Job 7-8

The Message

There’s Nothing to My Life

7 ^1-6“Human life is a struggle, isn’t it?
    It’s a life sentence to hard labor.
Like field hands longing for quitting time
    and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,
I’m given a life that meanders and goes nowhere—
    months of aimlessness, nights of misery!
I go to bed and think, ‘How long till I can get up?’
    I toss and turn as the night drags on—and I’m fed up!
I’m covered with maggots and scabs.
    My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.
My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles,
    and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!

^7-10“God, don’t forget that I’m only a wisp of air!
    These eyes have had their last look at goodness.
And your eyes have seen the last of me;
    even while you’re looking, there’ll be nothing left to look at.
When a cloud evaporates, it’s gone for good;
    those who go to the grave never come back.
They don’t return to visit their families;
    never again will friends drop in for coffee.

^11-16“And so I’m not keeping one bit of this quiet,
    I’m laying it all out on the table;
    my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.
Are you going to put a muzzle on me,
    the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?
If I say, ‘I’m going to bed, then I’ll feel better.
    A little nap will lift my spirits,’
You come and so scare me with nightmares
    and frighten me with ghosts
That I’d rather strangle in the sheets
    than face this kind of life any longer.
I hate this life! Who needs any more of this?
    Let me alone! There’s nothing to my life—it’s nothing
        but smoke.

^17-21“What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them,
    that you even give them the time of day?
That you check up on them every morning,
    looking in on them to see how they’re doing?
Let up on me, will you?
    Can’t you even let me spit in peace?
Even suppose I’d sinned—how would that hurt you?
    You’re responsible for every human being.
Don’t you have better things to do than pick on me?
    Why make a federal case out of me?
Why don’t you just forgive my sins
    and start me off with a clean slate?
The way things are going, I’ll soon be dead.
    You’ll look high and low, but I won’t be around.”

Bildad’s Response

Does God Mess Up?

8 ^1-7Bildad from Shuhah was next to speak:

“How can you keep on talking like this?
    You’re talking nonsense, and noisy nonsense at that.
Does God mess up?
    Does God Almighty ever get things backward?
It’s plain that your children sinned against him—
    otherwise, why would God have punished them?
Here’s what you must do—and don’t put it off any longer:
    Get down on your knees before God Almighty.
If you’re as innocent and upright as you say,
    it’s not too late—he’ll come running;
    he’ll set everything right again, reestablish your fortunes.
Even though you’re not much right now,
    you’ll end up better than ever.

To Hang Your Life from One Thin Thread

^8-19“Put the question to our ancestors,
    study what they learned from their ancestors.
For we’re newcomers at this, with a lot to learn,
    and not too long to learn it.
So why not let the ancients teach you, tell you what’s what,
    instruct you in what they knew from experience?
Can mighty pine trees grow tall without soil?
    Can luscious tomatoes flourish without water?
Blossoming flowers look beautiful before they’re cut or picked,
    but without soil or water they wither more quickly than grass.
That’s what happens to all who forget God—
    all their hopes come to nothing.
They hang their life from one thin thread,
    they hitch their fate to a spider web.
One jiggle and the thread breaks,
    one jab and the web collapses.
Or they’re like weeds springing up in the sunshine,
    invading the garden,
Spreading everywhere, overtaking the flowers,
    getting a foothold even in the rocks.
But when the gardener rips them out by the roots,
    the garden doesn’t miss them one bit.
The sooner the godless are gone, the better;
    then good plants can grow in their place.

^20-22“There’s no way that God will reject a good person,
    and there is no way he’ll help a bad one.
God will let you laugh again;
    you’ll raise the roof with shouts of joy,
With your enemies thoroughly discredited,
    their house of cards collapsed.”