HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 837
JOB 26
page 467
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Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
the poor must spend all their time
looking for food,
searching even in the desert for food
for their children.
They harvest a field they do not own,
and they glean in the vineyards of the
wicked.
All night they lie naked in the cold,
without clothing or covering.
They are soaked by mountain showers,
and they huddle against the rocks for
want of a home.
“The wicked snatch a widow’s child from
her breast,
taking the baby as security for a loan.
The poor must go about naked, without any
clothing.
They harvest food for others while they
themselves are starving.
They press out olive oil without being
allowed to taste it,
and they tread in the winepress as they
suffer from thirst.
The groans of the dying rise from the city,
and the wounded cry for help,
yet God ignores their moaning.
“Wicked people rebel against the light.
They refuse to acknowledge its ways
or stay in its paths.
The murderer rises in the early dawn
to kill the poor and needy;
at night he is a thief.
The adulterer waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No one will see me then.’
He hides his face so no one will know him.
Thieves break into houses at night
and sleep in the daytime.
They are not acquainted with the light.
The black night is their morning.
They ally themselves with the terrors of
the darkness.
“But they disappear like foam down a river.
Everything they own is cursed,
and they are afraid to enter their own
vineyards.
The grave* consumes sinners
just as drought and heat consume snow.
Their own mothers will forget them.
Maggots will find them sweet to eat.
No one will remember them.
Wicked people are broken like a tree in
the storm.
They cheat the woman who has no son to
help her.
They refuse to help the needy widow.
24:19 Hebrew Sheol. 26:6a Hebrew Sheol. 26:6b Hebrew
Abaddon. 26:9 Or covers his throne. 26:12 Hebrew Rahab,
the name of a mythical sea monster that represents chaos in
ancient literature.
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“God, in his power, drags away the rich.
They may rise high, but they have no
assurance of life.
They may be allowed to live in security,
but God is always watching them.
And though they are great now,
in a moment they will be gone like all
others,
cut off like heads of grain.
Can anyone claim otherwise?
Who can prove me wrong?”
Bildad’s Third Response to Job
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
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2 “God is powerful and dreadful.
He enforces peace in the heavens.
Who is able to count his heavenly army?
Doesn’t his light shine on all the earth?
How can a mortal be innocent before God?
Can anyone born of a woman be pure?
God is more glorious than the moon;
he shines brighter than the stars.
In comparison, people are maggots;
we mortals are mere worms.”
Job’s Ninth Speech: A Response to Bildad
Then Job spoke again:
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“How you have helped the
powerless!
How you have saved the weak!
How you have enlightened my stupidity!
What wise advice you have offered!
Where have you gotten all these wise
sayings?
Whose spirit speaks through you?
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“The dead tremble—
those who live beneath the waters.
The underworld* is naked in God’s
presence.
The place of destruction* is uncovered.
God stretches the northern sky over
empty space
and hangs the earth on nothing.
He wraps the rain in his thick clouds,
and the clouds don’t burst with the
weight.
He covers the face of the moon,*
shrouding it with his clouds.
He created the horizon when he separated
the waters;
he set the boundary between day and
night.
The foundations of heaven tremble;
they shudder at his rebuke.
By his power the sea grew calm.
By his skill he crushed the great sea
monster.*
His Spirit made the heavens beautiful,
and his power pierced the gliding
serpent.