- Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, Dominion and fear are with him, he makes peace in his high places. Is there any number of his armies? And upon whom does not his light arise? How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shines not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which is a worm!
- But Job answered and said, How have you helped him that is without power, saved the arm that has no strength? How have you counseled him that has no wisdom? And how have you plentifully declared the thing as it is? To whom have you uttered words, and whose spirit came from you?
- Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof; hell is naked before him, and destruction has no covering. He stretches out the north over the empty place, and hangs the earth upon nothing. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them. He holds back the face of his throne and spreads his cloud upon it. He has encompassed the waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divides the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smites through the proud. By his spirit he has garnished the heavens; his hand has formed the crooked serpent.
- Behold, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him? But the thunder of his power, who can understand?
- Moreover, Job continued his parable and said, As God liveth, who has taken away my judgment, and the Almighty who has vexed my soul, all the while my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit. God forbid that I should justify you. Until I die, I will not remove my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
- Let my enemy be as the wicked, and he that rises up against me as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained, when God takes away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God? I will teach you by the hand of God; that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. Behold, all you yourselves have seen it. Why then are you thus altogether vain?
- This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty: if his children be multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Those that remain of him shall be buried in death, and his widows shall not weep. Though he heap up silver as the dust and prepare raiment as the clay, he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. He builds his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper makes. The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered. He opens his eyes, and he is not. Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest steals him away in the night. The east wind carries him away and he departs, and as a storm hurls him out of his place. For God shall cast upon him and not spare; he would gladly flee out of his hand. Men shall clap their hands at him and shall hiss him out of his place.
- Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they refine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone. He sets an end to darkness and searches out all perfection, the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. The flood breaks out from the inhabitant, even the waters forgotten of the foot; they are dried up, they have gone away from men. As for the earth, out of it comes bread, and underneath it is turned up as by fire. The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the vulture’s eye has not seen. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. He puts forth his hand upon the rock, he overturns the mountains by the roots. He cuts out rivers among the rocks and his eye sees every precious thing. He binds the floods from overflowing, and the thing that is hidden brings he forth to light.
- But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man knows not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth says, It is not in me; and the sea says, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
- Where then comes wisdom? And where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God understands the way thereof, and he knows the place thereof; for he looks to the ends of the earth and sees under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, and he weighs the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then did he see it and declare it. He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.
- Moreover, Job continued his parable and said, Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me, when his candle shone upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness; as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me, when I washed my steps with butter and the rock poured me out rivers of oil.
- When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street, the young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood up. The princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth. The nobles held their peace and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me, because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me, my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not, I searched out. And I broke the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
- Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand. My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch. My glory was fresh in me and my bow was renewed in my hand.
- Unto me men gave ear and waited, and kept silence at my counsel. After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them; and they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain. If I laughed on them, they believed it not, and the light of my countenance they cast not down. I chose out their way, and sat chief and dwelled as a king in the army, as one that comforts the mourners.
- But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. Yea, to what might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? For lack and famine, they were solitary, fleeing into the wilderness in former time, desolate and waste, who cut up mallows by the bushes and juniper roots for their food. They were driven forth from among men. They cried after them as after a thief, to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. Among the bushes they brayed, under the nettles they were gathered together. They were children of fools, yea, children of base men. They were viler than the earth.
- And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. They abhor me, they flee far from me and refrain not to spit in my face. Because he has loosened my cord and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. Upon my right hand rise the youth. They push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters. In the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. Terrors are turned upon me. They pursue my soul as the wind, and my welfare passes away as a cloud.
- And now my soul is poured out upon me, the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. My bones are pierced in me in the night season, and my sinews take no rest. By the great force of my disease is my garment changed, it binds me about as the collar of my coat. He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
- I cry unto you and you do not hear me, I stand up and you regard me not. You are become cruel to me; with your strong hand you oppose yourself against me. You lift me up to the wind, you cause me to ride upon it, and dissolve my substance. For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. Nevertheless, he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
- Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? When I looked for good, then evil came unto me; and when I waited for light, there came darkness. My inward parts boiled, and rested not. The days of affliction confronted me. I went mourning without the sun. I stood up and I cried in the congregation. I am a brother to dragons and a companion to owls. My skin is black upon me and my bones are burned with heat. My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
- I made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I think upon a virgin? For what portion of God is there from above? And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? Is not destruction to the wicked, and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Does not he see my ways and count all my steps?
- If I have walked with vanity or if my foot has hastened to deceit, let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity. If my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any blot has cleaved to my hands, then let me sow and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
- If my heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, then let my wife grind unto another and let others bow down upon her. For this is a heinous crime, yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.
- If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant when they contended with me, what then shall I do when God rises up? And when he visits, what shall I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
- If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel myself, alone, and the fatherless has not eaten thereof — for from my youth he was brought up with me as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb — if I have seen any perish for lack of clothing or any poor without covering, if his loins have not blessed me and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep, if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless when I saw my help in the gate, then let my arm fall from my shoulder blade and my arm be broken from the bone. For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.
- If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, You are my confidence — if I rejoiced because my wealth was great and because my hand had gotten much, if I beheld the sun when it shone or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart has been secretly enticed or my mouth has kissed my hand, this also was an iniquity to be punished by the judge, for I should have denied the God that is above.
- If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him — neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul; if the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh, we cannot be satisfied — the stranger did not lodge in the street, but I opened my doors to the traveler; if I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom, did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence and went not out of the door?
- Oh that one would hear me. Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me, and that my adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a crown to me. I would declare unto him the number of my steps. As a prince would I go near unto him.
- If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain, if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life, let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley.
- The words of Job are ended.
Chapter 10