42 Chapters - Written about 1443 BC by Possibly Job. or perhaps Moses, Solomon or Elihu.Theme: Through no fault of his own Job lost everything. Satan attempted to drive a wedge between Job and God. Job's friends were certain that they had answers as to why Job was suffering. God alone knows the full story and will make all things right in the end. Though Job never understood what had happened, he never gave up on God.
Job 1
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1-3_There was a man in the land of Uz by the name of Job. He was blameless and feared God. He had seven sons and three daughters. He owned 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels. He had 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys and very many servants. He was the greatest of all the men of the east.
__4-5_His sons used to take turns holding feasts. They would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When their feast was over Job would always rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings in their behalf. He thought that they might have sinned in some way and offended God.
__6-9_Now there was a day when the sons of God presented themselves before the LORD. Satan came also. The LORD said to Satan, where do you come from? Satan answered, from walking about the earth. The LORD asked, have you considered My servant Job? He is blameless and fears God. Satan said, does he fear God for nothing?
__10-12_Haven't you made a hedge around him and everything he owns? You have blessed him and his possessions have multiplied. Touch all that he has and he will curse You to Your face. Then the LORD said to Satan, Behold, he is in your power. Just do not put forth your hand on him. So Satan left the LORD's presence.
__13-16_It came about on that day that his sons and daughters were feasting at the oldest son's house. A messenger brought a message to Job, saying, the Sabeans attacked and took your oxen and donkeys. The servants were slain and I alone escaped. While he spoke another came and said, fire fell from God and burned up your sheep.
__17-19_While he was speaking still another came to say that the Chaldeans came with three bands of men and stole the camels and killed the servants. While he spoke another came with the news that his sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's house and a great wind came and caused the house to fall on them. And they all died.
__20-22_Then Job got up and tore his robe. He shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped. He said, I was naked when I was born and when I am gone I might as well be naked. The LORD gives and the LORD can take just as well. Blessed be the name of the LORD. Job did not blame God for the bad things that had happened.
Job 2
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1-3_Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD and Satan came, too. The LORD said to Satan, where have you come from? Satan said, from walking around on the earth. And the LORD said, have you considered My servant Job? Isn't he blameless in spite of everything you have done?
__4-9_Satan said, skin for skin. Touch his body and he will curse You to Your face. So the LORD said, behold, he is in your power. Only spare his life. So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and smote Job with boils over his entire body. He sat and scraped himself with broken pottery. His wife said, you should just curse God and die.
__10-12_Job replied, you speak foolishly. We need to be willing to accept the bad as well as the good from God. In all this Job did not sin against God. Job had three friends who heard of his troubles. They came to sympathize with him and speak comfort. When they saw him they wept because they did not recognize him.
__13_They sat down on the ground and did not speak for seven days, for they saw that his pain was great.
Job 3
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1-26_After this Job cursed the day he was born. He said, may that day be darkness. Let no light shine on it because it did not hide trouble from my eyes. Why didn't I die at birth? I would have slept and been at rest. Why is light given to him who suffers? I groan at the sight of food. I dread what will yet befall me.
Job 4
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1-11_Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered Job. He said, please be patient if I venture a word with you. Behold, you have spoken to many in their need. You have strengthened the weak. Now trouble has come to you and it makes you impatient. As I see it, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble then harvest the results. And by the breath of God they perish.
__12-21_I am learning something I have difficulty understanding. A voice said to me, can a man be just and pure before his Maker? He dwells in a house of clay and his foundation is dust. He is broken in a moment and perishes without notice forever. The cord that holds his tent up is pulled up and he dies without wisdom.
Job 5
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1-16_Call now and see if any of the Holy Ones will answer. Anger kills the foolish. A man is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward. But as for me, I would place my cause before God. His ways are unsearchable and His wonders are without number. He captures the wise by their own shrewdness and saves the poor from the mighty.
__17-27_God's reproval can be a good thing for a man. He must not despise the discipline of the Almighty. He will deliver you from six, even seven troubles. You will fear no loss knowing that your descendants will be many. You will come to the grave in full vigor like the stacking of grain at harvest. This has always been the case.
Job 6
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1-10_Job answered, I wish the weight of my vexation could be laid on the balances opposite my iniquity. My words have been rash, but the arrows of the Almighty are poison in me. Isn't my reaction normal? Oh that God would grant my longing for Him to crush me. I can rejoice in pain as I remember that I have not denied Him or His words.
__11-30_Why go on living when I have no strength? A friend should be kind to a despairing man. Have I asked you for anything or wished to trade places with you? Teach me and I will listen to how I have erred. But what does your argument prove? Please look at me and see if I have lied. Have I spoken unjustly?
Job 7
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1-21_Isn't a man forced to work on earth and aren't his days like those of a hired man? I feel like my night never ends while I wait for the dawn. My life is without hope. It is but a breath. I will speak in my anguish rather than keep quiet. What is my sin that I have been made a target? Why, God, do You not pardon my transgression?
Job 8
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1-22_Then Bildad the Shuhite spoke. How long will you talk like this? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? If your sons sinned against God then He delivered them into the power of their transgression. Consider the things learned by our fathers. Does good come to those who forget God? He will not reject a man of integrity.
Job 9
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1-35_Then Job answered, I know what you say is true. But how can a man be right with God? No one can argue with Him. He is always right. He is all powerful and all knowing. It is impossible to question Him. He is stronger than me. It seems like the wicked enjoy the advantage. Let God remove His rod from me so that I be not terrified.
Job 10
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1-22_I loathe my life. I will make my complaint known and say to God, why do You contend with me? You seem to look with favor on the wicked. I do not think I am guilty, yet there is no deliverance for me. You fashioned me. Now will You destroy me? I wish I had never been born, or at least carried from the womb straight to the tomb.
Job 11
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1-20_Then Zophar the Naamathite spoke. He said, shall all this talk go unanswered? Should you be able to scoff without rebuke? You say you are pure. I wish God would speak out against you. Can you understand God's ways which are too deep for you? If you would admit your iniquity then you might find relief.
Job 12
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1-25_Then Job said, surely when you die wisdom will die with you. But I know a thing or two as well. Among my friends the idea that I am blameless is a joke. Nature alone will tell you that the LORD has done this to me. With Him is wisdom. What He chooses to do cannot be undone.
Job 13
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1-28_My eye has seen and my ear has heard. What you know I also know. But I would speak to the Almighty and argue with Him. I wish you would be quiet and hear my argument. Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Though He slay me I will still hope in Him and I will make my case with Him. But why do you hide Your face from me?
Job 14
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1-13_Man is born of woman and lives a little while with much turmoil. His life is but a shadow and is soon gone. The limit of his time is set and cannot be changed. When a tree is cut down there is hope that it will sprout again. But when a man dies he is gone.
__14-22_If a man dies will he live again? All the days of my struggle I wait, until my change comes. You Lord will call and I will answer. You number my steps and do not observe my sin. A man dies and does not know the outcome of his sons.
Job 15
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1-35_Then Eliphaz the Temanite said, should a wise man speak with useless talk? You hinder meditation before God. Your own mouth condemns you. Were you the first one born? What do you know that we do not understand? Listen to what I have seen. The wicked man suffers pain because he conducts himself arrogantly against the Almighty.
Job 16
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1-22_Then Job said, I have heard this before. You are sorry comforters. If I were in your place I could speak as you speak. And when I speak now my pain is not lessened. God seems to be without mercy. I feel like I am turned inside out although there is no violence in me and my prayer is pure. O that a man might plead face to face with God.
Job 17
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1-16_My spirit is broken. The grave awaits me. God has made me a byword. I am one on whom men spit. Nevertheless, I believe that he whose hands are clean shall grow stronger. I do not find any of you to be wise. Who has any regard for my hope? Shall we not go down to the dust together?
Job 18
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1-21_Then Bildad the Shuhite spoke up. Nothing we say will help until you show understanding. You do not seriously consider our words. A wicked man's ideas are like a light that goes out. He is caught in his own foolishness. Disease overtakes him. He has no offspring or posterity among his people. People are appalled at his fate.
Job 19
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1-22_Job responded: how long will you torment me with your words? Ten times you have insulted me. I want you to realize that God has wronged me. I cry out and get no answer. My honor has been stripped from me. Everyone has failed me. Even my breath is offensive to my wife. My associates abhor me and those I love are against me.
__23-29_O that my words were inscribed forever with an iron stylus in rock. As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last He will stand on the earth, even after I am dead and gone. Yet I will see God in my flesh. It will be my eye that sees Him and not another's. You have made a case against me. Consider well your own end.
Job 20
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1-18_Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: I am agitated and I must respond. Your reproof insults me. Do you realize that the joy of the godless is momentary? He is destined to perish forever, just like his refuse. Though evil is sweet in his mouth, yet in his stomach it is changed. He vomits it up and can swallow it no more.
__19-29_Everyone he has taken advantage of comes against him. Complete darkness is held in reserve for him. A fire will destroy him. The heavens will reveal his iniquity. His possessions will depart in the day of his anger. This is the wicked man's portion from God.
Job 21
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1-13_Job answered: listen carefully. Bear with me. When I have spoken you may mock. Why do the wicked continue to live and become powerful while their descendants are established? They live without fear. Their cattle do not fail to multiply. Their children skip about while they spend their days in prosperity.
__14-26_But when life is over they still want no part with God. They say, Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him? You say that God stores a man's iniquity for his sons. I say, let him drink the wrath of the Almighty. All eventually die and return to dust. It is not always clear how God has chosen to deal with each person, but He is Judge.
__27-34_I know your thoughts and how you have planned to wrong me. The wicked is reserved for the day of calamity and who will repay him for what he has done? For now, everyone's destiny is the grave. Just as men have died before Him, so men will continue to die after Him.
Job 22
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1-11_Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke. Does the Almighty care if you are righteous? Are you not wicked and therefore He reproves you? Perhaps you have taken a pledge from your brothers, or stripped them of their clothing. Maybe you have not cared for the needs of others. This is why these terrible things have happened to you.
__12_Is not God way up in heaven? Does He actually keep track of your every thought and action? The wicked enjoy His blessings but do not listen to His counsel. Yield yourself and be at peace with Him. If you return to the Almighty you will be restored. Make God your treasure and delight in Him. Then everything will be set right.
Job 23
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1_Job replied: oh that I might know where to find Him. Then I could present my case to Him and listen to His answer. Surely He would pay attention to me and I would be delivered from my Judge. I have tried to discover His purpose in all of this. I have treasured the words of His mouth more than necessary food.
Job 24
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1-12_Why does the LORD seem far removed? Why are people allowed to disregard His laws? They push the needy aside and take bread from the children in the desert. Men groan and the wounded cry out. Yet God does not seem to pay attention to this folly.
__13-25_Many rebel against truth. Murders are committed and adultery is a regular practice. The wrongdoers exalt in their wrong doing and then die the same as everyone else.
Job 25
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1_Then Bildad the Shuhite said, dominion and awe belong to God. How can a man born of woman be just with Him? Even the moon and the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less can a man be pure who is a mere worm.
Job 26
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1-10_Then Job responded: what help are you to the weak! What helpful insight you have so abundantly provided! And whose spirit was expressed through you? He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. He inscribes the circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness.
__11-14_The pillars of heaven tremble and are amazed at His rebuke. He quiets the sea by His power and by His breath the heavens are cleared. These are but the fringes of His ways as we faintly discern His word. Who can understand His mighty thunder?
Job 27
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1-23_Job continued by saying, as long as life remains in me I will hold fast to my righteousness. What hope do the godless have when they die? Will God hear their cry? Have they delighted in the Almighty? Did they call upon God at all times? In the end, the just will profit from everything the wicked laid up for themselves.
Job 28
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1-14_There is a mine for silver and a place for refining gold. Iron is taken from the ground and copper is smelted. He finds a source for sapphires and searches far and wide for what he wants. He hews channels through the rocks and what is hidden he brings out to the light. But where can wisdom be found? Man does not know its value.
__15-28_The purest gold or silver cannot be exchanged for wisdom. No precious gem can be exchanged for it. God alone understands wisdom and where it is found. He knows how to weigh the wind and limit the rain. To man He has said, behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom. And to keep from evil is understanding.
Job 29
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1-25_And Job again took up his discourse. O that I were as I was before all this trouble when I was in my prime and respected by everyone. Widows were happy because of me. I was a father to the needy. I thought things would go on forever as they had been. I sat as their chief and they accepted my counsel.
Job 30
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1-31_But now those who are younger mock me. They have forgotten what I did for their families. They abhor me and stand aloof, even spitting in my face. They profit from my destruction because my prosperity is gone. I cry out to God for help but He does not answer. No one stretches out his hand to help me. I mourn without comfort.
Job 31
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1-12_I have made a covenant with my eyes that I will not look at a virgin. Yet I am treated as though I have sinned. Does He not see my ways and number my steps? Let God measure my integrity. If I have been enticed by another woman may my wife grind for someone else and let another have her as his wife.
__13-23_Neither have I despised the claim of a male or female servant. Otherwise, how could I stand before God when He judges me? If I have kept the poor from what they need, or have not looked after the widow and the orphan, or let anyone perish from lack of clothing, then let calamity from God come to me.
__24-40_If I have put my confidence in gold because of my wealth or if I have flirted, that would be iniquity and call for the judgment of God. If I rejoiced when my enemy came to great grief, that would be wrong. I also watched over the alien. O that I had someone to hear my complaint. Let the Almighty answer me. The words of Job are ended.
Job 32
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1-5_The three men stopped answering Job. Then Elihu's anger burned. He was the son of Barachel the Buzite of the family of Ram. He was angry because Job justified himself before God and his three friends, who finding no answer, still condemned Job. Elihu had waited to speak because they were all older than him.
__6-22_Elihu said, I am young and do not have your experience. So I have been slow to speak. Perhaps my elders are not as wise as I had thought. I listened to your reasoning and thought about what you said. None of you have been able to refute Job. I need to be allowed to express my own ideas about all of this.
Job 33
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1-18_So please listen to what I say, Job, and tell me if I am wrong. Any one of you, please set me straight if I speak incorrectly. Job, you have said that you are pure and without transgression. I believe you are wrong to complain against God. He is not accountable to any of us. Some of what He does is to keep man from pride.
__19-28_Man can be chastened with pain on his bed. He can hurt so much he does not care for his favorite food. If there is one angel in a thousand who will remind him of what is right, then he may even regain his youth. Then when he prays to God, He will be restored to righteousness. He will be redeemed, provided he admits his sin.
__29-33_God often does this with men in order to bring them back to a more enlightened life. Please hear me out Job. Then I will listen to what you have to say. For a moment let me teach you wisdom.
Job 34
At a Glance (37 V)
