2. Bildad’s Argument

ch25 ¹Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, ²Dominion and fear [are] with him, he maketh peace in his high places. ³Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise? ⁴How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean [that is] born of a woman? ⁵Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. ⁶How much less man, [that is] a worm? and the son of man, [which is] a worm?

ch26 ¹But Job answered and said, ²How hast thou helped [him that is] without power? [how] savest thou the arm [that hath] no strength? ³How hast thou counselled [him that hath] no wisdom? and [how] hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? ⁴To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

⁵Dead [things] are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. ⁶Hell [is] naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. ⁷He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, [and] hangeth the earth upon nothing. ⁸He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. ⁹He holdeth back the face of his throne, [and] spreadeth his cloud upon it. ¹⁰He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. ¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. ¹²He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. ¹³By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. ¹⁴Lo, these [are] parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

ch27 ¹Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, ²As] God liveth, [who] hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, [who] hath vexed my soul; ³All the while my breath [is] in me, and the spirit of God [is] in my nostrils; ⁴My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. ⁵God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. ⁶My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach [me] so long as I live. ⁷Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous. ⁸For what [is] the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? ⁹Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? ¹⁰Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God? ¹¹I will teach you by the hand of God: [that] which [is] with the Almighty will I not conceal. ¹²Behold, all ye yourselves have seen [it]; why then are ye thus altogether vain?

¹³This [is] the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, [which] they shall receive of the Almighty. ¹⁴If his children be multiplied, [it is] for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. ¹⁵Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep. ¹⁶Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; ¹⁷He may prepare [it], but the just shall put [it] on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. ¹⁸He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth [that] the keeper maketh. ¹⁹The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he [is] not. ²⁰Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. ²¹The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place. ²²For [God] shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand. ²³Men] shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.

ch28 ¹Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold [where] they fine [it]. ²Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass [is] molten [out of] the stone. ³He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. ⁴The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; [even the waters] forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men. ⁵As for] the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire. ⁶The stones of it [are] the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold. ⁷[There is] a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen: ⁸The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. ⁹He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots. ¹⁰He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing. ¹¹He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and [the thing that is] hid bringeth he forth to light. ¹²But where shall wisdom be found? and where [is] the place of understanding? ¹³Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. ¹⁴The depth saith, It [is] not in me: and the sea saith, [It is] not with me. ¹⁵It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed [for] the price thereof. ¹⁶It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. ¹⁷The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it [shall not be for] jewels of fine gold. ¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom [is] above rubies. ¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. ²⁰Whence then cometh wisdom? and where [is] the place of understanding? ²¹Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. ²²Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. ²³God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. ²⁴For he looketh to the ends of the earth, [and] seeth under the whole heaven; ²⁵To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. ²⁶When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: ²⁷Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out. ²⁸And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that [is] wisdom; and to depart from evil [is] understanding.

ch29 ¹Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, ²Oh that I were as [in] months past, as [in] the days [when] God preserved me; ³When his candle shined upon my head, [and when] by his light I walked [through] darkness; ⁴As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God [was] upon my tabernacle; ⁵When the Almighty [was] yet with me, [when] my children [were] about me; ⁶When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil; ⁷When I went out to the gate through the city, [when] I prepared my seat in the street! ⁸The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, [and] stood up. ⁹The princes refrained talking, and laid [their] hand on their mouth. ¹⁰The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. ¹¹When the ear heard [me], then it blessed me; and when the eye saw [me], it gave witness to me: ¹²Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and [him that had] none to help him. ¹³The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. ¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment [was] as a robe and a diadem. ¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet [was] I to the lame. ¹⁶I [was] a father to the poor: and the cause [which] I knew not I searched out. ¹⁷And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. ¹⁸Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply [my] days as the sand. ¹⁹My root [was] spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch. ²⁰My glory [was] fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand. ²¹Unto me [men] gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel. ²²After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them. ²³And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide [as] for the latter rain. ²⁴If] I laughed on them, they believed [it] not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down. ²⁵I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one [that] comforteth the mourners.

ch30 ¹But now [they that are] younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. ²Yea, whereto [might] the strength of their hands [profit] me, in whom old age was perished? ³For want and famine [they were] solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. ⁴Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots [for] their meat. ⁵They were driven forth from among [men], (they cried after them as [after] a thief;) ⁶To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, [in] caves of the earth, and [in] the rocks. ⁷Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. ⁸[They were] children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

⁹And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. ¹⁰They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. ¹¹Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. ¹²Upon [my] right [hand] rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. ¹³They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. ¹⁴They came [upon me] as a wide breaking in [of waters]: in the desolation they rolled themselves [upon me]. ¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

¹⁶And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. ¹⁷My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. ¹⁸By the great force [of my disease] is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. ¹⁹He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. ²⁰I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me [not]. ²¹Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. ²²Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride [upon it], and dissolvest my substance. ²³For I know [that] thou wilt bring me [to] death, and [to] the house appointed for all living.

²⁴Howbeit he will not stretch out [his] hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. ²⁵Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was [not] my soul grieved for the poor? ²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came [unto me]: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. ²⁷My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. ²⁸I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, [and] I cried in the congregation. ²⁹I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. ³⁰My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. ³¹My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

ch31 ¹I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? ²For what portion of God [is there] from above? and [what] inheritance of the Almighty from on high? ³Is] not destruction to the wicked? and a strange [punishment] to the workers of iniquity? ⁴Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

⁵If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; ⁶Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. ⁷If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; ⁸[Then] let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

⁹If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or [if] I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; ¹⁰[Then] let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. ¹¹For this [is] an heinous crime; yea, it [is] an iniquity [to be punished by] the judges. ¹²For it [is] a fire [that] consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase. ¹³If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; ¹⁴What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? ¹⁵Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶If I have withheld the poor from [their] desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; ¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; ¹⁸For from my youth he was brought up with me, as [with] a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;) ¹⁹If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; ²⁰If his loins have not blessed me, and [if] he were [not] warmed with the fleece of my sheep; ²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: ²²[Then] let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. ²³For destruction [from] God [was] a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

²⁴If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, [Thou art] my confidence; ²⁵If I rejoiced because my wealth [was] great, and because mine hand had gotten much; ²⁶If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking [in] brightness; ²⁷And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: ²⁸This also [were] an iniquity [to be punished by] the judge: for I should have denied the God [that is] above. ²⁹If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: ³⁰Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. ³¹If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. ³²The stranger did not lodge in the street: [but] I opened my doors to the traveller. ³³If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom: ³⁴Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, [and] went not out of the door? ³⁵Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire [is, that] the Almighty would answer me, and [that] mine adversary had written a book. ³⁶Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, [and] bind it [as] a crown to me. ³⁷I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him. ³⁸If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; ³⁹If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life: ⁴⁰Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.