Job 27-28

Job 27

¹Job again took up his parable, and said,

²“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter

³(for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);

⁴surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, neither will my tongue utter deceit.

⁵Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

⁶I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.

⁷“Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

⁹Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

¹⁰Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you about the hand of God. I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty.

¹²Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

¹³“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

¹⁴If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

¹⁵Those who remain of him will be buried in death. His widows will make no lamentation.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

¹⁷he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.

¹⁹He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.

²¹The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place.

²²For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.

²³Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place.

Job 28

¹“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.

²Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.

³Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

⁴He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

⁶Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.

⁷That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.

⁸The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

⁹He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.

¹⁰He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

¹²“But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man doesn’t know its price, and it isn’t found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’

¹⁵It can’t be gotten for gold, neither will silver be weighed for its price.

¹⁶It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

¹⁷Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.

¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it. It won’t be valued with pure gold.

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?

²¹Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.

²²Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

²³“God understands its way, and he knows its place.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.

²⁵He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.

²⁶When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder,

²⁷then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.

²⁸To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”