Job 13-14

Amplified Bible

Job Says His Friends’ Proverbs Are Ashes

13 [Job continued:] “Behold, my eye has seen all this,
My ear has heard and understood it.
²
“What you know I also know;
I am not inferior to you.

³
“But I wish to speak to ^[a]the Almighty,
And I desire to argue with God.
⁴
“But you smear me with lies [you defame my character most untruthfully];
You are all worthless physicians and have no remedy to offer.
⁵
“Oh, that you would be completely silent,
And that silence would be your wisdom!
⁶
“Please hear my argument
And listen to the pleadings of my lips.
⁷
“Will you speak what is unjust for God,
And speak what is deceitful for Him?
⁸
“Will you show partiality for Him [and be unjust to me so that you may gain favor with Him]?
Will you contend and plead for God?
⁹
“Will it be well for you when He investigates you [and your tactics against me]?
Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man?
¹⁰
“He will surely reprimand you
If you secretly show partiality.
¹¹
“Will not His majesty terrify you,
And will not the dread of Him fall upon you?
¹²
“Your memorable sayings are [worthless, merely] proverbs of ashes;
Your defenses are defenses of [crumbling] clay.

Job Is Sure He Will Be Vindicated

¹³
“Be silent before me so that I may speak;
And let happen to me what may.
¹⁴
“Why should I take my flesh in my teeth
And put my life in my hands [incurring the wrath of God]?
¹⁵
“Even though He kills me;
I will hope in Him.
Nevertheless, I will argue my ways to His face.
¹⁶
“This also will be my salvation,
For a godless man may not come before Him.
¹⁷
“Listen diligently to my speech,
And let my declaration fill your ears.
¹⁸
“Behold now, I have prepared my case;
I know that I will be vindicated.
¹⁹
“Who will argue and contend with me?
For then I would be silent and die.

²⁰
“Only [O Lord,] do not do two things to me,
And then I will not hide myself from Your face:
²¹
Withdraw Your hand from me and remove this bodily suffering,
And let not the dread of You terrify me.
²²
“Then [Lord,] call, and I will answer;
Or let me speak, and then reply to me.
²³
“How many are my iniquities and sins [that so much sorrow should come to me]?
Make me recognize and understand my transgression and my sin.^(A)
²⁴
“Why do You hide Your face [as if offended]
And consider me Your enemy?
²⁵
“Will You cause a windblown leaf to tremble?
Will You pursue the chaff of the dry stubble?
²⁶
“For You write bitter things against me [in Your indictment]
And make me inherit and suffer for the iniquities of my youth.
²⁷
“You also put my feet in the stocks [as punishment]
And [critically] observe all my paths;
You set a circle and limit around the soles of my feet [which I must not overstep],
²⁸
While I waste away like a rotten thing,
Like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Job Speaks of the Finality of Death

14 “Man, who is born of a woman,
Is short-lived and full of turmoil.
²
“Like a flower he comes forth and withers;
He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.
³
“You also open Your eyes upon him
And bring him into judgment with Yourself.
⁴
“Who can make a clean thing out of the unclean?
No one!^(B)
⁵
“Since his days are determined,
The number of his months is with You [in Your control],
And You have made his limits so he cannot pass [his allotted time].
⁶
“[O God] turn your gaze from him so that he may rest,
Until he fulfills his day [on earth] like a hired man.

⁷
“For there is hope for a tree,
If it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
And that the shoots of it will not cease nor fail, [but there is no such hope for man].
⁸
“Though its roots grow old in the earth
And its stump dies in the dry soil,
⁹
Yet at the scent of water [the stump of the tree] will flourish
And bring forth sprigs and shoots like a seedling.
¹⁰
“But [the brave, strong] man must die and lie face down;
Man breathes his last, and where is he?
¹¹
“As water evaporates from the sea,
And a river drains and dries up,
¹²
So man lies down and does not rise [again].
Until the heavens are no longer,
The dead will not awake nor be raised from their sleep.

¹³
“Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past,
That You would set a definite time and then remember me [and in Your lovingkindness imprint me on your heart]!
¹⁴
“If a man dies, will he live again?
I will wait all the days of my struggle
Until my change and release will come.^(C)
¹⁵
“[Then] You will call, and I will answer You;
You will long for [me] the work of Your hands.
¹⁶
“But now You number [each of] my steps;
You do not observe nor take note of my sin.
¹⁷
“My transgression is sealed up in a bag,
And You cover my wickedness [from Your view].

¹⁸
“But as a mountain, if it falls, crumbles into nothing,
And as the rock is moved from its place,
¹⁹
Water wears away the stones,
Its floods and torrents wash away the soil of the earth,
So You [O Lord] destroy the hope of man.
²⁰
“You prevail forever against him and overpower him, and he passes on;
You change his appearance and send him away [from the presence of the living].
²¹
“His sons achieve honor, and he does not know it;
They become insignificant, and he is not aware of it.
²²
“But his body [lamenting its decay] grieves in pain over it,
And his soul mourns over [the loss of] himself.”