Today's Reading

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²"Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

³Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?

⁴Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

⁶Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.

⁷"Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

⁸Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

⁹What do you know, that we do not know? What do you understand, which is not in us?

¹⁰With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?

¹²Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

¹³That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

¹⁶how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

¹⁷"I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:

¹⁸(Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

¹⁹to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):

²⁰the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.

²²He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

²³He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;

²⁷because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.

²⁸He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.

³¹Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.

³²It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.

³³He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.

³⁴For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."

¹Then Job answered,

²"I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!

³Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

⁴I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul's place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

⁵but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.

⁶"Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

⁷But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made desolate all my company.

⁸You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

⁹He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

¹⁰They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

¹¹God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.

¹³His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a giant.

¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids.

¹⁷Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸"Earth, do not cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.

¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.

²⁰My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,

²¹that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!

²²For when a few years are come, I shall go the way from whence I shall not return.

¹"My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.

²Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.

³"Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?

⁴For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore you shall not exalt them.

⁵He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

⁶"But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.

⁷My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

⁸Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.

⁹Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.

¹⁰But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.

¹¹My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.

¹²They change the night into day, saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.

¹³If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,

¹⁴If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' to the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'

¹⁵where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?

¹⁶Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?"

¹But I determined this for myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow.

²For if I make you sorry, then who will make me glad but he who is made sorry by me?

³And I wrote this very thing, so that, when I came, I would not have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy would be shared by all of you.

⁴For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made sorry, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you.

⁵But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I not press too heavily) to you all.

⁶Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many;

⁷so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.

⁸Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward him.

⁹For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things.

¹⁰Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ,

¹¹that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

¹²Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord,

¹³I had no relief for my spirit, because I did not find Titus, my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia.

¹⁴Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.

¹⁵For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish;

¹⁶to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

¹⁷For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

¹Do not boast about tomorrow; for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

²Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.

³A stone is heavy, and sand is a burden; but a fool's provocation is heavier than both.

⁴Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before jealousy?

⁵Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

⁶Faithful are the wounds of a friend; although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.

⁷A full soul loathes a honeycomb; but to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.

⁸As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his home.

⁹Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man's friend.

¹⁰Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend. Do not go to your brother's house in the day of your disaster: better is a neighbor who is near than a distant brother.

¹¹Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart, then I can answer my tormentor.

¹²A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

¹³Take his garment when he puts up collateral for a stranger. Hold it for a wayward woman!

¹⁴He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse by him.

¹⁵A continual dropping on a rainy day and a contentious wife are alike:

¹⁶restraining her is like restraining the wind, or like grasping oil in his right hand.

¹⁷Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend's countenance.

¹⁸Whoever tends the fig tree shall eat its fruit. He who looks after his master shall be honored.

¹⁹As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.

²⁰Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; and a man's eyes are never satisfied.

²¹The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise.

²²Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.

²³Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds:

²⁴for riches are not forever, nor does even the crown endure to all generations.

²⁵The hay is removed, and the new growth appears, the grasses of the hills are gathered in.

²⁶The lambs are for your clothing, and the goats are the price of a field.

²⁷There will be plenty of goats' milk for your food, for your family's food, and for the nourishment of your servant girls.