Reading The Bible

[Boaz]

Job 10

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.10

“I loathe my very life;
therefore I will give free rein to my complaint
and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
2
I say to God: Do not declare me guilty,
but tell me what charges you have against me.
3
Does it please you to oppress me,
to spurn the work of your hands,
while you smile on the plans of the wicked?
4
Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as a mortal sees?
5
Are your days like those of a mortal
or your years like those of a strong man,
6
that you must search out my faults
and probe after my sin—
7
though you know that I am not guilty
and that no one can rescue me from your hand?
8
“Your hands shaped me and made me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?
9
Remember that you molded me like clay.
Will you now turn me to dust again?
10
Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese,
11
clothe me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews?
12
You gave me life and showed me kindness,
and in your providence watched over my spirit.
13
“But this is what you concealed in your heart,
and I know that this was in your mind:
14
If I sinned, you would be watching me
and would not let my offense go unpunished.
15
If I am guilty—woe to me!
Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,
for I am full of shame
and drowned in my affliction.
16
If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion
and again display your awesome power against me.
17
You bring new witnesses against me
and increase your anger toward me;
your forces come against me wave upon wave.
18
“Why then did you bring me out of the womb?
I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
19
If only I had never come into being,
or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
20
Are not my few days almost over?
Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy
21
before I go to the place of no return,
to the land of gloom and utter darkness,
22
to the land of deepest night,
of utter darkness and disorder,
where even the light is like darkness.”

[Boaz]

Job 11

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.11

11 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2
“Are all these words to go unanswered?
Is this talker to be vindicated?
3
Will your idle talk reduce others to silence?
Will no one rebuke you when you mock?
4
You say to God, ‘My beliefs are flawless
and I am pure in your sight.’
5
Oh, how I wish that God would speak,
that he would open his lips against you
6
and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom,
for true wisdom has two sides.
Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.
7
“Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
8
They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?
They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?
9
Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.
10
“If he comes along and confines you in prison
and convenes a court, who can oppose him?
11
Surely he recognizes deceivers;
and when he sees evil, does he not take note?
12
But the witless can no more become wise
than a wild donkey’s colt can be born human.
13
“Yet if you devote your heart to him
and stretch out your hands to him,
14
if you put away the sin that is in your hand
and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
15
then, free of fault, you will lift up your face;
you will stand firm and without fear.
16
You will surely forget your trouble,
recalling it only as waters gone by.
17
Life will be brighter than noonday,
and darkness will become like morning.
18
You will be secure, because there is hope;
you will look about you and take your rest in safety.
19
You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,
and many will court your favor.
20
But the eyes of the wicked will fail,
and escape will elude them;
their hope will become a dying gasp.”

[Boaz]

Job 12

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.12

12 Then Job replied:
2
“Doubtless you are the only people who matter,
and wisdom will die with you!
3
But I have a mind as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know all these things?
4
“I have become a laughingstock to my friends,
though I called on God and he answered—
a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!
5
Those who are at ease have contempt for misfortune
as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
6
The tents of marauders are undisturbed,
and those who provoke God are secure—
those God has in his hand.
7
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
8
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish in the sea inform you.
9
Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10
In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.
11
Does not the ear test words
as the tongue tastes food?
12
Is not wisdom found among the aged?
Does not long life bring understanding?
13
“To God belong wisdom and power;
counsel and understanding are his.
14
What he tears down cannot be rebuilt;
those he imprisons cannot be released.
15
If he holds back the waters, there is drought;
if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.
16
To him belong strength and insight;
both deceived and deceiver are his.
17
He leads rulers away stripped
and makes fools of judges.
18
He takes off the shackles put on by kings
and ties a loincloth around their waist.
19
He leads priests away stripped
and overthrows officials long established.
20
He silences the lips of trusted advisers
and takes away the discernment of elders.
21
He pours contempt on nobles
and disarms the mighty.
22
He reveals the deep things of darkness
and brings utter darkness into the light.
23
He makes nations great, and destroys them;
he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
24
He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason;
he makes them wander in a trackless waste.
25
They grope in darkness with no light;
he makes them stagger like drunkards.

[Boaz]

Job 13

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.13

13
“My eyes have seen all this,
my ears have heard and understood it.
2
What you know, I also know;
I am not inferior to you.
3
But I desire to speak to the Almighty
and to argue my case with God.
4
You, however, smear me with lies;
you are worthless physicians, all of you!
5
If only you would be altogether silent!
For you, that would be wisdom.
6
Hear now my argument;
listen to the pleas of my lips.
7
Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf?
Will you speak deceitfully for him?
8
Will you show him partiality?
Will you argue the case for God?
9
Would it turn out well if he examined you?
Could you deceive him as you might deceive a mortal?
10
He would surely call you to account
if you secretly showed partiality.
11
Would not his splendor terrify you?
Would not the dread of him fall on you?
12
Your maxims are proverbs of ashes;
your defenses are defenses of clay.
13
“Keep silent and let me speak;
then let come to me what may.
14
Why do I put myself in jeopardy
and take my life in my hands?
15
Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face.
16
Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance,
for no godless person would dare come before him!
17
Listen carefully to what I say;
let my words ring in your ears.
18
Now that I have prepared my case,
I know I will be vindicated.
19
Can anyone bring charges against me?
If so, I will be silent and die.
20
“Only grant me these two things, God,
and then I will not hide from you:
21
Withdraw your hand far from me,
and stop frightening me with your terrors.
22
Then summon me and I will answer,
or let me speak, and you reply to me.
23
How many wrongs and sins have I committed?
Show me my offense and my sin.
24
Why do you hide your face
and consider me your enemy?
25
Will you torment a windblown leaf?
Will you chase after dry chaff?
26
For you write down bitter things against me
and make me reap the sins of my youth.
27
You fasten my feet in shackles;
you keep close watch on all my paths
by putting marks on the soles of my feet.
28
“So man wastes away like something rotten,
like a garment eaten by moths.

[Boaz]

Job 14

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.14

Mortals, born of woman,
are of few days and full of trouble.
2
They spring up like flowers and wither away;
like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.
3
Do you fix your eye on them?
Will you bring them before you for judgment?
4
Who can bring what is pure from the impure?
No one!
5
A person’s days are determined;
you have decreed the number of his months
and have set limits he cannot exceed.
6
So look away from him and let him alone,
till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.
7
“At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.
8
Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,
9
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.
10
But a man dies and is laid low;
he breathes his last and is no more.
11
As the water of a lake dries up
or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,
12
so he lies down and does not rise;
till the heavens are no more, people will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.
13
“If only you would hide me in the grave
and conceal me till your anger has passed!
If only you would set me a time
and then remember me!
14
If someone dies, will they live again?
All the days of my hard service
I will wait for my renewal to come.
15
You will call and I will answer you;
you will long for the creature your hands have made.
16
Surely then you will count my steps
but not keep track of my sin.
17
My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;
you will cover over my sin.
18
“But as a mountain erodes and crumbles
and as a rock is moved from its place,
19
as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil,
so you destroy a person’s hope.
20
You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;
you change their countenance and send them away.
21
If their children are honored, they do not know it;
if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.
22
They feel but the pain of their own bodies
and mourn only for themselves.”

[Boaz]

Job 15

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.15

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2
“Would a wise person answer with empty notions
or fill their belly with the hot east wind?
3
Would they argue with useless words,
with speeches that have no value?
4
But you even undermine piety
and hinder devotion to God.
5
Your sin prompts your mouth;
you adopt the tongue of the crafty.
6
Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
your own lips testify against you.
7
“Are you the first man ever born?
Were you brought forth before the hills?
8
Do you listen in on God’s council?
Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?
9
What do you know that we do not know?
What insights do you have that we do not have?
10
The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,
men even older than your father.
11
Are God’s consolations not enough for you,
words spoken gently to you?
12
Why has your heart carried you away,
and why do your eyes flash,
13
so that you vent your rage against God
and pour out such words from your mouth?
14
“What are mortals, that they could be pure,
or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?
15
If God places no trust in his holy ones,
if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,
16
how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt,
who drink up evil like water!
17
“Listen to me and I will explain to you;
let me tell you what I have seen,
18
what the wise have declared,
hiding nothing received from their ancestors
19
(to whom alone the land was given
when no foreigners moved among them):
20
All his days the wicked man suffers torment,
the ruthless man through all the years stored up for him.
21
Terrifying sounds fill his ears;
when all seems well, marauders attack him.
22
He despairs of escaping the realm of darkness;
he is marked for the sword.
23
He wanders about for food like a vulture;
he knows the day of darkness is at hand.
24
Distress and anguish fill him with terror;
troubles overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack,
25
because he shakes his fist at God
and vaunts himself against the Almighty,
26
defiantly charging against him
with a thick, strong shield.
27
“Though his face is covered with fat
and his waist bulges with flesh,
28
he will inhabit ruined towns
and houses where no one lives,
houses crumbling to rubble.
29
He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the land.
30
He will not escape the darkness;
a flame will wither his shoots,
and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.
31
Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless,
for he will get nothing in return.
32
Before his time he will wither,
and his branches will not flourish.
33
He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes,
like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.
34
For the company of the godless will be barren,
and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.
35
They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;
their womb fashions deceit.”

[Boaz]

Job 16

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.16

16 Then Job replied:
2
“I have heard many things like these;
you are miserable comforters, all of you!
3
Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?
4
I also could speak like you,
if you were in my place;
I could make fine speeches against you
and shake my head at you.
5
But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
6
“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I refrain, it does not go away.
7
Surely, God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.
8
You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
9
God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
10
People open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.
11
God has turned me over to the ungodly
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
12
All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;
13
his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.
14
Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.
15
“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
and buried my brow in the dust.
16
My face is red with weeping,
dark shadows ring my eyes;
17
yet my hands have been free of violence
and my prayer is pure.
18
“Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!
19
Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
20
My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
21
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend.
22
“Only a few years will pass
before I take the path of no return.

[Boaz]

Job 17

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.17

1 My spirit is broken,
my days are cut short,
the grave awaits me.
2
Surely mockers surround me;
my eyes must dwell on their hostility.
3
“Give me, O God, the pledge you demand.
Who else will put up security for me?
4
You have closed their minds to understanding;
therefore you will not let them triumph.
5
If anyone denounces their friends for reward,
the eyes of their children will fail.
6
“God has made me a byword to everyone,
a man in whose face people spit.
7
My eyes have grown dim with grief;
my whole frame is but a shadow.
8
The upright are appalled at this;
the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
9
Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,
and those with clean hands will grow stronger.
10
“But come on, all of you, try again!
I will not find a wise man among you.
11
My days have passed, my plans are shattered.
Yet the desires of my heart
12
turn night into day;
in the face of the darkness light is near.
13
If the only home I hope for is the grave,
if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
14
if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
15
where then is my hope—
who can see any hope for me?
16
Will it go down to the gates of death?
Will we descend together into the dust?”

[Boaz]

Job 18

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.18

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2
“When will you end these speeches?
Be sensible, and then we can talk.
3
Why are we regarded as cattle
and considered stupid in your sight?
4
You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger,
is the earth to be abandoned for your sake?
Or must the rocks be moved from their place?
5
“The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out;
the flame of his fire stops burning.
6
The light in his tent becomes dark;
the lamp beside him goes out.
7
The vigor of his step is weakened;
his own schemes throw him down.
8
His feet thrust him into a net;
he wanders into its mesh.
9
A trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare holds him fast.
10
A noose is hidden for him on the ground;
a trap lies in his path.
11
Terrors startle him on every side
and dog his every step.
12
Calamity is hungry for him;
disaster is ready for him when he falls.
13
It eats away parts of his skin;
death’s firstborn devours his limbs.
14
He is torn from the security of his tent
and marched off to the king of terrors.
15
Fire resides[a] in his tent;
burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling.
16
His roots dry up below
and his branches wither above.
17
The memory of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name in the land.
18
He is driven from light into the realm of darkness
and is banished from the world.
19
He has no offspring or descendants among his people,
no survivor where once he lived.
20
People of the west are appalled at his fate;
those of the east are seized with horror.
21
Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man;
such is the place of one who does not know God.”

[Boaz]

Job 19

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.19

Then Job replied:
2
“How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
3
Ten times now you have reproached me;
shamelessly you attack me.
4
If it is true that I have gone astray,
my error remains my concern alone.
5
If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and use my humiliation against me,
6
then know that God has wronged me
and drawn his net around me.
7
“Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;
though I call for help, there is no justice.
8
He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9
He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
10
He tears me down on every side till I am gone;
he uproots my hope like a tree.
11
His anger burns against me;
he counts me among his enemies.
12
His troops advance in force;
they build a siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
13
“He has alienated my family from me;
my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14
My relatives have gone away;
my closest friends have forgotten me.
15
My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;
they look on me as on a stranger.
16
I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
though I beg him with my own mouth.
17
My breath is offensive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my own family.
18
Even the little boys scorn me;
when I appear, they ridicule me.
19
All my intimate friends detest me;
those I love have turned against me.
20
I am nothing but skin and bones;
I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21
“Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
22
Why do you pursue me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23
“Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,
24
that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
or engraved in rock forever!
25
I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
26
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
27
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
28
“If you say, ‘How we will hound him,
since the root of the trouble lies in him
29
you should fear the sword yourselves;
for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,
and then you will know that there is judgment.

[Boaz]

Job 20

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.20

2
“My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer
because I am greatly disturbed.
3
I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
and my understanding inspires me to reply.
4
“Surely you know how it has been from of old,
ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
5
that the mirth of the wicked is brief,
the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
6
Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds,
7
he will perish forever, like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8
Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,
banished like a vision of the night.
9
The eye that saw him will not see him again;
his place will look on him no more.
10
His children must make amends to the poor;
his own hands must give back his wealth.
11
The youthful vigor that fills his bones
will lie with him in the dust.
12
“Though evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
13
though he cannot bear to let it go
and lets it linger in his mouth,
14
yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
it will become the venom of serpents within him.
15
He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
God will make his stomach vomit them up.
16
He will suck the poison of serpents;
the fangs of an adder will kill him.
17
He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18
What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
19
For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;
he has seized houses he did not build.
20
“Surely he will have no respite from his craving;
he cannot save himself by his treasure.
21
Nothing is left for him to devour;
his prosperity will not endure.
22
In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;
the full force of misery will come upon him.
23
When he has filled his belly,
God will vent his burning anger against him
and rain down his blows on him.
24
Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
25
He pulls it out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
26
total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.
27
The heavens will expose his guilt;
the earth will rise up against him.
28
A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.
29
Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God.”

[Boaz]

Job 21

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.21

Then Job replied:
2
“Listen carefully to my words;
let this be the consolation you give me.
3
Bear with me while I speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.
4
“Is my complaint directed to a human being?
Why should I not be impatient?
5
Look at me and be appalled;
clap your hand over your mouth.
6
When I think about this, I am terrified;
trembling seizes my body.
7
Why do the wicked live on,
growing old and increasing in power?
8
They see their children established around them,
their offspring before their eyes.
9
Their homes are safe and free from fear;
the rod of God is not on them.
10
Their bulls never fail to breed;
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
11
They send forth their children as a flock;
their little ones dance about.
12
They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre;
they make merry to the sound of the pipe.
13
They spend their years in prosperity
and go down to the grave in peace.
14
Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!
We have no desire to know your ways.
15
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain by praying to him?’
16
But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.
17
“Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
How often does calamity come upon them,
the fate God allots in his anger?
18
How often are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff swept away by a gale?
19
It is said, ‘God stores up the punishment of the wicked for their children.’
Let him repay the wicked, so that they themselves will experience it!
20
Let their own eyes see their destruction;
let them drink the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.
21
For what do they care about the families they leave behind
when their allotted months come to an end?
22
“Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since he judges even the highest?
23
One person dies in full vigor,
completely secure and at ease,
24
well nourished in body,
bones rich with marrow.
25
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having enjoyed anything good.
26
Side by side they lie in the dust,
and worms cover them both.
27
“I know full well what you are thinking,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.
28
You say, ‘Where now is the house of the great,
the tents where the wicked lived?’
29
Have you never questioned those who travel?
Have you paid no regard to their accounts—
30
that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,
that they are delivered from the day of wrath?
31
Who denounces their conduct to their face?
Who repays them for what they have done?
32
They are carried to the grave,
and watch is kept over their tombs.
33
The soil in the valley is sweet to them;
everyone follows after them,
and a countless throng goes before them.
34
“So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”

[Boaz]

Job 22

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.22

22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2
“Can a man be of benefit to God?
Can even a wise person benefit him?
3
What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous?
What would he gain if your ways were blameless?
4
“Is it for your piety that he rebukes you
and brings charges against you?
5
Is not your wickedness great?
Are not your sins endless?
6
You demanded security from your relatives for no reason;
you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.
7
You gave no water to the weary
and you withheld food from the hungry,
8
though you were a powerful man, owning land—
an honored man, living on it.
9
And you sent widows away empty-handed
and broke the strength of the fatherless.
10
That is why snares are all around you,
why sudden peril terrifies you,
11
why it is so dark you cannot see,
and why a flood of water covers you.
12
“Is not God in the heights of heaven?
And see how lofty are the highest stars!
13
Yet you say, ‘What does God know?
Does he judge through such darkness?
14
Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us
as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.’
15
Will you keep to the old path
that the wicked have trod?
16
They were carried off before their time,
their foundations washed away by a flood.
17
They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
What can the Almighty do to us?’
18
Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things,
so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.
19
The righteous see their ruin and rejoice;
the innocent mock them, saying,
20
‘Surely our foes are destroyed,
and fire devours their wealth.’
21
“Submit to God and be at peace with him;
in this way prosperity will come to you.
22
Accept instruction from his mouth
and lay up his words in your heart.
23
If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored:
If you remove wickedness far from your tent
24
and assign your nuggets to the dust,
your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,
25
then the Almighty will be your gold,
the choicest silver for you.
26
Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty
and will lift up your face to God.
27
You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
and you will fulfill your vows.
28
What you decide on will be done,
and light will shine on your ways.
29
When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’
then he will save the downcast.
30
He will deliver even one who is not innocent,
who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

[Boaz]

Job 23

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.23

23 Then Job replied:
2
“Even today my complaint is bitter;
his hand[a] is heavy in spite of my groaning.
3
If only I knew where to find him;
if only I could go to his dwelling!
4
I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5
I would find out what he would answer me,
and consider what he would say to me.
6
Would he vigorously oppose me?
No, he would not press charges against me.
7
There the upright can establish their innocence before him,
and there I would be delivered forever from my judge.
8
“But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.
9
When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
10
But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
11
My feet have closely followed his steps;
I have kept to his way without turning aside.
12
I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
13
“But he stands alone, and who can oppose him?
He does whatever he pleases.
14
He carries out his decree against me,
and many such plans he still has in store.
15
That is why I am terrified before him;
when I think of all this, I fear him.
16
God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.
17
Yet I am not silenced by the darkness,
by the thick darkness that covers my face.

[Boaz]

Job 24

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.24

24
“Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
2
There are those who move boundary stones;
they pasture flocks they have stolen.
3
They drive away the orphan’s donkey
and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
4
They thrust the needy from the path
and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
5
Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go about their labor of foraging food;
the wasteland provides food for their children.
6
They gather fodder in the fields
and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
7
Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;
they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.
8
They are drenched by mountain rains
and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.
9
The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;
the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
10
Lacking clothes, they go about naked;
they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
11
They crush olives among the terraces;
they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12
The groans of the dying rise from the city,
and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.
But God charges no one with wrongdoing.
13
“There are those who rebel against the light,
who do not know its ways
or stay in its paths.
14
When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,
kills the poor and needy,
and in the night steals forth like a thief.
15
The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk;
he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’
and he keeps his face concealed.
16
In the dark, thieves break into houses,
but by day they shut themselves in;
they want nothing to do with the light.
17
For all of them, midnight is their morning;
they make friends with the terrors of darkness.
18
“Yet they are foam on the surface of the water;
their portion of the land is cursed,
so that no one goes to the vineyards.
19
As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,
so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.
20
The womb forgets them,
the worm feasts on them;
the wicked are no longer remembered
but are broken like a tree.
21
They prey on the barren and childless woman,
and to the widow they show no kindness.
22
But God drags away the mighty by his power;
though they become established, they have no assurance of life.
23
He may let them rest in a feeling of security,
but his eyes are on their ways.
24
For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are cut off like heads of grain.
25
“If this is not so, who can prove me false
and reduce my words to nothing?”

[Boaz]

Job 25

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.25

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2
“Dominion and awe belong to God;
he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
3
Can his forces be numbered?
On whom does his light not rise?
4
How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?
5
If even the moon is not bright
and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
6
how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot—
a human being, who is only a worm!”

[Boaz]

Job 26

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.26

Then Job replied:
2
“How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
3
What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
And what great insight you have displayed!
4
Who has helped you utter these words?
And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?
5
“The dead are in deep anguish,
those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
6
The realm of the dead is naked before God;
Destruction lies uncovered.
7
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.
8
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
9
He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.
10
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness.
11
The pillars of the heavens quake,
aghast at his rebuke.
12
By his power he churned up the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.
13
By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the gliding serpent.
14
And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

[Boaz]

Job 27

Audio link '

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.27

And Job continued his discourse:
2
“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,
3
as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God in my nostrils,
4
my lips will not say anything wicked,
and my tongue will not utter lies.
5
I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
6
I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it;
my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.
7
“May my enemy be like the wicked,
my adversary like the unjust!
8
For what hope have the godless when they are cut off,
when God takes away their life?
9
Does God listen to their cry
when distress comes upon them?
10
Will they find delight in the Almighty?
Will they call on God at all times?
11
“I will teach you about the power of God;
the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.
12
You have all seen this yourselves.
Why then this meaningless talk?
13
“Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,
the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:
14
However many his children, their fate is the sword;
his offspring will never have enough to eat.
15
The plague will bury those who survive him,
and their widows will not weep for them.
16
Though he heaps up silver like dust
and clothes like piles of clay,
17
what he lays up the righteous will wear,
and the innocent will divide his silver.
18
The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,
like a hut made by a watchman.
19
He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;
when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
20
Terrors overtake him like a flood;
a tempest snatches him away in the night.
21
The east wind carries him off, and he is gone;
it sweeps him out of his place.
22
It hurls itself against him without mercy
as he flees headlong from its power.
23
It claps its hands in derision
and hisses him out of his place.”

[Boaz]

Job 28

Audio link ;

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.28

28
There is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
2
Iron is taken from the earth,
and copper is smelted from ore.
3
Mortals put an end to the darkness;
they search out the farthest recesses
for ore in the blackest darkness.
4
Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft,
in places untouched by human feet;
far from other people they dangle and sway.
5
The earth, from which food comes,
is transformed below as by fire;
6
lapis lazuli comes from its rocks,
and its dust contains nuggets of gold.
7
No bird of prey knows that hidden path,
no falcon’s eye has seen it.
8
Proud beasts do not set foot on it,
and no lion prowls there.
9
People assault the flinty rock with their hands
and lay bare the roots of the mountains.
10
They tunnel through the rock;
their eyes see all its treasures.
11
They search the sources of the rivers
and bring hidden things to light.
12
But where can wisdom be found?
Where does understanding dwell?
13
No mortal comprehends its worth;
it cannot be found in the land of the living.
14
The deep says, “It is not in me”;
the sea says, “It is not with me.”
15
It cannot be bought with the finest gold,
nor can its price be weighed out in silver.
16
It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,
with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
17
Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it,
nor can it be had for jewels of gold.
18
Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention;
the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.
19
The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it;
it cannot be bought with pure gold.
20
Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
21
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
concealed even from the birds in the sky.
22
Destruction and Death say,
“Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”
23
God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells,
24
for he views the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
25
When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters,
26
when he made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm,
27
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he confirmed it and tested it.
28
And he said to the human race,
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.”

[rl69]

https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/purevoice/niv/Job.29

Job 29 New International Version (NIV)

Job’s Final Defense
29 Job continued his discourse:

2 “How I long for the months gone by,
for the days when God watched over me,
3 when his lamp shone on my head
and by his light I walked through darkness!
4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime,
when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,
5 when the Almighty was still with me
and my children were around me,
6 when my path was drenched with cream
and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.
7 “When I went to the gate of the city
and took my seat in the public square,
8 the young men saw me and stepped aside
and the old men rose to their feet;
9 the chief men refrained from speaking
and covered their mouths with their hands;
10 the voices of the nobles were hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
11 Whoever heard me spoke well of me,
and those who saw me commended me,
12 because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
and the fatherless who had none to assist them.
13 The one who was dying blessed me;
I made the widow’s heart sing.
14 I put on righteousness as my clothing;
justice was my robe and my turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy;
I took up the case of the stranger.
17 I broke the fangs of the wicked
and snatched the victims from their teeth.
18 “I thought, ‘I will die in my own house,
my days as numerous as the grains of sand.
19 My roots will reach to the water,
and the dew will lie all night on my branches.
20 My glory will not fade;
the bow will be ever new in my hand.’
21 “People listened to me expectantly,
waiting in silence for my counsel.
22 After I had spoken, they spoke no more;
my words fell gently on their ears.
23 They waited for me as for showers
and drank in my words as the spring rain.
24 When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it;
the light of my face was precious to them.[a]
25 I chose the way for them and sat as their chief;
I dwelt as a king among his troops;
I was like one who comforts mourners.