Job 12

Job 12:1 Then Job answered and said:

Job 12:2 Truly you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!

Job 12:3 But I also have a heart like you; I am not inferior to you. Who doesn’t know the things you refer to?

Job 12:4 I am a laughingstock to my friends, by calling on God, who answers me. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

Job 12:5 The one who is at ease holds calamity in contempt and thinks it is prepared for those whose feet are slipping.

Job 12:6 The tents of robbers are safe, and those who trouble God are secure; God holds them in his hands.

Job 12:7 But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.

Job 12:8 Or speak to the land, and it will instruct you; let the fish of the sea inform you.

Job 12:9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of Yahveh has done this?

Job 12:10 The throat of every living thing is in his hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.

Job 12:11 Doesn’t the ear test words as the palate tastes food?

Job 12:12 Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.

Job 12:13 Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are his.

Job 12:14 Whatever he tears down cannot be rebuilt; whoever he imprisons cannot be released.

Job 12:15 When he withholds water, everything dries up, and when he releases it, it overturns the ground.

Job 12:16 True wisdom and power belong to him. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

Job 12:17 He leads counselors away barefoot and makes judges go mad.

Job 12:18 He releases the bonds put on by kings and fastens a belt around their waists.

Job 12:19 He leads priests away barefoot, and overthrows established leaders.

Job 12:20 He deprives trusted advisers of speech and takes away the elders’ good judgment.

Job 12:21 He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the strong.

Job 12:22 He reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deepest darkness into the light.

Job 12:23 He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away.

Job 12:24 He deprives the land’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

Job 12:25 They grope around in darkness without light; he makes them stagger like a drunk.

links:

dishonored
down and out

The Job shelf in my library

Job 11

Job 11:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite said in answer:

Job 11:2 Should so many words go unanswered and such lips be acquitted?

Job 11:3 Should your babbling put others to silence, so that you can keep on ridiculing with no one to shame you?

Job 11:4 You have said, “My teaching is sound, and I am pure as you can see.”

Job 11:5 But if only God would speak and open his lips against you!

Job 11:6 He would show you the secrets of wisdom, because true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your violations.

Job 11:7 Can you fathom the depths of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?

Job 11:8 They are higher than the sky — what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol — what can you know?

Job 11:9 Their measure is longer than the ground and wider than the sea.

Job 11:10 If he passes by and throws someone in prison or convenes a court, who can stop him?

Job 11:11 Surely, he knows which people are worthless. If he sees iniquity, will he not take note of it?

Job 11:12 But a stupid person will gain understanding as soon as a wild donkey is born a human!

Job 11:13 As for you, if you redirect your heart and spread out your hands to him in prayer —

Job 11:14 if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it, and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents —

Job 11:15 then you will hold your head high, free from fault. You will be firmly established and unafraid.

Job 11:16 Because you will forget your suffering, recalling it only as water that has flowed by.

Job 11:17 Your lifetime will be brighter than noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.

Job 11:18 You will be confident, because there is hope. You will look carefully around and lie down in safety.

Job 11:19 You will lie down with no one to frighten you, and many will seek your favor.

Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail. Their way of escape will be destroyed, and their only hope is a breathing throat.

links:

beyond ignorance
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, January 14, 2022
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, July 28, 2016
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, July 27, 2016
outward appearance

The Job shelf in my library

Job 10

Job 10:1 My throat is disgusted with my life. I will give vent to my complaint and speak with the bitterness of my throat.

Job 10:2 I will say to God, “Do not just condemn me! Let me know why you prosecute me.

Job 10:3 Is it good for you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, and favor the plans of the wicked?

Job 10:4 Are your eyes flesh, or do you see as a mortal sees?

Job 10:5 Are your days like those of a mortal, or your years like those of a healthy man,

Job 10:6 that you look for my iniquity and search for my sin,

Job 10:7 even though you know that I am not wicked and that no one can rescue from your power?

Job 10:8 “Your hands shaped me and formed me. Will you now turn and destroy me?

Job 10:9 Please remember that you made me like clay. Will you now return me to dust?

Job 10:10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?

Job 10:11 You clothed me with skin and flesh and wove me together with bones and tendons.

Job 10:12 You gave me life and faithful love, and your care has guarded my breath.

Job 10:13 “Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart; I know that this was your hidden plan:

Job 10:14 if I fail, you would notice and would not acquit me of my iniquity.

Job 10:15 If I am wicked, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am filled with shame and have drunk deeply of my affliction.

Job 10:16 If I am proud, you hunt me like a lion and again display your miraculous power against me.

Job 10:17 You produce new witnesses against me and multiply your anger toward me. Hardships assault me, wave after wave.

Job 10:18 “Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen.

Job 10:19 I wish I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave.

Job 10:20 Are my days not few? Stop it! Please leave me alone, so that I can smile a little

Job 10:21 before I go to the dark and shadowy ground, never to return.

Job 10:22 It is a dark ground, like a deep shadow, darkness and disorder, where even the light is like the darkness.”

links:

like clay
truth collides with truth

The Job shelf in my library

Job 9

Job 9:1 Then Job answered:

Job 9:2 Yes, I know what you’ve said is true, but how can a mortal settle his case before God?

Job 9:3 If someone wanted to take him to court, he could not answer God once in a thousand times.

Job 9:4 God’s heart is wise and his strength omnipotent. Who has stubbornly resisted him and come out intact?

Job 9:5 He removes mountains while they know nothing, overturning them in his anger.

Job 9:6 He shakes the land from its place and its pillars tremble.

Job 9:7 He commands the sun to dim and conceals the stars.

Job 9:8 He alone spreads out the sky and marches on the waves of the sea.

Job 9:9 He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.

Job 9:10 He does great and unsearchable things, miracles without number.

Job 9:11 Notice: If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.

Job 9:12 Notice: If he snatches something, who can stop him? Who dares ask him, “What are you doing?”

Job 9:13 God does not hold back his anger; Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him!

Job 9:14 How then can I answer him or select my arguments against him?

Job 9:15 Even if I were in the right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

Job 9:16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.

Job 9:17 He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause.

Job 9:18 He doesn’t let me catch my breath but fills me with bitter experiences.

Job 9:19 If it is a matter of strength, notice, he is the powerful one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?

Job 9:20 Even if I were in the right, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.

Job 9:21 Though I am blameless, I no longer care about my throat; I renounce my life.

Job 9:22 It is all the same. Therefore, I say, “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”

Job 9:23 When catastrophe brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.

Job 9:24 The land is handed over to the wicked; he blindfolds its judges. If it isn’t he, then who is it?

Job 9:25 My days fly by faster than a runner; they flee without seeing any good.

Job 9:26 They sweep by like boats made of paper, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

Job 9:27 If I said, “I will forget my complaint, change my expression, and smile,”

Job 9:28 I would still live in terror of all my pains. I know you will not acquit me.

Job 9:29 Since I will be found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?

Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

Job 9:31 then you dip me in a pit of mud, and my clothes hate me!

Job 9:32 Because he is not a man like me, that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court.

Job 9:33 There is no mediator between us, to lay his hand on both of us.

Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me so his terror will no longer frighten me.

Job 9:35 Then I would speak and not fear him. But that is not so with me.

links:

collision
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, July 16, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Sunday, July 15, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 17, 2018
truth collides with truth

The Job shelf in my library

Job 8

Job 8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: Job 8:2 How long will you keep saying these things? Your words are like a puff of breath. Job 8:3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? Job 8:4 Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to their rebellion. Job 8:5 But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, Job 8:6 if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.

Job 8:7 Then, even if your first[1] was meager, your days afterward will be full of prosperity.

Job 8:8 You see, ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their fathers discovered,

Job 8:9 since we were born only yesterday and know nothing. Our days above the ground are a shadow.

Job 8:10 Will they not teach you and tell you and speak from their understanding?

Job 8:11 Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water?

Job 8:12 While still uncut shoots, they would dry up quicker than any other plant.

Job 8:13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; the hope of the godless will be destroyed.

Job 8:14 His source of confidence is fragile; what he trusts in is a spider’s web.

Job 8:15 He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm. He grabs it, but it does not hold up.

Job 8:16 He is a well-watered plant in the sunlight; his shoots spread out over his garden.

Job 8:17 His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks. He looks for a home among the stones.

Job 8:18 If he is uprooted from his place, it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”

Job 8:19 Surely, this is the joy of his way of life; yet others will sprout from the dust.

Job 8:20 Look, God accepts a person of integrity, and he will not support evildoers.

Job 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy.

Job 8:22 Your enemies will be clothed with shame; the tent of the wicked will be no longer.

[1]רֵאשִׁית = first. Job 8:7; 40:19; 42:12.

links:

apparent signs
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, July 13, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Saturday, July 14, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 26, 2016
sign or substance?

The Job shelf in my library