Eliphaz Accuses: Job Does Not Fear God
1 Then qEliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “Should ra wise man answer with swindy knowledge,
and fill his tbelly with uthe east wind?
3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
or in words with which he can do no good?
4 But you are doing away with the fear of God1
and hindering meditation before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your vown mouth condemns you, and not I;
wyour own lips testify against you.
7 x“Are you the first man who was born?
Or ywere you brought forth zbefore the hills?
8 Have you listened in athe council of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 bWhat do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10 cBoth the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
older than your father.
11 Are the comforts of God too small for you,
or the word that deals gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,
13 that you turn your dspirit against God
and bring such words out of your mouth?
14 eWhat is man, fthat he can be pure?
Or he who is gborn of a woman, that he can be righteous?
15 Behold, God2 hputs no trust in his iholy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
16 jhow much less one who is abominable and kcorrupt,
a man who ldrinks injustice like water!
17 “I will show you; hear me,
and what I have seen I will declare
18 (what wise men have told,
without hiding it mfrom their fathers,
19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no nstranger passed among them).
20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
through all the oyears that are laid up for pthe ruthless.
21 qDreadful sounds are in his ears;
in rprosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
and he is marked for the sword.
23 He swanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
24 distress and anguish terrify him;
they tprevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty,
26 urunning vstubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield;
27 because he has wcovered his face with his fat
and gathered fat upon his waist
28 and has lived in desolate cities,
in houses that none should inhabit,
which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the earth;3
30 he will not depart from darkness;
the flame will dry up his shoots,
and by xthe breath of his mouth he will depart.
31 Let him not ytrust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness will be his payment.
32 It will be paid in full zbefore his time,
and his branch will not be green.
33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
34 For athe company of the godless is barren,
and bfire consumes the tents of bribery.
35 They cconceive trouble and give birth to evil,
and their dwomb prepares deceit.”
Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I have heard emany such things;
fmiserable comforters are you all.
3 Shall gwindy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and hshake my head at you.
5 I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7 Surely now God has worn me out;
ihe has4 made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up,
which is ja witness against me,
and my kleanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9 He has ltorn me in his wrath mand hated me;
he has ngnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men have ogaped at me with their mouth;
they have pstruck me insolently on the cheek;
they qmass themselves together against me.
11 God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his rtarget;
13 his sarchers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys tand does not spare;
he upours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me with vbreach upon breach;
he wruns upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed xsackcloth upon my skin
and have laid ymy strength zin the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is adeep darkness,
17 although there is no bviolence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, ccover not my blood,
and let my dcry find no resting place.
19 Even now, behold, my ewitness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is fon high.
20 My friends gscorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he would hargue the case of a man with God,
as5 a son of man does with his neighbor.
22 For when a few years have come
I shall go the way ifrom which I shall not return.
Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?
1 “My spirit is broken; my days are jextinct;
kthe graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their lprovocation.
3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up msecurity for me?
4 Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the neyes of his children will fail.
6 “He has made me oa byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
7 My peye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like qa shadow.
8 The upright are rappalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has sclean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10 But you, tcome on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My udays are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
12 They vmake night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’6
13 If I hope for wSheol as xmy house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
16 Will it go down to the bars of wSheol?
The Lamb and the 144,000
1 Then I looked, and behold, on vMount Zion wstood the Lamb, and with him x144,000 who yhad his name and his Father’s name written zon their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven alike the roar of many waters and blike the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of charpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing da new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. eNo one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for fthey are virgins. It is these gwho follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as hfirstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and iin their mouth no lie was found, for they are jblameless.
The Messages of the Three Angels
6 Then I saw another angel kflying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to lthose who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, m“Fear God and ngive him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and oworship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the psprings of water.”
8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, q“Fallen, fallen is rBabylon the great, sshe who made all nations drink tthe wine of the passion1 of her sexual immorality.”
9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone uworships the beast and its image and receives va mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink wthe wine of God’s wrath, xpoured full strength into the cup of his anger, and yhe will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And zthe smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and athey have no rest, day or night, these uworshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
12 bHere is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who ckeep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.2
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: dBlessed are the dead ewho die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, f“that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
The Harvest of the Earth
14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one glike a son of man, hwith a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And another angel icame out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, j“Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for kthe harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, lthe angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, mfor its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great nwinepress of the wrath of God. 20 And othe winepress was trodden poutside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as qa horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.3
