sealed up in a bag,

And You cover up my iniquity.

“But the falling mountain crumbles away,

And the rock moves from its place;

Water wears away stones;

Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth;

So You make man’s hope perish.

You forever overpower him and he goes away;

You alter his appearance and send him away.

His sons achieve honor, but he does not know it;

Or they become insignificant, but he does not perceive it.

But his flesh pains him,

And he mourns only for himself.”

Eliphaz Says Job’s Lips Answer Against Him

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, 2

“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge

And fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he argue with a word that cannot be used,

Or with speech which is not profitable?

Indeed, you annul reverent fear

And cut off musing before God.

For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

And you choose the tongue of the crafty.

Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;

And your own lips answer against you.

“Were you the first man to be born,

Or were you brought forth before the hills?

Do you hear the secret counsel of God,

And cut down wisdom only unto yourself?

What do you know that we do not know?

What do you understand that is not with us?

Both the gray‑haired and the aged are among us,

Older than your father.

Are the consolations of God too small for you,

Even the word spoken gently with you?

Why does your heart take you away?

And why do your eyes flash,

That you should turn your spirit against God

And allow such words to go out of your mouth?

What is man, that he should be pure,

Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Behold, He puts no faith in His holy ones,

And the heavens are not pure in His sight;

How much less one who is abominable and corrupt,

Man, who drinks unrighteousness like water!

“I will tell you, listen to me;

And what I have beheld I will also recount;

What wise men have told,

And have not concealed from their fathers,

To whom alone the land was given,

And no stranger passed among them.

The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,

And numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless.

Sounds of dread are in his ears;

While at peace the destroyer comes upon him.

He does not believe that he will return from darkness,

And he is destined for the sword.

He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Distress and anguish terrify him;

They overpower him like a king ready for the attack,

Because he has stretched out his hand against God

And magnifies himself against the Almighty.

He rushes headlong at Him

With his massive shield.

For he has covered his face with his fat

And made his thighs heavy with flesh.

He has dwelt in desolate cities,

In houses no one would inhabit,

Which are destined to become ruins.

He will not become rich, nor will his wealth endure;

And his grain will not stretch out over the land.

He will not be able to depart from darkness;

The flame will wither his shoots,

And by the breath of His mouth he will depart.

Let him not believe in emptiness, deceiving himself;

For emptiness will be his reward,

When his days are not yet fulfilled,

And his palm branch is not green.

He will drop off his unripe grape like the vine,

And will cast off his flower like the olive tree.

For the company of the godless is barren,

And fire consumes the tents of the corrupt.

They conceive trouble and give birth to wickedness,

And their belly prepares deception.”

Troublesome Comforters

Then Job answered and said, 2

“I have heard many such things;

Troublesome comforters are you all.

Is there no end to windy words?

Or what pains you that you answer?

I too could speak like you,

If your soul were in the place of my soul.

I could compose words against you

And shake my head at you.

I could encourage you with my mouth,

And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

“If I speak, my pain is not lessened,

And if I cease, what will go forth from me?

But now He has exhausted me;

You have made desolate all my company.

You have shriveled me up,

It has become a witness;

And my leanness rises up against me,

It answers to my face.

His anger has torn me and hunted me down;

He has gnashed at me with His teeth;

My adversary sharpens his eyes to look at me.

They have opened their mouth wide at me;

They have struck me on the cheek in reproach;

They have massed themselves against me.

God hands me over to ruffians

And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

I was at ease, but He shattered me,

And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;

He has also set me up as His target.

His arrows surround me.

Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;

He pours out my gall on the ground.

He breaks through me with breach after breach;

He runs at me like a warrior.

I have sewed sackcloth over my skin

And thrust my horn in the dust.

My face is flushed from weeping,

And the shadow of death is on my eyelids,

Why?—because there is no violence in my hands,

And my prayer is pure.

“O earth, do not cover my blood,

And let there be no resting place for my cry.

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

And my advocate is on high.

My friends are my scoffers;

My eye weeps to God.

O that a man might argue with God

As a son of man with his neighbor!

For when a few years are past,

I shall go the way of no return.

Job Seeks Hope

“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished;

The grave is ready for me.

Surely mockers are with me,

And my eye gazes on their provocation.

“Establish, now, a pledge for me with Yourself;

Who is there that will clap my hand in pledge?

For You have hidden their heart from insight,

Therefore You will not exalt them.

He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil,

The eyes of his children also will come to an end.

“But He has made me a byword of the people,

And I am one at whom men spit.

My eye has also grown dim because of grief,

And all my members are as a shadow.

The upright will be appalled at this,

And the innocent will stir up himself against the godless.

Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,

And he who has clean hands will grow mightier and mightier.

But come again all of you now,

For I do not find a wise man among you.

My days are past; my plans are torn apart,

Even the wishes of my heart.

They make night into day, saying,

‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.

If I hope for Sheol as my home,

I make my bed in the darkness;

If I call to the pit, ‘You are my father’;

To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;

Where now is my hope?

And who beholds my hope?

Will it go down with me to Sheol?

Shall we together go down into the dust?”