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Zophar’s rebuke

11 Zophar from Naamah responded:

Should all these words go unanswered
    or a wordy man be justified?
Will your idle talk silence everyone;
    will you mock and not be put to shame?
You’ve said, “My teaching is pure,
    and I’m clean in God’s[a] eyes.”

Divine secrecy

But oh, that God would speak,
    open his lips against you
    and tell you secrets of wisdom;
        for sound insight has two sides.
Know that God lets some of your sin be forgotten.
Can you find the secret of God
    or find the extent of the Almighty?
They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?
    Deeper than the underworld[b]—what can you know?
Its measurement is longer than the earth
    and broader than the sea.
10 If God passes by, imprisons someone, and calls a trial,
    who can stop him?
11 He knows worthless people,
    sees sin, and certainly[c] takes note.
12 A stupid person becomes intelligent
    when a wild ass of a person is born tame.[d]

Abiding hope

13 If you make your mind resolute
        and spread your palms to him,
14     if you throw out the sin in your hands
        and don’t let injustice dwell in your tents,
15     then you will lift up your face without blemish;
        you will be secure and not fear.
16 You will forget trouble;
    you will remember it as water that flows past.
17 A life span will rise brighter than noon;
    darkness will be like morning.
18 You will be secure, for there is hope;
    you will look around and rest safely.
19 You will lie down without anyone to scare you;
    many will beg for your favor.
20 The eyes of the wicked will grow faint;
    flight has vanished from them;
    their hope is a dying gasp.

A living joke

12 Job responded:

Surely you are the people,
    and wisdom will die with you.
I am also intelligent;
    I’m not inferior to you.
    Who isn’t like these people?[e]
I’m a joke to friends
        who called to God and he answered;
    the innocent and blameless one is a joke,
    a torch[f] of contempt to one who is idle,
    a fixed point for slipping feet.

Proverbial wisdom

Raiders’ tents are prosperous
    and God’s provokers secure,
    who carry God in their hands.[g]
But ask Behemoth, and he will teach you,
    the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
    or talk to earth, and it will teach you;
    the fish of the sea will recount it for you.
Among all these, who hasn’t known
    that the Lord’s hand did this?
10 In whose grasp is the life of every thing,
    the breath of every person?
11 Doesn’t the ear test words
    and the palate taste food?
12 “In old age is wisdom;
    understanding in a long life.”

God’s majesty

13 With him are wisdom and power;
    counsel and understanding are his.
14 If he tears down, it can’t be rebuilt;
    if he ties a person up, he can’t be set free.
15 If he restricts water, they have drought;
    if he lets it loose, it overturns the land.
16 With him are might and success;
    the deceiver and the deceived are his.
17 He leads advisors away barefoot;
        makes madmen of judges;
18     unties the belt of kings,
        binds a garment around their loins;
19     leads priests away barefoot;
    overthrows the well-established;
20     silences the talk of trusted people;
    takes away elders’ discernment;
21     pours contempt on royalty;
    loosens the belt of the strong;
22     discloses deep secrets of darkness,
    makes utter darkness enter the light;
23     makes nations prominent and destroys them,
    expands nations and leads them astray;
24     takes away the power to think from earth’s leaders,
    making them wander in untraveled wastelands.
25     They feel their way in the dark without light;
        he makes them stumble like drunks.

Footnotes

  1. Job 11:4 Or your
  2. Job 11:8 Heb Sheol
  3. Job 11:11 Or does not
  4. Job 11:12 Or a wild ass’s colt can be born a man
  5. Job 12:3 Heb lacks people.
  6. Job 12:5 Heb uncertain
  7. Job 12:6 Heb uncertain

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