Job responds to his friends after enduring their repeated accusations that his suffering must result from hidden sin. His friends, particularly Zophar in the preceding chapter, have insisted that God always punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous in this life. Job has maintained his innocence throughout these dialogues while wrestling with why God allows him to suffer despite his righteousness. The friends have grown increasingly harsh in their judgments, citing traditional wisdom about divine retribution. Job now prepares to challenge their fundamental assumption by pointing to observable reality where wicked people often prosper and die peacefully, contradicting their theological framework. This marks a pivotal moment in the debate as Job directly confronts the inadequacy of his friends' explanations for human suffering. Job is addressing his three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
[1] Then Job answered and said:
[2] “Listen carefully to my speech,
And let this be your consolation.
[3] Bear with me that I may speak,
And after I have spoken, keep mocking.
[4] “As for me, is my complaint against man?
And if it were, why should I not be impatient?
[5] Look at me and be astonished;
Put your hand over your mouth.
[6] Even when I remember I am terrified,
And trembling takes hold of my flesh.
[7] Why do the wicked live and become old,
Yes, become mighty in power?
[8] Their descendants are established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
[9] Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of God upon them.
[10] Their bull breeds without failure;
Their cow calves without miscarriage.
[11] They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
[12] They sing to the tambourine and harp,
And rejoice to the sound of the flute.
[13] They spend their days in wealth,
And in a moment go down to the grave.
[14] Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
[15] Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’
[16] Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand;
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
[17] “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does their destruction come upon them,
The sorrows God distributes in His anger?
[18] They are like straw before the wind,
And like chaff that a storm carries away.
[19] They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’;
Let Him recompense him, that he may know it.
[20] Let his eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
[21] For what does he care about his household after him,
When the number of his months is cut in half?
[22] “Cananyone teach God knowledge,
Since He judges those on high?
[23] One dies in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and secure;
[24] His pails are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moist.
[25] Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul,
Never having eaten with pleasure.
[26] They lie down alike in the dust,
And worms cover them.
[27] “Look, I know your thoughts,
And the schemes with which you would wrong me.
[28] For you say,
‘Where is the house of the prince?
And where is the tent,
The dwelling place of the wicked?’
[29] Have you not asked those who travel the road?
And do you not know their signs?
[30] For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom;
They shall be brought out on the day of wrath.
[31] Who condemns his way to his face?
And who repays him for what he has done?
[32] Yet he shall be brought to the grave,
And a vigil kept over the tomb.
[33] The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him;
Everyone shall follow him,
As countless have gone before him.
[34] How then can you comfort me with empty words,
Since falsehood remains in your answers?”
The prophet Isaiah addresses the house of Jacob and the remnant of Israel, contrasting the living God who has carried them from birth with the lifeless idols of Babylon that must be carried by beasts of burden. God declares His uniqueness and ability to save, announcing that He will bring Cyrus from the east to accomplish His purposes. The Lord proclaims judgment against Babylon, the oppressive empire that has held His people captive, describing how this proud city will fall from its position of luxury and dominance. God reminds Israel that Babylon showed them no mercy when they were delivered into captivity, and despite Babylon's confidence in its wisdom, sorceries, and enchantments, sudden destruction will come upon it. The passage transitions from God's promise to sustain Israel to His declaration of Babylon's coming humiliation and defeat. Isaiah is addressing the people of Israel.
[3] “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
Who have been upheld by Me from birth,
Who have been carried from the womb:
[4] Even to your old age, I am He,
And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you.
[5] “Towhom will you liken Me, and make Me equal
And compare Me, that we should be alike?
[6] They lavish gold out of the bag,
And weigh silver on the scales;
They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god;
They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.
[7] They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it
And set it in its place, and it stands;
From its place it shall not move.
Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer
Nor save him out of his trouble.
[8] “Remember this, and show yourselves men;
Recall to mind, O you transgressors.
[9] Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
[10] Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’
[11] Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.
[12] “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted,
Who are far from righteousness:
[13] I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off;
My salvation shall not linger.
And I will place salvation in Zion,
For Israel My glory.
[1] “Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
Tender and delicate.
[2] Take the millstones and grind meal.
Remove your veil,
Take off the skirt,
Uncover the thigh,
Pass through the rivers.
[3] Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
Yes, your shame will be seen;
I will take vengeance,
And I will not arbitrate with a man.”
[4] As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name,
The Holy One of Israel.
The Israelites stand on the plains of Moab, poised to enter the Promised Land after forty years of wilderness wandering. Moses continues his second address to the new generation, reminding them of God's faithfulness and the importance of obedience. He has just recounted how God disciplined their fathers in the wilderness and emphasized the need to keep all His commandments so they may be strong enough to possess the land and live long in it. Moses contrasts Egypt, where they labored as slaves and irrigated crops by foot, with Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey that depends on rain from heaven. He stresses that their prosperity in the new land will be directly tied to their faithfulness to God's covenant, warning them to guard their hearts against idolatry and to teach God's commands diligently to their children.
[10] For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; [11] but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, [12] a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.
[13] ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, [14] then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. [15] And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ [16] “Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, [17] lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.
[18] “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. [19] You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. [20] And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, [21] that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
[22] “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— [23] then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. [24] Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. [25] No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.