Bible in 90 Days
22 Don’t say, “I’ll pay back evil for evil”;
wait for Adonai to save you.
23 Adonai detests a double standard in weights,
and false scales are not good.
24 A man’s steps are ordered by Adonai,
so how can a person understand his own ways?
25 It is a snare to dedicate a gift to God rashly
and reflect on the vows only afterwards.
26 A wise king winnows the wicked [from the righteous]
and threshes them under the cartwheel.
27 The human spirit is a lamp of Adonai;
it searches one’s inmost being.
28 Grace and truth preserve a king;
with grace he upholds his throne.
29 The pride of the young is their strength;
the dignity of the old is gray hair.
30 Blows that wound purge away evil,
yes, beatings [cleanse] one’s inmost being.
21 The king’s heart in Adonai’s hand is like streams of water —
he directs it wherever he pleases.
2 All a person’s ways are right in his own view,
but Adonai weighs the heart.
3 To do what is right and just
is more pleasing to Adonai than sacrifice.
4 Haughty looks, a proud heart —
what the wicked plow is sin.
5 The plans of the diligent lead only to abundance;
but all who rush in arrive only at want.
6 A fortune gained by a lying tongue
is vapor dispersed [by] seekers of death.
7 The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,
because they refuse to act justly.
8 A criminal’s conduct is crooked,
but the work of the pure is right.
9 It is better to live on a corner of the roof
than to share the house with a nagging wife.
10 The wicked is set on evil;
he doesn’t pity even his neighbor.
11 When a scorner is punished, the simple become wiser;
and when the wise is instructed, he takes hold of knowledge.
12 The Righteous One observes the house of the wicked;
he overthrows the wicked to their ruin.
13 Whoever stops up his ears at the cry of the poor
will himself cry, but not be answered.
14 A secret gift allays anger,
and a bribe under the cloak the strongest fury.
15 Acting justly is a joy for the righteous
but it terrifies evildoers.
16 The person who strays from the way of common sense
will come to rest in the company of the dead.
17 Pleasure-lovers will suffer want;
he who loves wine and oil won’t get rich.
18 The wicked serve as a ransom for the righteous,
and likewise the perfidious for the upright.
19 It is better to live in the desert
than with a nagging, irritable wife.
20 In the home of the wise are fine treasures and oil,
but a fool quickly devours it.
21 He who pursues righteousness and kindness
finds life, prosperity and honor.
22 A wise man can go up into a city of warriors
and undermine the strength in which it trusts.
23 Whoever guards his mouth and tongue
keeps himself out of trouble.
24 “Scoffer” is what you call a proud, insolent person
who acts with overweening conceit.
25 A lazy man’s craving will kill him,
because his hands refuse to work —
26 he covets greedily all day long;
but a righteous person gives without holding back.
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination;
how much more when he brings it with vile motives.
28 A lying witness is doomed,
but one who heard [what was said] will testify successfully.
29 A wicked man puts on a bold face,
whereas the upright prepares his ways.
30 No wisdom, discernment or counsel
succeeds against Adonai.
31 A horse may be prepared for the day of battle,
but victory comes from Adonai.
22 Rather than wealth, choose a good reputation,
esteem over silver and gold.
2 Rich and poor have this in common —
Adonai made them both.
3 The clever see trouble coming and hide;
the simple go on and pay the penalty.
4 The reward for humility is fear of Adonai,
along with wealth, honor and life.
5 Thorns and snares beset the way of the stubborn;
he who values his life keeps his distance from them.
6 Train a child in the way he [should] go;
and, even when old, he will not swerve from it.
7 The rich rule the poor,
and the borrower is slave to the lender.
8 He who sows injustice reaps trouble,
and the rod of his angry outburst will fail.
9 He who is generous is blessed,
because he shares his food with the poor.
10 Throw the scoffer out, and quarreling goes too;
strife and insults cease.
11 He who loves the pure-hearted and is gracious in speech
will have the king as his friend.
12 The eyes of Adonai protect [the man with] knowledge,
but he overturns the plans of a traitor.
13 A lazy man says, “There’s a lion outside!
I’ll be killed if I go out in the street!”
14 The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit;
the man with whom Adonai is angry falls into it.
15 Doing wrong is firmly tied to the heart of a child,
but the rod of discipline will drive it far away from him.
16 Both oppressing the poor to enrich oneself
and giving to the rich yield only loss.
17 Pay attention, and listen to the words of the wise;
apply your heart to my knowledge;
18 for it is pleasant to keep them deep within you;
have all of them ready on your lips.
19 I want your trust to be in Adonai;
this is why I’m instructing you about them today.
20 I have written you worthwhile things
full of good counsel and knowledge,
21 so you will know that these sayings are certainly true
and bring back true sayings to him who sent you.
22 Don’t exploit the helpless, because they are helpless,
and don’t crush the poor in court,
23 for Adonai will plead their case for them
and withhold life from those who defraud them.
24 Don’t associate with an angry man;
make no hot-tempered man your companion.
25 If you do, you may learn his ways
and find yourself caught in a trap.
26 Don’t be one of those who give pledges,
guaranteeing loans made to others;
27 for if you don’t have the wherewithal to pay,
they will take your bed away from underneath you.
28 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone
set up by your ancestors.
29 Do you see a man skilled at his work?
He will serve kings, not obscure people.
23 When you sit down to dine with a ruler,
think carefully about who is before you.
2 If you have a big appetite,
put a knife to your throat!
3 Don’t be greedy for his delicacies,
for they are deceptive food.
4 Don’t exhaust yourself in pursuit of wealth;
be smart enough to desist.
5 If you make your eyes rush at it,
it’s no longer there!
For wealth will surely grow wings,
like an eagle flying off to the sky.
6 Don’t eat the food of a stingy man;
don’t be greedy for his delicacies.
7 For he is like someone who keeps accounts —
“Eat! Drink!” he says to you,
but he doesn’t really mean it.
8 The little you eat you will vomit up,
and your compliments will have been wasted.
9 Don’t speak in the ears of a fool,
for he will only despise the common sense in your words.
10 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone
or encroach on the land of the fatherless;
11 for their Redeemer is strong;
he will take up their fight against you.
12 Apply your mind to discipline
and your ears to words of knowledge.
13 Don’t withhold discipline from a child —
if you beat him with a stick, he won’t die!
14 If you beat him with a stick,
you will save him from Sh’ol.
15 My son, if your heart is wise,
then my own heart too is glad;
16 my inmost being rejoices
when your lips say what is right.
17 Don’t envy sinners, but follow the example
of those who always fear God;
18 for then you will have a future;
what you hope for will not be cut off.
19 You, my son: listen, be wise,
and set your mind on the right way.
20 Don’t be one of those who guzzle wine
or of those who eat meat to excess,
21 for both drunkard and glutton will become poor —
drowsiness will clothe them with rags.
22 Listen to your father, who gave you life;
and don’t despise your mother when she gets old.
23 Buy the truth, don’t sell it,
also wisdom, discipline and discernment.
24 A righteous person’s father will be filled with joy;
yes, he whose son is wise will rejoice in him.
25 So let your father and mother be glad;
let her who gave you birth rejoice.
26 My son, give me your heart;
let your eyes observe my ways.
27 A prostitute is a deep ditch,
and a forbidden woman like a narrow well.
28 She lies in wait to snatch her prey
and adds to the number of faithless men.
29 Who has misery? Who has regret?
Who fights and complains all the time?
Who gets bruised for no good reason?
Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who spend their time over wine,
those always trying out mixed drinks.
31 Don’t gaze at the red wine
as it gives its color to the cup.
It may glide down smoothly now;
32 but in the end, it bites like a serpent —
yes, it strikes like a poisonous snake.
33 Your eyes will see peculiar things,
your mind will utter nonsense.
34 You will feel as if lying on the waves of the sea
or sprawled on top of the mast —
35 “They hit me, but I didn’t feel it!
They beat me up, and I didn’t even know it!
When will I wake up? . . .
I’ll go get another drink.”
24 Don’t be envious of evil people,
and don’t desire to be with them.
2 For their minds are occupied with violence,
and their lips speak of making trouble.
3 By wisdom a house is built,
by understanding it is made secure,
4 and by knowledge its rooms are filled
with all kinds of costly and pleasant possessions.
5 A wise man is strong;
yes, a man of knowledge grows in strength.
6 For with clever strategy you wage your war,
and victory comes from having many advisers.
7 Wisdom is too lofty for a fool;
he keeps his mouth shut at the city gate.
8 He who plans to do evil
people call a schemer.
9 The evil plans of the foolish are sin,
and people detest a scorner.
10 If you slack off on a day of distress,
your strength is small indeed.
11 Yes, rescue those being dragged off to death —
won’t you save those about to be killed?
12 If you say, “We knew nothing about it,”
won’t he who weighs hearts discern it?
Yes, he who guards you will know it
and repay each one as his deeds deserve.
13 My son, eat honey, for it is good;
honeycomb drippings are sweet to your taste.
14 Know that wisdom is similar[ly sweet] to your soul;
if you find it, then you will have a future,
what you hope for will not be cut off.
15 Don’t lurk like an outlaw near the home of the righteous,
don’t raid the place where he lives.
16 For though he falls seven times, he will get up again;
it’s the wicked who fail under stress.
17 Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls;
don’t let your heart be glad when he stumbles.
18 For Adonai might see it, and it would displease him;
he might withdraw his anger from your foe.
19 Don’t get upset because of evildoers;
don’t be envious of the wicked.
20 For the evil person has no future —
the lamp of the wicked will go out.
21 My son, don’t get involved with revolutionaries,
but fear Adonai and the king.
22 For disaster from them will suddenly appear,
and who knows what ruin they both can cause?
23 These also are sayings of the wise:
Showing partiality in judgment is not good.
24 He who tells the guilty, “You are innocent,”
will be cursed by peoples, reviled by nations;
25 but with those who condemn him, things will go well,
and a good blessing will come upon them.
26 Giving an honest answer
is like giving a kiss.
27 Prepare your outside work,
and get things ready for yourself on the land;
after that, build your house.
28 Don’t be a witness against your neighbor for no reason —
would you use your lips to deceive?
29 Don’t say, “I’ll do to him what he did to me,
I’ll pay him back what his deeds deserve.”
30 I passed by the field of the lazy man
and the vineyard of the man lacking sense.
31 There it was, overgrown with thistles;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
32 I looked, and I thought about it;
I saw, and I learned this lesson:
33 “I’ll just lie here a bit, rest a little longer,
just fold my hands for a little more sleep” —
34 and poverty comes marching in on you,
scarcity hits you like an invading soldier.
25 These also are proverbs of Shlomo; the men of Hizkiyah king of Y’hudah copied them out:
2 God gets glory from concealing things;
kings get glory from investigating things.
3 Like the sky for height or the earth for depth
is the heart of kings — unfathomable.
4 Remove the impurities from the silver,
and the smith has material to make a vessel.
5 Remove the wicked from the king’s presence,
and his throne will rest firmly on righteousness.
6 Don’t put yourself forward in the king’s presence;
don’t take a place among the great.
7 For it is better to be told, “Come up here,”
than be degraded in the presence of a nobleman.
What your eyes have seen,
8 don’t rush to present in a dispute.
For what will you do later on,
if your neighbor puts you to shame?
9 Discuss your dispute with your neighbor,
but don’t reveal another person’s secrets.
10 If you do, and he hears of it, he will disgrace you,
and your bad reputation will stick.
11 Like apples of gold in settings of silver
is a word appropriately spoken.
12 Like a gold earring, like a fine gold necklace
is a wise reprover to a receptive ear.
13 Like the coldness of snow in the heat of the harvest
is a faithful messenger to the one who sends him;
he refreshes his master’s spirit.
14 Like clouds and wind that bring no rain
is he who boasts of gifts he never gives.
15 With patience a ruler may be won over,
and a gentle tongue can break bones.
16 If you find honey, eat only what you need;
for if you eat too much of it, you may throw it up;
17 so don’t visit your neighbor too much,
or he may get his fill of you and come to hate you.
18 Like a club, a sword or a sharp arrow
is a person who gives false testimony against a neighbor.
19 Relying on an untrustworthy person in a time of trouble
is like [relying on] a broken tooth or an unsteady leg.
20 Like removing clothes on a chilly day or like vinegar on soda
is someone who sings songs to a heavy heart.
21 If someone who hates you is hungry, give him food to eat;
and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
22 For you will heap fiery coals [of shame] on his head,
and Adonai will reward you.
23 The north wind brings rain
and a backbiting tongue, angry looks.
24 It is better to live on a corner of the roof
than to share the house with a nagging wife.
25 Like cold water to a person faint from thirst
is good news from a distant land.
26 Like a muddied spring or a polluted well
is a righteous person who gives way before the wicked.
27 It isn’t good to eat too much honey
or to seek honor after honor.
28 Like a city breached, without walls,
is a person who lacks self-control.
26 Like snow in summer or rain at harvest-time,
so honor for a fool is out of place.
2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a flying swallow,
an undeserved curse will come home to roost.
3 A whip for a horse, a bridle for a donkey,
and a rod for the back of fools.
4 Don’t answer a fool in terms of his folly,
or you will be descending to his level;
5 but answer a fool as his folly deserves,
so that he won’t think he is wise.
6 Telling a message to a fool and sending him out
is like cutting off one’s feet and drinking violence.
7 The legs of the disabled hang limp and useless;
likewise a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
8 Like one who ties his stone to the sling
is he who gives honor to a fool.
9 Like a thorn branch in the hand of a drunk
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
10 A master can make anything,
but hiring a fool is like hiring some passer-by.
11 Just as a dog returns to his vomit,
a fool repeats his folly.
12 Do you see someone who thinks himself wise?
There is more hope for a fool than for him!
13 The lazy person says, “There’s a lion in the streets!
A lion is roaming loose out there!”
14 The door turns on its hinges,
and the lazy man on his bed.
15 The lazy person buries his hand in the dish
but is too tired to return it to his mouth.
16 A lazy man is wiser in his own view
than seven who can answer with sense.
17 Like someone who grabs a dog by the ears
is a passer-by who mixes in a fight not his own.
18 Like a madman shooting deadly arrows and firebrands
19 is one who deceives another, then says, “It was just a joke.”
20 If there’s no wood, the fire goes out;
if nobody gossips, contention stops.
21 As coals are to embers and wood to fire
is a quarrelsome person to kindling strife.
22 A slanderer’s words are tasty morsels;
they slide right down into the belly.
23 Like silver slag overlaid on a clay pot
are lips that burn [with friendship] over a hating heart.
24 He who hates may hide it with his speech;
but inside, he harbors deceit.
25 He may speak pleasantly, but don’t trust him;
for seven abominations are in his heart.
26 His hatred may be concealed by deceit,
but his wickedness will be revealed in the assembly.
27 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it,
and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling.
28 A lying tongue hates its victims,
and a flattering mouth causes ruin.
27 Don’t boast about tomorrow,
for you don’t know what the day may bring.
2 Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth,
a stranger and not your own lips.
3 Stone is heavy and sand a dead weight,
but a fool’s provocation outweighs them both.
4 Fury is cruel and anger overwhelming,
but who can stand up to jealousy?
5 Better open rebuke
than hidden love.
6 Wounds from a friend are received as well-meant,
but an enemy’s kisses are insincere.
7 A person who is full loathes a honeycomb;
but to the hungry, any bitter thing is sweet.
8 Like a bird that strays from its nest
is a man who strays from his home.
9 Perfume and incense make the heart glad,
[also] friendship sweet with advice from the heart.
10 Don’t abandon a friend
who is also a friend of your father.
Don’t enter your brother’s house on the day of your calamity —
better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.
11 My son, become wise, and gladden my heart,
so that I can answer my critics.
12 The clever see trouble coming and hide;
the thoughtless go on and pay the penalty.
13 Seize his clothes because he guaranteed a stranger’s loan;
take them as security for that unknown woman.
14 Whoever greets his neighbor in a loud voice at dawn
might just as well have cursed him.
15 A leak that keeps dripping on a rainy day
and the nagging of a wife are the same —
16 whoever can restrain her can restrain the wind
or keep perfume on his hand from making itself known.
17 Just as iron sharpens iron,
a person sharpens the character of his friend.
18 Whoever tends the fig tree will eat its fruit,
and he who is attentive to his master will be honored.
19 Just as water reflects the face,
so one human heart reflects another.
20 Sh’ol and Abaddon are never satisfied,
and human eyes are never satisfied.
21 The crucible [tests] silver, and the furnace [tests] gold,
but a person [is tested] by [his reaction to] praise.
22 You can crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle,
along with the grain being crushed;
yet his foolishness will not leave him.
23 Take care to know the condition of your flocks,
and pay attention to your herds.
24 For wealth doesn’t last forever,
neither does a crown through all generations.
25 When the hay has been mown, and the new grass appears,
and the mountain greens have been gathered;
26 the lambs will provide your clothing,
the goats will sell for enough to buy a field,
27 and there will be enough goat’s milk
to [buy] food for you and your household
and maintenance for your servant-girls.
28 The wicked flee when no one pursues them;
but the righteous, like lions, feel sure of themselves.
2 A land which transgresses [is punished by] having many rulers;
but with a man of understanding and knowledge, stability is prolonged.
3 A poor man who oppresses the weak
is like a downpour that sweeps away all the food.
4 Those who abandon Torah praise the wicked,
but those who keep Torah fight them.
5 Evil people don’t understand justice,
but those who seek Adonai understand everything.
6 Better to be poor and live an honest life
than be crooked in one’s ways, though rich.
7 A wise son observes Torah,
but a friend of those lacking restraint shames his father.
8 He who increases his wealth by charging exorbitant interest
amasses it for someone who will bestow it on the poor.
9 If a person will not listen to Torah,
even his prayer is an abomination.
10 Whoever causes the honest to pursue evil ways
will himself fall into his own pit,
but the pure-hearted will inherit good.
11 The rich man is wise in his own view,
but the poor who has discernment sees through him.
12 When the just are triumphant, there is great rejoicing,
but when the wicked rise up, people hide.
13 He who conceals his sins will not succeed;
he who confesses and abandons them will gain mercy.
14 Happy the person who is never without fear,
but he who hardens his heart will fall into misfortune.
15 Like a roaring lion or a bear prowling for food
is a wicked ruler over a poor people.
16 A prince without discernment is a cruel oppressor,
but one who hates greed will prolong his life.
17 Let a man weighed down with anyone’s blood
flee to a pit; give him no support.
18 Whoever lives blamelessly will be saved,
but he whose ways are crooked will fall in one [of those ways].
19 He who farms his land will have plenty of food,
but he who follows futilities will have plenty of poverty.
20 A trustworthy person will receive many blessings,
but one rushing to get rich will not go unpunished.
21 To show partiality is not good,
though a person may do wrong for a crust of bread.
22 He who is greedy rushes after riches,
not knowing that want will overtake him.
23 He who rebukes another person
in the end gets more thanks than the flatterer.
24 Whoever robs mother or father and says, “That’s not a crime!”
is comrade to the destroyer.
25 A grasping disposition stirs up strife,
but he who trusts in Adonai will prosper.
26 He who trusts in himself is a fool,
but he who lives by wisdom will escape.
27 He who gives to the poor will lack nothing,
but he who hides his eyes will get curses in plenty.
28 When the wicked rise up, people hide;
but when they perish, the righteous flourish.
29 He who remains stiffnecked after much rebuke
will be suddenly and incurably broken.
2 When the righteous flourish, the people rejoice;
but when the wicked are in power, the people groan.
3 Whoever loves wisdom brings joy to his father,
but a patron of prostitutes wastes his wealth.
4 A king gives stability to a country by justice,
but one who overtaxes it brings it to ruin.
5 A person who flatters his neighbor
spreads a net for his own steps.
6 In an evil person’s crime is a trap,
but the righteous sing and rejoice.
7 The righteous understands the cause of the poor,
but the wicked is unconcerned.
8 Scoffers can inflame a city,
but the wise can calm the fury.
9 When a wise man argues with a foolish one,
he meets anger and ridicule without relief.
10 Men of blood hate those who are pure
and seek the life of the upright.
11 A fool gives vent to all his feelings,
but the wise, thinking of afterwards, stills them.
12 If a ruler listens to lies,
all his officials will be wicked.
13 The poor and the oppressor have this in common:
Adonai gives light to the eyes of both.
14 If a king steadfastly gives justice to the poor,
his throne will be secure forever.
15 The rod and rebuke give wisdom,
but a child left to himself brings shame on his mother.
16 When the wicked flourish, wrongdoing flourishes;
but the righteous will witness their downfall.
17 Discipline your son, and he will give you rest;
yes, he will be your delight.
18 Without a prophetic vision, the people throw off all restraint;
but he who keeps Torah is happy.
19 A slave can’t be disciplined with words;
he may understand, but he won’t respond.
20 Do you see someone too anxious to speak?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
21 A slave who is pampered from youth
will in the end be ungrateful.
22 Angry people stir up strife;
hot-tempered people commit many crimes.
23 The proud will be humbled,
but the humble will be honored.
24 The accomplice of a thief hates himself;
he hears himself put under oath but discloses nothing.
25 Fearing human beings is a snare;
but he who trusts in Adonai will be raised high [above danger].
26 Many seek the ruler’s favor,
but it is from Adonai that each gets justice.
27 An unjust person is an abomination to the righteous,
but he who lives uprightly is an abomination to the wicked.
30 The words of Agur the son of Yakeh, the prophecy. The man says to Iti’el, to Iti’el and Ukhal:
2 I am more boorish than anyone,
I lack human discernment;
3 I have not learned enough wisdom
to know the Holy One.
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hands?
Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?
Who established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know!
5 Every word of God’s is pure;
he shields those taking refuge in him.
6 Don’t add anything to his words;
or he will rebuke you, and you be found a liar.
7 [God,] I have asked two things of you;
don’t deny them to me as long as I live —
8 keep falsehood and futility far from me,
and give me neither poverty nor wealth.
Yes, provide just the food I need today;
9 for if I have too much, I might deny you
and say, “Who is Adonai?”
And if I am poor, I might steal
and thus profane the name of my God.
10 Never disparage a slave to his master,
or he will curse you, and you will deserve it.
11 There is a type of people who curse their fathers
and don’t bless their mothers.
12 There is a type of people clean in their own view,
but not cleansed from their filth.
13 There is a type of people — how haughty their look! —
utterly supercilious!
14 There is a type of people whose teeth are like swords,
yes, their fangs are knives;
they devour the poor from the earth,
the needy from humankind.
15 The leech has two daughters;
they cry, “Give! Give!”
Three things are never satisfied;
four never say, “Enough!” —
16 Sh’ol and a barren womb;
the earth, never satisfied with water;
and fire, which never says, “Enough!”
17 The eye that mocks his father
and scorns obeying his mother
will be pecked out by the ravens in the valley,
and the vultures will eat it.
18 Three things are too wonderful for me,
four beyond my knowledge —
19 the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the open sea,
and the way of a man with a girl.
20 This is how an unfaithful wife behaves:
she eats, wipes her mouth, and says, “I did nothing wrong.”
21 Three things make the earth quake,
four things it can’t bear —
22 a slave who becomes king,
a boor gorged with food,
23 a hated [wife] when her husband takes her [back],
and a slave-girl who inherits from her mistress.
24 Four things on the earth are small;
nevertheless, they are very wise —
25 the ants, a species not strong,
yet they store up their food in the summer;
26 the coneys, a species with little power,
yet they make their home in the rocks;
27 the locusts, who have no king,
yet they all march out in ranks;
28 and the spiders, which you can catch in your hand,
yet they are in the king’s palace.
29 Three things are stately in their stride,
four of stately gait —
30 the lion, mightiest of beasts,
which turns aside for none;
31 the greyhound, the billy-goat
and the king when his army is with him.
32 If you have been boorish, exalting yourself,
or if you have been scheming,
lay your hand on your mouth.
33 For as pressing milk produces butter
and pressing the nose produces blood,
so pressing out anger produces strife.
31 The words of King L’mu’el, the prophecy with which his mother disciplined him:
2 No, my son! No, son of my womb!
No, son of my vows!
3 Don’t give your strength to women
or your ways to that which destroys kings.
4 It is not for kings, L’mu’el,
not for kings to drink wine;
it is not for rulers to ask,
“Where can I find strong liquor?”
5 For they may drink, then forget what has been decreed,
and pervert the justice due to the poor.
6 Give strong liquor to one who is perishing,
wine to the deeply depressed;
7 let him drink, forget his poverty
and cease to remember his troubles.
8 Speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who need an advocate.
9 Speak up, judge righteously,
defend the cause of the poor and the needy.
א 10 Who can find a capable wife?
Her value is far beyond that of pearls.
ב 11 Her husband trusts her from his heart,
and she will prove a great asset to him.
ג 12 She works to bring him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
ד 13 She procures a supply of wool and flax
and works with willing hands.
ה 14 She is like those merchant vessels,
bringing her food from far away.
ו 15 It’s still dark when she rises to give food to her household
and orders to the young women serving her.
ז 16 She considers a field, then buys it,
and from her earnings she plants a vineyard.
ח 17 She gathers her strength around her
and throws herself into her work.
ט 18 She sees that her business affairs go well;
her lamp stays lit at night.
י 19 She puts her hands to the staff with the flax;
her fingers hold the spinning rod.
כ 20 She reaches out to embrace the poor
and opens her arms to the needy.
ל 21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
since all of them are doubly clothed.
מ 22 She makes her own quilts;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
נ 23 Her husband is known at the city gates
when he sits with the leaders of the land.
ס 24 She makes linen garments and sells them;
she supplies the merchants with sashes.
ע 25 Clothed with strength and dignity,
she can laugh at the days to come.
פ 26 When she opens her mouth, she speaks wisely;
on her tongue is loving instruction.
צ 27 She watches how things go in her house,
not eating the bread of idleness.
ק 28 Her children arise; they make her happy;
her husband too, as he praises her:
ר 29 “Many women have done wonderful things,
but you surpass them all!”
ש 30 Charm can lie, beauty can vanish,
but a woman who fears Adonai should be praised.
ת 31 Give her a share in what she produces;
let her works speak her praises at the city gates.
1 There was a man in the land of ‘Utz whose name was Iyov. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 pairs of oxen and 500 female donkeys, as well as a great number of servants; so that he was the wealthiest man in the east.
4 It was the custom of his sons to give banquets, each on his set day in his own house; and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 After a cycle of banquets, Iyov would send for them to come and be consecrated; then he would get up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings for each of them, because Iyov said, “My sons might have sinned and blasphemed God in their thoughts.” This is what Iyov did every time.
6 It happened one day that the sons of God came to serve Adonai, and among them came the Adversary [a]. 7 Adonai asked the Adversary, “Where are you coming from?” The Adversary answered Adonai, “From roaming through the earth, wandering here and there.” 8 Adonai asked the Adversary, “Did you notice my servant Iyov, that there’s no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil?” 9 The Adversary answered Adonai, “Is it for nothing that Iyov fears God? 10 You’ve put a protective hedge around him, his house and everything he has. You’ve prospered his work, and his livestock are spread out all over the land. 11 But if you reach out your hand and touch whatever he has, without doubt he’ll curse you to your face!” 12 Adonai said to the Adversary, “Here! Everything he has is in your hands, except that you are not to lay a finger on his person.” Then the Adversary went out from the presence of Adonai.
13 One day when Iyov’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to him and said, “The oxen were plowing, with the donkeys grazing near them, 15 when a raiding party from Sh’va came and carried them off; they put the servants to the sword too, and I’m the only one who escaped to tell you.”
16 While he was still speaking, another one came and said, “Fire from God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants; it completely destroyed them, and I’m the only one who escaped to tell you.”
17 While he was still speaking, another one came and said, “The Kasdim, three bands of them, fell on the camels and carried them off; they put the servants to the sword too, and I’m the only one who escaped to tell you.”
18 While he was still speaking, another one came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a strong wind blew in from over the desert. It struck the four corners of the house, so that it fell on the young people; they are dead, and I’m the only one who escaped to tell you.”
20 Iyov got up, tore his coat, shaved his head, fell down on the ground and worshipped; 21 he said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will return there.
Adonai gave; Adonai took;
blessed be the name of Adonai.”
22 In all this Iyov neither committed a sin nor put blame on God.
2 Another day came when the sons of God came to serve Adonai, and among them came the Adversary to serve Adonai. 2 Adonai asked the Adversary, “Where are you coming from?” The Adversary answered Adonai, “From roaming through the earth, wandering here and there.” 3 Adonai asked the Adversary, “Did you notice my servant Iyov, that there’s no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil, and that he still holds on to his integrity, even though you provoked me against him to destroy him for no reason?” 4 The Adversary answered Adonai, “Skin for skin! A person will give up everything he has to save his life. 5 But if you reach out your hand and touch his flesh and bone, without doubt he’ll curse you to your face!” 6 Adonai said to the Adversary, “Here! He is in your hands, except that you are to spare his life.”
7 Then the Adversary went out from the presence of Adonai and struck Iyov down with horrible infected sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 He took a piece of a broken pot to scratch himself and sat down in the pile of ashes. 9 His wife asked him, “Why do you still hold on to your integrity? Curse God, and die!” 10 But he answered her, “You’re talking like a low-class woman! Are we to receive the good at God’s hands but reject the bad?” In all this Iyov did not say one sinful word.
11 Now when Iyov’s three friends heard of all the calamities that had overwhelmed him, they all came. Each came from his own home — Elifaz from Teiman, Bildad from Shuach and Tzofar from Na‘amah. They had agreed to meet together in order to come and offer him sympathy and comfort. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they couldn’t even recognize him. They wept aloud, tore their coats and threw dust over their heads toward heaven. 13 Then they sat down with him on the ground. For seven days and seven nights, no one spoke a word to him; because they saw how much he was suffering. 14 (3:1) At length, Iyov broke the silence and cursed the day of his [birth].
3 (2) Iyov said,
2 (3) “Perish the day I was born
and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’
3 (4) May that day be darkness,
may God on high not seek it,
may no light shine on it,
4 (5) may gloom dark as death defile it,
may clouds settle on it,
may it be terrified by its own blackness.
5 (6) “As for that night, may thick darkness seize it,
may it not be joined to the days of the year,
may it not be numbered among the months;
6 (7) may that night be desolate,
may no cry of joy be heard in it;
7 (8) may those who curse days curse it,
those who[se curses] could rouse Livyatan;
8 (9) may the stars of its twilight be dark,
may it look for light but get none,
may it never see the shimmer of dawn —
9 (10) because it didn’t shut the doors of the womb I was in
and shield my eyes from trouble.
10 (11) “If I had been stillborn,
if I had died at birth,
11 (12) had there been no knees to receive me
or breasts for me to suck.
12 (13) Then I would be lying still and in peace,
I would have slept and been at rest,
13 (14) along with kings and their earthly advisers,
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
14 (15) or with princes who had [plenty of] gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
15 (16) Or I could have been like a hidden, miscarried
child that never saw light.
16 (17) “There the wicked cease their raging,
there the weary are at rest,
17 (18) prisoners live at peace together
without hearing a taskmaster’s yells.
18 (19) Great and small alike are there,
and the slave is free of his master.
19 (20) “So why must light be given to the miserable
and life to the bitter in spirit?
20 (21) They long for death, but it never comes;
they search for it more than for buried treasure;
21 (22) when at last they find the grave,
they are so happy they shout for joy.
22 (23) [Why give light] to a man who wanders blindly,
whom God shuts in on every side?
23 (24) “My sighing serves in place of my food,
and my groans pour out in a torrent;
24 (25) for the thing I feared has overwhelmed me,
what I dreaded has happened to me.
25 (26) I have no peace, no quiet, no rest;
and anguish keeps coming.”
4 Then Elifaz the Teimani spoke up:
2 “If one tries to speak to you, will you mind?
Yet who could keep from speaking?
3 You have given moral instruction to many,
you have firmed up feeble hands,
4 your words have supported those who were stumbling,
and you have strengthened the weak-kneed.
5 “But now it comes to you, and you are impatient;
at the first touch, you are in shock.
6 Isn’t your fear of God your assurance,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 “Think back: what innocent person has perished?
Since when are the upright destroyed?
8 What I see is that those who plow sin
and sow trouble reap just that.
9 At a breath from God, they perish;
at a blast from his anger, they are consumed.
10 The lion may growl, the king lion may roar,
but that old lion’s teeth are broken;
11 so the lion succumbs from lack of prey,
and the lion’s cubs are scattered.
12 “For a word was stealthily brought to me,
my ear caught only a whisper of it.
13 In passing thoughts flashing through visions at night,
when sleep lies heavy on people,
14 a shiver of horror came over me;
it made all my bones tremble.
15 Then a spirit passed in front of my face;
the hair of my flesh stood on end.
16 It stood still,
but I couldn’t make out its appearance;
yet the form stayed there before my eyes.
Then I heard a subdued voice:
17 ‘Can a human be seen by God as righteous?
Can a mortal be pure before his maker?
18 [God] doesn’t trust his own servants,
he finds fault even with his angels;
19 much more those living in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust.
They are crushed more easily than a worm;
20 shattered between morning and evening;
they perish forever, and no one takes notice.
21 Their cord within them is pulled up;
then they die, without ever gaining wisdom.’
5 “Call if you like, but will anyone answer?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
2 For anger kills the fool,
and envy slays the silly.
3 I watch as a fool establishes roots,
but I curse his home with sudden [destruction] —
4 his children are far from help,
publicly humiliated, with no one to rescue;
5 the hungry eat up his harvest,
taking it even from among thorns,
while the thirsty are panting,
eager to swallow his wealth.
6 For misery does not come from the dust
or trouble spring from the ground.
7 No, people are born for trouble
as surely as sparks fly upward.
8 “If I were you, I would seek God;
I would make my plea to him.
9 For God does great deeds beyond investigation,
wonders beyond all reckoning.
10 He gives rain to the earth,
pours water down on the fields.
11 He raises the lowly on high
and lifts mourners to safety.
12 He frustrates the schemes of the cunning,
so that they achieve no success;
13 trapping the crafty in their own tricks
and foiling quickly the plans of the false.
14 They meet with darkness during the day,
groping at noon like at night.
15 But he saves the poor from the sword, their mouth,
and from the clutches of the strong;
16 so the poor can hope again;
and injustice shuts its mouth.
17 “How happy the person whom God corrects!
So don’t despise Shaddai’s discipline.
18 For he wounds, but he bandages the sore;
his hands may strike, but they also heal.
19 He will rescue you from six disasters;
yes, in seven no harm will touch you.
20 In famine, he will save you from death,
and in war, from the power of the sword.
21 You will be shielded from the lash of the tongue,
and you won’t have to fear destruction when it comes —
22 you’ll be able to laugh at destruction and famine.
Also you won’t have to fear wild animals,
23 for you will be in league with the stones in the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
24 You will know that your tent is safe;
you will look round your home and miss nothing.
25 You will know that your descendants are many,
your offspring like grass [growing thick] in the fields.
26 You will come to your grave at a ripe old age,
like a pile of grain that arrives in season.
27 “We’ve looked into this, and that’s how it is;
listen, and know that it’s for your own good.”
6 Iyov responded:
2 “I wish my frustration could be weighed,
all my calamities laid on the scales!
3 They would outweigh the sands of the seas!
No wonder, then, that my words come out stammered!
4 For the arrows of Shaddai find their mark in me,
and my spirit is drinking in their poison;
the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
5 “Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass?
Does an ox low when it has fodder?
6 Can food without flavor be eaten without salt?
Do egg whites have any taste?
7 I refuse to touch them;
such food makes me sick.
8 “If only I could have my wish granted,
and God would give me what I’m hoping for —
9 that God would decide to crush me,
that he would let his hand loose and cut me off!
10 Then I would feel consoled;
so that even in the face of unending pain,
I would be able to rejoice;
for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
11 “Have I enough strength to go on waiting?
What end can I expect, that I should be patient?
12 Is my strength the strength of stones?
Is my flesh made of bronze?
13 Clearly, I have no help in myself;
common sense has been driven from me.
14 “A friend should be kind to an unhappy man,
even to one who abandons Shaddai.
15 But my brothers are as deceptive as vadis,
as vadi streams that soon run dry;
16 they may turn dark with ice
and be hidden by piled-up snow;
17 but as the weather warms up, they vanish;
when it’s hot, they disappear.
18 Their courses turn this way and that;
they go up into the confusing waste and are lost.
19 The caravans from Tema look for them,
the travelers from Sh’va hope to find them;
20 but they are disappointed, because they were confident;
on arrival there, they are frustrated.
21 “For now, you have become like that —
just seeing my calamity makes you afraid.
22 Did I say to you, ‘Give me something,’
or, ‘From your wealth, offer a bribe on my behalf,’
23 or, ‘Save me from the enemy’s grip,’
or, ‘Redeem me from the clutches of oppressors’?
24 “Teach me, and I will be silent.
Make me understand how I am at fault.
25 Honest words are forceful indeed,
but what do your arguments prove?
26 Do you think [your own] words constitute argument,
while the speech of a desperate man is merely wind?
27 I suppose you would even throw dice for an orphan
or barter away your friend!
28 “So now, I beg you, look at me!
Would I lie to your face?
29 Think it over, please; don’t let wrong be done.
Think it over again: my cause is just.
30 Am I saying something wrong?
Can’t I recognize trouble when I taste it?
7 “Human life on earth is like serving in the army;
yes, we drudge through our days like a hired worker,
2 like a slave longing for shade,
like a worker thinking only of his wages.
3 So I am assigned months of meaninglessness;
troubled nights are my lot.
4 When I lie down, I ask,
‘When can I get up?’
But the night is long, and I keep tossing
to and fro until daybreak.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt,
my skin forms scabs that ooze pus.
6 My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle
and come to their end without hope.
7 “Remember that my life is but a breath;
my eyes will never again see good times.
8 The eye that now sees me will see me no more;
while your eyes are on me, I will be gone.
9 Like a cloud dissolving and disappearing,
so he who descends to Sh’ol won’t come back up.
10 He will not return again to his house,
and his home will know him no more.
11 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth
but will speak in my anguish of spirit
and complain in my bitterness of soul.
12 Am I the sea, or some sea monster,
that you put a guard over me?
13 When I think that my bed will comfort me,
that my couch will relieve my complaint,
14 then you terrify me with dreams
and frighten me with visions.
15 I would rather be strangled;
death would be better than these bones of mine.
16 I hate it! I won’t live forever,
so leave me alone, for my life means nothing.
17 “What are mere mortals, that you make so much of them?
Why do you keep them on your mind?
18 Why examine them every morning
and test them every moment?
19 Won’t you ever take your eyes off of me,
at least long enough for me to swallow my spit?
20 “Suppose I do sin — how do I harm you,
you scrutinizer of humanity?
Why have you made me your target,
so that I am a burden to you?
21 Why don’t you pardon my offense
and take away my guilt?
For soon I will lie down in the dust;
you will seek me, but I will be gone.”
8 Bildad the Shuchi spoke next:
2 “How long will you go on talking like this?
What you are saying is raging wind!
3 Does God distort judgment?
Does Shaddai pervert justice?
4 If your children sinned against him,
he left them to be victims of their own offense.
5 “If you will earnestly seek God
and plead for Shaddai’s favor,
6 if you are pure and upright;
then he will rouse himself for you
and fulfill your needs.
7 Then, although your beginnings were small,
your future will be very great indeed.
8 “Ask the older generation,
and consider what their ancestors found out;
9 for we who were born yesterday know nothing,
our days on earth are but a shadow.
10 They will teach you, they will tell you,
they will say what is in their hearts:
11 ‘Can papyrus grow except in a marsh?
Can swamp grass flourish without water?
12 While still green, before being cut down,
it dries up faster than any other plant.
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of a hypocrite will perish —
14 his confidence is mere gossamer,
his trust a spider’s web.
15 He can lean on his house, but it won’t stand;
he can hold on to it, but it won’t last;
16 [for its destruction will come] like the lush growth
of a plant in the sun,
its shoots may spread out all over its garden,
17 but meanwhile its roots cause the stone house
to collapse, as it seizes hold of the rocks;
18 someone who tears it away from its place
denies he has ever seen it.
19 Yes, this is the “joy” of the way [of the godless],
and out of the dust will spring up others [like him].’
20 “Look, God will not reject a blameless man;
nor will he uphold wrongdoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will cease to exist.”
9 Then Iyov responded:
2 “Indeed, I know that this is so;
but how can a human win a case against God?
3 Whoever might want to argue with him
could not answer him one [question] in a thousand.
4 His heart is so wise, his strength so great —
who can resist him and succeed?
5 “He moves the mountains, although they don’t know it,
when he overturns them in his anger.
6 He shakes the earth from its place;
its supporting pillars tremble.
7 He commands the sun, and it fails to rise;
he shuts up the stars under his seal.
8 He alone spreads out the sky
and walks on the waves in the sea.
9 He made the Great Bear, Orion, the Pleiades
and the hidden constellations of the south.
10 He does great, unsearchable things,
wonders beyond counting.
11 He can go right by me, and I don’t see him;
he moves past without my being aware of him.
12 If he kills [people], who will ask why?
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13 God will not withdraw his anger —
even Rahav’s supporters submit to him.
14 “How much less can I answer him
and select my arguments against him!
15 Even if I were right, I wouldn’t answer;
I could only ask for mercy from my judge.
16 If I summoned him, and he answered me,
I still can’t believe he would listen to my plea.
17 He could break me with a storm;
he could multiply my wounds for no reason,
18 to the point where I couldn’t even breathe —
with such bitterness he could fill me!
19 If it’s a matter of force, look how mighty he is;
if justice, who can summon him to court?
20 Even if I’m right, my own mouth will condemn me;
if I’m innocent, it would pronounce me guilty.
21 “I am innocent. Don’t I know myself?
But I’ve had enough of this life of mine!
22 So I say it’s all the same —
he destroys innocent and wicked alike.
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
he laughs at the plight of the innocent.
24 The earth has been given to the power of the wicked;
he covers the faces of its judges —
if it isn’t he, then who is it?
25 My days pass on more swiftly than a runner;
they flee without seeing anything good.
26 They skim by like skiffs built of reeds,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
27 “If I say, ‘I’ll forget my complaining,
I’ll put off my sad face and be cheerful,’
28 then I’m still afraid of all my pain,
and I know you will not hold me innocent.
29 I will be condemned,
so why waste my efforts?
30 Even if I washed myself in melted snow
and cleansed my hands with lye,
31 you would plunge me into the muddy pit,
till my own clothes would detest me.
32 “For he is not merely human like me;
there is no answer that I could give him
if we were to come together in court.
33 There is no arbitrator between us
who could lay his hand on us both.
34 If he would remove his rod from me
and not let his terrors frighten me,
35 then I would speak without fear of him;
for when I’m alone, I’m not afraid.
10 “I am just worn out.
“By my life [I swear],
I will never abandon my complaint;
I will speak out in my soul’s bitterness.
2 I will say to God, ‘Don’t condemn me!
Tell me why you are contending with me.
3 Do you gain some advantage from oppressing,
from spurning what your own hands made,
from shining on the schemes of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as humans see?
5 Are your days like the days of mortals?
Are your years like human years,
6 that you have to seek my guilt
and search out my sin?
7 You know that I won’t be condemned,
yet no one can rescue me from your power.
8 Your own hands shaped me, they made me;
so why do you turn and destroy me?
9 Please remember that you made me, like clay;
will you return me to dust?
10 Didn’t you pour me out like milk,
then let me thicken like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh
you knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You granted me life and grace;
your careful attention preserved my spirit.
13 “‘Yet you hid these things in your heart;
I know what your secret purpose was —
14 to watch until I would sin
and then not absolve me of my guilt.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me! —
but if righteous, I still don’t dare raise my head,
because I am so filled with shame,
so soaked in my misery.
16 You rise up to hunt me like a lion,
and you keep treating me in such peculiar ways.
17 You keep producing fresh witnesses against me,
your anger against me keeps growing,
your troops assail me, wave after wave.
18 “‘Why did you bring me out of the womb?
I wish I had died there where no eye could see me.
19 I would have been as if I had never existed,
I would have been carried from womb to grave.
20 Aren’t my days few? So stop!
Leave me alone, so I can cheer up a little
21 before I go to the place of no return,
to the land of darkness and death-dark gloom,
22 a land of gloom like darkness itself,
of dense darkness and utter disorder,
where even the light is dark.’”
11 Next Tzofar the Na‘amati spoke up:
2 “Shouldn’t this torrent of words be answered?
Does talking a lot make a person right?
3 Is your babble supposed to put others to silence?
When you mock, is no one to make you ashamed?
4 “You claim that your teaching is pure;
you tell [God], ‘I am clean in your sight.’
5 I wish that God would speak,
would open his mouth to answer you,
6 would tell you the secrets of wisdom,
which is worth twice as much as common sense.
Understand that God is demanding of you
less than your guilt deserves.
7 “Can you penetrate God’s depths?
Can you find out Shaddai’s limits?
8 They’re as high as heaven; what can you do?
They’re deeper than Sh’ol; what can you know?
9 Their extent is longer than the earth
and broader than the sea.
10 If he passes through, puts in prison
and assembles [for judgment], who can prevent him?
11 For he knows when people are worthless;
so if he sees iniquity, won’t he look into it?
12 “An empty man can gain understanding,
even if he was born like a wild donkey.
13 If you will set your heart right,
if you will spread out your hands toward him,
14 if you will put your iniquity at a distance
and not let unrighteousness remain in your tents,
15 then when you lift up your face, there will be no defect;
you will be firm and free from fear.
16 “For you will forget your misery;
you’ll remember it like a flood that passed through long ago;
17 your life will be brighter than noon;
even its darkness will be like morning.
18 You will be confident, because there is hope;
you will look around you and lie down secure;
19 you will rest, and no one will make you afraid.
Many will seek your favor;
20 but the eyes of the wicked will fail [to find comfort].
They will find no way to escape,
and their hope will turn to complete disappointment.”
12 Iyov responded:
2 “No doubt you are [the only] people [that matter];
and when you die, so will wisdom.
3 But I too have a brain, as much as you,
In no way am I inferior to you.
Besides, who doesn’t know things like these?
4 “Anyone who calls on God,
and he answers him,
becomes a laughingstock to his friends —
they make fun of an innocent, blameless man.
5 Those at ease have contempt for misfortune,
for the blow that strikes somebody already staggering.
6 The tents of robbers prosper,
[the homes of] those who anger God are secure,
those who carry their gods in their hands.
7 “But ask the animals — they will teach you —
and the birds in the air — they will tell you;
8 or speak to the earth — it will teach you —
and the fish in the sea will inform you:
9 every one of them knows
that the hand of Adonai has done this!
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the spirit of every human being.
11 Shouldn’t the ear test words,
just as the palate tastes food?
12 Is wisdom [only] with aged men?
discernment [only] with long life?
13 “With God are wisdom and power;
he has [good] counsel and understanding.
14 When he breaks something down, it can’t be rebuilt;
when he imprisons someone, he can’t be released.
15 When he holds back water, there is drought;
when he sends it out, it overruns the land.
16 With him are strength and common sense;
both the misled and those who mislead are his.
17 He leads counselors away captive,
he makes fools of judges.
18 He removes authority from kings,
then binds them up [as prisoners].
19 He leads cohanim away captive
and overthrows those long in power.
20 Those who are trusted he deprives of speech,
and he removes the discernment of the aged.
21 He pours contempt on princes
and loosens the belt of the strong.
22 He discloses the deepest recesses of darkness
and brings light into shadows dark as death.
23 He makes nations great and destroys them;
he enlarges nations, then leads them away.
24 He removes understanding from a country’s leaders
and makes them wander in trackless deserts.
25 They grope in unlit darkness;
he makes them stagger like drunks.
13 “All this I have seen with my own eyes;
with my own ears I have heard and understood it.
2 Whatever you know, I know too;
I am not inferior to you.
3 However, it’s Shaddai I want to speak with;
I want to prove my case to God.
4 But you, what you do is whitewash with lies;
you are all witch doctors!
5 I wish you would just stay silent;
for you, that would be wisdom!
6 “Now listen to my reasoning,
pay attention to how I present my dispute.
7 Is it for God’s sake that you speak so wickedly?
for him that you talk deceitfully?
8 Do you need to take his side
and plead God’s case for him?
9 If he examines you, will all go well?
Can you deceive him, as one man deceives another?
10 If you are secretly flattering [him],
he will surely rebuke you.
11 Doesn’t God’s majesty terrify you?
Aren’t you overcome with dread of him?
12 Your maxims are garbage-proverbs;
your answers crumble like clay.
13 “So be quiet! Let me be! I’ll do the talking,
come on me what may!
14 Why am I taking my flesh in my teeth,
taking my life in my hands?
15 Look, he will kill me — I don’t expect more,
but I will still defend my ways to his face.
16 And this is what will save me —
that a hypocrite cannot appear before him.
17 “Listen closely, then, to my words;
pay attention to what I am saying.
18 Here, now, I have prepared my case;
I know I am in the right.
19 If anyone can contend with me,
I will be quiet and die!
20 “Only grant two things to me, God;
then I won’t hide myself from your face —
21 take your hand away from me,
and don’t let fear of you frighten me.
22 Then, if you call, I will answer.
Or let me speak, and you, answer me!
23 How many crimes and sins have I committed?
Make me know my transgression and sin.
24 Why do you hide your face
and think of me as your enemy?
25 Do you want to harass a wind-driven leaf?
do you want to pursue a dry straw?
26 Is this why you draw up bitter charges against me
and punish me for the faults of my youth?
27 You put my feet in the stocks,
you watch me closely wherever I go,
you trace out each footprint of mine —
28 though [my body] decays like something rotten
or like a moth-eaten garment.
14 “A human being, born from a woman,
lives a short, trouble-filled life.
2 He comes up like a flower and withers away,
flees like a shadow, doesn’t last.
3 You fix your eyes on a creature like this?
You drag him to court with you?
4 Who can bring what is pure from something impure?
No one!
5 Since his days are fixed in advance,
the number of his months is known to you,
and you have fixed the limits which he can’t cross;
6 look away from him, and let him be;
so that, like a hired worker,
he can finish his day in peace.
7 “For a tree, there is hope
that if cut down, it will sprout again,
that its shoots will continue to grow.
8 Even if its roots grow old in the earth
and its stump dies in the ground,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth branches like a young plant.
10 But when a human being grows weak and dies,
he expires; and then where is he?
11 Just as water in a lake disappears,
as a river shrinks and dries up;
12 so a person lies down and doesn’t arise —
until the sky no longer exists;
it will not awaken,
it won’t be roused from its sleep.
13 “I wish you would hide me in Sh’ol,
conceal me until your anger has passed,
then fix a time and remember me!
14 If a man dies, will he live again?
I will wait all the days of my life
for my change to come.
15 You will call, and I will answer you;
you will long to see what you made again.
16 Whereas now you count each step of mine,
then you will not keep watch for my sin.
17 You will seal up my crime in a bag
and cover over my iniquity.
18 “Just as a mountain erodes and falls away,
its rock is removed from its place,
19 the water wears away its stones,
and the floods wash away its soil,
so you destroy a person’s hope.
20 You overpower him, and he passes on;
you change his appearance and send him away.
21 His children earn honor, but he doesn’t know it;
or they are brought low, but he doesn’t notice.
22 He feels pain only for his own flesh;
he laments only for himself.”
15 Then Elifaz the Teimani spoke:
2 “Should a wise man answer with hot-air arguments?
Should he fill up his belly with the hot east wind?
3 Should he reason with useless talk
or make speeches that do him no good?
4 “Why, you are abolishing fear of God
and hindering prayer to him!
5 Your iniquity is teaching you how to speak,
and deceit is your language of choice.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
your own lips testify against you.
7 “Were you the firstborn of the human race,
brought forth before the hills?
8 Do you listen in on God’s secrets?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we don’t know?
What discernment do you have that we don’t?
10 With us are gray-haired men, old men,
men much older than your father.
11 Are the comfortings of God not enough for you,
or a word that deals gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash angrily,
13 so that you turn your spirit against God
and let such words escape your mouth?
14 “What is a human being, that he could be innocent,
someone born from a woman, that he could be righteous?
15 God doesn’t trust even his holy ones;
no, even the heavens are not innocent in his view.
16 How much less one loathesome and corrupt,
a human being, who drinks iniquity like water.
17 “I will tell you — hear me out!
I will recount what I have seen;
18 wise men have told it,
and it wasn’t hidden from their fathers either,
19 to whom alone the land was given —
no foreigner passed among them.
20 “The wicked is in torment all his life,
for all the years allotted to the tyrant.
21 Terrifying sounds are in his ears;
in prosperity, robbers swoop down on him.
22 He despairs of returning from darkness —
he is destined to meet the sword.
23 He wanders and looks for food, which isn’t there.
He knows the day of darkness is ready, at hand.
24 Distress and anguish overwhelm him,
assaulting him like a king about to enter battle.
25 “He raises his hand against God
and boldly defies Shaddai,
26 running against him with head held high
and thickly ornamented shield.
27 “He lets his face grow gross and fat,
and the rest of him bulges with blubber;
28 he lives in abandoned cities,
in houses no one would inhabit,
houses about to become ruins;
29 therefore he will not remain rich,
his wealth will not endure,
his produce will not bend
[the grain stalks] to the earth.
30 “He will not escape from darkness.
The flame will dry up his branches.
By a breath from the mouth of [God],
he will go away.
31 Let him not rely on futile methods,
thereby deceiving himself;
for what he will receive in exchange
will be only futility.
32 This will be accomplished in advance of its day.
His palm frond will not be fresh and green;
33 he will be like a vine that sheds its unripe grapes,
like an olive tree that drops its flowers.
34 “For the community of the ungodly is sterile;
fire consumes the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;
their womb prepares deceit.”
16 In response Iyov said:
2 “I have heard this stuff so often!
Such sorry comforters, all of you!
3 Is there no end to words of wind?
What provokes you to answer this way?
4 “If I were in your place,
I too could speak as you do —
I could string phrases together against you
and shake my head at you.
5 I could ‘strengthen’ you with my mouth,
with lip service I could ‘ease your grief.’
6 If I speak, my own pain isn’t eased;
and if I don’t speak, it still doesn’t leave.
7 “But now he has worn me out;
you have desolated this whole community of mine.
8 Besides, you have shriveled me up;
and this serves to witness against me.
My being so thin rises up against me
and testifies to my face.
9 He tears me apart in his anger;
he holds a grudge against me;
he gnashes on me with his teeth.
“My enemies look daggers at me.
10 Wide-mouthed, they gape at me;
with scorn, they slap my cheeks;
they gather themselves together against me.
11 “God delivers me to the perverse,
throws me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at peace, and he shook me apart.
Yes, he grabbed me by the neck and dashed me to pieces.
He set me up as his target —
13 his archers surrounded me.
He slashes my innards and shows no mercy,
he pours my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks in on me again and again,
attacking me like a warrior.
15 “I sewed sackcloth together to cover my skin
and laid my pride in the dust;
16 my face is red from crying,
and on my eyelids is a death-dark shadow.
17 Yet my hands are free from violence,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “Earth, don’t cover my blood;
don’t let my cry rest [without being answered].
19 Even now, my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is there on high.
20 With friends like these as intercessors,
my eyes pour out tears to God,
21 that he would arbitrate between a man and God,
just as one does for his fellow human being.
22 For I have but few years left
before I leave on the road of no return.
17 “My spirit is broken, my days are quenched,
I am marked for the grave.
2 Mockers are all around me;
my eye meets only their hostility.
3 Be my guarantor, yourself!
Who else will put up a pledge for me?
4 For you have shut their minds to common sense;
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 Should people share with their friends
when their own children’s eyes are so sad?
6 “He has made me a byword among the peoples,
a creature in whose face they spit.
7 I am nearly blind with grief,
my limbs reduced to a shadow.
8 The upright are perplexed at this,
the innocent aroused against the hypocrites.
9 Yet the righteous hold on to their way,
and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger.
10 “But as for you all, turn around! Come back! —
yet I won’t find a wise man among you.
11 My days are over, my plans cut off,
which I had cherished so;
12 but they [try to] turn [my] night into day,
[saying,] ‘Light is near!’ — in the face of darkness.
13 “If I hope for Sh’ol to be my house;
if I spread my couch in the dark;
14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to worms, ‘You are my mother and sister,’
15 then where is my hope?
And that hope of mine, who will see it?
16 Only those who go down with me
to the bars of Sh’ol,
when we rest together in the dust.”
18 Bildad the Shuchi said,
2 “When will you put an end to words?
Think about it — then we’ll talk!
3 Why are we thought of as cattle,
stupid in your view?
4 You can tear yourself to pieces in your anger,
but the earth won’t be abandoned just for your sake;
not even a rock will be moved from its place.
5 “The light of the wicked will flicker and die,
not a spark from his fire will shine,
6 the light in his tent is darkened,
the lamp over him will be snuffed out.
7 His vigorous stride is shortened,
his own plans make him trip and fall.
8 For his own feet plunge him into a net,
he wanders into its meshes.
9 A trap grabs him by the heel,
a snare catches hold of him.
10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground;
pitfalls lie in his path.
11 Terrors overwhelm him on every side
and scatter about his feet.
12 “Trouble is hungry for him,
calamity ready for his fall;
13 disease eats away at his skin;
the first stages of death devour him gradually.
14 What he relied on will be torn from his tent,
and he will be marched before the king of terrors.
15 “What isn’t his at all will live in his tent;
sulfur will be scattered on his home.
16 His roots beneath him will dry up;
above him, his branch will wither.
17 Memory of him will fade from the land,
while abroad his name will be unknown.
18 He will be pushed from light into darkness
and driven out of the world.
19 “Without son or grandson among his people,
no one will remain in his dwellings.
20 Those who come after will be appalled at his fate,
just as those there before were struck with horror.
21 “This is how things are in the homes of the wicked,
and this is the place of those who don’t know God.”
19 Then Iyov answered:
2 “How long will you go on making me angry,
crushing me with words?
3 You’ve insulted me ten times already;
aren’t you ashamed to treat me so badly?
4 Even if it’s true that I made a mistake,
my error stays with me.
5 “You may take a superior attitude toward me
and cite my disgrace as proof against me;
6 but know that it’s God who has put me in the wrong
and closed his net around me.
7 If I cry, ‘Violence!’ no one hears me;
I cry aloud, but there is no justice.
8 “He has fenced off my way, so that I can’t pass;
he has covered my paths with darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my glory
and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears every part of me down — I am gone;
he uproots my hope like a tree.
11 “Inflamed with anger against me,
he counts me as one of his foes.
12 His troops advance together,
they make their way against me
and encamp around my tent.
13 “He has made my brothers keep their distance,
those who know me are wholly estranged from me,
14 my kinsfolk have failed me,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 Those living in my house consider me a stranger;
my slave-girls too — in their view I’m a foreigner.
16 I call my servant, and he doesn’t answer,
even if I beg him for a favor!
17 “My wife can’t stand my breath,
I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even young children despise me —
if I stand up, they start jeering at me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and flesh;
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Pity me, friends of mine, pity me!
For the hand of God has struck me!
22 Must you pursue me as God does,
never satisfied with my flesh?
23 I wish my words were written down,
that they were inscribed in a scroll,
24 that, engraved with iron and filled with lead,
they were cut into rock forever!
25 “But I know that my Redeemer lives,
that in the end he will rise on the dust;
26 so that after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then even without my flesh, I will see God.
27 I will see him for myself,
my eyes, not someone else’s, will behold him.
My heart grows weak inside me!
28 “If you say, ‘How will we persecute him?’ —
the root of the matter is found in me.
29 You had best fear the sword,
for anger brings the punishment of the sword,
so that you will know there is judgment!”
20 Tzofar the Na‘amati replied,
2 “My thoughts are pressing me to answer;
I feel such an urge to speak!
3 I have heard reproof that outrages me,
but a spirit past my understanding gives me a reply.
4 “Don’t you know that ever since time began,
ever since humans were placed on earth,
5 that the triumph of the wicked is always short-lived,
and the joy of the ungodly is gone in a moment?
6 His pride may mount to the heavens,
his head may touch the clouds;
7 but he will vanish completely, like his own dung —
those who used to see him will ask, ‘Where is he?’
8 Like a dream he flies off and is not found again;
like a vision in the night he is chased away.
9 The eye which once saw him will see him no more,
his place will not behold him again.
10 His children will have to pay back the poor;
his hands will restore their wealth.
11 His bones may be filled with [the vigor of] his youth,
but it will join him lying in the dust.
12 “Wickedness may taste sweet in his mouth,
he may savor and roll it around on his tongue,
13 he may linger over it and not let it go
but keep it there in his mouth —
14 yet in his stomach his food goes bad,
it works inside him like snake venom;
15 the wealth he swallows he vomits back up;
God makes him disgorge it.
16 He sucks the poison of asps,
the viper’s fangs will kill him.
17 He will not enjoy the rivers,
the streams flowing with honey and cream.
18 He will have to give back what he toiled for;
he won’t get to swallow it down —
to the degree that he acquired wealth,
he won’t get to enjoy it.
19 “For he crushed and abandoned the poor,
seizing houses he did not build,
20 because his appetite would not let him rest,
in his greed he let nothing escape;
21 nothing is left that he did not devour;
therefore his well-being will not last.
22 With all needs satisfied, he will be in distress;
the full force of misery will come over him.
23 “This is what will fill his belly! —
[God] will lay on him all his burning anger
and make it rain over him, into his insides.
24 If he flees from the weapon of iron,
the bow of bronze will pierce him through —
25 he pulls the arrow out of his back,
the shining tip comes out from his innards;
terrors come upon him.
26 “Total darkness is laid up for his treasures,
a fire fanned by no one will consume him,
and calamity awaits what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will reveal his guilt,
and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The income of his household will be carried off;
his goods will flow away on the day of his wrath.
29 This is God’s reward for the wicked,
the heritage God decrees for him.”
21 Then Iyov responded:
2 “Listen carefully to my words;
let this be the comfort you give me.
3 Bear with me as I speak;
then, after I have spoken, you can go on mocking.
4 “As for me, is my complaint merely to other people?
Don’t I have grounds for being short-tempered?
5 Look at me, and be appalled;
cover your mouth with your hand!
6 Whenever I recall it, I am in shock;
my whole body shudders.
7 “Why do the wicked go on living,
grow old and keep increasing their power?
8 They see their children settled with them,
their posterity assured.
9 Their houses are safe, with nothing to fear;
God’s rod is not on them.
10 Their bulls are fertile without fail,
their cows get pregnant and don’t miscarry.
11 They produce flocks of babies,
and their children dance around.
12 They sing with tambourines and lyres
and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity
and go down to the grave in peace.
14 “Yet to God they said, ‘Leave us alone!
We don’t want to know about your ways.
15 What is Shaddai, that we should serve him?
What do we gain if we pray to him?’
16 Isn’t their prosperity already theirs?
The plans of the wicked are far from me.
17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does their calamity come upon them?
How often does [God] deal out pain in his anger,
18 to make them like straw in the wind,
like chaff carried off by a storm?
19 God lays up for their children
[the punishment for their] iniquity.
He should lay it on [the wicked] themselves,
so that they can feel it!
20 Let their own eyes see their own destruction
and themselves drink the wrath of Shaddai.
21 What joy can they have in their family after them,
given that their months are numbered?
22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge?
After all, he judges those who are on high.
23 One person dies in his full strength,
completely at ease and content;
24 his pails are full of milk,
and the marrow in his bones is moist.
25 Another dies with embittered heart,
never having tasted happiness.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worm covers them both.
27 “Look, I know what you are thinking
and your plans to do me wrong.
28 You ask, ‘Where is the great man’s house?
Where is the tent where the wicked once lived?’
29 Haven’t you ever questioned travelers?
Don’t you accept their testimony
30 that the evil man is saved on the day of disaster,
rescued on the day of wrath?
31 So who will confront him with his ways?
Who will repay him for what he has done?
32 For he is carried off to the grave,
people keep watch over his tomb,
33 the clods of the valley are sweet to him;
so everyone follows his example,
just as before him were countless others.
34 “Why offer me such meaningless comfort?
Of your answers, only the perfidy remains.”
22 Next Elifaz the Teimani replied:
2 “Can a human be of advantage to God?
Can even the wisest benefit him?
3 Does Shaddai gain if you are righteous?
Does he profit if you make your ways blameless?
4 “Is he rebuking you because you fear him?
Is this why he enters into judgment with you?
5 Isn’t it because your wickedness is great?
Aren’t your iniquities endless?
6 “For you kept your kinsmen’s goods as collateral for no reason,
you stripped the poorly clothed of what clothing they have,
7 you didn’t give water to the weary to drink,
you withheld food from the hungry.
8 As a wealthy man, an owner of land,
and as a man of rank, who lives on it,
9 you sent widows away empty-handed
and left the arms of orphans crushed.
10 “No wonder there are snares all around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,
11 or darkness , so that you can’t see,
and a flood of water that covers you up!
12 “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven,
looking [down even] on the highest stars?
13 Yet you say, ‘What does God know?
Can he see through thick darkness to judge?
14 The clouds veil him off, so that he can’t see;
he just wanders around in heaven.’
15 “Are you going to keep to the old way,
the one the wicked have trodden,
16 the ones snatched away before their time,
whose foundations a flood swept away?
17 They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
What can Shaddai do to us?’
18 Yet he himself had filled their homes with good things!
(But the advice of the wicked is far away from me.)
19 The righteous saw this and rejoiced;
the innocent laughed them to scorn —
20 ‘Indeed, our substance has not been not cut off,
but the fire has consumed their wealth.’
21 “Learn to be at peace with [God];
in this way good will come [back] to you.
22 Please! Receive instruction from his mouth,
and take his words to heart.
23 If you return to Shaddai, you will be built up.
If you drive wickedness far from your tents,
24 if you lay your treasure down in the dust
and the gold of Ofir among the rocks in the vadis,
25 and let Shaddai be your treasure
and your sparkling silver;
26 then Shaddai will be your delight,
you will lift up your face to God;
27 you will entreat him, and he will hear you,
and you will pay what you vowed;
28 what you decide to do will succeed,
and light will shine on your path;
29 when someone is brought down, you will say, ‘It was pride,
because [God] saves the humble.’
30 “He delivers even the unclean;
so if your hands are clean, you will be delivered.”
23 Then Iyov answered:
2 “Today too my complaint is bitter;
my hand is weighed down because of my groaning.
3 I wish I knew where I could find him;
then I would go to where he is.
4 I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know his answering words
and grasp what he would tell me.
6 Would he browbeat me with his great power?
No, he would pay attention to me.
7 There an upright person could reason with him;
thus I might be forever acquitted by my judge.
8 “If I head east, he isn’t there;
if I head west, I don’t detect him,
9 if I turn north, I don’t spot him;
in the south he is veiled, and I still don’t see him.
10 Yet he knows the way I take;
when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.
11 My feet have stayed in his footsteps;
I keep to his way without turning aside.
12 I don’t withdraw from his lips’ command;
I treasure his words more than my daily food.
13 “But he has no equal, so who can change him?
What he desires, he does.
14 He will accomplish what is decreed for me,
and he has many plans like this.
15 This is why I am terrified of him;
the more I think about it, the more afraid I am —
16 God has undermined my courage;
Shaddai frightens me.
17 Yet I am not cut off by the darkness;
he has protected me from the deepest gloom.
24 “Why are times not kept by Shaddai?
Why do those who know him not see his days?
2 There are those who move boundary markers;
they carry off flocks and pasture them;
3 they drive away the orphan’s donkey;
as collateral, they seize the widow’s ox.
4 They push the needy out of the way —
the poor of the land are forced into hiding;
5 like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
they have to go out and scavenge food,
[hoping that] the desert
will provide food for their children.
6 They must reap in fields that are not their own
and gather late grapes in the vineyards of the wicked.
7 They pass the night without clothing, naked,
uncovered in the cold,
8 wet with mountain rain,
and hugging the rock for lack of shelter.
9 “There are those who pluck orphans from the breast
and [those who] take [the clothes of] the poor in pledge,
10 so that they go about stripped, unclothed;
they go hungry, as they carry sheaves [of grain];
11 between these men’s rows [of olives], they make oil;
treading their winepresses, they suffer thirst.
12 Men are groaning in the city,
the mortally wounded are crying for help,
yet God finds nothing amiss!
13 “There are those who rebel against the light —
they don’t know its ways or stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises with the light
to kill the poor and needy;
while at night he is like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer too waits for twilight;
he thinks, ‘No eye will see me’;
but [to be sure], he covers his face.
16 When it’s dark, they break into houses;
in the daytime, they stay out of sight.
[None of them] know the light.
17 For to all of them deep darkness is like morning,
for the terrors of deep darkness are familiar to them.
18 “May they be scum on the surface of the water,
may their share of land be cursed,
may no one turn on the way of their vineyards,
19 may drought and heat steal away their snow water
and Sh’ol those who have sinned.
20 May the womb forget them,
may worms find them sweet,
may they no longer be remembered —
thus may iniquity be snapped like a stick.
21 They devour childless women
and give no help to widows.
22 “Yet God keeps pulling the mighty along —
they get up, even when not trusting their own lives.
23 However, even if God lets them rest in safety,
his eyes are on their ways.
24 They are exalted for a little while;
and then they are gone,
brought low, gathered in like all others,
shriveled up like ears of grain.
25 “And even if it isn’t so now,
still no one can prove me a liar
and show that my words are worthless.”
25 Bildad the Shuchi said,
2 “Dominion and fear belong to him;
he makes peace in his high places.
3 Can his armies be numbered?
On whom does his light not shine?
4 How then can humans be righteous with God?
How can those born of women be clean?
5 Why, before him even the moon lacks brightness,
and the stars themselves are not pure.
6 How much less a human, who is merely a maggot,
a mortal, who is only a worm?!”
26 Then Iyov replied,
2 “What great help you bring to the powerless!
what deliverance to the arm without strength!
3 Such wonderful advice for a man lacking wisdom!
So much common sense you’ve expressed!
4 Who helped you to say these words?
Whose spirit is it, coming forth from you?
5 “The ghosts of the dead tremble
beneath the water, with its creatures.
6 Sh’ol is naked before him;
Abaddon lies uncovered.
7 He stretches the north over chaos
and suspends the earth on nothing.
8 He binds up the water in his thick clouds,
yet no cloud is torn apart by it.
9 He shuts off the view of his throne
by spreading his cloud across it.
10 He fixed a circle on the surface of the water,
defining the boundary between light and dark.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble,
aghast at his rebuke.
12 He stirs up the sea with his power,
and by his skill he strikes down Rahav.
13 With his Spirit he spreads the heavens;
his hand pierces the fleeing serpent.
14 And these are but the fringes of his ways;
how faint the echo we hear of him!
But who is able to grasp the meaning
of his thundering power?”
27 Iyov continued his speech:
2 “I swear by the living God,
who is denying me justice,
and by Shaddai,
who deals with me so bitterly,
3 that as long my life remains in me
and God’s breath is in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not speak unrighteousness,
or my tongue utter deceit.
5 Far be it from me to say you are right;
I will keep my integrity till the day I die.
6 I hold to my righteousness; I won’t let it go;
my heart will not shame me as long as I live.
7 “May my enemy meet the doom of the wicked;
my foe the fate of the unrighteous.
8 For what hope does the godless have from his gain
when God takes away his life?
9 Will God hear his cry
when trouble comes upon him?
10 Will he take delight in Shaddai
and always call on God?
11 “I am teaching you how God uses his power,
not hiding what Shaddai is doing.
12 Look, you all can see for yourselves;
so why are you talking such empty nonsense?
13 “This is God’s reward for the wicked man,
the heritage oppressors receive from Shaddai:
14 if his sons become many, they go to the sword;
and his children never have enough to eat.
15 Those of his who remain are buried by plague,
and their widows do not weep.
16 Even if he piles up silver like dust
and stores away clothing [in mounds] like clay —
17 he may collect it, but the just will wear it,
and the upright divide up the silver.
18 He builds his house weak as a spider’s web,
as flimsy as a watchman’s shack.
19 He may lie down rich, but his wealth yields nothing;
when he opens his eyes, it isn’t there.
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood;
at night a whirlwind steals him away.
21 The east wind carries him off, and he’s gone;
it sweeps him far from his place.
22 Yes, it hurls itself at him, sparing nothing;
he does all he can to flee from its power.
23 [People] clap their hands at him in derision
and hiss him out of his home.
28 “There are mines for silver
and places where gold is refined;
2 iron is extracted from the earth,
and copper is smelted from ore.
3 Miners conquer the darkness
and dig as far in as they can,
to the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
4 There where no one lives, they break open a shaft;
the feet passing over are oblivious to them;
far from people, suspended in space,
they swing to and fro.
5 “While the earth is [peacefully] yielding bread,
underneath, it is being convulsed as if by fire;
6 its rocks have veins of sapphire,
and there are flecks of gold.
7 Birds of prey don’t know that path,
no falcon’s eye has seen it,
8 the proud beasts have never set foot on it,
no lion has ever passed over it.
9 “[The miner] attacks the flint,
overturns mountains at their roots,
10 and cuts out galleries in the rock,
all the while watching for something of value.
11 He dams up streams to keep them from flooding,
and brings what was hidden out into the light.
12 “But where can wisdom be found?
Where is the source of understanding?
13 No one knows its value,
and it can’t be found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
15 It can’t be obtained with gold,
nor can silver be weighed out to buy it.
16 It can’t be purchased with choice gold from Ofir,
or with precious onyx or sapphires.
17 Neither gold nor glass can be compared with it;
nor can it be exchanged for a bowl of fine gold,
18 let alone coral or crystal;
for indeed, the price of wisdom is above that of pearls.
19 It can’t be compared with Ethiopian topaz,
and it can’t be valued with pure gold.
20 “So where does wisdom come from?
where is the source of understanding,
21 inasmuch as it is hidden from the eyes of all living
and kept secret from the birds flying around in the sky?
22 Destruction and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor about it with our ears.’
23 “God understands its way,
and he knows its place.
24 For he can see to the ends of the earth
and view everything under heaven.
25 When he determined the force of the wind
and parceled out water by measure,
26 when he made a law for the rain
and cleared a path for the thunderbolts;
27 then he saw [wisdom] and declared it,
yes, he set it up and searched it out.
28 And to human beings he said,
‘Look, fear of Adonai is wisdom!
Shunning evil is understanding!’”
29 Iyov went on speaking:
2 “I wish I were as in the old days,
back in the times when God watched over me;
3 when his lamp shone over my head,
and I walked through the dark by its light;
4 as I was when I was young,
and God’s counsel graced my tent.
5 Then Shaddai was still with me,
my children were around me;
6 my steps were awash in butter,
and the rocks poured out for me streams of olive oil.
7 I would go out to the city gate
and set up my seat in the open space;
8 when young men saw me they would hide themselves,
while the aged arose and stood;
9 leaders refrained from speaking —
they would lay their hands on their mouths;
10 the voices of nobles were silenced;
their tongues stuck to their palates.
11 Any ear that heard me blessed me,
any eye that saw me gave witness to me,
12 for I delivered the poor when they cried for assistance,
the orphan too, who had no one to help him.
13 Those who had been about to die would bless me,
and I made widows sing in their hearts for joy.
14 I clothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed itself with me;
my justice was like a robe and a crown.
15 I was eyes for the blind,
and I was feet for the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,
and I investigated the problems of those I didn’t know.
17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous
and snatched the prey from his teeth.
18 “I said, ‘I will die with my nest,
and I will live as long as a phoenix;
19 my root will spread till it reaches water,
and dew will stay all night on my branch;
20 my glory will always be fresh,
my bow always new in my hand.’
21 “People would listen to me;
they waited and were silent when I gave advice.
22 After I spoke, they didn’t talk back;
my words were like drops [of dew] on them.
23 They waited for me as if for rain,
as if for spring rain, with their mouths open wide.
24 When I joked with them, they couldn’t believe it;
and they never darkened the light on my face.
25 I chose their way [for them], sitting as chief;
I lived like a king in the army,
like one who comforts mourners.
30 “But now those younger than I
hold me in derision,
men whose fathers I wouldn’t even
have put with the dogs that guarded my sheep.
2 What use to me was the strength in their hands?
All their vigor had left them.
3 Worn out by want and hunger,
they gnaw the dry ground in the gloom
of waste and desolation.
4 They pluck saltwort and bitter leaves;
these, with broom tree roots, are their food.
5 They are driven away from society,
with men shouting after them as after a thief,
6 to live in gullies and vadis,
in holes in the ground and caves in the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they howl like beasts
and huddle among the nettles,
8 irresponsible nobodies
driven from the land.
9 “Now I have become their song;
yes, I am a byword with them.
10 They loathe me, they stand aloof from me;
they don’t hesitate to spit in my face!
11 For God has loosened my bowstring and humbled me;
they throw off restraint in my presence.
12 At my right the street urchins attack,
pushing me from place to place,
besieging me with their ways of destruction,
13 breaking up my path,
furthering my calamity —
even those who have no one to help them.
14 They move in as through a wide gap;
amid the ruin they roll on in waves.
15 Terrors tumble over me,
chasing my honor away like the wind;
my [hope of] salvation passes like a cloud.
16 “So now my life is ebbing away,
days of grief have seized me.
17 At night pain pierces me to the bone,
so that I never rest.
18 My clothes are disfigured by the force [of my disease];
they choke me like the collar of my coat.
19 [God] has thrown me into the mud;
I have become like dust and ashes.
20 “I call out to you [God], but you don’t answer me;
I stand up to plead, but you just look at me.
21 You have turned cruelly against me;
with your powerful hand you keep persecuting me.
22 You snatch me up on the wind and make me ride it;
you toss me about in the tempest.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death,
the house assigned to everyone living.
24 “Surely [God] wouldn’t strike at a ruin,
if in one’s calamity one cried out to him for help.
25 Didn’t I weep for those who were in trouble?
Didn’t I grieve for the needy?
26 Yet when I hoped for good, what came was bad;
when I expected light, what came was darkness.
27 My insides are in turmoil; they can’t find rest;
days of misery confront me.
28 I go about in sunless gloom,
I rise in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is black and falling off me,
and my bones are burning with heat.
31 So my lyre is tuned for mourning,
my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
31 “I made a covenant with my eyes
not to let them lust after any girl.
2 “What share does God give from above?
What is the heritage from Shaddai on high?
3 Isn’t it calamity to the unrighteous?
disaster to those who do evil?
4 Doesn’t he see my ways
and count all my steps?
5 “If I have gone along with falsehood,
if my feet have hurried to deceit;
6 then let me be weighed on an honest scale,
so that God will know my integrity.
7 “If my steps have wandered from the way,
if my heart has followed my eyes,
if the least dirt has stuck to my hands;
8 then let me sow and someone else eat,
let what grows from my fields be uprooted.
9 “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,
and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door;
10 then let my wife grind for another man,
and let others kneel on her.
11 For that would be a heinous act,
a criminal offense,
12 a fire that would burn to the depths of Abaddon,
uprooting all I produce.
13 “If I ever rejected my slave or slave-girl’s cause,
when they brought legal action against me;
14 then what would I do if God stood up?
Were he to intervene, what answer could I give?
15 Didn’t he who made me in the womb make them too?
Didn’t the same one shape us both before our birth?
16 “If I held back anything needed by the poor
or made a widow’s eye grow dim [with tears],
17 or ate my portion of food by myself,
without letting the orphan eat any of it —
18 No! From my youth he grew up
with me as if with a father,
and I have been her guide
from my mother’s womb! —
19 or if I saw a traveler needing clothing,
someone in need who had no covering,
20 who didn’t bless me from his heart
for being warmed with the fleece from my sheep,
21 or if I lifted my hand against an orphan,
knowing that no one would dare charge me in court;
22 then let my arm fall from its socket,
and let my forearm be broken at the elbow!
23 For calamity from God has always terrified me;
before his majesty I could never do a thing [like that].
24 “If I made gold my hope,
if I said to fine gold, ‘You are my security,’
25 if I took joy in my great wealth,
in my having acquired so much;
26 or if, on seeing the shining sun
or the full moon as it moved through the sky,
27 my heart was secretly seduced,
so that I would wave them a kiss with my hand;
28 then this too would be a criminal offense,
for I would have been lying to God on high.
29 “Did I rejoice at the destruction of him who hated me?
Was I filled with glee when disaster overtook him?
30 No, I did not allow my mouth to sin
by asking for his life with a curse.
31 “Was there anyone in my tent who didn’t say,
‘No one can find a single person
whom he has not filled with his meat’?
32 No stranger had to sleep in the street;
I kept my house open to the traveler.
33 “If I concealed my sins, as most people do,
by hiding my wrongdoing in my heart,
34 from fear of general gossip
or dread of some family’s contempt.
keeping silent and not going outdoors —
35 I wish I had someone who would listen to me!
Here is my signature; let Shaddai answer me!
I wish I had the indictment my adversary has written!
36 I would carry it on my shoulder;
I would bind it on me like a crown.
37 I would declare to him every one of my steps;
I would approach him like a prince.
38 “If my land cried out against me,
if its furrows wept together,
39 if I ate its produce without paying
or made its owners despair;
40 then let thistles grow instead of wheat
and noxious weeds instead of barley!
“The words of Iyov are finished.”
32 So these three men stopped trying to answer Iyov, because he remained convinced of his own righteousness.
2 But then the anger of Elihu the son of Barakh’el the Buzi, from the family of Ram, blazed up against Iyov for thinking he was right and God wrong. 3 His anger also blazed up against his three friends, because they had found no answer to Iyov but condemned him anyway. 4 Elihu had waited to speak to Iyov because they were older than he; 5 however, when Elihu saw that these three had no answer, his anger flared up. 6 Elihu the son of Barakh’el the Buzi said:
“I am young, and you are old,
so I held back from telling you my opinion.
7 I said, ‘Age should speak;
an abundance of years should teach wisdom.’
8 But it is the spirit in a person, the breath from Shaddai,
that gives him understanding —
9 it isn’t [only] the great who are wise
or the aged who know how to judge.
10 Therefore, I say, listen to me;
I too will express my opinion.
11 “Here, I waited for your words,
I listened to your reasoning,
as you were searching for what to say.
12 I paid attention to you,
but none of you convicted Iyov
or refuted his arguments.
13 So don’t say, ‘We found the wise course —
Let God defeat him, not a human being.’
14 For he did not direct his words against me,
and I won’t answer him with your arguments.
15 “They are confused, they don’t reply,
words have failed them.
16 But must I wait just because they don’t speak,
just because they stand there, stuck for an answer?
17 No, I will now give my answer;
I too will express my opinion.
18 For I am full of words;
the spirit within me compels me.
19 Yes, my insides feel like new wine under pressure,
like new wineskins ready to burst.
20 I must speak, to find relief;
I will open my lips and answer.
21 I will show no favor to anyone,
and I will flatter no one;
22 I don’t know how to flatter;
if I did, my maker would soon put an end to me.
33 “So, Iyov, please, hear my speech;
listen to all my words.
2 Look, I am opening my mouth;
the words are on the tip of my tongue.
3 I will say exactly what is on my mind;
what my lips know, they will speak sincerely.
4 It is the Spirit of God that made me,
the breath of Shaddai that gives me life.
5 So refute me, if you can;
organize your words, take your stand!
6 Look, before God I’m the same as you;
I too am fashioned from clay.
7 You don’t need to be afraid of me;
my pressure on you will not be heavy.
8 “You spoke within my hearing,
and I heard what you said —
9 ‘I am clean, without transgression;
I am innocent, not guilty.
10 Yet [God] finds pretexts for accusing me;
he regards me as his enemy.
11 He puts my feet in the stocks
and watches wherever I go.’
12 “But in this, you are wrong; I will answer you:
God is greater than any mortal.
13 Why do you strive against him?
He will not defend his words —
14 God speaks once, even twice,
and still the hearer misses the point.
15 “In a dream, in a vision at night,
when slumber falls upon people,
as they sleep in their beds,
16 he opens people’s ears
and seals the matter with a warning,
17 to turn a person away from his action
and protect a man from pride,
18 so that he will keep himself away from the pit
and from perishing by the sword.
19 “He is also warned by pain when in bed,
when all his bones are hurting;
20 so that he detests bread
as well as richer food.
21 His flesh wastes away, till one can’t stand to look;
his bones protrude and become unsightly.
22 His soul comes close to the pit
and his life to those who bring death.
23 “If there is for him an angel,
a mediator, one among a thousand,
who can vouch for the man’s uprightness;
24 then [God] is gracious to him and says,
‘Redeem him from going down to the pit;
I have found a ransom.’
25 His flesh becomes fresher than that of a child,
he returns to the days of his youth.
26 He prays to God and is accepted by him,
so that he sees [God’s] face with joy,
and [God] repays the man for his righteousness.
27 He declares before everyone, ‘I sinned;
I perverted what was right,
and it gained me nothing.
28 [God] redeemed me from going into the pit,
and now my life sees light.’
29 God will accomplish all these things
twice, even three times, with a man,
30 to bring him back from the pit,
so that he can enjoy the light of the living.
31 “Pay attention, Iyov, listen to me;
keep quiet, and I will keep speaking.
32 If you have something to say, answer me;
speak, because I want to show that you are right.
33 If not, then listen to me;
keep quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.”
34 Elihu continued speaking:
2 “Hear my words, you sages!
Listen to me, you who know so much!
3 For the ear tests words,
just as the palate tastes food.
4 Let’s choose for ourselves what is just;
let’s decide among ourselves what is good.
5 For Iyov says, ‘I am in the right,
but God is denying me justice.
6 Against justice, I am considered a liar;
my wound is mortal, though I committed no crime.’
7 “Is there a man like Iyov,
who drinks in scoffing like water,
8 who keeps company with evildoers
and goes with wicked men,
9 since he thinks, ‘It profits a person nothing
to be in accord with God’?
10 “So listen to me, you men with sense!
Far be it from God to do anything wicked!
11 For he pays people back for what they do
and sees that each gets what his conduct deserves.
12 It is certain that God does nothing wicked;
Shaddai will not pervert justice.
13 Did someone else put him in charge of the earth?
Who else established the entire world?
14 If he were to take back man’s heart to himself,
if he gathered to himself his spirit and breath;
15 all flesh would instantly perish,
everyone would return to dust.
16 “If you have any sense, [Iyov,] hear this;
listen to what I am saying.
17-18 Should a hater of justice be in control?
If you wouldn’t tell a king, ‘You’re a scoundrel!’
or nobles, ‘You are wicked men!’
then you shouldn’t condemn the Just and Mighty One,
19 who is neither partial toward princes
nor favors the rich over the poor,
since they all are the work of his hands.
20 They may die in a moment, in the middle of the night —
the people are shaken and pass away,
the mighty are removed without human hands.
21 For he keeps watch on a person’s ways;
he sees his every step.
22 There is no darkness, no death-like gloom,
where wrongdoers can hide;
23 for he doesn’t give warning to people
when they must appear before God in judgment.
24 He shatters the mighty without needing to investigate
and sets up others in their place.
25 Therefore, aware of what they are doing,
he overturns them by night, and they are crushed.
26 He strikes them as if they were common criminals
in the open sight of others,
27 because they turned away from following him
and gave no thought to any of his ways,
28 thereby bringing before him the cries of the poor;
and he hears the cries of the oppressed.
29 “But if God is silent, who can accuse him;
if he hides his face, who can see him?
He may do this to nations and persons alike,
30 so that godless men will not become kings,
and the people will not be lured into traps.
31 “For has anyone said to God,
‘I have been chastised without having offended;
32 teach me what I have failed to see;
and if I have done wrong, I will do it no more’?
33 Must his rewards meet your approval?
Well, you are the one who doesn’t like them,
so you, not I, should pick the alternative;
come on, say what you think!
34 Intelligent people will tell me,
every wise man who hears me will say,
35 ‘Iyov is speaking without thinking;
his words lack discernment.’
36 “I wish Iyov would be kept on trial forever,
because he answers like wicked men.
37 For now to his sin he adds rebellion;
he [mockingly] claps his hands among us
and keeps adding to his words against God.”
35 Elihu went on to say:
2 “Are you so convinced you are right,
that you say, ‘I am more just than God’?
3 For you ask what advantage it is to you,
‘How do I gain from not sinning?’
4 “Here is my answer to you,
to you and to your friends:
5 Look at the heavens and see;
observe the skies, high above you.
6 If you sin, how do you hurt him?
If your crimes are many, how do you affect him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give him?
What benefit does he get from you?
8 Your wickedness can affect only others like you,
and your righteousness only other human beings.
9 People cry out from under many oppressions;
they cry for help from under the fist of the mighty.
10 But no one asks, ‘Where is God my maker,
who causes glad songs to ring out at night,
11 who teaches us more than he teaches wild animals
and makes us wiser than the birds in the air?’
12 They may cry out, but no one answers,
because of evil men’s pride.
13 For God will not listen to empty cries;
Shaddai pays no attention to them.
14 All the more when you say that you don’t see him!
Just be patient; he’s considering the matter.
15 But now, just because he doesn’t get angry and punish,
does it mean he doesn’t know what arrogance is?
16 So Iyov is being futile when he opens his mouth;
he is piling up words without knowledge.”
36 Elihu added:
2 “Bear with me a little, and I will show you
that there is more to say on God’s behalf.
3 I may search far and wide for my arguments,
but I will ascribe righteousness to God my maker.
4 For the fact is that my words are true;
you have with you a man whose views are pure.
5 “Look, God is powerful and despises no one,
powerful in his strength of understanding.
6 He does not preserve the lives of the wicked,
but he gives justice to the poor.
7 He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous;
but when he sets kings on their throne forever,
they may become proud;
8 if, then, they are bound in chains,
held in oppressive cords,
9 he shows them the results of their doings,
the crimes caused by their pride.
10 He sounds a warning in their ears
and orders them to repent of their evil.
11 “If they pay attention and obey him,
they spend their days in prosperity;
their years pass pleasantly.
12 But if they don’t pay attention,
they perish by the sword
and die without learning their lesson.
13 The godless in heart cherish their anger,
not crying for help when he binds them.
14 Their soul perishes in their youth,
and their life becomes depraved.
15 “God, with his affliction,
delivers the afflicted;
and he gets their attention
by pressing on them.
16 Indeed [Iyov], he is drawing you
away from distress
to an untroubled open place,
with rich food on your table.
17 But the judgment on the wicked
applies fully to you,
judgment and condemnation
take hold [of them].
18 For beware of wrath
when abundance entices you;
don’t let a big bribe
turn you aside.
19 Will your great wealth help you?
or all your efforts, no matter how strong?
20 Don’t desire the night,
when people suddenly die.
21 Be careful; turn away from wrongdoing;
for because of this, you have been tested by affliction.
22 “Look, God is exalted in his strength;
who is a teacher like him?
23 Who ever prescribed his course for him?
Who ever said, ‘What you are doing is wrong’?
24 Remember, rather, to magnify his work,
of which many have sung.
25 Everyone has seen it,
[but] humans see it [only] from a distance.
26 Look, God is great, beyond what we can know;
the number of his years is uncountable.
27 “He makes the droplets of water,
which condense into rain from his mist.
28 The clouds pour it down
upon humankind in abundance.
29 Can anyone fathom the spreading of the clouds,
or the crashes that come from his canopy?
30 See how he scatters his lightning over it
and covers the roots of the sea.
31 By these things he judges the people
and also gives food in plenty.
32 He gathers the lightning into his hands
and commands it to strike the target.
33 Its crashing announces its presence
and apprises the cattle of what is coming.
37 “At this, my own heart trembles
and leaps out of its place.
2 Just listen to the rumbling of his voice,
to the thunder that comes from his mouth!
3 He sends it out under all of heaven,
his lightning to the ends of the earth.
4 There follows a sound, a roar —
he is thundering with his majestic voice,
and he keeps releasing [the lightning]
even while his voice is being heard.
5 “God thunders wonderfully with his voice,
he does great things beyond our understanding.
6 He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth!’ —
likewise to the light rain, also to the downpour.
7 He brings all human activity to a stop,
so that everyone he has made can know it.
8 Then the animals go into their lairs
and hibernate in their dens.
9 “Out of its chamber comes the storm,
with cold out of the north.
10 By the breath of God, ice is given,
and the wide waters freeze over.
11 He weighs the clouds down with moisture,
and they flash forth his lightning.
12 He, by his plans, turns them around,
so they do what he commands them anywhere on earth;
13 he brings them forth on the earth
sometimes to punish, sometimes to express his grace.
14 “Listen to this, Iyov!
Stop, and consider God’s wonders.
15 Do you know how God puts them in place,
how he causes lightning to flash from his cloud?
16 Do you know how he balances the clouds?
These are marvels of him who knows everything!
17 “You, sweltering in your clothing
as the earth lies still under a sultry south wind,
18 can you, with him, spread out the sky,
hard as a cast metal mirror?
19 Teach us what we should tell him,
for the darkness keeps us from organizing our case.
20 Is he to be told that I will speak?
Can a man speak at all when he is already swallowed up?
21 Now people don’t see the light,
which is bright in the sky;
but then the wind blows
and clears [the clouds] away.
22 Out of the north comes a golden glow,
fearsome majesty surrounding God.
23 Shaddai, whom we cannot find,
whose power is immense,
in his great righteousness
does not pervert justice.
24 This is why people fear him;
he does not consider those
who think of themselves as wise.”
38 Then Adonai answered Iyov out of the storm:
2 “Who is this, darkening my plans
with his ignorant words?
3 Stand up like a man, and brace yourself;
I will ask questions; and you, give the answers!
4 “Where were you when I founded the earth?
Tell me, if you know so much.
5 Do you know who determined its dimensions
or who stretched the measuring line across it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind closed doors
when it gushed forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its blanket
and dense fog its swaddling cloth,
10 when I made the breakers its boundary
set its gates and bars,
11 and said, ‘You may come this far, but no farther;
here your proud waves must stop’?
12 “Have you ever in your life called up the dawn
and made the morning know its place,
13 so that it could take hold of the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 Then the earth is changed like clay under a seal,
until its colors are fixed like those of a garment.
15 But from the wicked the light is withheld,
and the arm raised [to strike] is broken.
16 “Have you gone down to the springs of the sea
or explored the limits of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
the gates of death-like darkness?
18 Have you surveyed the full extent of the earth?
Say so, if you know it all!
19 “Which way leads to where light has its home?
and darkness, where does it dwell?
20 If you knew, you could take each to its place
and set it on its homeward path.
21 You know, of course, because you were born then;
by now you must be very old!
22 “Have you gone into the storehouses for snow
or seen the storehouses for hail,
23 which I save for times of trouble,
for days of battle and war?
24 “By what path is light dispersed,
or the east wind poured out on the land?
25 Who cut a channel for the downpours,
or a way for the lightning and thunder,
26 causing it to rain where no one is,
in a desert without anyone there,
27 drenching the waste and desolate [ground],
till the tender grass sprouts?
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who is the father of dewdrops?
29 From whose womb does ice come?
Who gives birth to the frost of heaven,
30 when water becomes as hard as stone,
and the surface of the deep freezes solid?
31 “Can you tie up the cords of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32 Can you lead out the constellations of the zodiac in their season
or guide the Great Bear and its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the sky?
Can you determine how they affect the earth?
34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and make them cover you with a flood of rain?
35 Can you send lightning bolts on their way?
Will they say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 “Who put wisdom in people’s inner parts?
Who gave understanding to the mind?
37 Who, by wisdom, can number the clouds?
Who can tilt the water-skins of heaven,
38 so that the dust becomes a mass [of mud],
and its clods stick together?
39 “Can you hunt prey for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens
or lie in ambush in their lairs?
41 Who provides food for the raven
when his young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
39 “Do you know when mountain goats give birth?
Have you seen deer in labor?
2 Can you tell how many months they carry their young?
Do you know when they give birth,
3 when they crouch down and bring forth their young,
when they deliver their fawns?
4 Their young become strong, growing up in the open;
they leave and never return.
5 “Who lets the wild donkey roam freely?
Who sets the wild donkey loose from its shackles?
6 I made the ‘Aravah its home,
the salty desert its place to live.
7 It scorns the noise of the city
and hears no driver’s shouts.
8 It ranges over the hills for its pasture,
searching for anything green.
9 “Would a wild ox be willing to serve you?
Would it stay by your stall?
10 Could you tie a rope around its neck
and make it plow furrows for you?
11 Would you trust its great strength enough
to let it do your heavy work,
12 or rely on it to bring home your seed
and gather the grain from your threshing-floor?
13 “An ostrich’s wings beat wildly,
although its pinions lack plumage.
14 It leaves its eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed by the sand,
15 forgetting that a foot may crush them
or a wild animal trample on them.
16 It treats its chicks heartlessly,
as if they were not its own;
even if her labor is in vain,
it really doesn’t care;
17 because God has deprived it of wisdom
and given it no share in understanding.
18 When the time comes, it flaps its wings,
scorning both horse and rider.
19 “Did you give the horse its strength?
Did you clothe its neck with a mane?
20 Did you make him able to leap like a locust?
Its majestic snorting is frightening!
21 It paws with force and exults with vigor,
then charges into the battle;
22 mocking at fear, unafraid,
it does not shy away from the sword.
23 The [rider’s] quiver rattles over it,
[his] gleaming spear and javelin.
24 Frenzied and eager, it devours the ground,
scarcely believing the shofar has sounded.
25 At the sound of the shofar it whinnies;
as from afar it scents the battle,
the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.
26 “Is it your wisdom that sets the hawk soaring,
spreading its wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle fly up when you say so,
to build its nest in the heights?
28 It lives and spends its nights on the cliffs;
a rocky crag is its fortress.
29 From there it spots its prey,
its eyes see it far off.
30 Its young ones suck up blood;
wherever the slain are, there it is.”
40 Continuing to address Iyov, Adonai said:
2 “Does the critic still want to dispute Shaddai?
Let him who wants to correct God give an answer!”
3 Then Iyov replied to Adonai:
4 “I am too ashamed; I have nothing to say.
I lay my hand over my mouth.
5 Yes, I spoke once, but I won’t answer more;
all right, twice, but I won’t go on.”
6 Adonai answered Iyov out of the storm:
7 “Stand up like a man, and brace yourself;
I will ask questions; and you, give the answers!
8 “Are you impugning my justice?
Putting me in the wrong to prove yourself right?
9 Do you have an arm like God’s?
Can you thunder with a voice like his?
10 Come on, deck yourself with majesty and dignity,
robe yourself in glory and splendor.
11 Let loose your furious anger,
look at all who are proud, and humble them.
12 Look at all who are proud, and bring them down;
tread down the wicked where they stand.
13 Bury them in the ground together,
bind their faces in the hidden world.
14 If you do this, then I will confess to you
that your own power can save you.
15 “Now consider Behemot, whom I made along with you.
He eats grass like an ox.
16 What strength he has in his loins!
What power in his stomach muscles!
17 He can make his tail as stiff as a cedar,
the muscles in his thighs are like cables,
18 his bones are like bronze pipes,
his limbs like iron bars.
19 “He ranks first among God’s works.
Only his maker can approach him with his sword.
20 The mountains produce food for him there,
where all the wild animals play.
21 He lies down under the thorny lotus bushes
and is hidden by the reeds in the swamp;
22 the lotus bushes cover him with their shade,
and the willows by the stream surround him.
23 If the river overflows, it doesn’t worry him;
he is confident even if the Yarden rushes by his mouth.
24 Can anyone catch him by his eyes
or pierce his nose with a hook?
25 (41:1) “And Livyatan! Can you catch him with a fishhook
or hold his tongue down with a rope?
26 (41:2) Can you put a ring in his nose
or pierce his jaw with a barb?
27 (41:3) Will he entreat you at length?
Will he speak with you softly?
28 (41:4) Will he agree with you
to be your slave forever?
29 (41:5) Will you play with him as you would with a bird
or keep him on a string to amuse your little girls?
30 (41:6) Will a group of fishermen turn him into a banquet?
Will they divide him among the merchants?
31 (41:7) Can you fill his skin with darts
or his head with fish-spears?
32 (41:8) If you lay your hand on him,
you won’t forget the fight, and you’ll never do it again!
41 (9) “Look, any hope [of capturing him] is futile —
one would fall prostrate at the very sight of him.
2 (10) No one is fierce enough to rouse him,
so who can stand up to me?
3 (11) Who has given me anything
and made me pay it back?
Everything belongs to me
under all of heaven.
4 (12) “I have more to say about his limbs,
his strong talk, and his matchless strength.
5 (13) Who can strip off his [scaly] garment?
Who can enter his jaws?
6 (14) Who can pry open the doors of his face,
so close to his terrible teeth?
7 (15) “His pride is his rows of scales,
tightly sealed together —
8 (16) one is so close to the next
that no air can come between them;
9 (17) they are stuck one to another,
interlocked and impervious.
10 (18) “When he sneezes, light flashes out;
his eyes are like the shimmer of dawn.
11 (19) From his mouth go fiery torches,
and sparks come flying out.
12 (20) His nostrils belch steam
like a caldron boiling on the fire.
13 (21) His breath sets coals ablaze;
flames pour from his mouth.
14 (22) “Strength resides in his neck,
and dismay dances ahead of him [as he goes].
15 (23) The layers of his flesh stick together;
they are firm on him, immovable.
16 (24) His heart is as hard as a stone,
yes, hard as a lower millstone.
17 (25) When he rears himself up, the gods are afraid,
beside themselves in despair.
18 (26) “If a sword touches him, it won’t stick;
neither will a spear, or a dart, or a lance.
19 (27) He regards iron as straw
and bronze as rotten wood.
20 (28) An arrow can’t make him flee;
for him, slingstones are so much chaff.
21 (29) Clubs count as hay,
and he laughs at a quivering javelin.
22 (30) His belly is as sharp as fragments of pottery,
so he moves across the mud like a threshing-sledge.
23 (31) “He makes the depths seethe like a pot,
he makes the sea [boil] like a perfume kettle.
24 (32) He leaves a shining wake behind him,
making the deep seem to have white hair.
25 (33) “On earth there is nothing like him,
a creature without fear.
26 (34) He looks straight at all high things.
He is king over all proud beasts.”
42 Then [at last,] Iyov gave Adonai this answer:
2 “I know that you can do everything,
that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 “[You asked,] ‘Who is this, hiding counsel,
without having knowledge?’
Yes, I spoke, without understanding,
of wonders far beyond me, which I didn’t know.
4 “Please listen, and I will speak.
[You said,] ‘I will ask questions; and you, give me answers’ —
5 I had heard about you with my ears,
but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I detest [myself]
and repent in dust and ashes.”
7 After Adonai had spoken these words to Iyov, Adonai said to Elifaz the Teimani, “My anger is blazing against you and your two friends, because, unlike my servant Iyov, you have not spoken rightly about me. 8 So now, get yourselves seven young bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Iyov, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. My servant Iyov will pray for you — because him I will accept — so that I won’t punish you as your boorishness deserves; because you have not spoken rightly about me, as my servant Iyov has.” 9 So Elifaz the Teimani, Bildad the Shuchi and Tzofar the Na‘amati went and did what Adonai had ordered them to do, and Adonai accepted Iyov[’s prayer].
10 When Iyov prayed for his friends, Adonai restored his fortunes; Adonai gave Iyov twice as much as he had had before. 11 Then all his brothers and sisters came to him, also all who had known him before, and they ate a meal with him in his house. They consoled and comforted him for all the evils Adonai had inflicted on him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 Adonai blessed Iyov’s later situation even more than his earlier one — he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 pairs of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys.
13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first he named Y’mimah; the second, K’tzi‘ah; and the third, Keren-Hapukh. 15 Nowhere in the land could women be found as beautiful as Iyov’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritances along with their brothers.
16 After this, Iyov lived 140 years, long enough to see his sons and grandsons, four generations. 17 Then, old and full of days, Iyov died.
1 The Ultimate Song, by Shlomo:
[She]
2 Let him smother me with kisses from his mouth,
for your love is better than wine.
3 Your anointing oils have a wonderful fragrance;
your name is like anointing oil poured out.
This is why young women love you —
4 “Take me with you. We will run after you.”
The king has brought me into his rooms.
[Chorus]
We will be glad and rejoice for you.
We will praise your love more than wine.
How right it is for them to love you!
[She]
5 I am dark tan but beautiful,
you daughters of Yerushalayim,
like the tents of Kedar,
like the curtains of Shlomo.
6 Don’t stare at me because I’m dark;
it’s the sun that tanned me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me
and made me look after the vineyards.
But I haven’t cared for my own vineyard.
7 Tell me, my love, where you pasture your flock,
where you have them rest at noon;
for why should I veil myself [like a whore]
beside the flocks of your friends?
[Chorus]
8 If you do not know,
you most beautiful of women,
then follow the footprints of the flock
and let your kids graze by the shepherds’ tents.
[He]
9 My love, I compare you with my mare,
pulling one of Pharaoh’s chariots —
10 your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,
your neck with its strings of beads;
11 we will make you ornaments
of gold, studded with silver.
[She]
12 As the king reclines at table,
my nard gives forth its perfume:
13 to me the man I love is a sachet of myrrh
lodged between my breasts;
14 to me the man I love is a spray of henna flowers
in the vineyards of ‘Ein-Gedi.
[He]
15 Look at you, my love! How beautiful you are!
Your eyes are doves —
[She]
16 — Look at you!
So handsome, so pleasing, my darling!
Our bed is the greenery;
17 cedars are the beams of our houses,
cypresses the rafters.
2 I am but a rose from the Sharon,
just a lily in the valleys.
[He]
2 Like a lily among thorns
is my darling among the other women.
[She]
3 Like an apple tree among the other trees in the forest
is my darling among the other men.
I love to sit in his shadow;
his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He brings me to the banquet hall;
his banner over me is love.
5 Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples,
for I am sick with love.
6 [I wish] his left arm [were] under my head,
and his right arm around me.
7 I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim,
by the gazelles and deer in the wilds,
not to awaken or stir up love
until it wants to arise!
8 The voice of the man I love! Here he comes,
bounding over the mountains, skipping over the hills!
9 My darling is like a gazelle or young stag.
There he is, standing outside our wall,
looking in through the windows,
peering in through the lattice.
10 My darling speaks; he is saying to me,
“Get up, my love! My beauty! Come away!
11 For you see that the winter has passed,
the rain is finished and gone,
12 the flowers are appearing in the countryside,
the time has come for [the birds] to sing,
and the cooing of doves can be heard in the land.
13 The fig trees are forming their unripe figs,
and the grapevines in bloom give out their perfume.
Get up, my love, my beauty!
Come away!”
[He]
14 My dove, hiding in holes in the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
let me see your face and hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
[She]
15 “Catch the foxes for us,
yes, the little foxes!
They are ruining the vineyards
when our vineyards are in bloom!”
16 My darling is mine, and I am his,
as he pastures his flock among the lilies.
17 Before the daytime breeze rises
and the shadows flee,
return, my love, like a stag or gazelle
on the hills of Beter.
3 Night after night on my bed
I looked for the man I love.
I looked for him, but I didn’t find him.
2 “I will get up now and roam the city,
through the streets and the open places,
I will look for the man I love.”
I looked for him, but I didn’t find him.
3 The guards roaming the city found me.
“Have you seen the man I love?”
4 Scarcely had I left them,
when I found the man I love.
I took hold of him
and would not let him go
until I had brought him to my mother’s house,
to the bedroom of the woman who conceived me.
5 I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim,
by the gazelles and deer in the wilds,
not to awaken or stir up love
until it wants to arise!
6 Who is this, coming up from the desert
like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
chosen from the merchant’s crushed spices?
7 It is Shlomo’s litter,
escorted by sixty valiant men
chosen from Isra’el’s finest;
8 all of them wield the sword
and are expert fighters;
each one has his sword ready at his side
to combat the terrors of night.
9 King Shlomo made himself a royal litter
of wood from the L’vanon.
10 He made its columns of silver,
its roof of gold, its seat of purple cloth;
its inside was lovingly inlaid
by the daughters of Yerushalayim.
11 Daughters of Tziyon, come out,
and gaze upon King Shlomo,
wearing the crown with which his mother crowned him
on his wedding day, his day of joy!
[He]
4 How beautiful you are, my love!
How beautiful you are!
Your eyes are doves behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down Mount Gil‘ad.
2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep
that have just come up from being washed;
each of them is matched,
and none of them is missing.
3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
and your mouth is lovely.
Your cheeks are like a pomegranate
split open behind your veil.
4 Your neck is like the tower of David,
built magnificently,
on which hang a thousand bucklers,
each one a brave warrior’s shield.
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle grazing among lilies.
6 When the day’s cool breeze comes up
and the shadows lengthen,
I will get myself to the mountain of myrrh
to the hill of frankincense.
7 Everything about you is beautiful, my love;
you are without a flaw.
8 Come with me from the L’vanon, my bride,
come with me from the L’vanon.
Come down from the heights of Amanah,
from the heights of S’nir and Hermon,
down from the lions’ lairs
and the leopard-haunted hills.
9 My sister, my bride,
you have carried my heart away!
With just one glance, with one bead of your necklace
you have carried my heart away.
10 My sister, my bride,
how sweet is your love!
How much better your love than wine,
more fragrant your perfumes than any spice!
11 Your lips, my bride, drip honey;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
and the scent of your garments is like
the scent of the L’vanon.
12 My sister, my bride, is a garden locked up,
a pool covered over, a spring sealed shut.
13 You are an orchard that puts forth pomegranates
and other precious fruits, henna and nard —
14 nard, saffron and aromatic cane,
cinnamon and all kinds of frankincense trees,
myrrh, aloes, all the best spices.
15 You are a garden fountain,
a spring of running water,
flowing down from the L’vanon.
[She]
16 Awake, north wind! Come, south wind!
Blow on my garden to spread its fragrance.
Let my darling enter his garden
and eat its finest fruit.
[He]
5 My sister, my bride, I have entered my garden;
I am gathering my myrrh and my spices;
I am eating my honeycomb along with my honey;
I am drinking my wine as well as my milk.
[Chorus]
Eat, friends, and drink,
until you are drunk with love!
[She]
2 I am asleep, but my heart is awake.
Listen! I hear my darling knocking!
[He]
Open for me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my flawless one!
For my head is wet with dew,
my hair with the moisture of the night.
[She]
3 I’ve removed my coat; must I put it back on?
I’ve washed my feet; must I dirty them again?
4 The man I love put his hand through the hole by the door-latch,
and my heart began pounding at the thought of him.
5 I got up to open for the man I love.
My hands were dripping with myrrh —
pure myrrh ran off my fingers
onto the handle of the bolt.
6 I opened for my darling,
but my darling had turned and gone.
My heart had failed me when he spoke —
I sought him, but I couldn’t find him;
I called him, but he didn’t answer.
7 The watchmen roaming the city found me;
they beat me, they wounded me;
they took away my cloak,
those guardians of the walls!
8 I charge you, daughters of Yerushalayim,
that if you find the man I love,
what are you to tell him?
That I am sick with love.
[Chorus]
9 How does the man you love differ from any other,
you most beautiful of women?
How does the man you love differ from any other,
that you should give us this charge?
[She]
10 The man I love is radiant and ruddy;
he stands out among ten thousand.
11 His head is like the finest gold;
his locks are wavy and black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves by running streams,
bathed in milk and set just right.
13 His cheeks are like beds of spices,
like banks of fragrant herbs.
His lips are like lilies
dripping with sweet myrrh.
14 His arms are rods of gold set with beryl,
his body polished ivory adorned with sapphires.
15 His legs are like pillars of marble
set on bases of pure gold.
His appearance is like the L’vanon,
as imposing as the cedars.
16 His words are sweetness itself;
he is altogether desirable.
This is my darling, and this is my friend,
daughters of Yerushalayim.
[Chorus]
6 Where has your darling gone,
you most beautiful of women?
Which way did your darling turn,
so that we can help you find him?
[She]
2 My darling went down to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to pasture his flock in the gardens
and to gather lilies.
3 I belong to the man I love, and he belongs to me;
he pastures his flock among the lilies.
[He]
4 You are as beautiful as Tirtzah, my love,
as lovely as Yerushalayim,
but formidable as an army
marching under banners.
5 Turn your eyes away from me,
because they overwhelm me!
Your hair is like a flock of goats
streaming down Gil‘ad.
6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
that have just come up from being washed;
each of them is matched,
and none of them is missing.
7 Your cheeks are like a pomegranate
split open behind your veil.
8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,
as well as young women beyond number;
9 but my dove, my perfect one, is unique,
her mother’s only child,
the darling of the one who bore her.
The daughters see her and call her happy;
the queens and concubines praise her.
10 “Who is this, shining forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun” —
but formidable as an army
marching under banners?
[She]
11 I had gone down to the nut orchard
to see the fresh green plants in the valley,
to see if the vine had budded,
or if the pomegranate trees were in bloom.
12 Before I knew it, I found myself
in a chariot, and with me was a prince.
[Chorus]
7 (6:13) Come back, come back, girl from Shulam!
Come back, come back to where we can see you!
Why are you looking at the girl from Shulam
as if she were dancing for two army camps?
[He]
2 (1) How beautiful are your feet in sandals,
you daughter of princes!
The curves of your thighs are like a necklace
made by a skilled craftsman.
3 (2) Your navel is like a round goblet
that never lacks spiced wine.
Your belly is a heap of wheat
encircled by lilies.
4 (3) Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
5 (4) Your neck is like a tower of ivory,
your eyes like the pools in Heshbon
by the gate of Bat-Rabbim,
your nose like a tower in the L’vanon
overlooking Dammesek.
6 (5) You hold your head like the Karmel,
and the hair on your head is like purple cloth —
the king is held captive in its tresses.
7 (6) How beautiful you are, my love,
how charming, how delightful!
8 (7) Your appearance is stately as a palm tree,
with its fruit clusters your breasts.
9 (8) I said, “I will climb up into the palm tree,
I will take hold of its branches.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes,
your breath as fragrant as apples,
10 (9) and your mouth like the finest wine.
[She]
May the wine go straight to the man I love
and gently move the lips of those who are asleep.
11 (10) I belong to my darling,
and his desire is for me.
12 (11) Come, my darling, let’s go out to the country
and spend the nights in the villages.
13 (12) We’ll get up early and go to the vineyards
to see if the vines have budded,
to see if their flowers have opened,
or if the pomegranate trees are in bloom.
There I will give you my love.
14 (13) The mandrakes are sending out their fragrance,
all kinds of choice fruits are at our doors,
fruits both new and old, my darling,
which I have kept in store for you.
8 I wish you were my brother,
who nursed at my mother’s breast;
then, if I met you outdoors, I could kiss you,
and no one would look down on me.
2 I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house,
and she would instruct me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
fresh juice from my pomegranates.
3 His left arm would be under my head
and his right arm around me.
4 I warn you, daughters of Yerushalayim,
not to awaken or stir up love
until it wants to arise!
[Chorus]
5 Who is this, coming up from the desert,
leaning on her darling?
[He]
I awakened you under the apple tree.
It was there that your mother conceived you;
there she who bore you conceived you.
[She]
6 Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
passion as cruel as Sh’ol;
its flashes are flashes of fire,
[as fierce as the] flame of Yah.
7 No amount of water can quench love,
torrents cannot drown it.
If someone gave all the wealth in his house for love,
he would gain only utter contempt.
[Chorus]
8 We have a little sister;
her breasts are still unformed.
What are we to do with our sister
when she is asked for in marriage?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build on her a palace of silver;
and if she is a door,
we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
[She]
10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers;
so in his view I am like one who brings peace.
11 Shlomo had a vineyard at Ba‘al-Hamon,
and he gave the vineyard to caretakers;
each of them would pay for its fruit
a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard is mine; I tend it, myself.
You can have the thousand, Shlomo,
and the fruit-caretakers, two hundred!
[He]
13 You who live in the garden,
friends are listening for your voice.
Let me hear it! —
[She]
14 — Flee, my darling!
Be like a gazelle or young stag
on the mountains of spices!
1 Back in the days when the judges were judging, at a time when there was a famine in the land, a certain man from Beit-Lechem went to live in the territory of Mo’av — he, his wife and his two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelekh, his wife’s name was Na‘omi, and his two sons were named Machlon and Kilyon; they were Efratim from Beit-Lechem in Y’hudah. They arrived in the plain of Mo’av and settled there. 3 Elimelekh, Na‘omi’s husband, died; and she was left, she and her two sons. 4 They took wives for themselves from the women of Mo’av; the name of the one was ‘Orpah; and the name of the other was Rut. They lived there for about ten years. 5 Then Machlon and Kilyon died, both of them; and the woman was left with neither her two sons nor her husband.
6 So she prepared to return with her daughters-in-law from the plain of Mo’av; for in the plain of Mo’av she had heard how Adonai had paid attention to his people by giving them food. 7 She left the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law and took the road leading back to Y’hudah.
8 Na‘omi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Each of you, go back to your mother’s house. May Adonai show grace to you, as you did to those who died and to me. 9 May Adonai grant you security in the home of a new husband.” Then she kissed them, but they began weeping aloud. 10 They said to her, “No; we want to return with you to your people.” 11 Na‘omi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb who could become your husbands? 12 Go back, my daughters; go your way; for I’m too old to have a husband. Even if I were to say, ‘I still have hope’; even if I had a husband tonight and bore sons; 13 would you wait for them until they grew up? Would you refuse to marry, just for them? No, my daughters. On your behalf I feel very bitter that the hand of Adonai has gone out against me.” 14 Again they wept aloud. Then ‘Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Rut stuck with her. 15 She said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god; go back, after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Rut said,
“Don’t press me to leave you
and stop following you;
for wherever you go, I will go;
and wherever you stay, I will stay.
Your people will be my people
and your God will be my God.
17 Where you die, I will die;
and there I will be buried.
May Adonai bring terrible curses on me,
and worse ones as well,
if anything but death
separates you and me.”
18 When Na‘omi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
19 So the two of them went on until they came to Beit-Lechem. When they arrived in Beit-Lechem, the whole city was stirred with excitement over them. The women asked, “Can this be Na‘omi?” 20 “Don’t call me Na‘omi [pleasant],” she answered them; “call me Marah [bitter], because Shaddai has made my life very bitter. 21 I went out full, and Adonai has brought me back empty. Why call me Na‘omi? Adonai has testified against me, Shaddai has afflicted me.” 22 This is how Na‘omi returned, with Rut the woman from Mo’av, her daughter-in-law, accompanying her from the plain of Mo’av. They arrived in Beit-Lechem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
2 Na‘omi had a relative on her husband’s side, a prominent and wealthy member of Elimelekh’s clan, whose name was Bo‘az. 2 Rut the woman from Mo’av said to Na‘omi, “Let me go into the field and glean ears of grain behind anyone who will allow me to.” She answered her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she set out, arrived at the field and gleaned behind the reapers.
She happened to be in the part of the field that belonged to Bo‘az from Elimelekh’s clan, 4 when Bo‘az arrived from Beit-Lechem. He said to the reapers, “Adonai be with you”; and they answered him, “Adonai bless you.” 5 Then Bo‘az asked his servant supervising the reapers, “Whose girl is this?” 6 The servant supervising the reapers answered, “She’s a girl from Mo’av who returned with Na‘omi from the plain of Mo’av. 7 She said, ‘Please, let me glean and gather what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she went and has kept at it from morning until now, except for a little rest in the shelter.”
8 Bo‘az said to Rut, “Did you hear that, my daughter? Don’t go to glean in another field, don’t leave this place, but stick here with my working girls. 9 Keep your eyes on whichever field the reapers are working in, and follow the girls. I’ve ordered the young men not to bother you. Whenever you get thirsty, go and drink from the water jars the young men have filled.”
10 She fell on her face, prostrating herself, and said to him, “Why are you showing me such favor? Why are you paying attention to me? After all, I’m only a foreigner.” 11 Bo‘az answered her, “I’ve heard the whole story, everything you’ve done for your mother-in-law since your husband died, including how you left your father and mother and the land you were born in to come to a people about whom you knew nothing beforehand. 12 May Adonai reward you for what you’ve done; may you be rewarded in full by Adonai the God of Isra’el, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” 13 She said, “My lord, I hope I continue pleasing you. You have comforted and encouraged me, even though I’m not one of your servants.”
14 When meal-time came, Bo‘az said to her, “Come here, have something to eat, and dip your piece of bread in the [olive oil and] vinegar.” She sat by the reapers, and they passed her some roasted grain. She ate till she was full, and she had some left over.
15 When she got up to glean, Bo‘az ordered his young men, “Let her glean even among the sheaves themselves, without making her feel ashamed. 16 In fact, pull some ears of grain out from the sheaves on purpose. Leave them for her to glean, and don’t rebuke her.” 17 So she gleaned in the field until evening. When she beat out what she had gathered, it came to about a bushel of barley.
18 She picked it up and went back to the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and Rut brought out and gave her what she had left over after eating her fill. 19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where were you working? Blessed be the one who took such good care of you!” She told her mother-in-law with whom she had been working; she said, “The name of the man with whom I was working today is Bo‘az.” 20 Na‘omi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Adonai, who has never stopped showing grace, neither to the living nor to the dead.” Na‘omi also told her, “The man is closely related to us; he’s one of our redeeming kinsmen.” 21 Rut the woman from Mo’av said, “Moreover, he even said to me, ‘Stay close to my young men until they’ve finished my harvest.’” 22 Na‘omi said to Rut her daughter-in-law, “It’s good, my daughter, for you to keep going out with his girls; so that you won’t encounter hostility in some other field.” 23 So she stayed close to Bo‘az’s girls to glean, until the end of the barley and wheat harvests; and she lived with her mother-in-law.
3 Na‘omi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I should be seeking security for you; so that things will go well with you. 2 Now there’s Bo‘az our relative — you were with his girls. He’s going to be winnowing barley tonight at the threshing-floor. 3 So bathe, anoint yourself, put on your good clothes, and go down to the threshing-floor; but don’t reveal your presence to the man until he’s finished eating and drinking. 4 Then, when he lies down, take note of where he’s lying; later, go in, uncover his feet, and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” 5 She responded, “I will do everything you tell me.”
6 She went down to the threshing-floor and did everything as her mother-in-law had instructed her. 7 After Bo‘az was through eating and drinking and was feeling good, he went to lie down at the end of the pile of grain. She stole in, uncovered his feet and lay down. 8 In the middle of the night the man was startled and turned over, and — there was a woman lying at his feet! 9 He asked, “Who are you?” and she answered, “I’m your handmaid Rut. Spread your robe over your handmaid, because you are a redeeming kinsman.” 10 He said, “May Adonai bless you, my daughter. Your latest kindness is even greater than your first, in that you didn’t go after the young men, neither the rich ones nor the poor. 11 And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you everything you say, for all the city leaders among my people know that you are a woman of good character. 12 Now, it is true that I am a redeeming kinsman; but there is a redeemer who is a closer relative than I am. 13 Stay tonight. If, in the morning, he will redeem you, fine! — let him redeem you. But if he doesn’t want to redeem you, then, as Adonai lives, I will redeem you. Now, lie down until morning.”
14 She lay at his feet until morning; then, before [it was light enough that] people could recognize each other, she got up; because he said, “No one should know that the woman came to the threshing-floor.” 15 He also said, “Bring the shawl you are wearing, and take hold of it.” She held it while he put six measures of barley into it; then he went into the city.
16 When she came to her mother-in-law, she asked, “Who are you? My daughter?” She told her everything the man had done for her. 17 Then she added, “He gave me these six measures of barley; because he said to me, “You shouldn’t return to your mother-in-law with nothing.” 18 Na‘omi said, “My daughter, just stay where you are, until you learn how the matter comes out; for the man won’t rest unless he resolves the matter today.”
4 Meanwhile, Bo‘az had gone up to the gate and had sat down there, when the redeemer of whom Bo‘az had spoken passed by. “Such-and-such,” he said, “come over, and sit down”; so he came over and sat down. 2 He took ten of the city’s leaders and said, “Sit down here”; and they sat down. 3 Then he said to the redeeming kinsman, “The parcel of land which used to belong to our relative Elimelekh is being offered for sale by Na‘omi, who has returned from the plain of Mo’av. 4 I thought I should tell you about it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of the people sitting here and in the presence of the leaders of my people. If you want to redeem it, redeem it. But if it is not to be redeemed, then tell me, so that I can know, because there is no one else in line to redeem it, and I’m after you.” He said, “I want to redeem it.” 5 Then Bo‘az said, “The same day you buy the field from Na‘omi, you must also buy Rut the woman from Mo’av, the wife of the deceased [son], in order to raise up in the name of the deceased an heir for his property.” 6 The redeemer said, “Then I can’t redeem it for myself, because I might put my own inheritance at risk. You, take my right of redemption on yourself; because I can’t redeem it.”
7 In the past, this is what was done in Isra’el to validate all transactions involving redemption and exchange: a man took off his shoe and gave it to the other party; this was the form of attestation in Isra’el. 8 So the redeemer said to Bo‘az, “Buy it for yourself,” and took off his shoe. 9 Bo‘az addressed the leaders and all the people: “You are witnesses today that I am purchasing from Na‘omi all that belonged to Elimelekh and all that belonged to Kilyon and Machlon. 10 Also I am acquiring as my wife Rut the woman from Mo’av, the wife of Machlon, in order to raise up in the name of the deceased an heir for his property; so that the name of the deceased will not be cut off from his kinsmen and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.” 11 All the people at the gate and the leaders said, “We are witnesses. May Adonai make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Le’ah, who between them built up the house of Isra’el. Do worthy deeds in Efrat; become renowned in Beit-Lechem. 12 May your house, because of the seed Adonai will give you from this young woman, become like the house of Peretz, whom Tamar bore to Y’hudah.”
13 So Bo‘az took Rut, and she became his wife. He had sexual relations with her, Adonai enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 Then the women said to Na‘omi, “Blessed be Adonai, who today has provided you a redeemer! May his name be renowned in Isra’el. 15 May he restore your life and provide for your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16 Na‘omi took the child, laid it on her breast and became its nurse. 17 The women who were her neighbors gave it a name; they said, “A son has been born to Na‘omi,” and called it ‘Oved. He was the father of Yishai the father of David.
18 Here is the genealogy of Peretz. Peretz was the father of Hetzron, 19 Hetzron was the father of Ram, Ram was the father of ‘Amminadav, 20 ‘Amminadav was the father of Nachshon, Nachshon was the father of Salmon, 21 Salmon was the father of Bo‘az, Bo‘az was the father of ‘Oved, 22 ‘Oved was the father of Yishai, and Yishai was the father of David.
1 How lonely lies the city
that once thronged with people!
Once great among the nations,
now she is like a widow!
Once princess among provinces,
she has become a vassal.
2 Bitterly she weeps at night,
tears running down her cheeks.
Not one of all her lovers
is there to comfort her.
Her friends have all betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
3 Y’hudah has fled into exile
from oppression and endless slavery.
She lives among the nations,
but there she finds no rest.
Her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Tziyon are mourning
because no one comes to the festivals.
Her gateways are all deserted,
her cohanim are groaning,
her unmarried girls are grieving —
how bitter it is for her!
5 Her foes have become the head,
her enemies relax,
for Adonai has made her suffer
because of her many sins.
Her young children have gone away
captive before the foe.
6 All splendor has departed
from the daughter of Tziyon.
Her princes have become like deer
unable to find pasture,
running on, exhausted,
fleeing from the hunter.
7 In the days of her affliction and anguish,
Yerushalayim remembers
all the treasures that were hers,
ever since ancient times.
Now her people fall into the power of the foe,
and she has no one to help her;
her enemies are gloating over her,
mocking her desolation.
8 Yerushalayim sinned grievously;
therefore she has become unclean.
All who honored her now despise her,
because they have seen her naked.
She herself also moans
and turns her face away.
9 Her filthiness was in her skirts;
she gave no thought to how it would end.
Hence her astounding downfall,
with no one to console her.
“Look, Adonai, how I suffer;
for the foe has triumphed!”
10 Enemies have reached out their hands
to seize all her treasures.
She has seen Goyim approach
and go inside her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade even
to enter your assembly.
11 All her people are groaning,
as they search for something to eat.
They barter their treasures for food
to keep themselves alive.
“Look, Adonai! See
how despised I am.
12 “May it not happen to you,
all you passers-by!
Just look, and see if there is any pain
like the pain inflicted on me,
which Adonai made me suffer
on the day of his blazing anger.
13 “From on high, he sent down fire
deep into my bones;
he spread a net to catch my feet;
he turned me back;
he left me desolate,
in misery all day long.
14 “My sins have been bound into a yoke,
knit together by his hand.
It weighs down on my neck,
and it saps my strength.
Adonai has put me into the power
of those I cannot withstand.
15 “All the strong men within my walls
Adonai has rejected.
He has set a specific time
for crushing my young men.
Adonai has trodden, like grapes in a winepress,
the virgin daughter of Y’hudah.
16 “Because of these things, I weep;
my eyes, my eyes stream with tears;
for anyone who could comfort me
and revive my courage is far away.
My children are in a state of shock,
because the enemy has prevailed.”
17 Tziyon spreads out her hands,
but no one is there to console her.
Concerning Ya‘akov, Adonai has ordered
those around him to be his foes;
Yerushalayim has become for them
an unclean, filthy thing.
18 “Adonai is in the right,
for I rebelled against his word.
Listen, please, all you peoples;
and see how I am in pain!
My young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.
19 “I called out to my lovers,
but they let me down.
My cohanim and leaders
perished in the city,
as they were seeking food
to keep themselves alive.
20 “See, Adonai, how distressed I am!
Everything in me is churning!
My heart turns over inside me,
because I have been so rebellious.
Outside, the sword brings bereavement;
inside, it is like death.
21 “People have heard how I groan,
with no one to comfort me.
All my foes have heard of my trouble;
they are glad that you have done it.
Bring the day you have promised,
so that they will suffer like me!
22 “Let all their wickedness come before you.
Then do to them
as you have done to me
because of all my offenses.
For my groans are many,
and I am sick at heart.”
2 How enveloped in darkness Adonai, in his anger,
has made the daughter of Tziyon!
He has thrown down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Isra’el,
forgotten his footstool [the sanctuary]
on the day of his anger.
2 Without pity Adonai swallowed up
all the dwellings of Ya‘akov.
In his wrath he broke down the strongholds
of the daughter of Y’hudah,
brought them down to the ground,
thus profaning the kingdom and its rulers.
3 In his fierce anger he cut off
all the power of Isra’el,
withdrew his protecting right hand
at the approach of the enemy,
and blazed up in Ya‘akov like a flaming fire
devouring everything around it.
4 He bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set like a foe.
He killed all who were pleasant to see.
In the tent of the daughter of Tziyon,
he poured out his fury like fire.
5 Adonai became like an enemy;
he swallowed up Isra’el,
swallowed up all its palaces,
and destroyed all its strongholds.
For the daughter of Y’hudah
he has multiplied mourning and moaning.
6 He wrecked his tabernacle as easily as a garden,
destroyed his place of assembly.
Adonai caused Isra’el to forget
designated times and Shabbats.
In the heat of his anger
he rejected both king and cohen.
7 Adonai rejected his altar,
disowned his sanctuary,
and gave her palace walls
over to the power of the foe,
who raised such shouts in the house of Adonai
that it sounded like a festival day.
8 Adonai resolved to destroy
the wall of the daughter of Tziyon.
He measured it with his line and did not stay his hand
until it was all in ruins.
He brought grief to rampart and wall;
together they lie dejected.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he destroyed and broke their bars.
Her king and rulers are among the Goyim,
there is no more Torah,
and her prophets do not receive
visions from Adonai.
10 The leaders of the daughter of Tziyon
sit on the ground in silence.
They throw dust on their heads;
they are wearing sackcloth.
The unmarried women of Yerushalayim
lower their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are worn out from weeping,
everything in me is churning;
I am empty of emotion
because of the wounds to my people,
because children and infants are fainting away
in the streets of the city.
12 They keep asking their mothers,
“Where is something to eat or drink?”
as they faint away
in the streets of the city,
gasping out their last breath
in their mother’s bosom.
13 What can be said to you, what can be compared with you,
daughter of Yerushalayim?
What example can I give to comfort you,
virgin daughter of Tziyon?
For your downfall is as vast as the sea;
who can heal you?
14 The visions your prophets saw for you
were futile, just a whitewash.
They did not expose your guilt,
so as to reverse your fortunes —
no, the visions they saw for you
were alluring, but futile.
15 All who pass your way
clap their hands at you,
hissing and shaking their heads
at the daughter of Yerushalayim:
“This city was called ‘perfection in beauty’?
‘the joy of the whole earth’?”
16 All your adversaries
open their mouths to jeer at you.
They hiss, they grind their teeth;
they say, “We have swallowed her up!
This is the day we were waiting for,
and now we have lived to see it!”
17 Adonai has done what he planned,
he has fulfilled his promise,
which he decreed in ancient times.
He has destroyed without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you
and filled your foes with pride.
18 Their hearts cried out to Adonai,
“Wall of the daughter of Tziyon!
Let your tears stream down
like a torrent, day and night!
Give yourself no respite,
give your eyes no rest!
19 “Get up! Cry out in the night,
at the beginning of every watch!
Pour your heart out like water
before the face of Adonai!
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your babies,
who are fainting away from hunger
at every streetcorner.”
20 Adonai, look and see
who it is you have thus tormented!
Should women eat the fruit of their wombs,
the children they have held in their hands?
Should cohanim and prophets be slaughtered
in the sanctuary of Adonai?
21 Youths and old men are lying
on the ground in the streets,
my unmarried women and young men
have fallen by the sword.
You killed them on the day of your anger,
you slaughtered them without pity.
22 You have summoned my terrors from every direction,
as on a festival day.
On the day of Adonai’s anger,
not one escaped; not one survived —
the children I held in my arms and raised,
my enemy has destroyed.
3 I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his fury,
2 He has led me and made me walk
in darkness and not in light.
3 Against me alone he turns his hand
again and again, all day.
4 He has worn away my skin and flesh,
he has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me live in darkness,
like those who are long dead.
7 He has walled me in, so I can’t escape;
he has weighed me down with chains.
8 Even when I cry out, pleading for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone,
he has made my paths crooked.
10 He lies in wait for me like a bear,
like a lion in hiding.
11 He has forced me aside and torn me to pieces,
leaving me stunned.
12 He has bent his bow and used me
as a target for his arrows.
13 He has pierced my vital organs
with shafts from his quiver.
14 I’m a laughingstock to all my people,
the butt of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
sated me with wormwood.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel
and pressed me down into ashes.
17 I have been so deprived of peace,
I have so forgotten what happiness is,
18 that I think, “My strength is gone,
and so is my hope in Adonai.”
19 Remember my utter misery,
the wormwood and the gall.
20 They are always on my mind;
this is why I am so depressed.
21 But in my mind I keep returning to something,
something that gives me hope —
22 that the grace of Adonai is not exhausted,
that his compassion has not ended.
23 [On the contrary,] they are new every morning!
How great your faithfulness!
24 “Adonai is all I have,” I say;
“therefore I will put my hope in him.
25 Adonai is good to those waiting for him,
to those who are seeking him out.
26 It is good to wait patiently
for the saving help of Adonai.
27 It is good for a man
to bear the yoke from his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence
when he has laid it on him.
29 Let him submit absolutely;
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes it,
and receive his fill of insults.
31 For rejection by Adonai
does not last forever.
32 He may cause grief, but he will take pity,
in keeping with the greatness of his grace.
33 For he does not arbitrarily torment
or punish human beings.
34 When anyone tramples underfoot
any of the prisoners of the land;
35 when anyone deprives a person of justice,
in defiance of the Most High;
36 when someone is cheated of justice in court —
does Adonai not take note of such things?
37 Who can say something and have it happen
without Adonai’s commanding it?
38 Don’t both bad things and good proceed
from the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should anyone alive complain,
even a strong man, about the punishment for his sins?
40 Let us examine and test our ways
and return to Adonai.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven and say,
42 “We, for our part, have transgressed and rebelled;
you, for your part, have not forgiven.
43 “You have covered us with anger,
pursued and slaughtered us without pity.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so thick
that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have reduced us
to rubbish and filth among the peoples.
46 “All our adversaries
open their mouths to jeer at us.
47 Panic and pitfall have come upon us,
desolation and destruction.
48 My eyes stream with rivers of water
over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
49 My eyes weep ceaselessly;
there is no respite,
50 until Adonai looks down
and sees from heaven.
51 My eyes make me so upset
at the fate of the women in my city.
52 Those who are my enemies for no reason
hunted me down like a bird.
53 They forced me alive into a pit
and threw stones on me.
54 Water rose above my head;
I thought, “I am finished!”
55 I called on your name, Adonai,
from the bottom of the pit.
56 You heard my voice; don’t close your ear
at my sighs, at my cries.
57 You came near when I called to you;
you said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 Adonai, you defended my cause;
you redeemed my life.
59 Adonai, you see how I have been wronged;
give judgment in my favor!
60 You have seen all their vindictiveness
and all their plots against me.
61 You have heard their taunts, Adonai,
and all their plots against me,
62 the whispered murmurings of my foes
against me all day long.
63 See how, whether they sit or stand,
I am the butt of their taunts.
64 Repay them, Adonai,
as their deeds deserve.
65 Give them hardheartedness
as your curse on them.
66 Pursue them in anger!
Destroy them from under your heavens!
4 How the gold has lost its luster!
How the fine gold has changed!
How the stones of the sanctuary
lie scattered at every streetcorner!
2 The precious sons of Tziyon,
as precious as fine gold —
to think they are now worth no more
than clay jars made by a potter!
3 Even jackals bare their breasts
in order to nurse their young,
but the daughters of my people have become as cruel
as ostriches in the desert.
4 The tongue of the baby at the breast
sticks to the roof of its mouth from thirst;
young children are begging for bread,
but no one is giving them any.
5 People who once ate only the best
lie dying in the streets;
those who were raised wearing purple
are clawing at piles of garbage.
6 For the offense of the daughter of my people
is greater than the sin of S’dom,
which was overthrown in an instant,
without a hand to help her.
7 Her princes were purer than snow;
they were whiter than milk,
their bodies more ruddy than pink pearls,
as beautiful as sapphires.
8 Now their faces are blacker than coal;
in the streets they go unrecognized.
Their skin has shriveled over their bones
and become as dry as a stick.
9 Those slain by the sword are better off
than those who are dying from hunger;
since these waste away as if pierced through,
for lack of food from the fields.
10 With their own hands compassionate women
have cooked their own children;
their children became their food
when the daughter of my people was destroyed.
11 Adonai has finished with his fury,
he has poured out his blazing wrath;
he kindled a fire in Tziyon
that consumed its very foundations.
12 The kings of the earth could not believe,
neither could anyone living in the world,
that enemy or foe would ever enter
the gates of Yerushalayim.
13 It happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the offenses of her cohanim,
who, within her walls,
shed the blood of the righteous.
14 They wander in the streets like the blind;
they are so polluted with blood
that nobody is able
even to touch their clothing.
15 “Keep away! Unclean!” people shout at them,
“Keep away! Away! Don’t touch us!”
They flee, to wander here and there;
but no nation allows them to stay.
16 Adonai himself scattered them;
he will no longer look after them;
they had no respect for cohanim
and showed no kindness to the leaders.
17 As for us, our eyes are worn out
from looking in vain for help;
we kept on watching and watching
for a nation that couldn’t save us.
18 They keep dogging our steps,
so that we can’t go out in our streets.
Our end is near, our time is up;
yes, our end has come.
19 Those who pursued us were swifter
than eagles in the sky.
They chased us over the mountains
and waylaid us in the desert.
20 Adonai’s anointed, our life-breath,
was caught in their pits;
though of him we had said, “Under his protection,
we can live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice, be glad, daughter of Edom,
who lives in the land of ‘Utz.
To you too the cup will pass;
you will get drunk and strip yourself naked!
22 Your offenses, daughter of Tziyon, are atoned for;
he will keep you in exile no longer.
Your offenses, daughter of Edom, he will punish;
he will expose your sins.
5 Remember, Adonai, what has happened to us;
look, and see our disgrace.
2 The land we possessed has been passed on to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become fatherless orphans,
our mothers now are widows.
4 We have to pay to drink our own water;
we have to buy our own wood.
5 The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted;
we toil to exhaustion but are given no rest.
6 We made pacts with Egypt and Ashur
to get enough food.
7 Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist;
we bear the weight of their guilt.
8 We are ruled by slaves,
and there is no one to save us from their power.
9 We get our food at the peril of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skins are as black as a furnace
because of the searing blasts of famine.
11 They have raped the women of Tziyon,
virgins in the cities of Y’hudah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands,
leaders receive no respect.
13 Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,
boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The old men have deserted the city gate,
the young men have given up their music.
15 Joy has vanished from our hearts,
our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our heads.
Woe to us! for we have sinned.
17 This is why our hearts are sick;
this is why our eyes grow dim —
18 it’s because of Mount Tziyon, so wasted
that jackals have overrun it.
19 You, Adonai, reign forever;
your throne endures through all generations.
20 Why do you never remember us?
Why abandon us for so long a time?
21 Adonai, turn us back to you; and we will come back;
renew our days, as they were in the past —
22 unless you have totally rejected us
in a fury that knows no limits.
[Adonai, turn us back to you; and we will come back;
renew our days, as they were in the past.]
1 The words of Kohelet the son of David, king in Yerushalayim:
2 Pointless! Pointless! — says Kohelet —
Utterly meaningless! Nothing matters!
3 What does a person gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come, generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises, the sun sets;
then it speeds to its place and rises there.
6 The wind blows south,
then it turns north;
the wind blows all around
and keeps returning to its rounds.
7 All the rivers flow to the sea,
yet the sea is not full;
to the place where the rivers flow,
there they keep on flowing.
8 Everything is wearisome,
more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
the ear not filled up with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new
under the sun.
10 Is there something of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It existed already in the ages before us.
11 No one remembers the people of long ago;
and those to come will not be remembered
by those who come after them.
12 I, Kohelet, have been king over Isra’el in Yerushalayim. 13 I wisely applied myself to seek out and investigate everything done under heaven. What a bothersome task God has given humanity to keep us occupied! 14 I have seen all the activities that are done under the sun, and it’s all pointless, feeding on wind.
15 What is crooked can’t be straightened;
what is not there can’t be counted.
16 I said to myself, “Look, I have acquired much wisdom, more than anyone ruling Yerushalayim before me.” Yes, I experienced a great deal of wisdom and knowledge; 17 yet when I applied myself to understanding wisdom and knowledge, as well as stupidity and folly, I came to see that this too was merely feeding on wind.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief;
the more knowledge, the more suffering.
2 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test myself with pleasure and enjoying good things”; but this too was pointless. 2 Of laughter I said, “This is stupid,” and of pleasure, “What’s the use of it?”
3 I searched my mind for how to gratify my body with wine and, with my mind still guiding me with wisdom, how to pursue foolishness; my object was to find out what was the best thing for people to do during the short time they have under heaven to live. 4 I worked on a grand scale — I built myself palaces, planted myself vineyards, 5 and made myself gardens and parks; in them I planted all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the trees springing up in the forest. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and I had my home-born slaves as well. I also had growing herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than anyone before me in Yerushalayim. 8 I amassed silver and gold, the wealth of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, things that provide sensual delight, and a good many concubines. 9 So I grew great, surpassing all who preceded me in Yerushalayim; my wisdom, too, stayed with me. 10 I denied my eyes nothing they wanted. I withheld no pleasure from myself; for I took pleasure in all my work, and this was my reward for all my work. 11 Then I looked at all that my hands had accomplished and at the work I had toiled at; and I saw that it was all meaningless and feeding on wind, and that there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
12 So I decided to look more carefully at wisdom, stupidity and foolishness; for what can the man who succeeds the king do, except what has already been done? 13 I saw that wisdom is more useful than foolishness, just as light is more useful than darkness.
14 The wise man has eyes in his head,
but the fool walks in darkness.
Yet the same fate awaits them all.
15 So I said to myself, “If the same thing happens to the fool as to me, then what did I gain by being wise?” and I thought to myself, “This too is pointless. 16 For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered, inasmuch as in the times to come, everything will long ago have been forgotten. The wise man, no less than the fool, must die.”
17 So I came to hate life, because the activities done under the sun were loathesome to me, since everything is meaningless and feeding on wind. 18 I hated all the things for which I had worked under the sun, because I saw that I would have to leave them to the man who will come after me. 19 Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the things I worked for and which demonstrated how wise I am under the sun. This too is pointless. 20 Thus I came to despair over all the things I had worked for under the sun. 21 Here is a man whose work is done with wisdom, knowledge and skill; yet he has to leave it to someone who has put no work into it. This is not only pointless, but a great evil. 22 For what does a person get from all his efforts and ambitions permeating the work he does under the sun? 23 His whole life is one of pain, and his work is full of stress; even at night his mind gets no rest. This too is pointless. 24 So there is nothing better for a man to do than eat, drink and and let himself enjoy the good that results from his work. I also realized that this is from God’s hand. 25 For who will eat and who will enjoy except me? 26 For to the man who is good from [God’s] viewpoint he gives wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of collecting and accumulating things to leave to him who is good from God’s viewpoint. This too is pointless and feeding on wind.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.