Job 22-27
Good News Translation
The Third Dialogue(A)
22 (B)1-2 Is there anyone, even the wisest,
who could ever be of use to God?
3 Does your doing right benefit God,
or does your being good help him at all?
4 It is not because you stand in awe of God
that he reprimands you and brings you to trial.
5 No, it's because you have sinned so much;
it's because of all the evil you do.
6 To make a brother repay you the money he owed,
you took away his clothes and left him nothing to wear.
7 You refused water to those who were tired,
and refused to feed those who were hungry.
8 You used your power and your position
to take over the whole land.
9 You not only refused to help widows,
but you also robbed and mistreated orphans.
10 So now there are pitfalls all around you,
and suddenly you are full of fear.
11 It has grown so dark that you cannot see,
and a flood overwhelms you.
12 Doesn't God live in the highest heavens
and look down on the stars, even though they are high?
13 And yet you ask, “What does God know?
He is hidden by clouds—how can he judge us?”
14 You think the thick clouds keep him from seeing,
as he walks on the dome of the sky.
15 Are you determined to walk in the paths
that evil people have always followed?
16 Even before their time had come,
they were washed away by a flood.
17 These are the ones who rejected God
and believed that he could do nothing to them.
18 And yet it was God who made them prosperous—
I can't understand the thoughts of the wicked.
19 Good people are glad and the innocent laugh
when they see the wicked punished.
20 All that the wicked own is destroyed,
and fire burns up anything that is left.
21 Now, Job, make peace with God
and stop treating him like an enemy;
if you do, then he will bless you.
22 Accept the teaching he gives;
keep his words in your heart.
23 Yes, you must humbly[a] return to God
and put an end to all the evil
that is done in your house.
24 Throw away your gold;
dump your finest gold in the dry stream bed.
25 Let Almighty God be your gold,
and let him be silver, piled high for you.
26 Then you will always trust in God
and find that he is the source of your joy.
27 When you pray, he will answer you,
and you will keep the vows you made.
28 You will succeed in all you do,
and light will shine on your path.
29 God brings down the proud[b]
and saves the humble.
30 He will rescue you if you are innocent,[c]
if what you do is right.[d]
23 1-2 I still rebel and complain against God;
I cannot keep from groaning.
3 How I wish I knew where to find him,
and knew how to go where he is.
4 I would state my case before him
and present all the arguments in my favor.
5 I want to know what he would say
and how he would answer me.
6 Would God use all his strength against me?
No, he would listen as I spoke.
7 I am honest; I could reason with God;
he would declare me innocent[e] once and for all.
8 I have searched in the East, but God is not there;
I have not found him when I searched in the West.
9 God has been at work in the North and the South,
but still I have not seen him.
10 Yet God knows every step I take;
if he tests me, he will find me pure.
11 I follow faithfully the road he chooses,
and never wander to either side.
12 I always do what God commands;
I follow his will, not my own desires.
13 He never changes. No one can oppose him
or stop him from doing what he wants to do.
14 He will fulfill what he has planned for me;
that plan is just one of the many he has;
15 I tremble with fear before him.
16-17 Almighty God has destroyed my courage.
It is God, not the dark, that makes me afraid—
even though the darkness has made me blind.
24 Why doesn't God set a time for judging,
a day of justice for those who serve him?
2 People move property lines to get more land;
they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.
3 They take donkeys that belong to orphans,
and keep a widow's ox till she pays her debts.
4 They prevent the poor from getting their rights
and force the needy to run and hide.
5 So the poor, like wild donkeys,
search for food in the dry wilderness;
nowhere else can they find food for their children.
6 They have to harvest fields they don't own,[f]
and gather grapes in vineyards of the wicked.
7 At night they sleep with nothing to cover them,
nothing to keep them from the cold.
8 They are drenched by the rain that falls on the mountains,
and they huddle beside the rocks for shelter.
9 Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants
and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.
10 But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them;
they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.
11 They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine,
but they themselves are thirsty.
12 In the cities the wounded and dying cry out,
but God ignores their prayers.
13 There are those who reject the light;
they don't understand it or go where it leads.
14 At dawn the murderer gets up
and goes out to kill the poor,
and at night he steals.
15 The adulterer waits for twilight to come;
he covers his face so that no one can see him.
16 At night thieves break into houses,
but by day they hide and avoid the light.
17 They fear the light of day,
but darkness holds no terror for them.
[Zophar][g]
18 The wicked are swept away by floods,
and the land they own is under God's curse;
they no longer go to work in their vineyards.
19 As snow vanishes in heat and drought,
so sinners vanish from the land of the living.
20 Not even their mothers remember them now;
they are eaten by worms and destroyed like fallen trees.
21 That happens because they mistreated widows
and showed no kindness to childless women.
22 God, in his strength, destroys the mighty;
God acts—and the wicked die.
23 God may let them live secure,
but keeps an eye on them all the time.
24 For a while the wicked prosper,
but then they wither like weeds,
like stalks of grain that have been cut down.
25 Can anyone deny that this is so?
Can anyone prove that my words are not true?
25 1-2 God is powerful; all must stand in awe of him;
he keeps his heavenly kingdom in peace.
3 Can anyone count the angels who serve him?
Is there any place where God's light does not shine?
4 Can anyone be righteous or pure in God's sight?
5 In his eyes even the moon is not bright,
or the stars pure.
6 Then what about a human being, that worm, that insect?
What is a human life worth in God's eyes?
26 1-2 What a big help you are to me—
poor, weak man that I am!
3 You give such good advice
and share your knowledge with a fool like me!
4 Who do you think will hear all your words?
Who inspired you to speak like this?
[Bildad][h]
5 The spirits of the dead tremble
in the waters under the earth.
6 The world of the dead lies open to God;
no covering shields it from his sight.
7 God stretched out the northern sky
and hung the earth in empty space.
8 It is God who fills the clouds with water
and keeps them from bursting with the weight.
9 He hides the full moon behind a cloud.
10 He divided light from darkness
by a circle drawn on the face of the sea.
11 When he threatens the pillars that hold up the sky,
they shake and tremble with fear.
12 It is his strength that conquered the sea;[i]
by his skill he destroyed the monster Rahab.[j]
13 It is his breath that made the sky clear,
and his hand that killed the escaping monster.[k]
14 But these are only hints of his power,
only the whispers that we have heard.
Who can know how truly great God is?
27 1-2 I swear by the living Almighty God,
who refuses me justice and makes my life bitter—
3 as long as God gives me breath,
4 my lips will never say anything evil,
my tongue will never tell a lie.
5 I will never say that you men are right;
I will insist on my innocence to my dying day.
6 I will never give up my claim to be right;
my conscience is clear.
7 May all who oppose me and fight against me
be punished like the wicked and the unrighteous.
8 What hope is there for the godless
in the hour when God demands their life?
9 When trouble comes, will God hear their cries?
10 They should have desired the joy he gives;
they should have constantly prayed to him.
11 Let me teach you how great is God's power,
and explain what Almighty God has planned.
12 But no, after all, you have seen for yourselves;
so why do you talk such nonsense?
[Zophar][l]
13 This is how Almighty God
punishes wicked, violent people.
14 They may have many sons,
but all will be killed in war;
their children never have enough to eat.
15 Those who survive will die from disease,
and even their widows will not mourn their death.
16 The wicked may have too much silver to count
and more clothes than anyone needs;
17 but some good person will wear the clothes,
and someone honest will get the silver.
18 The wicked build houses like a spider's web[m]
or like the hut of a slave guarding the fields.
19 One last time[n] they will lie down rich,
and when they wake up, they will find their wealth gone.
20 Terror will strike like a sudden flood;
a wind in the night will blow them away;
21 the east wind will sweep them from their homes;
22 it will blow down on them without pity
while they try their best to escape.
23 The wind howls at them as they run,
frightening them with destructive power.
Footnotes
- Job 22:23 One ancient translation humbly; Hebrew be built up.
- Job 22:29 Probable text proud; Hebrew unclear.
- Job 22:30 Some ancient translations innocent; Hebrew not innocent.
- Job 22:30 Verse 30 in Hebrew is unclear.
- Job 23:7 he would declare me innocent; or then my rights would be safe.
- Job 24:6 Having been cheated out of their own land, the poor are forced to work for others for very small pay.
- Job 24:18 Zophar is not named in the text, but this speech is usually assigned to him.
- Job 26:5 Bildad is not named in the text, but this speech is usually assigned to him.
- Job 26:12 A reference to an ancient story in which the sea fought against God.
- Job 26:12 See 9.13.
- Job 26:13 See 9.8.
- Job 27:13 Zophar is not named in the text, but this speech is usually assigned to him.
- Job 27:18 Some ancient translations spider's web; Hebrew moth or bird's nest.
- Job 27:19 Some ancient translations One last time; Hebrew They will not be gathered.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
Bible Gateway Recommends
