Job 11

1 And Zophar the Naamathite spoke out and said:
2 Should not the man of many words be answered, or must the garrulous man necessarily be right?
3 Shall your babblings keep men silent, and shall you deride and no one give rebuke?
4 Shall you say: My teaching is pure, and I am clean in your sight?
5 But oh, that God would speak, and open his lips against you,
6 And tell you that the secrets of wisdom are twice as effective: So you might learn that God will make you answer for your guilt.
7 Can you penetrate the designs of God? Dare you vie with the perfection of the Almighty?
8 It is higher than the heavens; what can you do? It is deeper than the nether world; what can you know?
9 It is longer than the earth in measure, and broader than the sea.
10 If he seize and imprison or call to judgment, who then can say him nay?
11 For he knows the worthlessness of men and sees iniquity; will he then ignore it?
12 Will empty man then gain understanding, and the wild jackass be made docile?
13 If you set your heart aright and stretch out your hands toward him,
14 If you remove all iniquity from your conduct, and let not injustice dwell in your tent,
15 Surely then you may lift up your face in innocence; you may stand firm and unafraid.
16 For then you shall forget your misery, or recall it like waters that have ebbed away.
17 Then your life shall be brighter than the noonday; its gloom shall become as the morning,
18 And you shall be secure, because there is hope; you shall look round you and lie down in safety,
19 and you shall take your rest with none to disturb. Many shall entreat your favor,
20 but the wicked, looking on, shall be consumed with envy. Escape shall be cut off from them, they shall wait to expire.

Job 12

1 Then Job replied and said:
2 No doubt you are the intelligent folk, and with you wisdom shall die!
3 But I have intelligence as well as you; for who does not know such things as these?
4 I have become the sport of my neighbors: The one whom God answers when he calls upon him, The just, the perfect man, is a laughing-stock;
5 The undisturbed esteem my downfall a disgrace such as awaits unsteady feet;
6 Yet the tents of robbers are prosperous, and those who provoke God are secure.
7 But now ask the beasts to teach you, and the birds of the air to tell you;
8 Or the reptiles on earth to instruct you, and the fish of the sea to inform you.
9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of God has done this?
10 In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all mankind.
11 Does not the ear judge words as the mouth tastes food?
12 So with old age is wisdom, and with length of days understanding.
13 With him are wisdom and might; his are counsel and understanding.
14 If he breaks a thing down, there is no rebuilding; if he imprisons a man, there is no release.
15 He holds back the waters and there is drought; he sends them forth and they overwhelm the land.
16 With him are strength and prudence; the misled and the misleaders are his.
17 He sends counselors away barefoot, and of judges he makes fools.
18 He loosens the bonds imposed by kings and leaves but a waistcloth to bind the king's own loins.
19 9) and lets their never-failing waters flow away.
20 He silences the trusted adviser, and takes discretion from the aged.
21 He breaks down the barriers of the streams
22 The recesses of the darkness he discloses, and brings the gloom forth to the light.
23 He makes nations great and he destroys them; he spreads peoples abroad and he abandons them.
24 He takes understanding from the leaders of the land,
25 till they grope in the darkness without light; he makes them stagger like drunken men.

Job 13

1 Lo, all this my eye has seen; my ear has heard and perceived it.
2 What you know, I also know; I fall not short of you.
3 But I would speak with the Almighty; I wish to reason with God.
4 You are glossing over falsehoods and offering vain remedies, every one of you!
5 Oh, that you would be altogether silent! This for you would be wisdom.
6 Hear now the rebuke I shall utter and listen to the reproof from my lips.
7 Is it for God that you speak falsehood? Is it for him that you utter deceit?
8 Is it for him that you show partiality? Do you play advocate on behalf of God?
9 Will it be well when he shall search you out? Would you impose on him as one does on men?
10 He will openly rebuke you if even in secret you show partiality.
11 Surely will his majesty affright you and the dread of him fall upon you.
12 Your reminders are ashy maxims, your fabrications are mounds of clay.
13 Be silent, let me alone! that I may speak and give vent to my feelings.
14 I will carry my flesh between my teeth, and take my life in my hand.
15 Slay me though he might, I will wait for him; I will defend my conduct before him.
16 And this shall be my salvation, that no impious man can come into his presence.
17 Pay careful heed to my speech, and give my statement a hearing.
18 Behold, I have prepared my case, I know that I am in the right.
19 If anyone can make a case against me, then I shall be silent and die.
20 These things only do not use against me, then from your presence I need not hide:`
21 Withdraw your hand far from me, and let not the terror of you frighten me.
22 Then call me, and I will respond; or let me speak first, and answer me.
23 What are my faults and my sins? My misdeeds and my sins make known to me!
24 Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?
25 Will you harass a wind-driven leaf, or pursue a withered straw?
26 For you draw up bitter indictments against me, and punish in me the faults of my youth.
27 You put my feet in the stocks; you watch all my paths and trace out all my footsteps.
28 Though he wears out like a leather bottle, like a garment that the moth has consumed?

Job 14

1 Man born of woman is short-lived and full of trouble,
2 Like a flower that springs up and fades, swift as a shadow that does not abide.
3 Upon such a one will you cast your eyes so as to bring him into judgment before you,
4 Can a man be found who is clean of defilement? There is none,
5 however short his days. You know the number of his months; you have fixed the limit which he cannot pass.
6 Look away from him and let him be, while, like a hireling, he completes his day.
7 For a tree there is hope, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and that its tender shoots will not cease.
8 Even though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the dust,
9 Yet at the first whiff of water it may flourish again and put forth branches like a young plant.
10 But when a man dies, all vigor leaves him; when man expires, where then is he?
11 As when the waters of a lake fail, or a stream grows dry and parches,
12 So men lie down and rise not again. Till the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
13 Oh, that you would hide me in the nether world and keep me sheltered till your wrath is past; would fix a time for me, and then remember me!
14 When a man has died, were he to live again, all the days of my drudgery I would wait, until my relief should come.
15 You would call, and I would answer you; you would esteem the work of your hands.
16 Surely then you would count my steps, and not keep watch for sin in me.
17 My misdeeds would be sealed up in a pouch, and you would cover over my guilt.
18 But as a mountain falls at last and its rock is moved from its place,
19 As waters wear away the stones and floods wash away the soil of the land, so you destroy the hope of man.
20 You prevail once for all against him and he passes on; with changed appearance you send him away.
21 If his sons are honored, he is not aware of it; if they are in disgrace, he does not know about them.
22 Only his own flesh pains him, and his soul grieves for him.

Job 15

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke and said:
2 Should a wise man answer with airy opinions, or puff himself up with wind?
3 Should he argue in speech which does not avail, and in words which are to no profit?
4 You in fact do away with piety, and you lessen devotion toward God,
5 Because your wickedness instructs your mouth, and you choose to speak like the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I; you own lips refute you.
7 Are you indeed the first-born of mankind, or were you brought forth before the hills?
8 Are you privy to the counsels of God, and do you restrict wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know? What intelligence have you which we have not?
10 There are gray-haired old men among us more advanced in years than your father.
11 Are the consolations of God not enough for you, and speech that deals gently with you?
12 Why do your notions carry you away, and why do your eyes blink,
13 So that you turn your anger against God and let such words escape your mouth!
14 What is a man that he should be blameless, one born of woman that he should be righteous?
15 If in his holy ones God places no confidence, and if the heavens are not clean in his sight,
16 How much less so is the abominable, the corrupt: man, who drinks in iniquity like water!
17 I will show you, if you listen to me; what I have seen I will tell--
18 What wise men relate and have not contradicted since the days of their fathers,
19 To whom alone the land was given, when no foreigner moved among them.
20 The wicked man is in torment all his days, and limited years are in store for the tyrant;
21 The sound of terrors is in his ears; when all is prosperous, the spoiler comes upon him.
22 He despairs of escaping the darkness, and looks ever for the sword;
23 A wanderer, food for the vultures, he knows that his destruction is imminent.
24 By day the darkness fills him with dread; distress and anguish overpower him.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bade defiance to the Almighty,
26 One shall rush sternly upon him with the stout bosses of his shield, like a king prepared for the charge.
27 Because he has blinded himself with his crassness, padding his loins with fat,
28 He shall dwell in ruinous cities, in houses that are deserted, That are crumbling into clay
29 with no shadow to lengthen over the ground. He shall not be rich, and his possessions shall not endure;
30 A flame shall wither him up in his early growth, and with the wind his blossoms shall disappear.
31 1) for vain shall be his bartering.
32 His stalk shall wither before its time, and his branches shall be green no more.
33 He shall be like a vine that sheds its grapes unripened, and like an olive tree casting off its bloom.
34 For the breed of the impious shall be sterile, and fire shall consume the tents of extortioners.
35 They conceive malice and bring forth emptiness; they give birth to failure.