Job 14

1 "Mortals, born of woman,
are of few days and full of trouble.

2 They spring up like flowers and wither away;
like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

3 Do you fix your eye on them?
Will you bring themt before you for judgment?

4 Who can bring what is pure from the impure?
No one!

5 A person's days are determined;
you have decreed the number of his months
and have set limits he cannot exceed.

6 So look away from him and let him alone,
till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.

7 "At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.

8 Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,

9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.

10 But a man dies and is laid low;
he breathes his last and is no more.

11 As the water of a lake dries up
or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

12 so he lies down and does not rise;
till the heavens are no more, people will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.

13 "If only you would hide me in the grave
and conceal me till your anger has passed!
If only you would set me a time
and then remember me!

14 If someone dies, will they live again?
All the days of my hard service
I will wait for my renewalt to come.

15 You will call and I will answer you;
you will long for the creature your hands have made.

16 Surely then you will count my steps
but not keep track of my sin.

17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;
you will cover over my sin.

18 "But as a mountain erodes and crumbles
and as a rock is moved from its place,

19 as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil,
so you destroy a person's hope.

20 You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;
you change their countenance and send them away.

21 If their children are honored, they do not know it;
if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.

22 They feel but the pain of their own bodies
and mourn only for themselves."

Job 15

Eliphaz

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 "Would a wise person answer with empty notions
or fill their belly with the hot east wind?

3 Would they argue with useless words,
with speeches that have no value?

4 But you even undermine piety
and hinder devotion to God.

5 Your sin prompts your mouth;
you adopt the tongue of the crafty.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
your own lips testify against you.

7 "Are you the first man ever born?
Were you brought forth before the hills?

8 Do you listen in on God's council?
Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?

9 What do you know that we do not know?
What insights do you have that we do not have?

10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,
men even older than your father.

11 Are God's consolations not enough for you,
words spoken gently to you?

12 Why has your heart carried you away,
and why do your eyes flash,

13 so that you vent your rage against God
and pour out such words from your mouth?

14 "What are mortals, that they could be pure,
or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?

15 If God places no trust in his holy ones,
if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,

16 how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt,
who drink up evil like water!

17 "Listen to me and I will explain to you;
let me tell you what I have seen,

18 what the wise have declared,
hiding nothing received from their ancestors

19 (to whom alone the land was given
when no foreigners moved among them):

20 All his days the wicked man suffers torment,
the ruthless man through all the years stored up for him.

21 Terrifying sounds fill his ears;
when all seems well, marauders attack him.

22 He despairs of escaping the realm of darkness;
he is marked for the sword.

23 He wanders about for food like a vulture;
he knows the day of darkness is at hand.

24 Distress and anguish fill him with terror;
troubles overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack,

25 because he shakes his fist at God
and vaunts himself against the Almighty,

26 defiantly charging against him
with a thick, strong shield.

27 "Though his face is covered with fat
and his waist bulges with flesh,

28 he will inhabit ruined towns
and houses where no one lives,
houses crumbling to rubble.

29 He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the land.

30 He will not escape the darkness;
a flame will wither his shoots,
and the breath of God's mouth will carry him away.

31 Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless,
for he will get nothing in return.

32 Before his time he will wither,
and his branches will not flourish.

33 He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes,
like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.

34 For the company of the godless will be barren,
and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.

35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;
their womb fashions deceit."

Job 16

Job

1 Then Job replied:

2 "I have heard many things like these;
you are miserable comforters, all of you!

3 Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4 I also could speak like you,
if you were in my place;
I could make fine speeches against you
and shake my head at you.

5 But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

6 "Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I refrain, it does not go away.

7 Surely, God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.

8 You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9 God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10 People open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.

11 God has turned me over to the ungodly
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12 All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;

13 his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.

14 Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.

15 "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
and buried my brow in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping,
dark shadows ring my eyes;

17 yet my hands have been free of violence
and my prayer is pure.

18 "Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!

19 Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.

20 My intercessor is my friendt
as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend.

22 "Only a few years will pass
before I take the path of no return.