Job 6

Job 6:1 Then Job answered. This is what he said:

Job 6:2 If only my grief could be weighed and my devastation along with it on the scales.

Job 6:3 Because then it would outweigh the sand of the seas! That is why my words are stammering.

Job 6:4 Because the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my breath drinks their poison. God’s terrors are layered against me.

Job 6:5 Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass or an ox low over its fodder?

Job 6:6 Is bland food eaten without salt? Is there favor in an egg white?

Job 6:7 My throat refuses to touch them; they are like contaminated food.

Job 6:8 If only my request would be granted, and God would provide what I hope for:

Job 6:9 that he would decide to crush me, to unleash his power and cut me off!

Job 6:10 It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

Job 6:11 What strength do I have, that I should continue to hope? What is my future, that my throat should keep breathing?

Job 6:12 Is my strength that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?

Job 6:13 Since I cannot help myself, the hope for success has been banished from me.

Job 6:14 A despairing man should receive loyalty from his friends, even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty.

Job 6:15 My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi, as seasonal streams that overflow

Job 6:16 and become darkened because of ice, and the snow melts into them.

Job 6:17 The wadis evaporate in warm weather; they disappear from their channels in hot weather.

Job 6:18 Caravans turn away from their routes, go up into the desert, and are destroyed.

Job 6:19 The caravans of Tema look for these streams. The traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.

Job 6:20 They are ashamed because they had been confident of finding water. When they arrive there, they are disappointed.

Job 6:21 So this is what you have now become to me. When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.

Job 6:22 Have I ever said: “Give me something” or “Pay a bribe for me from your wealth”

Job 6:23 or “Deliver me from the enemy’s hand” or “Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless”?

Job 6:24 Teach me, and I will be silent. Please help me understand what I did wrong.

Job 6:25 How painful honest words can be! But what does your rebuke prove?

Job 6:26 Do you think that you can disprove my words or that a despairing man’s words are mere breath?

Job 6:27 No doubt you would cast lots for a fatherless child and negotiate a price to sell your friend.

Job 6:28 But now, please look at me; I will not lie to your face.

Job 6:29 Reconsider; don’t be unjust. Reconsider; my righteousness is still the issue.

Job 6:30 Is there injustice on my tongue or can my palate not taste disaster?

links:

a burdensome weight
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, July 9, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, January 12, 2022
outweigh the sand

The Job shelf in my library

Job 5

Job 5:1 Call now! Will anyone answer you? Which of the sacred ones will you turn to?
Job 5:2 Because anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible.
Job 5:3 I have seen a fool taking root, but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.
Job 5:4 His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the city gate, with no one to rescue them.
Job 5:5 The hungry eat his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns—the thirsty pant for his children’s wealth.
Job 5:6 For distress does not grow out of the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.
Job 5:7 But humans are born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
Job 5:8 However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to him.
Job 5:9 He does great and unsearchable things, miracles without number.
Job 5:10 He gives rain to the land and sends water to the fields.
Job 5:11 He sets the humble on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.
Job 5:12 He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.
Job 5:13 He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly ended.
Job 5:14 They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.
Job 5:15 He saves the needy from their sharp words and the clutches of the powerful.
Job 5:16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
Job 5:17 See how happy the mortal is whom God corrects; so, accept the discipline of the Almighty.
Job 5:18 Because he wounds, but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.
Job 5:19 He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.
Job 5:20 In famine, he will redeem you from death, and in battle, from the power of the sword.
Job 5:21 You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.
Job 5:22 You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land’s wild creatures.
Job 5:23 Because you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
Job 5:24 You will know that your tent is secure, and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.
Job 5:25 You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the ground.
Job 5:26 You will approach the grave in full strength, as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.
Job 5:27 We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand it for yourself.

links:

impatient and dismayed
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Saturday, July 7, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Sunday, July 8, 2018
we have investigated

The Job shelf in my library

Job 4

Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

Job 4:2 Should anyone try to speak with you when you are so tired? Yet who can keep from speaking?

Job 4:3 Indeed, you have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands.

Job 4:4 Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling and braced the knees that were buckling.

Job 4:5 But now that this has happened to you, you have become tired. It strikes you, and you are overwhelmed.

Job 4:6 Isn’t your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope?

Job 4:7 Think about this: who has been destroyed when he was innocent? Where have the honest been made to disappear?

Job 4:8 In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same.

Job 4:9 They are destroyed at a single breathing[1] from God and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.

Job 4:10 The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the teeth of young lions are broken.

Job 4:11 The strong lion dies if it catches no prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

Job 4:12 A word was brought to me in secret; my ears caught a whisper of it.

Job 4:13 Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep comes over men,

Job 4:14 fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shake.

Job 4:15 I felt a wind[2]on my face, and the hair on my body stood up.

Job 4:16 A figure stood there, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes. I heard a whispering voice:

Job 4:17 “Can a mortal be righteous before God? Can a healthy man be purer than his Maker?”

Job 4:18 If God puts no trust in his servants and he charges his angels with foolishness,

Job 4:19 how much more those who dwell in clay houses, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth!

Job 4:20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; they are destroyed forever while no one notices.

Job 4:21 Are their tent cords not pulled up? They die without wisdom.

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[1] נְשָׁמָה = breathing. Job 4:9.

[2]possibly breath

links:

eyes of grace
impatient and dismayed
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, July 6, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, July 25, 2016

The Job shelf in my library

Job 3

Job 3:1 After this, Job opened his mouth and declared the day he was born cursed.

Job 3:2 He spoke and said:

Job 3:3 May the day I was born be destroyed, and the night that said, “A healthy man[1] is conceived.”

Job 3:4 If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above not care about it, or light shine on it.

Job 3:5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it. May the darkens of day scare it away.

Job 3:6 If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar.

Job 3:7 Yes, may that night be barren; may no joyful shout be heard in it.

Job 3:8 Let those who curse days condemn it, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

Job 3:9 May its morning stars grow dark. May it wait for daylight but have none; may it not see the breaking of dawn.

Job 3:10 For that night did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb and hide sorrow from my eyes.

Job 3:11 Why was I not stillborn? Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

Job 3:12 Why did the knees receive me, and why were there breasts for me to nurse?

Job 3:13 Now I would certainly be lying down in peace; I would be asleep. Then I would be at rest

Job 3:14 with the kings and counselors of the land, who rebuilt ruined cities for themselves,

Job 3:15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

Job 3:16 Or why was I not hidden like a miscarried child, like infants who never see daylight?

Job 3:17 There the wicked cease to make trouble, and there the weary find rest.

Job 3:18 The prisoners are completely at rest; they do not hear a taskmaster’s voice.

Job 3:19 Both small and significant are there, and the slave is set free from his master.

Job 3:20 Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to those whose throat is bitter,

Job 3:21 who wait for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasure,

Job 3:22 who are filled with much joy and are glad when they reach the grave?

Job 3:23 Why is life given to a healthy man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

Job 3:24 I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

Job 3:25 Because the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.

Job 3:26 I cannot relax or be calm; I have no rest, because turmoil has come.

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[1] גֶּבֶר = healthy man. Job 3:3, 23; 4:17; 10:5; 14:10, 14; 16:21; 22:2; 33:17, 29; 34:7, 9, 34; 38:3; 40:7.

links:

death no escape
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Sunday, July 24, 2016
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, July 5, 2018
trapped

The Job shelf in my library

Job 2

Job 2:1 One day, the sons of God came again to present themselves before Yahveh, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Yahveh.

Job 2:2 Yahveh asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the land,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”

Job 2:3 Then Yahveh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on the land is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.”

Job 2:4 “Skin for skin!” Satan answered Yahveh. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his throat.[1]

Job 2:5 But send out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Job 2:6 “Very well,” Yahveh told Satan, “He is in your power; only spare his throat.”

Job 2:7 So Satan left Yahveh’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Job 2:8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.

Job 2:9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

Job 2:10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this, Job did not fail in what he said.

Job 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends– Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite– heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

Job 2:12 When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head.

Job 2:13 Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.

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[1] נֶפֶשׁ = throat (life). Job 2:4, 6; 3:20; 6:7, 11; 7:11, 15; 9:21; 10:1; 12:10; 13:14; 14:22; 18:4; 21:25; 23:13; 24:12; 27:2, 8; 30:16, 25; 31:30, 39; 32:2; 33:18, 20, 22, 28, 30; 41:21.

links:

from bad to worse
when things get worse

The Job shelf in my library